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August 28, 2025
 

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Jesse Johnson
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 11, 2018
North Korea calls Abe 'kingpin of corruption,' blasts leader for denuclearization push
The newspaper of North Korea's ruling party lambasted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday as a "kingpin of corruption" over his alleged roles in two graft scandals that had in recent months pulled down his approval ratings.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 10, 2018
Trump says he still has 'Rocket Man' CD — and another mystery gift — for North Korea's Kim
U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo didn't deliver the president's gift of an Elton John CD featuring the hit song "Rocket Man" to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week, but said he has another present for him.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 10, 2018
South Korea to probe alleged plan by military to quell Park Geun-hye protests
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has ordered an special independent investigation into an allegation that the top military intelligence unit may have proposed an armed crackdown on peaceful candlelight vigils last year protesting the rule of Moon's predecessor, the presidential Blue House said Tuesday....
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 10, 2018
Trump calls statement with North Korea's Kim 'a contract,' suggests China may be interfering in nuclear talks
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday referred to a vague joint statement agreed to at his landmark summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore last month as a "contract," saying he believed Kim would "honor" the agreement while also pointing a finger at China for "exerting negative pressure."...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 9, 2018
China paper calls U.S. warships' passage through Taiwan Strait a 'psychological game'
Chinese state-run media on Monday blasted the U.S. Navy's dispatch of two warships through the Taiwan Strait over the weekend, calling the move a "psychological game" as tensions between Washington and Beijing grow over trade and relations with Taipei.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 8, 2018
U.S. sends two destroyers through Taiwan Strait amid tensions with China
Two U.S. warships have passed through the Taiwan Strait, the first since July last year, in a move likely to be seen in Beijing as a show of support for Taipei by Washington.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 7, 2018
China's Hainan province invites 'individuals' to develop uninhabited islands in South China Sea
China's southern Hainan province, which administers the country's claimed islands and waters in the contested South China Sea, is allowing individuals to use uninhabited islets for tourism and construction purposes for up to 50 years, state-run media has reported, citing an official document.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2018
New video emerges of Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda, kidnapped in Syria in 2015
A new video showing kidnapped Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda, abducted by an armed group in Syria just over three years ago while reporting on the country's bloody civil war, emerges.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 4, 2018
'All of Asia is thrilled': Trump takes credit for averting war with North Korea
U.S. President Donald Trump personally took credit Tuesday for averting war with nuclear-armed North Korea, writing in a tweet that talks with the regime of leader Kim Jong Un were proceeding smoothly while also claiming that Asian nations were "thrilled" with the developments.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2018
Samurai Blue and fans win praise for clean exit, and dignity in defeat
Despite a heartbreaking defeat and exit from the World Cup in Russia on Monday, the Japan national team and its supporters have again won plaudits on social media not only for their fair play and sportsmanship, but also for thoroughly cleaning up the stadium, bench and dressing room.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 3, 2018
Top U.S. diplomat to visit North Korea for talks amid questions over denuclearization commitment
A spate of reports detailing apparent efforts by North Korea to expand its nuclear arsenal are likely to put pressure on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as he makes his third visit to Pyongyang later this week to flesh out the details of a plan for the North to relinquish its weapons of mass destruction...
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 1, 2018
North Korea needs cash. Japan has it. Can a deal be made?
Tokyo could use its economic clout to insert itself to forefront of nuclear talks, observers say.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 30, 2018
U.S. intelligence agencies say North Korea has boosted nuclear fuel production at secret sites: report
A new report citing U.S. intelligence agencies says that North Korea has boosted its nuclear fuel production at multiple secret sites in recent months — despite leader Kim Jong Un's pledge to work toward denuclearization.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 27, 2018
U.S. Supreme Court condemns ruling that enabled internment of Japanese-Americans, but says travel ban is different
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld President Donald Trump's ban on travel from several mostly Muslim countries, but in the process also overruled an infamous 1944 decision that allowed the internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II because of concerns over homeland defense following...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 26, 2018
Pompeo refuses to put timeline on North Korea denuclearization
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that he will not put a timeline on negotiations with North Korea to rid it of its nuclear weapons, an apparent reversal of earlier remarks that the White House would seek "major disarmament" by Pyongyang by January 2021, the end of President Donald Trump's...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 23, 2018
Pentagon says U.S. will 'indefinitely' halt 'select' military exercises with South Korea as talks with North progress
The U.S. Defense Department announced Friday that it had "indefinitely suspended select" military exercises with South Korea less than two weeks after President Donald Trump's historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 23, 2018
Trump flip-flops on North Korea, says it still represents 'extraordinary threat'
U.S. President Donald Trump contradicted himself Friday, announcing via an executive order that North Korea continues to pose "an unusual and extraordinary threat" to the United States — a statement that comes less than a week after he triumphantly declared that the North's nuclear weapons were "no...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 22, 2018
U.S. military pilots in East China Sea targeted in laser attacks
U.S. military pilots flying aircraft over the East China Sea have been targeted by blinding laser attacks more than 20 times over the last 10 months, U.S. officials told The Japan Times, after a number of similar attacks in East Africa that the Pentagon has said Chinese military personnel were behind....
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 19, 2018
North Korea's Kim heads to China with nukes and summit likely on agenda
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un began a two-day visit Tuesday, Chinese state-run television said, exactly a week after Kim's landmark summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, as Beijing seeks a larger role in talks with Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 19, 2018
U.S. and South Korea suspend joint military exercise in move likely to stoke concern in Japan
The Pentagon said Monday that the United States had agreed with South Korea to halt the Ulchi Freedom Guardian "war game" in August, in a move analysts said would stoke concern in Tokyo.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan Post to stop accepting some parcels for shipment to the U.S.
Japan Post's UGX will still be available for many rejected packages.
Japan aims to tighten rules for business manager visas from October
The number of foreign residents with business management residency status had reached a record 41,615 as of the end of 2024.
Tokyo releases AI-generated video of Mount Fuji erupting
A screenshot from an AI-generated video showing what could happen to Tokyo if Mount Fuji erupted
Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
Is Kishida plotting a return of the king? Or would he rather stay a kingmaker?
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chairs a plenary session at the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Philippines quietly deepening ‘unofficial’ defense ties with Taiwan
Filipino soldiers take part in a flag-raising ceremony on Mavulis Island during a visit by the Philippines' Armed Forces chief of staff, in Batanes, the Philippines, in June 2023. Batanes, a group of idyllic islands at the country’s northernmost tip, sits about 160 kilometers from Taiwan.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.
Germany's first sakemaker offers a bold brew of ideas
Reigen, Germany's first sake brewery, makes a diverse, nontraditional range of sake that includes fruit-flavored sips and wine barrel-aged renditions.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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