author

 
Menu
Search
 
April 03, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
Alex K.T. Martin

Meta

Alex K.T. Martin
Alex K.T. Martin is a Tokyo-based journalist and senior writer at The Japan Times, primarily focusing on feature stories. Previously he was a Tokyo correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
JAPAN / DECISION 2010
Jun 25, 2010
Kan wades deep into tax hike fray
Despite misgivings in his own party, Prime Minister Naoto Kan has pledged to raise the 5 percent consumption tax in a few years to fund snowballing social security costs and avoid a fiscal crisis like the one that engulfed Greece.
JAPAN / DECISION 2010
Jun 24, 2010
Parties focus on economy, taxes
With the campaign officially kicking off for the July 11 Upper House election, political parties are weighing in on rebuilding the economy and government finances, hoping their platforms will translate into votes.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2010
Rocky Diet ends; just 35 bills passed
The first ordinary Diet session under a Democratic Party of Japan-led government wrapped up Wednesday, kicking off a campaign season that will culminate with an Upper House election next month.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jun 17, 2010
DPJ's Diet handling gets low marks
Last Christmas, then Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama led the Democratic Party of Japan into its first ordinary Diet session, telling reporters he wanted to give the public a "sense of hope" as a gift and vowing "tangible results" to improve their livelihoods.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2010
Kan urges Diet to unite for fiscal fix, draws fire
Prime Minister Naoto Kan called Monday on the opposition camp to back his plans to launch a joint panel to discuss ways to restore the nation's battered finances, but he also came under fire.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2010
Kamei resigns over postal reform bill
New Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government had its first casualty Friday as financial services minister Shizuka Kamei stepped down in protest because the Diet session won't be extended to act on his controversial pet bill to scale back the postal system privatization.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2010
Weak poll may spur tieup with LDP defectors: Edano
The Democratic Party of Japan may reach out to other parties if it fails to gain a majority in next month's Upper House election, the new DPJ secretary general hinted Thursday.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jun 9, 2010
Don't count Ozawa out of the scene yet
When Naoto Kan announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party of Japan presidency last week, he told reporters DPJ kingpin Ichiro Ozawa "should remain silent" for a while after quitting as secretary general, considering how his political money scandals helped speed the downfall of Yukio Hatoyama as...
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2010
New Prime Minister Kan to 'rebuild trust'
Naoto Kan was voted in as prime minister by the Diet on Friday, shortly after the ruling Democratic Party of Japan elected him as its new president.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2010
Kan front-runner to replace Hatoyama
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Naoto Kan is expected to win the Democratic Party of Japan presidency, get voted in by the Diet as prime minister, then form a new Cabinet — all on Friday.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jun 3, 2010
DPJ poll worries to persist
Back when it was still in the opposition camp, the Democratic Party of Japan used to criticize the then ruling Liberal Democratic Party for its frequent shuffling of prime ministers, without an election.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2010
Hatoyama finds SDP joining his foes
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's administration found itself in an increasingly tight spot Monday after the Social Democratic Party bolted from the ruling bloc and then turned around and signaled it would side with a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet.
JAPAN
May 27, 2010
SDP walks a tightrope as it flirts with leaving coalition
When Mizuho Fukushima was re-elected president of the Social Democratic Party in December, she promised to pull the SDP out of the ruling coalition if the Futenma air base was relocated within Okinawa, as called for in a 2006 agreement with the United States.
JAPAN
May 20, 2010
JCP chief rates his U.S. visit a big success
Japanese Communist Party Chairman Kazuo Shii said Wednesday his recent visit to the United States was a success and he was able to convey the JCP's vision on nuclear weapons and Japan-U.S. relations.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 18, 2010
Yoshimoto Kogyo: Entertaining the nation
One would have to be a hermit, literally shut off from all media, to avoid exposure in Japan to the comedians and other entertainers managed by Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., the nation's oldest and arguably most powerful entertainment agency.
JAPAN
May 15, 2010
LDP policy platform targets economy, DPJ
The Liberal Democratic Party revealed a draft Friday of its platform for the summer Upper House election, promising economic recovery and growth while vowing to end the mistakes of the Democratic Party of Japan-led government.
JAPAN
May 13, 2010
Parties pin poll hopes on sports star power
The summer Upper House election is looking increasingly like an athletic competition as both ruling and opposition parties field sports stars to woo independent voters.
JAPAN
May 11, 2010
DPJ to field judo star Tani as candidate
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan announced Monday it will field women's judo superstar Ryoko Tani for the proportional representation segment of the summer Upper House election.
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2010
Hatoyama's plan to move marines to Tokunoshima gets icy reception
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Wednesday revealed his plan to move as many as 1,000 of the 2,500 U.S. Marines based at the Futenma air station in Okinawa to Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture during a meeting with former Lower House member Torao Tokuda, a native of Tokunoshima, Tokuda's son...
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2010
Inquest: Ozawa merits indictment
The embattled Democratic Party of Japan-led government received another blow Tuesday when an inquest panel decided that DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa merits indictment over his funding management body's alleged false reporting of political donations from 2004 to 2007.
As ‘Buy Canadian’ grows, more U.S. firms say retailers turning away products
Empty shelves with "Buy Canadian Instead" signs are seen in the American Whiskey section of the BC Liquor in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 10.
Trump unveils 10% global tariff, with Japan levy set at 24%
Trump tosses a MAGA hat to the crowd during an event in which he unveiled new tariffs in the White House on Wednesday.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
Japan, South Korea and China vow to strengthen trade ties amid looming U.S. tariffs
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoji Muto (left), South Korean Trade Industry and Energy Minister Ahn Duk-geun (center) and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao during a trilateral meeting in Seoul on Sunday
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
On defense, Japan may avoid Trump's worst impulses — for now
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth chat after reviewing an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Sunday.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)
BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER