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A leadership change in Japan passes almost unnoticed these days, but the ascension of Naoto Kan to the role of prime minister could have a long-lasting impact on the strategic landscape.
US
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How did the people who sighted the first black swan respond to the shock? After the collapse of the assumption that all swans were white, did they then conclude that swans could be any colour – red, green, or blue?
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cons of competitive excellence are supposed to be immune from the failings of ordinary mortals. That was why the fall from grace of Tiger Woods was so disorienting. The evaporation of Toyota’s reputation for superhuman quality is even more shocking. After the eight million vehicle recall, it feels as if something comforting and hopeful has disappeared from the world for ever.
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You are a little-known politician who has enthused the public with promises of change. You win a thumping electoral victory. You succeed a tired and discredited administration whose policies helped create the worst economic crisis in decades. And then your problems start.
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Emerging markets, it seems, have had a good crisis. In contrast to the debt-ridden G7 economies, they have quickly resumed their growth trajectory. No surprise, then, that US emerging market mutual funds are experiencing record inflows. The stellar performance of the Brics markets – Brazil, Russia, Indian and China – is due to continue into the distant future.
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There’s more to Japan’s new first couple than meet the eye. The prime minister’s wife, Miyuki Hatoyama, claims to have befriended Tom Cruise in a previous life when he was, apparently, Japanese. Meanwhile the prime minister himself has been behaving like the re-incarnation of a French intellectual.
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Remember the fable of the hard-working ant and the irresponsible fun-loving grasshopper? As generations of parents tell their children, both creatures get what they deserve. The grasshopper pays a terrible price for his summer of fun, while the ant survives the winter snug and smug.
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Twelve months on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers and much about the event remains mysterious. It was the trigger that caused a deep recession, which began in the US but steadily crept across Europe and Asia, morphing into a global catastrophe worthy of a potboiler novel.
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Shabu shabu is a simple but delicious Japanese dish in which transclucently thin slices of beef are dipped into a boiling broth of vegetables and tofu. A few seconds will do; just enough for the meat to turn pinky-grey.
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Japan, China and the US in a deadly geopolitical triangle featuring terrorism, assassinations and rock musicians. According to the Daily Yomiuri, “an absorbing and visceral read.”