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April 05, 2025
 

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Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has urged U.S. partners and allied nations to follow his country's example and increase military expenditure and preparedness.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2025
Poland’s top diplomat calls on U.S. allies to spend more on defense
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski touts the example of Warsaw whose defense spending is set to rise to 4.7% of gross domestic product this year.
Tech mogul Elon Musk speaks during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting in the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 27, 2025
Musk’s Cabinet cameo: The elephant in the room wore black
The billionaire tech mogul spoke far more than anyone else, other than the U.S. president, attempting to manage both up and down at the same time.
U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, attends a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 27, 2025
Trump declines to say if U.S. would protect Taiwan from Chinese invasion
Trump's refusal to comment stood in stark contrast to his predecessor, Joe Biden, who repeatedly hinted that Washington would come to Taipei’s aid.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s populism and polarization will challenge American democracy, but constitutional limits, congressional dynamics and enduring pluralism will sustain it.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Feb 27, 2025
American democracy will weather the Trumpist storm
Despite Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, his populist nature makes constitutional collapse unlikely so long as pluralism in society endures.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a statement on defense spending at Downing Street in London on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 27, 2025
Starmer tries to buy Ukraine time with Trump security pitch
The British prime minister's main objective is to secure an American "backstop” for any truce between Russia and Ukraine.
Elon Musk shows off his t-shirt reading "Tech Support" while speaking at the first cabinet meeting hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 27, 2025
Trump orders more layoffs as Musk touts cuts at cabinet meeting
The U.S. president let downsizing czar Elon Musk take a star role at his first cabinet meeting and discuss his ambitious budget-cutting targets.
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.
U.S. President Donald Trump hosts his first cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2025
Trump sows confusion on timing of tariffs for Canada and Mexico
Trump's comments on the timing of the tariffs prompted jumps in the value of the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso versus the greenback.
U.S. President Donald Trump hosts his first cabinet meeting with Elon Musk in attendance in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 27, 2025
White House bars reporters from covering Trump cabinet meeting
The White House denied access to an Associated Press photographer and three reporters from Reuters, HuffPost and Der Tagesspiegel, a German newspaper.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gives a news conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 27, 2025
Trump confirms Zelenskyy visit to sign Ukraine minerals deal
The Ukrainian leader said the success of the deal would hinge on talks in Washington on Friday and continued U.S. aid.
The logo of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 26, 2025
DeepSeek reopens AI model access as China rivalry heats up
The startup has been overwhelmed since unveiling an AI chatbot believed to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT despute deing developed at a fraction of the cost of competing products.
An Apple store in Walnut Creek, California, on Monday. Apple Inc. Apple investors rejected a proposal to end the iPhone maker’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, but CEO Tim Cook some some adjustments may occur.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 26, 2025
Apple to keep DEI efforts, though some adjustments possible
The proposal to abolish DEI efforts came after competitors like Meta and Google have started winding down such programs.
A sample of a wafer is seen at the Semicon Taiwan 2022 exhibition in Taipei in 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 26, 2025
China says Taiwan seeking to give away chip industry to U.S.
U.S. media has said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has been in talks for a stake in Intel.
Canada's Liberal Party leadership candidates gather for a debate ahead of the March 9 vote to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Montreal on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 26, 2025
U.S. threats mean Canada must bolster military, candidates say
The four candidates sparred over how fast Canada can realistically roll out the billions of dollars needed to reach the NATO threshold of 2% GDP.
Elon Musk holds up a chainsaw onstage during the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on Feb. 20.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 26, 2025
Musk's new ultimatum spurs fresh confusion among U.S. government workers
President Donald Trump said workers who did not respond would be "sort of semi-fired," adding to the uncertainty.
A Chinese H-6 bomber flies between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako Island in October 2013. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned that Japan must strengthen its defenses in case of a Taiwan contingency.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 26, 2025
As Ukraine endgame intensifies, don’t forget Taiwan
The scale of China’s air and naval exercises around Taiwan has grown from fewer than a dozen planes and ships a few years ago to over 250 in the December exercise alone.
French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Donald Trump meet at the White House on Monday. The French leader has been forced to appease Trump knowing Europe is unprepared to defend itself without U.S. support.
COMMENTARY
Feb 26, 2025
America is turning its alliances into a protection racket
Trump has no compunction in using his leverage as a global security provider for extortion of allies.
Both Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre have called for placing levies on the U.S. that are similar to those the U.S. places on Canada.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2025
Something is rotten in Canada
So while Trump is right to say Canada’s trade surplus with the U.S. has grown, he’s wrong about why it has expanded.
Masanori Katayama (center), chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers' Association, speaks during a meeting with trade and industry minister Yoji Muto at the ministry on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 26, 2025
Japanese auto industry seeks government help against U.S. tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump said last week he wants to impose 25% tariffs on imports of autos as soon as April 2.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (center) takes questions during a daily briefing at the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 26, 2025
White House takes control of picking media who cover Trump
The move came amid an escalating battle between the White House and the Associated Press news agency, which Trump has barred from presidential events.
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.
U.S. tourist arrested after bringing a handgun into Japan
Hyogo police believe the handgun a U.S. tourist inadvertently brought into Japan slipped through security procedures at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture.
Trump unveils 10% global tariff, with Japan levy set at 24%
Trump tosses a MAGA hat to the crowd during an event in which he unveiled new tariffs in the White House on Wednesday.
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’s leader didn’t read the job description
Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Shigeru Ishiba is facing a political funding scandal that has damaged his reputation and sparked speculation that internal efforts to remove him are underway.
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
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.

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)

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