author

 
Menu
Search
 
August 31, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Gabriele Ninivaggi
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during a joint news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2025
At Tokyo summit, India and Japan outline path forward for the coming decade
The leaders of the two countries outlined multiple areas of cooperation, including tech, the environment and health.
Liberal Democratic Party's election panel chair Ichiro Aisawa speaks at a meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 27, 2025
Lawmakers must come clean on stance over possible Ishiba ouster, LDP panel says
LDP party executives have put pressure on lawmakers to take a clear stance on the issue.
For Suzunobu, a small rice specialty shop in Tokyo's Meguro Ward, distribution delays have resulted in it struggling to sell stockpiled rice secured from the government, owner Toyozo Nishijima said.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 26, 2025
Rice woes weigh down Koizumi's first three months as farm minister
Early forecasts have also indicated that the relatively poor rice harvest this year will drive the price of the staple back up.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shake hands at joint press announcement after summit talks in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 24, 2025
At meeting rich in symbolism, Ishiba and South Korea's Lee agree to steadily build ties
In the two countries' first joint document in 17 years, the leaders agreed to work together "to advance future-oriented and mutually beneficial common interests."
Yoshihiko Noda, head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (center) attends a Lower House session on Aug. 1. The former prime minister has signaled he’s ready to take his conciliatory approach to the government to new heights, hinting that the time for clashes with the Liberal Democratic Party is over.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 20, 2025
CDP softens stance toward LDP in bid to bolster political center
“Right-wing populism has grown too strong,” CDP leader Yoshihiko Noda said. “Unless the center gains more strength, Japanese politics won’t improve.”
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to the media after a meeting in Tokyo last month.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 19, 2025
Ishiba says Japan considering role in security guarantees for Ukraine
The “coalition of the willing,” which groups 30 nations backing Ukraine that includes Japan, has been working for months to craft a comprehensive package of security guarantees.
Setsuko Kawai, who lost her mother and two younger brothers in the March 1945 bombing, has fought for recognition of the victims.
JAPAN / History / FOCUS
Aug 14, 2025
Civilian air raid survivors fight for recognition 80 years after war's end
After drafting a bill to provide concrete relief to survivors this spring, a bipartisan group of lawmakers failed to submit it to parliament days before the session’s closure.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at the Liberal Democratic Party's plenary meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 8, 2025
LDP panel to decide whether to hold party poll that could oust Ishiba
The prime minister, who has long shown a strong appetite to stay in government, has said he will remain despite calls for him to resign.
Police officers ask a man to evacuate from an empty beach following a tsunami warning, in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2025
Japan on edge but prepared for tsunami after huge Kamchatka earthquake
Tsunami waves measuring up to 1.3 meters were observed off the Pacific coast of Japan, with authorities urging people in coastal areas to evacuate to higher ground.
Prime Minister and Liberal Democratic Party President Shigeru Ishiba, flanked by LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama (left) and LDP Vice President Yoshihide Suga, speaks at a meeting of party lawmakers and executives at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 28, 2025
At LDP’s post-election meeting, calls intensify for Ishiba’s resignation
The prime minister apologized to his fellow party members over the loss of its majority in the Upper House, but remains determined to stay on.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, walks past a poster after meeting with party executives at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 24, 2025
Political turmoil continues as Ishiba’s fate hangs in the balance
While there are demands for the ruling party's leadership to resign, the weakening of past factional ties makes it hard for those opposing the prime minister to join forces.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba looks on after meeting with the Liberal Democratic Party executives at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 23, 2025
Ishiba denies reports he will resign next month, leaving his fate unclear
Some media outlets had reported that the prime minister was poised to step down in the coming weeks.
Komeito head Tetsuo Saito speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 22, 2025
Upper House election confirms inexorable decline of voting blocs
Unaffiliated voters were the kingmakers in Sunday’s election.
“As the first party in parliament, we have to fulfill our responsibility with the public so as to prevent politics from stagnating or drifting away,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at a news conference at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 21, 2025
Ishiba clings to leadership after election setback
In the wake of another electoral setback, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s political capital has plunged.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, leaves at the party's headquarters following announcement of Upper House election result projections in Tokyo early Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025
Japan ruling bloc loses majority in Upper House after election drubbing
The ruling LDP-Komeito coalition's devastating loss in Sunday’s poll could lead to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s resignation or political gridlock in parliament.
People vote during Japan's Upper House election at a polling station in Tokyo on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 20, 2025
Polls open for key Upper House election that could shake Japanese politics
A variety of scenarios await the country should the ruling coalition lose its majority in the Upper House — from an enlarged coalition to an opposition-led government.
Kiyoshi Shibata stands in front of one of the rice paddies in Murayama, Yamagata Prefecture, where he produces the prefecture's signature rice brand Tsuyahime.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 17, 2025
Japan's rice farmers are confounded by Shinjiro Koizumi’s policies
Farming communities, a key base for the Liberal Democratic Party, are increasingly voicing their distress at how the rice situation is being handled.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (center) waves to attendees as he departs after delivering a campaign speech in Yokohama on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 11, 2025
What Japanese politics could look like after Upper House election
Growing uncertainty over whether the ruling coalition can retain its majority in the Upper House has given strength to a number of possible outcomes of the election.
People listen to an election campaign speech in Miyazaki Prefecture on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 3, 2025
Ishiba government’s survival may be at stake in July Upper House election
Election campaigning for the pivotal vote officially kicked off Thursday, with all eyes on how the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition will perform.
Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter Princess Aiko visit the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum in Itoman on June 4.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 19, 2025
Parties are still arguing about the rules on imperial succession
Allowing female members to remain royalty after marriage, starting a maternal lineage, adoptions — there are a slew of ideas but a shortage of answers.
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 to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Top Japan trade negotiator canceled U.S. trip over rice, report says
Ryosei Akazawa
Most Japanese teens struggling with school find end of summer ‘painful’
Some 93.1% of Japanese teenagers who struggle with school life said they felt like they “wanted to disappear from the world" at the end of summer vacation ahead of the start of a new term, according to a recent survey released by Yokohama-based nonprofit Daisan Kazoku.
Most Trump tariffs are not legal, U.S. appeals court rules
Workers hang a large poster of U.S. President Donald Trump on the facade of the Department of Labor headquarters building in Washington on Wednesday.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
YouTube Music Weekend is where Japan’s internet-born performers go global
Headlining the second day of YouTube Music Weekend is Vocaloid artist Kikuo, who, with 1.46 million YouTube subscribers, is one of the most popular artists in the genre.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.
Jesse Kirkwood: ‘Languages are entire cultural universes with all sorts of baggage’
Jesse Kirkwood is part of a vibrant field of translators who have nurtured what might be called a “post-Murakami era of Japanese literature and translation,” one book at a time.

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons
Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER