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October 16, 2025
 

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Gearoid Reidy
Then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and then-Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Sanae Takaichi mark a win by a party candidate in the July 2013 Upper House election. There is ongoing debate over whether Takaichi's economic approach will mirror the former prime minister's Abenomics.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 10, 2025
The 'Takaichi trade' isn’t Abenomics 2.0, and that’s OK
Party leader Takaichi has been left with one of the poorest positions imaginable. The LDP is a minority in both houses of parliament.
Sanae Takaichi celebrates in Tokyo on Saturday with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba after winning the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 7, 2025
From radical to Rihanna: Myths about the new LDP leader
When Shinzo Abe returned as LDP leader in 2012, there was a similar flood of coverage attempting to cast him as a radical conservative.
Newly elected Liberal Democratic Party leader Sanae Takaichi is applauded after winning the party's leadership election in Tokyo on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 5, 2025
Will Sanae Takaichi be Japan’s Thatcher — or its Truss?
Takaichi is comfortably the most conservative choice the party could have made, if not the most right-leaning leader in recent history.
The Pokemon mascot Pikachu wearing a Chicago Cubs jersey attends the Tokyo Series at Tokyo Dome in March. As the world rediscovers Japan, it’s learning that many preconceptions no longer apply.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 1, 2025
Is Japan finally back? That’s the wrong question.
Almost three decades after prices first fell into negative territory, they’ve now risen every month for the past four years.
Public executives in Japan are held to exceptionally high standards of judgment and propriety, as shown by the swift resignation of Suntory CEO Takeshi Niinami after a police inquiry into his alleged involvement in the import of CBD supplements. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 30, 2025
'For relaxing times...' don’t be a CEO like Suntory’s Niinami
Niinami says he’s done nothing wrong and he hasn’t been charged.
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi addresses a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, alongside candidates vying to become the Liberal Democratic Party's next president. The ruling party’s leadership race officially kicked off on Monday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 24, 2025
An identity crisis is haunting Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party
Dismal performances have the LDP clinging to power as a minority in both houses of parliament, and in search of its fifth leader in as many years
James Baker speaks at the funeral service for former U.S. President George Bush in Houston in December 2018. As Treasury secretary in 1985, he was the key U.S. negotiator of the Plaza Accord, the landmark deal to weaken the dollar and realign global currencies.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 22, 2025
Why the Plaza Accord is still the gold standard
Rather than grieve Plaza, salute it. The deal reflected a confluence of national interest, diplomatic nous and a sense that common interests dictated collaboration.
Channing Tatum, one of the English-language voice actors, and others attend the premiere of “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle” at the TCL Chinese 6 Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 9. Japanese anime has surged from niche fandom to global box-office powerhouse with the latest “Demon Slayer” installment.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 19, 2025
Anime’s ‘Demon Slayer’ hit is a watershed for Japan
Its animation finally has a global box-office smash. Now the country must capitalize on it.
False social media stories about Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba planning mass immigration obscure Japan’s real and growing reliance on foreign labor.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 12, 2025
Japan needs an immigration debate, not social media myths
There’s no mass immigration from the Global South into Japan, though you might not know that if you primarily consume your news on social media.
Shigeru Ishiba’s brief, tumultuous prime ministership weakened Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, alienated conservatives and left the party scrambling to find a new leader capable of restoring credibility.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 9, 2025
Japan deserves far better leadership than this
While the country is mostly back where it was a year ago, the LDP is in a much weaker position.
A McDonald’s Japan Pokemon card promotion triggered scalper frenzy, upset children and forced the company to rethink its Happy Set campaigns.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 28, 2025
McDonald’s 'Pokemon' frenzy shows the collecting boom’s dark side
After a "Pokemon" trading card promotion went disastrously wrong, it’s been rebuked by the Consumer Affairs Agency and is rethinking future campaigns.
Actor Nicholas Hoult, Rachel Brosnahan and David Corenswet attend the Los Angeles premiere of “Superman” at the TCL Chinese Theater on July 7.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2025
Hollywood has lost the plot on telling stories
Western culture seems to have reached an impasse — wistful for our youth and unable to come up with any new ideas.
Who will buy the cars, SUVs, and trucks like the F-150 Donald Trump has promised to sell in Japan? Who will purchase 100 Boeing jets? And what will the $550 billion Tokyo-backed fund actually look like?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 29, 2025
Who buys the F-150s, and more Japan deal mysteries
