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December 13, 2024
 

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The Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo. In the wake of a political funding scandal, some are calling for the dissolution of the LDP's factions.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 16, 2024

Eliminating factions isn’t the answer to the funding scandal

In the wake of a political funding scandal that has embroiled the LDP, some are calling for the dissolution of the party's factions. That would be a mistake.
The final 10 contestants of the reality show “The Debut: Dream Academy” in November. The show aimed to select the members of a new global K-pop girl group.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2024

K-pop without the ‘K’ just won’t pop

The BTS hiatus may have slowed K-pop down, but the answer isn't to take the Koreanness out of it. If not, all that's left is run-of-the-mill pop.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin announced his resignation after eight years in office on New Year’s Eve, 1999. His chosen successor was then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who succeeded him.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2024

Putin’s search for a usable past

Money was the one thing that would animate his reign. It was clear from the start that the businessman took precedence over the politician in Putin’s personality.
A Ground Self-Defense Force AH-1S Cobra attack helicopter fires ammunition during a live-fire exercise in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, in May 2022.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jan 25, 2024

Will drones replace helicopter pilots in the Self-Defense Forces?

Japan has already begun to make a major shift to transfer the functions of traditional defense aircraft to unmanned aerial vehicles.
A signboard in Tokyo shows the closing numbers on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Jan. 11. Tokyo's Nikkei index closed above 35,000 for the first time in nearly 34 years on that day.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 18, 2024

Japan can guilt-trip its stocks past bubble-era highs

Tokyo’s equity market is achingly close to overcoming its bubble-era highs.
The Democratic Progressive Party's presidential candidate, Lai Ching-te, the eventual winner, casts his vote during the island's election in Tainan, Taiwan, on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 18, 2024

Taiwan's election and its potential impact on East Asian politics

China tried to interfere in the Taiwanese elections through the systematic use of "cognitive warfare," but failed.
The concerns over artificial intelligence have parallels with historical apocalyptic movements, which have often been exploited for political purposes.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2024

AI apocalypse now? Only in our fevered dreams

The real question is why are cataclysmic prophets sometimes attract big followings. Understanding this can help us avoid the paths they may lead us down.
The health of China's economy will always be a factor in how other Asian economies fare, and some of those are doing OK despite their larger neighbor’s woes.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2024

The latest indignity for China’s flawed recovery

Neighbors whose economic fortunes were supposed to be tied to the heft of China’s rebound from the pandemic seem to be doing pretty well without it.
Left-wing activists take part in a rally in Dhaka on Jan. 3 to demand a new election under Bangladesh's caretaker government.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 18, 2024

Weeks into 2024 and the world seems on edge

The global system that emerged after World War II is giving way to a world without order.
Farmers protest against the government's planned cuts to agricultural sector subsides in Brandenburg, Germany, on Jan. 10.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2024

Why Germany is rich but Germans are poor and angry

Germany's polarization peaks as the country's divided society faces economic turmoil.
Past warnings of a housing-market crash in China have never been borne out. But unless the government takes concerted action, this time may well be different.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2024

Fixing China’s real estate sector

Housing dreams to economic nightmares, the perils of China's real estate boom.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the dissolution of his LDP faction on Friday, marking a significant shift in the wake of a political funding scandal.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 22, 2024

Mired in scandal, the LDP chips away at its factions

Three LDP factions, including Kishida's, announced their dissolution last week. While it's unlikely that all groupings will meet the same fate, reform is in the air.
Hindu devotees gather in a procession on the eve of the opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, India, on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2024

The slow death of India’s brief secular democracy

The opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, India, presided over by Prime Minister Modi culminates Hindu nationalism's ascent over secularism in Indian politics.
Coming out of the pandemic, job vacancies were historically high in the U.S. because firms needed workers and could not find them.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2024

This year will mark the end of the post-pandemic economy

The trade-off between bringing down inflation and harming growth will come back with a vengeance in the post-pandemic economy.
According to the the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, international economic activity is expected to slow amid changing trade patterns.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2024

From 'hyperglobalization' to 'thin globalism'

How geopolitics, pandemics, and economic tensions are transforming global trade.
American President Joe Biden hugs Brittany Alkonis after giving a State of the Union in February. The wife of jailed U.S. sailor Lt. Ridge Alkonis ran a successful pressure campaign to get her husband released from a Japanese prison into American custody. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 24, 2024

Japan owes no apology for U.S. Navy officer’s treatment

The case of Navy Lt. Ridge Alkonis is a divisive one, which both the U.S. and Japanese governments have tried to keep quiet about.
A law making its way through the U.S. Congress would authorize the confiscation of billions of dollars in frozen assets owned by the Russian central bank, that would then be handed over to Ukraine as compensation for the war.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2024

Seizing Russia's central bank funds is illegal and unwise

A big question about giving Ukraine seized Russian funds is would such an asset grab break international law?
Outlawing the second-most popular party in Germany would be democratically questionable and could have negative consequences.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2024

Should Germany’s AfD party be banned?

Germany's democratic values should be upheld by engaging with disgruntled voters in the voting booth, rather than seeking a legal ban.
South Africa has accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians amid the war in Gaza.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2024

Should Japan support the ICJ genocide case against Israel?

