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Japan Times
BASEBALL
Jan 6, 2023

Shohei Ohtani among first 12 named to Japan's roster for World Baseball Classic

Ohtani, the 2021 American League MVP and the runner-up in 2022, was one of three MLB players in Japan's initial roster announcement.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 1, 2023

The ‘red wave’ washout: How skewed polls fed a false U.S. election narrative

Coupled with the political factors already favoring Republicans, biased polls earlier this year helped feed an ultimately false narrative: A Republican wave was about to hit the U.S.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 25, 2022

Putin wants fealty, and he’s found it in Africa

With his invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin of Russia unleashed a new disorder on the world. And in the Central African Republic, Moscow already has its way.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2022

Was Trump or Brexit the bigger mistake? The answer is clear.

As Americans and Britons are discovering, nations can recover from bad elections far more easily than from bad referendums.
U.S. Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her husband, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, wave from the stage on the fourth and last day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 24, 2024

Harris faces challenge of translating convention joy to fall momentum

Trump is no pushover, and history is littered with presidential candidates who roused their partisans at conventions only to fall short come November.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa attends a new conference for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) Ministerial Meeting in Tokyo on Aug. 25.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 3, 2024

Africa's rising importance for Japan’s Indo-Pacific goals

Africa is becoming an increasingly important element of Japanese FOIP strategy. It is a work in progress, but it is proceeding.
Sergei Kiriyenko, who is the first deputy head in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration, oversaw a yearslong Kremlin operation to meddle in U.S. elections and use disinformation to promote pro-Russian narratives online, according to a 277-page affidavit that U.S. officials unsealed Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 7, 2024

The evolution of Putin’s aide accused of gaming the U.S. election

The head of a Russian propaganda campaign that allegedly aimed to influence the upcoming U.S. elections began as a liberal politician.
Supporters cheer as U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at the Throwback Brewery, in North Hampton, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 7, 2024

How the fight to define Harris will shape her debate with Trump

The debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday will be, by far, the longest unscripted setting for the U.S. vice president of her candidacy — a high-risk encounter.
Signage in the spin room ahead of the second presidential debate at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Monday
WORLD / Politics
Sep 10, 2024

What to watch for during the Harris-Trump presidential debate

Most opinion polls show Kamala Harris to be slightly ahead nationally and in the majority of battleground states, but Donald Trump is close behind.
Belmarsh prison in London. The financial, political and social stresses around prisons — and the potential danger they pose to the U.K.'s fledgling Labour government — were vividly exposed by widespread rioting within weeks of Labour taking power.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 12, 2024

Overcrowded prisons force U.K.’s Starmer to take first big gamble

Apart from Scotland, England and Wales lock up a bigger proportion of their combined population than anywhere else in Western Europe.
A destroyed car in the Biala Ladecka river following flooding in Zelazno, Poland, on Friday
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 22, 2024

U.S. election uncertainty clouds U.N. climate finance progress

Governments are analyzing a possible win by Kamala Harris, who promotes climate spending, or by Donald Trump, a climate denier who wants to boost fossil fuels.
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.
Yonaguni Mayor Kenichi Itokazu speaks to a Ground Self-Defense Force soldier at the town hall on Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost inhabited island in Okinawa Prefecture last  November.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 26, 2024

Deterring Taiwan conflict is top priority for Japan's ‘front-line’ mayor

The mayor believes the U.S. and Japan must do away with "strategic ambiguity" over Taiwan if they intend to keep China in check.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz speaks during a debate with Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance in New York on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 2, 2024

Walz and Vance clash at policy-heavy vice presidential debate

The two rivals, who have savaged each other on the campaign trail, struck a cordial tone, instead saving their fire for the candidates at the top of their tickets.
Employees make pastries in the Princi bakery inside the Starbucks Reserve Roastery store in Shanghai in 2018.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 8, 2024

Starbucks cafes in Tokyo almost alone in keeping Princi baked goods

Starbucks is removing Howard Schultz's brand of Italian baked goods from many of its higher-end cafes, stepping back from an initiative championed by longtime leader.
Then-President Donald Trump (right) meets with President Vladimir Putin of Russia at the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019. Trump and Putin have secretly spoken several times since Trump left office, according to a new book by journalist Bob Woodward.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 9, 2024

Trump sent COVID-19 tests to Putin, Bob Woodward says in his new book

Donald Trump also retains a personal relationship with Vladimir Putin, Woodward writes.
Han Kang is the first South Korean author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 10, 2024

