May 24, 2013 | Writing
FUKUOKA, Japan — With declining enrollments at his junior college, Tokutaro Ushijima thinks he’s found one way to attract more students: pop idol training. The political philosophy professor at Nishi-Nippon Junior College, a two-year school in the southern city of...
May 22, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — A top North Korean general and confidant of Kim Jong Un met with a senior Chinese official in Beijing on Wednesday. Pyongyang’s official news agency called Choe Ryong Hae, director of the Korean People’s Army politburo, a...
May 20, 2013 | Writing
FUKUOKA, Japan — When the Chinese smog arrives, the medical masks come in fashion. Every few months, this city of 1.5 million people in southern Japan, not far from mainland China, gets a dose of lung clogging courtesy of its neighbor. Coal factories in the cities of...
May 17, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — You’ll learn far more about what’s going on in North Korea when you leave the country, several former residents of the country have told GlobalPost. With scarce access to foreign media, the government has set up an information cordon for the...
May 10, 2013 | Writing
For a glimpse into life in North Korea, take a peek into the country’s math textbooks. “During the Fatherland Liberation War [North Korea’s official name for the Korean War] the brave uncles of Korean People’s Army killed 265 American Imperial bastards in the first...
May 7, 2013 | Writing
KITAKYUSHU, Japan — Visibly nervous, the chairman of a local construction company asks that we lower our voices at the lunch table, and that his name be withheld from publication. A few shady characters nearby are eavesdropping, he says. This neighborhood is the...
