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U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to the White House in Washington on Friday.

JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS

Feb 10, 2025

Ishiba builds inroads with Trump, but challenges still loom

Ishiba won praise for his deft handling of Trump, squelching critics’ predictions that the president would walk all over the bookish Japanese leader.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump hold a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Saturday.

JAPAN / Politics

Feb 9, 2025

Ishiba says Trump didn't push defense spending hike or discuss tariffs

Ishiba also echoed Trump's pledge to help mediate a move by Japan’s Nippon Steel to invest in U.S. Steel rather than purchasing the American company.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on Friday.

JAPAN / Politics

Feb 8, 2025

Trump targets U.S. trade deficit in first meeting with Ishiba

The two leaders pledged to pursue a "new golden age" of U.S.-Japan relations — though Ishiba did get an earful about America's trade deficit with its ally.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump

JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS

Feb 6, 2025

With Ishiba-Trump meet, Tokyo hopes to keep ties on even keel

Tokyo has been scrambling for ways to placate the U.S. leader, and head off any dust-up between the allies during Friday’s meeting.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits one of his country's nuclear material production facilities at an undisclosed location in this photo released Wednesday.

ASIA PACIFIC

Jan 29, 2025

North Korea's Kim vows to 'indefinitely' bolster nuke program

Kim used a rare reported visit to two of his countries' secretive nuclear facilities to highlight Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities.

The preserved Atomic Bomb Dome is seen behind the Cenotaph for the victims of the atomic bombing at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park last October.

JAPAN / Politics

Jan 28, 2025

Hiroshima and Nagasaki mayors invite Trump to visit on 80th anniversary of atomic bombing

The mayors emphasized Washington’s key role in reining in the proliferation of nuclear weapons as “tensions continue to worsen” across the globe.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance (left) swears in Pete Hegseth (center) as U.S. secretary of defense during a ceremony in Washington on Saturday.

WORLD / Politics

Jan 26, 2025

New U.S. defense chief pledges to work with allies in message to Pentagon

Pete Hegseth appeared to try and dispel concerns in allied capitals that the U.S. could again see a more transactional approach to foreign policy under President Donald Trump.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observes a test of what state-run media said was a strategic cruise missile at an undisclosed location in this image released Sunday.

ASIA PACIFIC

Jan 26, 2025

North Korea tests 'strategic' cruise missiles as it lashes out at U.S. and South Korea

The test of the weapons, believed to be nuclear-capable, were the first since U.S. President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya at the State Department in Washington on Tuesday.

JAPAN / Politics

Jan 22, 2025

Top diplomats agree to take U.S.-Japan alliance to 'new heights'

Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and new U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also agreed on the importance of trilateral cooperation with South Korea and others.

Top "Quad" diplomats — Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi (left to right), Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong — walk to their meeting at the State Department in Washington on Tuesday.

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Jan 22, 2025

'Quad' diplomats meet in signal of Trump commitment to grouping

Coming just a day after Trump’s inauguration, the meeting was seen as a veiled warning to Beijing, which has lambasted the Quad as a tool for containing China.

U.S. President Donald Trump reviews troops during his inauguration ceremony at the Capitol in Washington on Monday.

WORLD / Politics / FOCUS

Jan 21, 2025

'America first' returns as Trump ditches focus on allies and rules-based order

The U.S. under his new administration will be a dominating force that will take whatever steps necessary to advance American interests, the newly inaugurated president said.

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo in May 2019.

JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS

Jan 19, 2025

As Trump returns, will Japan be able to weather the storm?

Tokyo may be surprisingly more suited to work with Trump — and beat back any exorbitant demands — than it was during his first stint.

Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (left) and his South Korean counterpart, Cho Tae-yul, shake hands during their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Monday.

JAPAN / Politics

Jan 13, 2025

Japan top diplomat visits South Korea amid political turmoil in Seoul

The talks on bilateral and trilateral cooperation also came just a week before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is due to take office.

Rahm Emanuel professes that the biggest thing he has brought to the U.S.-Japan relationship might be a fresh injection of vitality.

JAPAN / Politics

Jan 9, 2025

Emanuel leaves reform legacy amid historic shifts in U.S.-Japan alliance

The departing U.S. ambassador arguably oversaw the most consequential shift in the U.S.-Japan alliance in decades.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken shakes hands with Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya at the start of their working lunch at a hotel in Tokyo on Tuesday.

JAPAN / Politics

Jan 7, 2025

Blinken in final Japan visit as Trump's return weighs on Tokyo's mind

The top U.S. diplomat sought to reassure Tokyo that the U.S.-Japan alliance will remain robust even after Donald Trump returns to the White House in less than two weeks.

A missile flies during what North Korea said was a test of a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile at an undisclosed location on Monday.

ASIA PACIFIC

Jan 7, 2025

North Korea's Kim says new hypersonic missile can deter Pacific 'rivals'

In a worrying sign for Japan, Pyongyang claimed the new hypersonic intermediate-range weapon is effective at "breaking any dense defensive barrier.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is shown around by South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul during a working luncheon at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Monday.

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Jan 6, 2025

Blinken fends off questions over U.S. stance on South Korea turmoil

The United States “has confidence in the resilience of South Korea’s democracy and the strength of its institutions,” the U.S. Secretary of State said in Seoul.

A man walks past a TV broadcasting a news report on North Korea firing a ballistic missile, in Seoul on Monday.

ASIA PACIFIC

Jan 6, 2025

North Korea fires off intermediate-range missile in first launch of 2025

The missile, thought to be an IRBM carrying a hypersonic warhead, flew some 1,100 kilometers (683 miles) before splashing down in waters outside Japan's EEZ.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Dec. 24. Ishiba has, unsuccessfully, sought to meet with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump since November, with Trump’s team saying at the time that no meetings with foreign leaders would take place before his January inauguration.

JAPAN / Politics

Dec 31, 2024

Ishiba rules out pre-inauguration meeting with Trump

Ishiba had sought a mid-January meeting with Trump but said over the weekend that sooner didn't necessarily mean better when it came to talks with the incoming U.S. president.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a meeting of the country's ruling party in Pyongyang in this photo released Sunday.

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Dec 29, 2024

North Korea launches 'toughest' U.S. strategy at key party meeting

In a signal to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, North Korea has used a key party meeting overseen by leader Kim Jong Un to announce its “toughest” ever strategy to counter the United States, Pyongyang's state-run media said Sunday.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.

Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.

By Tomoko Otake

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