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October 24, 2025
 

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Michael MacArthur Bosack

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Michael MacArthur Bosack
Sanae Takaichi's new Cabinet poses for a group photo at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 22, 2025
Breaking down Sanae Takaichi’s Cabinet picks
Takaichi only appointed two women in the Cabinet, which was identical to the previous Shigeru Ishiba administration.
Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi meets with Japan Innovation Party leader Hirofumi Yoshimura after signing a coalition agreement in Tokyo on Monday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 21, 2025
The winners and losers after Japan’s political shakeup
The country’s ruling coalition has many issues to overcome before proving its long-term viability, but they have time before any national level elections to work through them.
Japan's political center is in turmoil, with the ruling party losing its long-held dominance and a series of complex negotiations ahead. The country’s leadership future is now uncertain.
COMMENTARY
Oct 15, 2025
A negotiator’s nightmare in Nagatacho
The LDP has since pushed back the date to vote for the next prime minister to Oct. 21.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announces his intention to resign during a news conference at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo on Sept. 7. The Japanese leader decided to step down following weeks of calls for his departure in the aftermath of a second national election setback. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 16, 2025
Can anyone save the fracturing Liberal Democratic Party?
This is shaping up to be an even less predictable race than the last one, when Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba pulled off a surprise victory.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba holds a news conference on Sunday in Tokyo where he announced his resignation.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 10, 2025
The Liberal Democratic Party’s internal coup is complete
Ishiba came into the prime ministership last year with the odds already stacked against him. The LDP was a fractured party with waning public support.
U.S. military personnel stand guard in front of the New Grand Hotel where Gen. Douglas MacArthur stayed circa September 1945 in Yokohama.
JAPAN / History / Perspectives
Sep 1, 2025
How the Allied Occupation changed Japan: A love story
A wartime GI and a Japanese civilian fell in love during the Occupation, embodying the peace built after Japan’s surrender.
This undated handout photo released by the Australian Defence Force on Tuesday shows the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force JS Mogami frigate sailing at an undisclosed location.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 6, 2025
The Japan-Australia frigate sale is a big deal. Here’s why.
For the Japanese government, this will make for the largest defense export to date.
The Liberal Democratic Party’s historic Upper House defeat leaves the party fragmented and searching for a capable leader who can reunite conservatives, modernize its appeal, deliver real policies and rebuild its internal power structure.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2025
Who will save the Liberal Democratic Party?
The LDP is now faced with two fundamental questions: what tasks must it accomplish to restore its political dominance and who is actually capable of accomplishing them?
Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, in Tokyo on Sunday. Smaller conservative parties such as the DPP gained in the election at the weekend, at the expense of the Liberal Democratic Party.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 21, 2025
Conservatives win big in Japan — just not the Liberal Democratic Party
Sunday's election marks the first time the once-proud party has lost a majority in both houses since its foundation in 1955.
Then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida holds a news conference in Tokyo in December 2023 where he addressed the political fundraising scandal and announced plans to replace several implicated ministers.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2025
Cost of living trumps corruption as Japan heads to the polls
A recent NHK poll asked that question to prospective voters, and the majority answered “measures to deal with rising prices” and “social security and the declining birthrate.”
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba takes part in a debate with leaders of seven other political parties at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 4, 2025
Sizing up the forthcoming Upper House election
Given all that is taking place, this is shaping up to be one of the most unusual Upper House elections in decades.
A Self-Defense Forces tank unit takes part in parade at Camp Asaka, near Tokyo, in October 2018. The percentage of GDP spent on defense is a politically convenient but flawed metric that oversimplifies the complex realities of alliance management.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 2, 2025
In the Trump era, how much should countries really be spending on defense?
In truth, the “percentage of GDP” approach is a political one, not a practical one
