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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 13, 2023

Unpacking the limits to Japan’s military awakening

Japan must find ways to frustrate China's furtive efforts to alter the regional status quo while avoiding the risk of open combat.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2023

Prime Minister Kishida’s 2023 survival strategy

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has a tough road ahead, but he is politically savvy and has been adept at making the moves necessary to remain in office so far.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2022

Are Putin and Xi in decline? Populism and autocracy still have deep resources.

Liberal democracy is still imperiled, despite all the recent cheerfulness from enemies of authoritarianism.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 28, 2022

Haruhiko Kuroda spent 2022 showing the courage to be disliked

Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda ticked nearly everyone off in a chaotic year. He won't care.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2022

Don’t turn your hobby into a side hustle

It's not good for our mental health to assess the potential profitability of every pastime.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Women at Work
Dec 27, 2022

Battling the odds to rise to the top: One woman's career in the IT sector

Yuki Shingu found taking a career break to help nurse her ailing father gave her a broader perspective on her rise through company ranks.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 26, 2022

Kishida Cabinet unpopular among young people, survey shows

Approval ratings for Kishida's Cabinet tend to drop as the ages of the respondents go down, according to the results of the opinion poll.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2022

Java without java? The crisis brewing in coffee

The Indonesian island is a byword for caffeine. The woes piling up for the coffee industry are on full display.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 13, 2022

Is Japan’s counterstrike capability a departure from its post-WWII pacifism?

What is the future of Japan's defense-oriented security posture amid growing military threats and a worsening geopolitical environment?
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 30, 2022

U.S. Senate passes same-sex marriage bill with bipartisan support

The bill, named the Respect for Marriage Act, passed with 12 Republicans joining all Democrats present in support.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2022

Is the clock running out for the prime minister?

Will Prime Minister Fumio Kishida be able to recover from his political troubles, or is he on a path to join the party's long list of short-lived prime ministers?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2022

Republicans misjudged the power of abortion rights

Republicans found out in the U.S. midterms that reproductive freedom is as much a core issue as inflation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2022

Get ready to relearn how to use the internet

Everyone knows that an AI revolution is coming, but no one seems to realize how profoundly it will change their day-to-day life.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 25, 2022

New U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warns of ‘profound economic challenge’

Sunak faces a formidable challenge to steady the U.K. economy in the face of headwinds including double-digit inflation, rising interest rates and a surge in mortgage costs.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Oct 19, 2022

Putin is safe in power for now, but risks lie ahead, current and former officials say

Russian leader's grip on power remains firm despite military setbacks in Ukraine, a botched mobilization and political infighting, eight well-informed sources say.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 27, 2022

Shinzo Abe’s funeral furor is Japan’s most unedifying debate

Partisan bickering over Shinzo Abe's state memorial was an embarrassment for the nation on the world stage.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2022

Respect and protest: Abe funeral draws large crowds with contrasting aims

Huge throngs gathered around the Nippon Budokan for what may be remembered as one of the most controversial ceremonial events in Japan in recent years.
A Ukrainian serviceman fires a howitzer toward Russian troops, in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, on Jan. 11.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 4, 2025

Ukraine's politics warms up as U.S. focuses on war's endgame

In the past week, one Ukrainian political camp has accused President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's team of caring more about elections than the war.
If Donald Trump abandons internationalism, partnerships and alliances, the result will be tragic for both humanity and America itself.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025

The U.S. must avoid isolationism — a path to nowhere

The scariest aspect of the Trump presidency is that he promotes unpredictability and disruption as his principal techniques of governance and especially foreign policy.
U.S. President Donald Trump receives a status report on Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office in September 2019.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2025

Trump keeps up his ‘Sharpiegate’ attack on science

The nomination of Neil Jacobs to run NOAA highlights U.S. President Trump’s loyalty-over-expertise approach to leadership.
Canada faces a tough decision on how to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's economic threats, particularly regarding energy exports, with options ranging from strategic energy cuts to export taxes.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2025

Weaponizing Canadian oil would rattle Trump

Reducing crude output has the potential to inflict real pain on U.S. refiners and consumers.
The rapid advance of artificial intelligence and technology threatens traditional human life and values, but finding a balance between innovation and preserving human connection may offer a path forward for humanity's future.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 19, 2025

Does humanity have a future in the virtual and AI age?

The virtual age and artificial intelligence are making traditional ways of life seem increasingly obsolete, and this will only grow with AI's spread.
U.S. President Donald Trump's approach to ending Russia’s war in Ukraine appears to prioritize re-establishing U.S.-Russia relations over securing a fair settlement for Ukraine.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2025

Ukraine is just a pawn in a Russian reset

Donald Trump's approach makes U.S. actions more logical, but no less shameful.
President Donald Trump’s order making English the official language of the country is unnecessary, as nearly 80% of people in the U.S. already speak it at home.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 14, 2025

America doesn’t need an official language

After all, what is our shared culture if not the mix of cultures — including languages — that make and remake America every day?
Mark Carney, Canada's incoming prime minister (center), during a swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Friday. Carney has been sworn in as Canada's 24th prime minister, bringing the former central banker to power in the middle of an explosive trade war with the U.S.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 15, 2025

Canada has a new prime minister with a very hard first assignment

Mark Carney steps into his role as U.S. President Donald Trump sets his sights on Canada’s sovereignty and keeps threatening more tariffs.
France has expressed concern after U.S. border agents read the contents of a visiting French space scientist's smartphone and deported him after accusing him of "hateful" messages against U.S. policy.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 21, 2025

U.S. denies entry to French scientist over 'hateful' messages

France has expressed concern over the incident, in which U.S. border agents read the contents of the scientist's smartphone before deporting him.
European Union nations and Japan fret about a world without the U.S. security umbrella. They could ease their fears by moving closer together.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 26, 2025

Japan-Europe: The security alliance the world needs now

Even before Trump’s return, Europe and Japan both rapidly needed to shift from their peacetime posture to one preparing for war.
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

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.
Palestinians take part in an anti-Hamas protest calling for an end to the war with Israel, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday. 
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2025

Israel must not ignore the anti-Hamas protests in Gaza

Though still relatively small in scale, the anti-Hamas demonstrations in Gaza clearly indicate a shift in opinion.
Marine Le Pen’s embezzlement conviction and election ban intensify France’s political divide, challenge French President Emmanuel Macron’s government and set the stage for a far-right succession battle.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2025

Le Pen’s MAGA-style martyrdom is new risk in France

One big factor could complicate Le Pen’s pivot to MAGA martyrdom, however: The antics of Trump himself.

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