Tag - democracy

 
Menu
Search
 
April 03, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

DEMOCRACY

Demonstrators gather in front of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, on Thursday, during a rally in support of Istanbul's arrested mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2025
Inside Turkey’s executive coup
After 23 years in power, and with Turkey’s economy collapsing, Erdogan knows that no election — even a rigged one — is safe.
There is concern about a severe decline in democracy in Asia, with many former success stories now backsliding.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2025
An Asian democracy collapse amid the new world order
By the monitoring organization Freedom House's calculations, for 19 years, democracy has eroded around the world.
Voters believe they are active participants in democracies, but the real power is concentrated in the hands of the few.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 12, 2025
Social media and playing at democracy
Voters believe they are active participants in democracies, but the real power is concentrated in the hands of the few.
Hong Kong activist Tang Ngok-kwan speaks to reporters in Hong Kong on Thursday after the Court of Final Appeal ruled in his favor and quashed his jail term for refusing to hand over information to the city's national security police.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 6, 2025
Hong Kong’s Tiananmen activists win rare appeal in security case
The ruling marked a rare victory in challenging the enforcement of the national security law imposed by Beijing.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance and wife Usha stand in front of an iron gate with the slogan "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work will set you free") as they arrive for a tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial site in southern Germany on Feb. 13.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2025
Without America, ‘the West’ will splinter, wither and die
Trump and his movement do not share similar values, at least not unequivocally, and that is now sinking in across the rest of the West, which the U.S. has led for eight decades.
Lo Kin-hei (center), chairman of Hong Kong's Democratic Party, along with other senior leaders, announced Thursday that it will start preparations to wind down operations.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 21, 2025
Hong Kong's oldest pro-democracy party prepares to shut down
The Democratic Party's fortunes declined after Beijing tightened its grip and imposed a national security law.
Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally surged in French legislative elections last year. Despite social media being a key megaphone for political campaigning, issues like voter dissatisfaction still play a determinant role in electoral outcomes.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Feb 5, 2025
Social media alone didn’t decide last year’s elections
Last year's record number of elections around the world hold some important lessons. One is that social media wasn't the key determinant of outcomes that many made it out to be.
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.
Many attribute the far right’s recent global rise to “anti-incumbency” bias, but this overlooks how the COVID-19 crisis fostered division and distrust, turning voters against their governments. 
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025
Confronting the pandemic’s toxic political legacy
Libertarian resentment over past restrictions and mandates is one thing; an abiding distrust of scientists is quite another.
The front page of The Japan Times on Feb. 21, 1925, carried news of clashes in the streets over the debate of extending voting rights to Japanese males over the age of 25.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Feb 1, 2025
Japan Times 1925: Tokyo factions ready to fight over manhood suffrage bill in Diet
Objections from the country's 1% came as Japan debated extending voting rights to all men over the age of 25.
Donald Trump pardoned Jan. 6 participants, while Joe Biden granted clemency to family members and officials to avoid potential prosecutions, highlighting the personalization and politicization of U.S. presidential pardon power.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2025
Trump seriously abused his pardon power. Biden also indulged.
A torrent of U.S. reprieves signals democratic decline and the rise of a monarchical presidency.
French workers load a replica of the Statue of Liberty, or Lady Liberty, onto a truck outside the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris in June 2021, before it departs for Ellis Island in New York to arrive on Independence Day.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2025
Liberal democracy faces doubts. But collapse? Not likely.
Democracy, it is often heard these days, is in crisis.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Jan 3, 2025
AI has not yet destroyed democracy
The worst predictions about AI disrupting the democratic process were not borne out in 2024.
Supporters of then-President Donald Trump clash with police while storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 29, 2024
Will the guardrails of U.S. democracy hold?
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump continues to express admiration for authoritarian leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Then-Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa (left) and then-U.S. President Bill Clinton meet for talks at the White House on April 16, 1993.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 26, 2024
Ex-PM Miyazawa aired doubts about China's democratization to Clinton in '93
In a summit with the then-U.S. president, then-Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said he was skeptical about democracy taking root in China as living standards improve.
Hong Kong's Secretary for Security Chris Tang speaks to the media over the landmark national security trial, in Hong Kong on Nov. 19.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 24, 2024
Hong Kong offers bounties for six more democrats in security squeeze
The move to add more names to Hong Kong's wanted list comes as the city strives to revive its economic growth and international reputation.
Supporters of the French far-right National Rally party wave French flags on Dec. 15. In Europe this year, the far right made gains in several legislatures, including that of France.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 24, 2024
Democracy heads into 2025 bloodied but unbowed
Overall, there were no attempts this year to prevent a peaceful transfer of power, but autocracies grew more repressive.
Through a de facto partial suspension of democracy, French President Emmanuel Macron has kept the far right out of power and restored stability. Similar measures may prove necessary elsewhere.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2024
Saving democracy from Itself
Macron’s actions may seem undemocratic, but they were necessary to maintain stability and block the rise of the far-right.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia leader Vladimir Putin talk during a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki in July 2018.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 9, 2024
The long global trail of resentment behind Trump’s resurrection
Disillusionment with the world that emerged from the Cold War has fueled a long-gathering revolt against the established order.
Donald Trump is joined on stage by former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a campaign event in Duluth, Georgia, on Oct. 23.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2024
When the leftists embrace the far right
Do these political migrations reflect a mere opportunistic betrayal of principles or is something more complicated going on?
As ‘Buy Canadian’ grows, more U.S. firms say retailers turning away products
Empty shelves with "Buy Canadian Instead" signs are seen in the American Whiskey section of the BC Liquor in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 10.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
Japan, South Korea and China vow to strengthen trade ties amid looming U.S. tariffs
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoji Muto (left), South Korean Trade Industry and Energy Minister Ahn Duk-geun (center) and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao during a trilateral meeting in Seoul on Sunday
The U.S. says Japan has a 700% tariff on American rice. Is that the case?
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds up a piece of paper with information about tariff rates at the White House on Tuesday.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
On defense, Japan may avoid Trump's worst impulses — for now
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth chat after reviewing an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Sunday.
No longer a 'bridesmaid': Yuki Tsunoda prepares for the Red Bull pressure cooker
All eyes will be on Yuki Tsunoda as he makes his Red Bull debut at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend.
Tokyo tech failures lean into misfortune, mistakes and missteps
Tsuyoshi Domoto in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on March 28. As an entrepreneur, Domoto experienced plenty of setbacks but maintains a positive attitude and continues to pursue his dreams.

Podcast

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

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
By Johan Brooks

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)
BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER