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Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Oct 9, 2022

Eight years of combat hardened Ukraine’s army into a fighting force

One key factor behind Kyiv's battlefield successes stands out: The very different ways in which two armies both with Soviet roots have learned to fight.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 20, 2022

Odesa is defiant. It’s also Putin’s ultimate target.

Odesa, grain port to the world, city of creative mingling, scarred metropolis steeped in Jewish history, is the big prize in the war and a personal obsession for Putin.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Mar 9, 2022

Sanctions and sanctuary: Japan responds to Russia's war in Ukraine

As Vladimir Putin's grim war in Ukraine escalates, The Economist's Tokyo bureau chief, Noah Sneider, joins to discuss the reasons for the conflict, the lengths to which Japan is supporting Ukraine, and how the war will redefine relationships between Japan and its northern neighbor, Russia.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2021

Why Putin’s money eludes offshore investigators

Only three Russians made the ICIJ's list of 50 'power players,” deemed by the investigators to be the Pandora Papers' most prominent persons in the eyes of the international audience.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2021

The case for stronger Russia sanctions

The Crimea sanctions have had the intended economic effect. Whereas Central and Eastern Europe's GDP has grown by 3% to 5% per year since 2014, Russia's has stagnated.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 28, 2021

Crossing the red line: Behind China’s takeover of Hong Kong

One year ago, the city's freedoms were curtailed with breathtaking speed. But the clampdown was years in the making, and many signals were missed.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2021

Russia’s bear economy

Lacking secure property rights and being subject to Western sanctions, Russia can attract only fools and crooks.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2021

Putin's Potemkin empire

Putin's Russia is shakier than most believe.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2019

Why this time turned out different for Hong Kong

Support from business and the potential financial damage to China help explain how protesters prevailed in their battle against the extradition bill.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 25, 2019

Scotland will prepare for a second independence vote regardless of U.K. nod: Nicola Sturgeon

Scotland will start preparing for an independence referendum before May 2021 without permission from London, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Wednesday.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Feb 12, 2019

DH talk brings back memories of reverse experiment

One thing the current conversation about a possible universal DH in MLB is showing is that a lot of people have great disdain for the concept of pitchers hitting.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 26, 2018

Three odd points about Abe's tax hike

Raising the consumption tax could once again hurt the economy more than help it.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Sep 3, 2017

Some schools in Japan get air conditioning while others are left to nature's whim

Government data shows air conditioning is becoming standard in most Japanese public schools, but a handful of cities and prefectures are resisting the trend for questionable reasons.
Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba reacts during a news conference ahead of the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election in Tokyo on Sept. 6.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 24, 2024

Why is Shigeru Ishiba so unpopular among his LDP peers?

The former defense minister is highly regarded among the public and local chapters of the ruling party, but it's a different story when it comes to LDP lawmakers.
Iwao Hakamata in March 2023 in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. Hakamata was convicted in 1968 over the fatal stabbings of a couple and their children two years earlier. He has pleaded his innocence throughout his trial, maintaining that his confession was coerced.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 25, 2024

In Japan, the road to exoneration takes decades

Defense lawyers’ extremely limited access to evidence and prosecutors’ right to appeal a court order for a retrial result in a long, drawn-out process.
Hideko Hakamata (center) and lawyers representing her younger brother, Iwao Hakamata, pose with a banner that reads "Iwao Hakamata verdict not guilty" as they leave the Shizuoka District Court on Thursday after the ruling was delivered.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 26, 2024

In rare retrial, Shizuoka court rules ex-boxer not guilty of 1966 murders

Iwao Hakamata, the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner, has maintained his innocence for decades.
Families of people killed by the eruption of Mount Ontake 10 years ago offer prayers in Otaki, Nagano Prefecture, on Friday.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 27, 2024

Victims of Mount Ontake eruption remembered 10 years on

Silent prayers were offered at 11:52 a.m., the time when the country's worst volcanic disaster in the postwar era occurred on Sept. 27, 2014.
The U.S. team celebrates after winning the Presidents Cup in Montreal on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Sep 30, 2024

