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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2021

Joe Manchin tells Democrats what they need to hear

If the best that other Democrats can do is accuse Joe Manchin of being 'the new Mitch McConnell,” they may as well give up.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 1, 2021

Will Japan’s China policy change under Kishida’s leadership?

Whether Kishida is Abe's puppet or not, what he should do or can do in his foreign policy will be defined by the geostrategic reality in the Indo-Pacific region.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2021

Japan faces a rapidly changing Indo-Pacific strategic environment

Tokyo has witnessed several significant political, economic and military developments over the past month following the full withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 20, 2021

LDP contenders put China in crosshairs in bid to win votes

Foreign policy has taken on increased importance in the party's presidential race, as candidates are trying to win over conservative members with a tough stance on Beijing.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Aug 17, 2021

China trumpets U.S. decline, but Asia's lessons from Afghan chaos hard to discern

Even as Chinese state media seizes on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as a signal of America's decline, the view from Beijing's halls of power is likely far more nuanced.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 26, 2021

Journalists fear land-purchase law may hit local residents

Recent concerns about a new law meant to restrict the sale of property near sensitive sites to non-Japanese entities focus more on the trouble the law may cause Japanese individuals.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jun 23, 2021

Takashi Tachibana, who shed light on Lockheed scandal, dies at 80

Tachibana's work is often credited with having played a major role in bringing down the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, Japan's most powerful leader in the postwar era.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 5, 2021

The damage done by a lengthy appeals process

The media has no problem reprimanding the government when it loses a court case, but news outlets seldom talk about how the judicial system can drag things on.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 30, 2021

What is really behind the calls to cancel the Olympics?

If the Asahi genuinely believes that the Olympic Games should be canceled, why does the paper not withdraw its sponsorship from the games?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 22, 2021

Media fails to agree on Fukushima water discharge

The general public is unable to comprehend the mixed messages it's hearing from the nation's leading news outlets.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 22, 2021

Will the Suga-Biden summit provoke China?

Based on my observations, global media coverage of the Suga-Biden summit meeting in Washington was rather favorable. Walter Russell Mead, for example, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s visit was “hailed in both countries as a major success,” and “The alliance...
Japan Times
JAPAN / FOCUS
Apr 14, 2021

Suga-Biden summit offers chance to hash out a plan on China

Although the summit will be largely symbolic, it'll also be a chance to cement a unified stance on China — or at least clarify how far they're willing to go together.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2021

Trump’s not-quite-triumphant return

Trump sounded most sad and pathetic as he again circled back toward the Big Lie about the 2020 election.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 26, 2021

Mori’s resignation highlights changing gender norms

Yoshiro Mori reportedly decided to resign immediately after the remarks. It was the secretariat of the organizing committee who strongly pleaded with him to stay in his position.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 17, 2021

After four years of Trump, some scientists are treading into politics

Among the things that most inflamed scientists was Trump's rejection of the wide body of research establishing climate change, which he has called a hoax.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Feb 6, 2021

Biden's message to Beijing: Don't expect U.S. to ease up over South China Sea and Taiwan

The U.S. Navy conducted its first “freedom of navigation operation” in the disputed South China Sea on Friday and, a day earlier, its first transit of the Taiwan Strait.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 9, 2020

China holds off on sending congratulations to Biden

In 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent congratulations to Trump on Nov. 9, a day after the election.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2020

Trump’s H-1B immigrant visa reforms will make America poorer

The most important point is the simplest: The strongest possible U.S. economic recovery requires more talent drawn from the rest of the world, not less.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 15, 2020

Abe’s last national security legacy for Suga to complete

Tokyo is contemplating setting a new direction for national security policy to cope with missiles targeting Japan.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 6, 2020

Iceland has very good news about coronavirus immunity

The emergence of a handful of people reinfected by SARS-Cov-2 — including individuals in Hong Kong, Italy and the U.S. — has sparked panic over the future course of the pandemic.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 5, 2020

Trust and truth go hand in hand in a troubled year

COVID-19's most visible symbol is the mask, but 85 of 100 doctors surveyed by Shukan Gendai say masks are unnecessary in open outdoor spaces.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 2, 2020

Who succeeds Abe’s foreign policy?

Under his diplomatic doctrine, Abe dramatically improved relations with the United States while outstanding issues with Russia and North Korea remained unsolved.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 25, 2020

Japan's take on a most unconventional Democratic convention

The reaction in Tokyo was mostly even-handed, if a little less enthusiastic than the coverage in the U.S. media.
Leaders of Japan’s political parties pose for a group photo at the start of a debate at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Oct. 12. Sunday’s Lower House election saw the ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party take a drubbing.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2024

The balance of power shifts in Japan’s politics

Despite the LDP's losses at polls, the recent election didn't exactly indicate popular support for an opposition-led government either.
It is difficult to know what Donald Trump will do in a second presidency. His campaign was filled with bold promises, but so too was his first.
EDITORIALS
Nov 8, 2024

Prepare for a bumpy ride in a second Trump term

It is difficult to know what Donald Trump will do in a second presidency. His campaign was filled with bold promises, but so too was his first.
Marco Rubio debates Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary race. The president-elect has named the senator from Florida as his prospective secretary of state.
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2024

Trump’s Cabinet picks make clear his priorities. Allies get ready.

Trump claims a mandate — winning the popular vote and both Houses of Congress — but his margin of victory is smaller than he will admit.
Media mogul Jimmy Lai leaves Mong Kok police station after being released on bail in Hong Kong on Aug. 12, 2020.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 20, 2024

After years in a Hong Kong jail, Jimmy Lai has his say in court

The media mogul said his now-shuttered newspaper, Apple Daily, represented the freedoms that people in the city valued.
Police officers remove a protest banner outside the West Kowloon Court following a sentencing hearing for 45 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2024

Paranoia and Beijing trump democracy in Hong Kong

Concerned nations must step up as China discards the promises it made when it regained control of Hong Kong. Anything less is a betrayal.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump attends the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in June 2019.
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2024

Japan should prepare for tariff-loving Trump

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's focus on tariffs as a core economic strategy could disrupt global trade.
Protesters condemn South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law declaration and call for his resignation during a rally in Seoul on Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 6, 2024

Yoon’s incoherent, incompetent coup defies logic and reason

Yoon’s lack of political acumen must not be allowed to tar all his policies.

Longform

People in cities across Japan will pop into their local convenience store for any number of products they believe will help them with a night of drinking.
Hangover cures are everywhere in Japan — but do they work?