Agriculture minister Taku Eto answers reporters questions at the at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 21, 2025
Why Ishiba pulled a 180 on the gaffe-stricken farm minister
Taku Eto is the first minister to fall since the Japanese leader formed his Cabinet last October
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba meets with Vietnamese President Luong Cuong in Hanoi on April 28. Ishiba’s visit to Vietnam and the Philippines highlighted Japan’s enduring Indo-Pacific strategy amid rising regional uncertainty.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 8, 2025
Japan’s durable 'Free and Open Indo-Pacific' strategy brings stability
So while Ishiba’s visit to Southeast Asia may have just seemed like another round of trips during a holiday week, they were emblematic of something much more than that.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shows a picture of him with U.S. President Donald Trump during a joint news conference at the White House on Friday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 12, 2025
Ishiba navigates the low expectations for Japan’s foreign policy
The summit proceeded well enough, but some will argue that this is only because Ishiba had a low bar for his engagement.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and members of the Liberal Democratic Party take a group photo at the party's headquarters in Tokyo during the Oct. 27 Lower House elections.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 30, 2025
Adjusting to the new normal in Japanese politics
The upheaval of the past year has forced a fundamental rethinking of how political watchers must observe things in Tokyo
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the Liberal Democratic Party's headquarters on Sunday, the day of a general election in which his party failed to secure even a simple majority together with its junior coalition party, Komeito.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 28, 2024
Breaking down the LDP’s punishing defeat
The LDP has been delivered a crushing electoral setback. How did this happen? What comes next? What does this mean for policymaking? Some of the key questions answered.
Shigeru Ishiba’s Cabinet appointments reveal deep fissures within the party resulting from his victory in the leadership race.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 1, 2024
The new prime minister puts together a ‘disunity Cabinet’
While Ishiba tries to promote his policy priorities, the Cabinet's composition may create challenges for his leadership.
While Shigeru Ishiba’s victory suggests a shift within the Liberal Democratic Party, he still faces challenges from those who remain loyal to the old party guard. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 29, 2024
Japan’s perennial political underdog finally gets a win
Ishiba margin of victory was slim, meaning that there is still a sizable portion of the party who will be resistant to his initiatives.
The Liberal Democratic Party's presidential race is expected to have a record number of candidates.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Perspectives
Sep 8, 2024
Unpacking Japan’s messy leadership election
With so many candidates and old rules gone, brace for the most unpredictable LDP race in ages
For three key Cabinet posts, Takaichi turns to an eclectic trio
Shinjiro Koizumi — son of a former prime minister and rival to the current one — was appointed defense chief after falling short in his bid for the Liberal Democratic Party presidency earlier this month.
Rare female yakuza walks path to redemption in Japan
Retired yakuza Mako Nishimura sorts fallen leaves during a clean-up activity at the Gifu Gokoku shrine in Gifu Prefecture on Sept. 28.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.
The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
New ‘immigration minister’ post signals Takaichi Cabinet’s priorities
Kimi Onoda, economic security minister and minister for harmonious coexistence with foreign nationals, arrives at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan's first female PM promised more women in her Cabinet. She picked two.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi poses with members of the newly formed Cabinet on Tuesday night.
AI-optimized cybercrime increasingly targeting Japan
A recent cyberattack on brewer Asahi Group Holdings resulted in the company suspending shipments.
K-pop idol Chanyeol does J-pop his own way on ‘Hibi’
South Korean singer Chanyeol made his Japanese-language solo debut with the EP “Hibi,” which features six tracks inspired by his love of Japanese music.
In pictures: The day Japan’s glass ceiling finally cracked
Takaichi, surrounded by LDP influencers
London exhibition perhaps sumo's most successful trip abroad
With the recent sumo jaunt to London being essentially a goodwill exercise, <i>rikishi</i> were far more outgoing and relaxed than normal.
Nakatsu keeps its cool as gentrification looms
Shunsuke Takahashi, owner of the cafe Hood by Vargas, says the Osaka neighborhood of Nakatsu feels brighter and calmer with the influx of new businesses.

Podcast

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

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.
By Thu-Huong Ha and Mike Fu

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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