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April 28, 2024
 

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Hal Brands
For Hal Brands's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Iran holds its National Army Day parade in Tehran in April 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 25, 2023
U.S. must press its advantages over Iran or war will spread
The Hamas attack on Israel was a geopolitical earthquake. The aftershocks will reverberate for years to come.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2023
What Ukraine needs most — ammo
Fighter jets and high-tech missiles get the headlines, but the U.S. is on a global scavenger hunt for old-fashioned howitzer shells.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2023
Ukraine’s future is not in NATO
Ukraine won’t become a party to the NATO treaty, but it can expect a close and continuing partnership with Europe and the U.S.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2023
Big Ukraine war lesson: There’s only one superpower
The effort against Russia has illustrated what a world without American power would look like — and what it looks like when America uses its unmatched power well.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2022
Zelenskyy seeks victory. Will the U.S. pay the price?
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy was greeted in Congress with standing ovations. Yet even as his country's needs grow, the prospects for U.S. assistance will inevitably become less certain.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2022
Ukraine’s victories may become a problem for the U.S.
Washington has been a big winner from Moscow's fiasco in Ukraine — but a lengthy stalemate could become a huge burden.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2022
Take Putin’s nuclear threat seriously, but not too seriously
Few think the Russian leader would be foolish enough to escalate radically, but there's also a strong argument to be made that he's not bluffing.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2022
Russia’s war in Ukraine has echoes of the Soviet Union’s end
Empires like Russia — especially the biggest ones — don't end quickly or peacefully.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2022
Al-Zawahri killing was a great success of a bygone era
After 9/11, the U.S. built a man-hunting machine without parallel in human history. But today, its priorities lie elsewhere.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2022
The West must move east for NATO to survive
No matter what happens in the Ukraine war, the U.S. must persuade allies to move more troops and equipment permanently into states on Russia's borders.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 6, 2022
As Putin gets desperate, the world should remember Pearl Harbor
Economic sanctions are working now against Russia as they squeezed Japan before its war with the U.S. But the historical lesson is that they don't make adversaries less aggressive.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2022
What happens in Russia if Putin can’t win in Ukraine?
Russia has now been subjected to an isolation more sudden and total than that experienced by any major power in recent history. What that leads to may not be pretty.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2022
A losing and desperate Putin could be terrifying
By taking U.S. intervention off the table, the Biden administration may tempt just the sort of Russian escalation the world fears, especially if Putin becomes desperate.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2022
How Putin destroyed the three myths of America’s global order
Putin's gambit is producing an intellectual paradigm shift, a recognition that this war may be a prelude to more devastating conflicts unless democratic states respond.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2021
The Afghanistan war wasn’t a cynical misadventure
When once-good wars go bad, Americans tend to conclude that there was never anything redeeming about them in the first place.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2021
The Cold War playbook won’t help Alexei Navalny
That Navalny ended his hunger strike and his life isn't in imminent danger — for now — doesn't remove the underlying issue.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2020
Little war in the Caucasus has big lessons for U.S. and Russia
The resumption of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh against Armenia, a longtime enemy of Turkey, indicates the war is part of a larger Turkish power play.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2020
The upside of a new cold war with China
Competition with the Soviet Union brought out the best in American democracy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2020
Putin wins 16 more years of reckless behavior
The West consistently underestimates the Russian president's willingness to take extreme risks.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2020
China’s rise heralds return of the domino theory
Seventy years ago the Korean War raised legitimate fears that one U.S. loss could set off communist victories across the globe.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Number of homeless in Japan hits record low
Homeless people sleep on the street in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in August 2021.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Air China to buy 100 locally made C919 jets in $11 billion deal
A Comac C919 during an aerial display at the Singapore Airshow at Changi Exhibition Centre in Singapore in February
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Tokyo's Koto Ward by-election a race unlike any other
Natsumi Sakai, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s candidate and one of four female candidates running in the by-election, touts her experience as a cancer survivor and midwife as having prepared her to tackle issues that women currently face.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Top U.S. and China diplomats talk tough amid warnings of new ‘downward spiral’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Friday
Kyotographie's strong 12th edition shines light into the margins
Yassine Alaoui Ismaili, who goes by Yoriyas, turned to photography, shooting motion while in motion himself, after an injury forced him to give up his career as a professional breakdancer.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima
Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima

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