South Korean author Han Kang wins Nobel Prize in literature

Han is the first Asian woman and the first writer from South Korea to receive the award.
South Korean author Han Kang, the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, attends a press conference, in Seoul in November.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 11, 2024

Han Kang’s Nobel win underscores essential role of translators as literary tastemakers

The trailblazing South Korean author was virtually unknown in the West just 10 years ago — then came Deborah Smith’s translation of "The Vegetarian."
In the past three reports in 2003, 2009 and 2016, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women recommended a revision to Article 750 of the country's Civil Code, which mandates the same surname for married couples.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 18, 2024

U.N. panel reviews Japan's women policies, including on surnames

It was the U.N. committee's first review of Japan in eight years.
Having learned from the experience of losing in the last election and from actions taken by similar movements elsewhere, another Trump administration would be far more effective at wielding — and maintaining — power.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2024

Why another Trump term would be worse than the first

A political movement with autocratic tendencies often becomes more ruthless and effective after experiencing electoral defeat.
Apple CEO Tim Cook
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 22, 2024

Apple CEO Tim Cook’s other job: Helping Nike turn things around

Cook has carved out a role as one of Nike’s closest outside advisers over the last 19 years and is the company’s lead independent director.
Andrea Galeano, head of amphibian and reptile collections at the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, holds an Atelopus marinkellei frog captured during the Humboldt Institute's expeditions, in Villa de Leyva, Colombia, on Oct. 11.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Oct 28, 2024

Colombia's peace opened wildlife to discovery, but new violence frustrates progress

Colombia is now the world's most dangerous place for environmentalists, with 79 killed last year — the most ever in one country in a single year.
The Liberal Democratic Party's panel meets at the party headquarters in Tokyo in April to discuss measures to ensure stable imperial successions.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 30, 2024

U.N. panel urges Japan to revise imperial succession rules

The panel also urged Japan to implement a law revision toward introducing a selective dual surname system for married couples.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris spar during the presidential debate on Sept. 10. Both are seeking to win over voters in swing states such as those of the Rust Belt, where America's economic security policies are acutely felt.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Nov 5, 2024

The prospects for economic security under Trump or Harris

Both the Democratic and Republican campaigns need Rust Belt voters on their side, but their strategies to protect American economic interests differ significantly.
An exhibition of captured military hardware from NATO countries in Moscow in May.  Whatever the results of the U.S. presidential election, the prospect of improved U.S.-Russia relations seems even more distant.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 6, 2024

Whether Trump or Harris, pessimism reigns in Russia over U.S. election winner

The sentiment is prevalent in a Russia that feels scorned and underestimated by Democrat administrations and betrayed by Trump.
The film character Godzilla poses on the red carpet during a ceremony to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California, in November 2004.  
COMMENTARY
Nov 6, 2024

After nearly three-quarters of a century, Godzilla’s monstrous empire is thriving

The famed Japanese monster went from serious metaphor for nuclear destruction to a kitschy pop culture icon.
Tokyo stocks rallied on Wednesday as ballots were counted in the U.S. presidential election.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 6, 2024

Tokyo stocks rally and yen falls as Trump nears election win

The 225-issue Nikkei stock average rose 2.61% on the day while the yen fell 1.6% against the dollar as it became increasingly apparent that Donald Trump would likely win.
A US-made TOW-2A wire-guided anti-tank missile, launched by Taiwanese soldiers from a M1167 TOW carrier vehicle at the Fangshan training grounds in Pingtung, Taiwan, on Aug 26.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 10, 2024

Taiwan sees a higher price for U.S. support as Trump returns to power

Tensions between Beijing and Taipei are high, with frequent Chinese military drills stoking fears of an accidental conflict.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and other Cabinet members and lawmakers attend a session of the Lower House of parliament in Tokyo on Monday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 13, 2024

Trump return leaves Japan’s leader with no time to snooze

The prime minister drew headlines for a moment after he was caught napping in parliament during proceedings for his own nomination as Japanese leader.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola celebrates with the trophy after his club clinched the Premier League in May this year.
SOCCER
Nov 22, 2024

Pep Guardiola signs two-year contract extension with Manchester City

Guardiola's decision means he will spend more than a decade at the club he joined in 2016 and has led to a dazzling array of silverware.

Longform

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