Tag - us-japan-relations

 
 

US JAPAN RELATIONS

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani (left) and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo ahead of their talks Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 30, 2025
In Tokyo, Pentagon chief provides assurances that Japan-U.S. alliance remains robust
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth described Japan as an “indispensable partner” in confronting China and sought to dispel lingering unease in Tokyo.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani pose for a photo on Ioto, the far-flung Japanese island known widely as Iwo Jima, on Saturday for an event honoring those who died in bloody fighting there 80 years ago during World War II.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 29, 2025
Pentagon chief joins war memorial ceremony on first visit to Japan
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the alliance with Japan key to peace in the region, a view he said “will continue.”
Oil pipelines in Alaska. U.S. President Donald Trump wants Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to join a $44 billion natural gas export project.
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2025
Alaska governor to brief Trump on Asia gas push as tariffs bite
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is winding up a trip through Asia where he has been seeking investors and long-term buyers.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during an Upper House Budget Committee meeting on Friday.
JAPAN / History
Mar 28, 2025
Ishiba to visit Iwo Jima to honor soldiers who died in fierce WWII battle
He will be the first sitting prime minister to visit the island since April 2013, when then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a stopover.
Brooklyn Kura's Catskills, a "junmai daiginjō" (sake with rice polished down to at least 50%), is made with water from the New York region of the same name.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 28, 2025
New York's Brooklyn Kura becomes first U.S. sake exporter to Japan
The brewer’s initial exports are “relatively small,” but it hopes drinkers in Japan are "open to trying" American-made sake.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba emphasizes the need to consider measures to help Japanese companies with financing while the government tries to grasp the entire scope of the impact on the nation’s key industry.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 28, 2025
Ishiba pledges measures to protect jobs from Trump’s car tariffs
Ishiba emphasized the need to consider measures to help Japanese companies with financing while the government tries to grasp the entire scope of the tariffs' impact.
While car production helped transform Germany, Italy and France after World War II, its influence in East Asia has been even more profound.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Mar 28, 2025
U.S. auto tariffs take aim at pillar of East Asian economies
Automakers form the nucleus of vast networks of group companies that impact almost every facet of working life in Japan and South Korea.
Subaru cars awaiting export at a port in Yokohama on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 27, 2025
Japan considers all possible options as Trump threatens new auto tariffs
Tokyo so far has failed on multiple occasions to persuade the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to exempt Japan from new tariffs.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addresses American service members assigned to Kane'ohe Bay, Hawaii, on Tuesday. Hegseth’s itinerary during his first visit to Asia in his new role will include visits to the Philippines and Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2025
Hegseth’s Asia tour won’t fix U.S. credibility crisis
The timing of Hegseth’s first Asian tour couldn’t be more awkward. U.S. President Donald Trump’s "America First” mantra is raising eyebrows.
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 V-22 Osprey in a simulated military assisted departure and evacuation of a U.S. embassy in Pendleton, California, Dec. 6, 2024
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2025
U.S. Osprey makes emergency landing at airport in Nagano Prefecture
No injury has been reported regarding the developments, according to prefectural government officials and others.
Yields on Japan's 10-year government bonds have risen at a fast pace since the Bank of Japan ended its negative-rate policy last year and started to tighten.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 25, 2025
Japan bond rout signals era of ultralow rates might really be over  
For the first time in 16 years, yields on Japanese 10-year government bonds have jumped 50 basis points since November to above 1.5%.
The head of the Self-Defense Forces' new Joint Operations Command, Gen. Kenichiro Nagumo, inspects an honor guard Monday morning at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2025
Japan launches new Joint Operations Command to unify SDF branches
The new command will allow for the smoother integration of operations across domains to prepare for and respond to possible emergencies.
The sun shines from behind a waving Philippine flag at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / Longform
Mar 24, 2025
Eighty years after the Battle of Manila, old foes forge new ties
Amid rising tensions and possible changes to U.S. foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific, the relationship between Japan and the Philippines is even more crucial.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Washington on Friday
JAPAN
Mar 22, 2025
U.S. defense chief Pete Hegseth to visit Japan next week
Hegseth will visit the Pacific island of Iwo Jima to participate in a joint memorial ceremony as Japan and the U.S. mark 80 years since the end of World War II.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 21, 2025
Pentagon eyeing plan to halt U.S. Forces Japan upgrade, reports say
The move could create “political risk” for Washington with Tokyo and reduce the scope of command and control in the Indo-Pacific region as the U.S.-China rivalry heats up.
Hino Motors pleaded guilty on Wednesday over a multiyear emissions fraud scheme in the United States and must pay $1.6 billion in penalties.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 20, 2025
Toyota's Hino pleads guilty to U.S. emissions fraud and is fined $1.6 billion
Hino admitted that between 2010 and 2019, it used "illicit short-cuts" and submitted false applications for engine certification approvals.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks during a news conference in January in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 19, 2025
Bank of Japan holds steady at 0.5% as trade war escalates and inflation rises
The move was widely expected, with economists unanimous in seeing back-to-back rate increases as unlikely from the central bank, which made one in January.
Shipping containers at a port in Long Beach, California. Higher tariffs will raise the cost of doing business in the U.S., raising the bar for Japanese companies to invest in America.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 18, 2025
Trump tariffs to raise bar to invest in the U.S., JETRO says
Higher tariffs will raise the cost of doing business in the U.S. with more expensive materials and products, said JETRO’s chair, Norihiko Ishiguro.
U.S. Justice Department has asked that oral arguments for a lawsuit filed by Nippon Steel against the U.S. government for blocking its planned acquisition of United States Steel be rescheduled for the week of May 12.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 18, 2025
U.S. government seeks to postpone oral arguments in Nippon Steel suit
The move is apparently aimed at giving the current administration time for talks with the Japanese steelmaker for it to decide on the bid to acquire United States Steel.

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