U.S. tops Internationals to continue Presidents Cup dominance

The U.S. team featured 12 of the world's 25 top-ranked players and won fights late in matches to continue its domination of the event.
Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal reacts after a strikeout in the sixth inning of Detroit's Game 1 wild-card round win over the Astros on Tuesday in Houston.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 2, 2024

Tigers, Royals, Mets and Padres win MLB playoff openers

The visiting Tigers took a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three American League wild-card series on the back of ace Tarik Skubal.
Tigers pitcher Will Vest (right) and catcher Jake Rogers celebrate after the final out of their win over the Astros in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series in Houston on Wednesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 3, 2024

Upstart Tigers continue stunning run by sweeping Astros

Detroit swept the best-of-three AL Wild Card Series to reach a second-round matchup against the Cleveland Guardians.
A funeral is held for Russian military personnel and civilians killed in the war with Ukraine, at a cemetery in Luhansk, in Russian-controlled Ukraine, in May 2023. The U.S. estimates that 120,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and another 180,000 injured, further worsening the nation's manpower shortages and economic output.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2024

The Russian war economy’s days are numbered

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his cronies boast that the sanctions make Russia stronger, but they incessantly call for all restrictions to be lifted.
Lassana Diarra in Paris in May last year. Diarra was at the center of a high-profile case that could shake up the transfer market in European soccer.
SOCCER
Oct 4, 2024

Top EU court rules against FIFA in key transfer market ruling

In a landmark decision, the EU's top court has ruled some international soccer rules regulating player transfers are contrary to the bloc's laws.
Annual festival Peter Barakan’s Live Magic! was born a decade ago when Barakan (left) decided to create a platform to share his love of roots music, which he attributes to growing up in 1960s England.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 11, 2024

Peter Barakan’s Live Magic! takes its final bow

The 11th edition of the annual blues, jazz and roots festival will also be its last, at least in its current form, but the core concept of the event will live on.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo delivers his annual State of the Nation Address, ahead of the country's Independence Day, in Jakarta on Aug. 16.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 14, 2024

A decade of Joko Widodo: Popular Indonesian leader leaves rocky legacy

When Widodo steps down on Oct. 20, he will leave Indonesia in the hands of Prabowo Subianto, the former son-in-law of an authoritarian ruler.
Rohingya refugee children look on from their shelter at a refugee camp, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sept. 28.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 15, 2024

Stateless speak up as world misses its #Ibelong deadline

They are often deprived of the most basic rights, exposing them to exploitation, destitution and detention.
A street in Zakir Nagar, a Muslim neighborhood in New Delhi, last month.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 19, 2024

In Modi's Delhi, Indian Muslims segregate to seek security

There is no official data on segregation in India, but it appears to be increasing among Muslims in recent years due to rising Islamophobia.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, former prime minister and founder of the Georgian Dream party, waves during a pro-government rally in support of a bill regarding "foreign agents" in Tbilisi, Georgia, on April 29.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 22, 2024

Georgia's shark-owning billionaire tells voters: Don't risk war with Russia

Memories are fresh of a 2008 war with Russia over the Moscow-backed breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which lasted five days and ended in Georgia's defeat.
Election administration staff count ballots for the general election at a ballot station in Tokyo on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 29, 2024

Japan marks third lowest general-election turnout in postwar history

Low turnout typically benefit political parties with organizational power, but the LDP and partner Komeito struggled Sunday despite having powerful support bases.
People use umbrellas during a hot summer day in Ginza, Tokyo, in August.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 1, 2024

Extreme heat takes big toll on work and elderly mortality in Japan: report

The annual Lancet Countdown report says the world is facing elevated threats in 10 of 15 health indicators due to climate change.
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.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 18, 2024

For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action

Always trying to solve the problems of modern life, the perennial candidate refuses to bow to societal expectations of age.

Longform

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