Greg Torode - The Japan Times

September 06, 2025

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Greg Torode

Japan Times

ASIA PACIFIC

Oct 18, 2015

Beijing's lighthouses in South China Sea buttress maritime claims

The next time the United States sends warships by China's man-made islands in the disputed South China, officers aboard will have to decide how, if at all, they will engage with a pair of giant lighthouses that Beijing lit up there this month.

Japan Times

ASIA PACIFIC

Jul 5, 2015

China lobbies U.N. tribunal on Manila's claims

China's claims to the disputed South China Sea will come under international legal scrutiny for the first time this week, but while Beijing has officially refused to take part in the case, which was filed by the Philippines at a U.N. tribunal, it has made its presence felt.

Japan Times

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Jun 21, 2015

China extends reach into Hong Kong to thwart democrats

Hong Kong's democrats have won their battle to veto a Beijing-backed electoral reform package, but they now face an increasingly organized campaign by pro-Chinese government movements in the longer war over the democratic future of the former British colony.

ASIA PACIFIC

Apr 10, 2015

China cementing reach in South China Sea by building civilian infrastructure: analysts

China's plans for islands it is creating in the South China Sea show for the first time the scale of civilian architecture it will extend across the disputed waterway, entrenching its reach in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, experts say.

Japan Times

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Dec 15, 2014

How China spies on Hong Kong's democrats

James To was growing uneasy. When the veteran Hong Kong Democratic Party lawmaker looked in his rearview mirror, two silver Mercedes Benz saloons kept appearing behind his gray Volvo sedan.

ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS

Sep 11, 2014

Vietnam creating submarine deterrent to Chinese expansionist efforts in South China Sea

Vietnam will soon have a credible naval deterrent to China in the South China Sea in the form of Kilo-class submarines from Russia, which experts say could make Beijing think twice before pushing its much smaller neighbor around in disputed waters.

Japan Times

WORLD / Society / FOCUS

Jul 1, 2014

Beijing quietly tightening grip on Hong Kong

Since Britain handed back colonial Hong Kong in 1997, retired primary school teacher and Falun Gong devotee Lau Wai-hing has fully exercised the freedoms China promised this city of 7.2 million.

Japan Times

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS

Jun 19, 2014

Hong Kong democracy 'referendum' set to rile Chinese rulers

Hong Kong holds a controversial "referendum" on democracy on Friday, a prelude to an escalating campaign of dissent that could shut down the former British colony's financial district and further anger China's Communist Party leaders.

Japan Times

ASIA PACIFIC

Mar 6, 2014

China's civilian fleet is a potent force asserting sovereignty in disputed seas

From harassing Filipino fishing boats and monitoring oil exploration off Vietnam to playing cat-and-mouse with the Japan Coast Guard, China's expanding fleet of civilian patrol vessels have become the enforcers in disputed Asian waters.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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