South Africa has accused Israel of genocide in the International Court of Justice. The case can't be ignored, or impunity and the global order's collapse will be the price.
South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife Kim Keon-hee have been plunged into controversy after hidden camera footage emerged appearing to show Kim accepting a Dior bag as a gift.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 24, 2024

'Dior bag scandal' mars South Korean ruling party before election

The controversy over the apparent acceptance of a gift by his wife may threaten Yoon Suk-yeol's bid to reclaim a parliamentary majority in April's election.
One way to cut the steel industry’s emissions is to recycle more iron and steel products than the world currently does.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2024

What steel decarbonization needs

One way to cut the industry's emissions is by recycling more iron and steel products than we currently do.
NATO, which celebrates its 75th birthday this year, has been successful at keeping the peace — but American underpinning can’t be guaranteed in perpetuity, especially with the possible reelection of Donald Trump. 
COMMENTARY
Jan 25, 2024

Europe should arm against the barbarians at its gates

Donald Trump told Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, that "NATO is dead." It would be prudent to take him at his word.
Unfortunately for Japan, the demographic cliff is approaching and the government will need more than minor course adjustments to fix its Self-Defense Forces' recruitment woes.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 26, 2024

Cosmetic changes won’t fix the SDF’s recruitment problem

Facing demographic decline, Japan explores innovative solutions to boost recruitment in the Self-Defense Forces.
New research estimates that nearly 65,000 pregnancies have resulted from rape in the 14 states that imposed total abortion bans after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2024

Post-Roe America’s national shame: 65,000 forced pregnancies

New data has been filling in the picture of what access to reproductive health care looks like in the U.S. And the image forming is increasingly grim.
Some 5 million people globally die of causes related to air pollution from fossil fuels each year and climate change has a huge impact on people's health and psychological well-being.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2024

We’re finally recognizing climate change’s mental health toll

Climate change's impact on health, including psychological well-being, is overwhelming. COP28 took stock of this and put youth at the center of discussions like never before.
A paper published in The Lancet in December found that plastics likely enter most of our major organs and even affect the good bacteria that makes up our microbiome.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2024

We don't know how worried we should be about nanoplastics

Nanoparticles can slip into the bloodstream, get into organs, and sneak into cells where they may cause harm.
International rules governing the ethical conduct of war prohibit the direct targeting of civilians but permit striking military targets, even when it is known that the strikes will kill some civilians.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2024

The killing of innocents in the Israel-Gaza conflict

Unmasking the true horrors in Hamas' raid into Southern Israel and the Israeli response in Gaza.
As a small open economy, Hong Kong is vulnerable to financial contagion and capital flights to and from China.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2024

Hong Kong is facing a repeat of 1998 Asia financial crisis

As the Hang Seng Index selloff deepens, bankers and traders are preparing for the worst.
BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda at a news conference in Tokyo on Jan. 23. In it, he delivered a consistent message about the bank's intentions moving forward.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 29, 2024

BOJ's Ueda finds his mojo as rate message cuts through

After some growing pains, BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda finally delivers a clear message on the bank's intentions. He should keep at it.
Celebrations mark the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday in Dharamsala, India, in July 2015. The question of who will succeed the Tibetan leader, Tenzin Gyatso, now 88, looms large.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 29, 2024

Atheist China should have no say in Dalai Lama's reincarnation

Beijing views the Dalai Lama as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Why, then, is it obsessed with controlling the succession of someone it despises?
JR East announces 10-year plan to drastically overhaul Suica
The East Japan Railway Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. Within the next 10 years, JR East will develop automated walk-through gate technology so that passengers can enter the train platform without having to tap their Suica card or phone on the ticket gates.
Prince Hisahito to enroll at University of Tsukuba
Prince Hisahito, who is second in line to the Chrysanthemum Throne, is currently a third-year student at the University of Tsukuba’s affiliated high school.
Tokyo remains third in global city index for ninth consecutive year
The silhouettes of Mount Fuji, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building and Shinjuku skyscrapers are seen during sunset in Tokyo in November.
South Korean police blocked from raid on president's office
Protesters attend a rally calling for the impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in front of the headquarters of the ruling People Power Party in Seoul on Tuesday.
Union blasts Nippon Steel’s $5,000 per worker bonus in U.S. Steel deal
The United Steelworkers union claims that Nippon Steel's latest offer is tantamount to bribery.
London calling: Sumo's U.K. trip brings back memories of 1991
Japan’s national sport made its second foray into Western Europe, and first to the U.K., with a five-day tournament at London’s historic Royal Albert Hall in October 1991.
‘Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron’ documentary meditates on auteur's creativity and legacy
“Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron" provides an in-depth look into the octogenarian auteur’s creative process and personal reflections.
Yurie Collins: ‘Everyone seems sedated, fed-up … that’s why they turn to comedy’
Yurie Collins is a bilingual comedian based in Tokyo. In addition to being a prize-winning roast comic, her dating-themed "Tokyo Hoe Tales" shows have proven to be a hit with women of all nationalities.
Winter chill, hot baths and the risk of heat shock: How to stay safe
A health ministry survey showed that 5,824 people age 65 and older died in a bathtub in their home or other residential facilities in 2022, more than double the number of people who died in a traffic accident.
It’s Japan versus China for 2024’s game of the year
While FromSoftware's Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is a strong contender for game of the year, Black Myth: Wukong, the first AAA game made by a Chinese developer, offers some stiff competition.

Podcast

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

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?
By Thu-Huong Ha

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The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono
The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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