Menu
Search
 
April 13, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY

Japan

World
Japan
The flags of participating countries are displayed near the entrance during a media preview day for the 2025 Osaka Expo on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Japan’s second city is hosting a $66 billion coming-out party
First held in London in 1851, world expos have been promoted as venues to bring nations together and foster global coordination.
COMMENTARY / Japan
The window to replace Japan's accidental prime minister is nigh
Shigeru Ishiba isn't the right leader to weather Japan through the incoming storm. With Upper House elections this summer, it's time the LDP starts fielding his replacement.
COMMENTARY / Japan
What is Japan's play on Trump's tariffs?
Japan had expected some consideration for being the largest source of foreign direct investment in the U.S. from 2019 to 2024, with total investment of around $860 billion.
Donald Trump’s complaints about Japan’s auto market are based on misconceptions, as Japan has not imposed car tariffs since 1978 and American cars fail to meet local preferences.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 8, 2025
The Japan tariff myth that just won’t die
By Gearoid Reidy
The belief that unfair trade practices are at fault isn’t only false, but also one of those enduring myths that refuses to die.
As the 80th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War approaches, the U.S.-Japan alliance faces a new turning point, with both Japan Society and the International House of Japan ready to play crucial roles in strengthening cultural and diplomatic ties amid global geopolitical shifts.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 6, 2025
How the U.S. and Japan can keep partnering for the future
By Joshua W. Walker and James Kondo
Today, we are at another turning point. The world confronts another major season of geopolitical changes — not seen since the 1950s or the 1920s.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s JASM plant in Kumamoto Prefecture. Ensuring stability in the semiconductor supply chain is a matter of national security and must be based on cooperation between the government and private sector.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Apr 4, 2025
Identifying choke points in the semiconductor supply chain
By Eiki Tagami
Addressing bottlenecks in chipmaking is essential for Japan's economic security and requires public-private collaboration, including aimed at information sharing.
DOGE, the U.S. government reform project, embodies America's brash, fast-paced approach to change, while Japan’s cultural norms emphasize slower, more deliberate decision-making rooted in consensus.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 2, 2025
The DOGE solution? 'No thanks,' says Japan, with reason
By Brad Glosserman
I can’t imagine a DOGE-like beast in Japan. No one can. It is utterly alien to every tradition, precedent or cultural inclination in this country.
The bus stop sign for the Ghibli Museum at Mitaka Station. The viral trend of AI-generated Ghibli-style images reflects both a longing for comfort in uncertain times and the ongoing debate over AI’s impact on art.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 2, 2025
For a brief moment, everything was Ghibli
By Gearoid Reidy
ChatGPT will make almost anything Ghibli-ish, but it won’t draw Totoro.
American autoworkers assemble Honda Accords at the Japanese company's Marysville Auto Plant in the state of Ohio in December 2017.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 1, 2025
Ford is as American as apple pie. Or is that Honda?
By Liam Denning
Trump's 25% auto tariffs will raise car prices, complicate manufacturing and prioritize outdated protectionism over industry trends like electrification and software.
A guard tower at Manzanar Internment Camp in Independence, California, in July 2013. Nearly 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes on the West Coast by the U.S. Army and sent to Manzanar and nine other internment camps between March 1942 and November 1945.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 26, 2025
Use of wartime powers revives internment camp memories
By Erika D. Smith
It took more than 40 years for the U.S. government to officially set the record straight that abusing the Alien Enemies Act during World War II was both illegal and immoral.

Japan, U.S. to hold joint patrol after Okinawa sexual assaults
Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki may participate in a joint patrol in the prefecture by Japanese and U.S. officials, an official in the area said.
Can anyone deal with Trump better than Ishiba?
Having had two meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is slowly building a personal relationship with him, which matters greatly to the U.S. president and in resolving bilateral issues.
Ishiba warns of divided world at futuristic Osaka Expo opening ceremony
The opening ceremony for the Osaka Expo on Saturday.
Why Trump’s dream of made-in-the-USA iPhones isn’t going to happen
U.S. President Donald Trump wants Apple to begin building iPhones in the United States. But Apple is unlikely to move production to the country in the foreseeable future for a variety of reasons.
A trip to remember: Japan answers the demand for curated luxury travel
Shirakawa-go in Gifu Prefecture in 2017. Travel agencies catering to luxury tourists often include areas outside well-known cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto in their itineraries offered.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.
Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
A trip to remember: Japan answers the demand for curated luxury travel
Shirakawa-go in Gifu Prefecture in 2017. Travel agencies catering to luxury tourists often include areas outside well-known cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto in their itineraries offered.
Can anyone deal with Trump better than Ishiba?
Having had two meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is slowly building a personal relationship with him, which matters greatly to the U.S. president and in resolving bilateral issues.
After two years in top job, BOJ's Ueda faces his biggest challenge yet 
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda at a news conference in January. He has been in the top position for two years.

Podcast

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

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.
By Tomoko Otake

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