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May 25, 2025
 

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Tim Culpan
Although air travel in Asia has picked up since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still below 2019 levels, with many passengers preferring to travel shorter distances.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2024
Asian airlines face a cold summer
Despite seemingly positive results, air travel in Asia hasn't returned to pre-pandemic levels, with many of the continent's travelers preferring to stay closer to home.
China isn’t worried that Hyundai and other South Korean firms will outcompete locals. However, their presence ensures a continued supply of production factors: equipment, chemicals and labor.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2024
Why China wants South Korea to stay open
Countries push for free trade when they have an edge. Beijing knows it.
With U.S. protectionism hindering Chinese electric vehicle makers' overseas expansions, Japanese giants like Honda are poised to capitalize.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 24, 2024
Japan is poised to fill an EV gap left by China
A new Honda facility in Canada shows that Asia’s auto industry is ready to meet North American needs.
Wind turbines off the coast of Zhunan Township, Taiwan. Misguided policies threaten to sink outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen’s hopes of achieving his renewable energy targets.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2024
Taiwan’s wind power ambitions are in peril
Misguided policies threaten to sink outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen’s renewable energy targets, putting a lot on the incoming administration's plate.
Vietnam is sitting on around 17% of the world’s known rare-earth reserves, second only to China. 
COMMENTARY
Feb 6, 2024
Vietnam should seize a 'rare' opportunity to take on China
Vietnamese officials have approved plans to supercharge rare-earths production, aiming to process as much as 62,500 tons of the minerals by 2030.
Hyundai Motor's Casper mini sport utility vehicles on a production line at a factory in Gwangju, South Korea, in October 2021
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2024
A hidden hero will drive Korean trade closer to the U.S.
The U.S. is fast catching up to China as a destination for South Korean goods, lagging by just 1.4 percentage points last year.
The single biggest factor that will make satellites more accessible is the advent of private launch providers led by SpaceX.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 5, 2024
You too may one day have your own satellite
Demand for personal satellites will rise as their uses range from monitoring crops to watching over the family dog.
The burned wreckage of a Japan Airlines passenger plane lies on the tarmac at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Wednesday. AFP-JIJI
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 4, 2024
One of aviation’s biggest challenges played out on a Tokyo runway
Authorities across the globe are aware of the need to prevent runway incursions — lessons from the Haneda crash may bring us a step closer to eliminating them.
Eom Dong-hwan, South Korea's minister for its defense acquisition program and administration, speaks at a ceremony marking Poland's receiving of its first delivery of South Korean K2 Black Panther tanks and K9 self-propelled howitzers in Gdynia, Poland, in December 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2023
South Korea’s defense ambitions can be met by tech
Decades of facing down North Korea has forced Seoul to slowly build its own arms-producing capabilities instead of relying heavily on the U.S.
A cryptocurrency mining center in Russia
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2023
Bitcoin’s power-hungry history offers lessons for AI’s future
As AI grows, so does its energy footprint, but its developers needn't look much further than bitcoin's recent past to find climate-friendly solutions.
Japan's HII-A rocket carrying a lunar lander is prepared for launch at Tanegashima Space Centre on Tanegashima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture on Aug. 27.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 6, 2023
Yes, we do need another moonshot — or five
This renewed interest in moon landings is stoking fears of increased rivalry and another arms race.
An efficient, just-in-time strategy for manufacturing made Toyota’s production system famous.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 30, 2023
Toyota shuts factories, investors shrug. That’s resilience.
An efficient, just-in-time strategy for manufacturing made Toyota’s production system famous.
Superconductors are materials that exhibit no electrical resistance and eliminate magnetic fields. South Korean researchers think they may have created a compound that achieves that at room-temperature.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2023
LK-99 and the desperation for scientific discovery
The new room-temperature superconductor LK-99 could change the world. Or not.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2023
AI is helping create the chips that design AI chips
The human role in artificial intelligence development is slowly being handed over to machines and algorithms.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 28, 2023
Japan’s latest chip deal shows a savvy strategy shift
There’s reason to believe the $6 billion bid for JSR won’t repeat previous failures
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2023
This key health metric still evades gadget makers
Measuring blood pressure has been around for more than a century, but is proving tricky to digitize.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2023
Where will startups turn to now that SVB is gone?
Silicon Valley Bank played an important role in financial innovation tied to the world’s tech hub. Its demise could be profound.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2023
Splitting up social media may be its only hope
Keeping different groups away from each other could be the best way to prevent a total meltdown of digital society.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 9, 2023
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son may have one big bet left
The Vision Funds are almost exhausted, so the company will be looking for something else to buy in order to boost returns.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2023
Bet you didn't know you needed a sleep coach
Getting quality sleep is starting to look like a competitive sport in today's health-obsessed society.
From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
Trump announces Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel ‘partnership’ deal
U.S. President Donald Trump points as he boards Air Force One en route to New Jersey, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Friday.
Travelers avoid trips to Japan over viral comic book’s quake prediction
Visitors walk along Nakamise-dori as they visit Sensoji Temple in Tokyo's Asakusa district in March.
Tokyo's Yamanote Line resumes suspended train operations
All services on East Japan Railway's Yamanote Line in Tokyo were suspended for early Friday morning due to wire trouble.
Onosato set for yokozuna promotion after clinching Emperor’s Cup
Onosato after defeating Kotozakura at Ryokugikan in Tokyo on Friday. The win gave him a 13-0 record and clinched the Emperor's Cup, assuring him of promotion to yokozuna next week.
AI fiction is already here. Are humans ready?
After last year’s controversy over using AI to write about 5% of her novel, Rie Qudan was asked by an advertising magazine to write a short story where she uses AI for 95% of it. The resulting short story, “Kage no ame” (“Rain Shadow”), was published March 25.  
Six short films that capture our world in mere minutes
“Marion” provides a glimpse into the lives of bull dodgers, who perform a nonlethal version of bullfighting.
As Taiwan looks to boost ‘unofficial ties,’ Paraguay’s leader offers facilitator role
Paraguayan President Santiago Pena speaks during an interview with The Japan Times in Tokyo on Thursday.
GCAP next-gen fighter joint venture likely to be running by this summer
A concept model of the Global Combat Air Program's fighter jet is displayed during the DSEI Japan defense exhibition in the city of Chiba on Wednesday.
NTT develops world's first 'flying lightning rod' using drones
NTT's drone — aimed at triggering, then redirecting lightning — is described as a "flying lightning rod."

Podcast

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

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb
By Alex K.T. Martin

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