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November 21, 2024
 

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Nina L. Khrushcheva
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump managed to win the support of over 72 million Americans despite his history of trying to overturn elections, a lack of policy expertise and his authoritarian rhetoric.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2024
A Donald Trump victory: How did it come to this?
How did a convicted felon, who sought to overturn a presidential election that he decisively lost just four years ago, win the votes of more than 72 million Americans?
Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine, much like those of past Soviet leaders, stem from a desire to be recognized as a global power and from perceived Western threats.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2024
The sources of Russian conduct
From Josef Stalin to Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet leaders shared Putin’s desire for “great power” prestige.
Giant figures depicting Russian authors Anton Chekhov, Alexander Pushkin, Daniil Kharms and Fyodor Dostoyevsky are paraded through a carnival in central Moscow in September 2015.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2024
When art is all that remains
Looking at the Kremlin today, one wonders, “Do they really now know how this story ends?” Art will always have the last word.
Russia isn’t a theocracy but Orthodox Christianity, the state religion, has become all-encompassing, with President Vladimir Putin claiming to have a divine mission.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2024
The demigods of populism
By claiming to represent the will of the divine, populist leaders like Putin, Modi, Erdogan — and even Trump — stake an otherworldly claim to political power.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet in Beijing on May 16.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2024
The fragile fraternity of China and Russia
Putin’s Mao-like bid for a full-fledged military alliance with China, including commitments to mutual defense, also seems to have failed.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin (left) and then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in the Kremlin on May 7. While President Vladimir Putin has no real challengers, powerful actors within his government are vying against each other.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2024
The battle of ministries in Putin’s Russia
Historical parallels suggest that Putin’s top-down approach, like Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization and Gorbachev’s perestroika, risks sparking opposition by causing intra-elite infighting.
Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich (right) with then-wife Dasha Zhukova in 2014. Zhukova's mother, Elena Zhukova, is engaged to media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2024
The oligarch, his ex-wife, her mother and Rupert Murdoch
Were it not for other stories coming out of Russia, Rupert Murdoch's engagement to Roman Abramovich's ex-mother-in-law would have made more headlines.
Demonstrators hold a rally to honor the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in front of the Russian Embassy in Warsaw on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2024
The lonesome death of a Russian opposition leader
The prison where Navalny died, Nicknamed “Polar Wolf,” is a freezing cold gulag for violent criminals. But Navalny — an anti-corruption lawyer and blogger.
Today’s Russia is nothing like the citadel of stability and satisfaction nor the bastion of prosperity that the Kremlin tries to claim it is.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2024
Preparing Russia for permanent war
Today’s Russia is nothing like the citadel of stability and satisfaction nor the bastion of prosperity that the Kremlin claims it to be.
Fighters of the Wagner private mercenary group, many of whom were recruited from prisons, are deployed in June near the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2023
Vladimir Putin’s killer patriotism
Pardoning violent convicts to get more soldiers onto the battlefield is not desirable, but for Putin, the alternative would be even worse.
A new Russian textbook for high school students on general world and national history
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2023
Putin’s history lessons fail to heed the lessons of history
Putin seems to have forgotten is that rewriting history to serve the interests of those in power tends to invite dissent and often backfires.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2023
Russia’s fractured state
In the wake of Yevgeny Prigozhin's aborted rebellion, President Vladimir Putin’s weakness — and the cracks in the system he so meticulously built — are unmistakable.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2023
Twenty-four hours that shook the Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response to the rebellion by Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was hardly that of a powerful leader or even a skilled tactician.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 14, 2023
Russia has a new Rasputin
The Wagner mercenary chief has been attacking Russia's top military brass and warning that ordinary Russians, increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress in the Ukraine war, could revolt.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2023
How Russians fight back amid an unpopular war
Despite the full force of the security state breathing down the necks of ordinary Russians, covert resistance to the Kremlin's narrative about the war can be found everywhere.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2023
Xi makes it clear to Putin who is really in charge
Chinese President Xi Jinping likely visited Vladimir Putin in Moscow recently to show the West he is in charge.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2023
The assassinated are the peacemakers
Just as the Ukraine war carries a high price, so would peace with Russia — not least for whomever negotiates it.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2023
Russian Muppets or American puppets?
The experience in the 1990s of trying to introduce “Sesame Street” to Russia offers valuable insights into the Russian mind.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 29, 2022
Dissecting the ties between war and populism
Russia may no longer be the totalitarian society that Nikita Khrushchev ruled six decades ago, but totalitarianism seemingly remains in its DNA.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2022
From Cuban missiles to Putin’s Ukraine nuclear crisis
Unlike Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban missile crisis had the wisdom not to start an apocalyptic war simply to save face.
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

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

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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