The long-awaited trade deal between the U.S. and Japan has investors celebrating after months of uncertainty. But as the song goes, nagging questions always remain.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s last-minute trade deal with the U.S. may calm tariff fears but has cost him politically, leaving Japan’s ruling party divided and his leadership on the brink.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 24, 2025
‘Mr. Japan’ bends the knee — and falls on his sword
Shigeru Ishiba’s trade deal with Donald Trump will be his last act as leader
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a news conference at Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday, a day after his coalition lost its Upper House majority.
COMMENTARY
Jul 22, 2025
Ishiba loses his ‘mandate from heaven’
After Sunday’s humiliation at the polls, whatever mandate from heaven Ishiba once commanded is lost.
Canada’s Couche-Tard has abandoned its bid for Japan’s Seven & I, easing fears it would ruin the beloved convenient store experience, while giving the company a chance to refocus and strengthen its business.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 18, 2025
The bid for Japan’s 7-Eleven was doomed from the start
Seven & I ’s more measured response shows the company is ready to move on.
Once seen as an unlikely prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba has struggled to deliver on promises, mishandled ties with U.S. President Donald Trump and now faces an election where the odds don’t look good for his party to come out victorious.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 18, 2025
A trade deal fumble could be Ishiba’s last mistake
Ishiba already leads a coalition that lacks a majority in the Lower House, and another bad showing Sunday will likely mean Japan is looking for its third leader in as many years.
The Sanseito party, led by Sohei Kamiya, is surging in the polls with anti-immigration talk, but its rise is likely just a short-lived protest vote rather than the start of lasting right-wing populism.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 15, 2025
Japan’s right-wing fringe is no MAGA or reform movement
The Sanseito party is surging in polls with anti-immigration talk, but its rise is likely just a short-lived protest vote rather than the start of lasting right-wing populism.
Tokyo’s skyline keeps evolving, but the country’s drab, outdated government district, long hours, low pay and poor work conditions are driving young bureaucratic talent away just when it needs them most.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 11, 2025
Tokyo is missing 'Blade Runner' where it needs it most
Until the 1960s, Japan had strict prohibitions on developments higher than 31 meters (around 100 feet), a provision that kept cities dense but low.
Despite months of negotiations and Japan’s key role as a U.S. ally and investor, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba faces frustration as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats persist — damaging trust and complicating relations.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 8, 2025
Donald Trump’s ‘copy-and-paste’ tariffs will no doubt rile ‘Mr. Japan’
Trump's copy-and-paste wording sent to world leaders was virtually identical, including telling Tokyo to open its "heretofore closed trading markets” — whatever that means.
Hypothermia in the land of the rising Sanae
Amid the election of Sanae Takaichi as Liberal Democratic Party president, and possibly the next prime minister, Japan's economy shows signs of recovery, but weak wages, a conservative corporate culture and currency issues raise doubts about a true economic thaw.
Number of scenarios now on the table for who might be Japan’s next prime minister
Newly-elected leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party Sanae Takaichi (right) celebrates with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba after winning the LDP leadership election in Tokyo on October 4.
Could an opposition candidate become Japan's next prime minister?
The lawmaker that secures a majority of votes in the Lower House will become prime minister. If no one gets a majority, the two top contenders will enter a runoff in which the person with the highest number of votes gets elected.
Coalition talks could bring Takaichi closer to being PM
Nippon Ishin no Kai leader and Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura meets with Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo on Wednesday.
As temperatures drop in Japan, bear attacks shoot up to historic highs
Bear warning signs at the Akita Prefectural Government building
Number of scenarios now on the table for who might be Japan’s next prime minister
Newly-elected leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party Sanae Takaichi (right) celebrates with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba after winning the LDP leadership election in Tokyo on October 4.
Pace eyes great strides for Japan’s art market
Pace Japan Vice President Kyoko Hattori, the de facto head of the nation’s business, believes a larger, more lucrative art market will allow Japan to be more attractive for collectors.
A frenetic diplomatic schedule looms for Japan’s next leader — whomever that may be
As horse-trading and speculation surge over who will be elected the next prime minister in parliament — the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Sanae Takaichi or a possible candidate put forward by a unified opposition — Japan’s next leader will be confronted with a quick succession of key diplomatic events.
Ghost of Yotei’s bloodstained fun sidesteps Ainu identity
Ghost of Yotei, the follow-up to 2020's smash hit Ghost of Tsushima, is a violent, vengeful and engaging romp through 17th-century Hokkaido that fails to stick the landing on its most sensitive cultural material.
At Osaka Expo, gas giants promote a greener future. But is it a lot of hot air?
The Gas Pavilion had welcomed around 500,000 visitors by the end of August, making it one of the most popular exhibits at the Osaka Expo.

Podcast

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

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building
By Patrick St. Michel

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