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November 06, 2025
 

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Gearoid Reidy
The capital city's Harajuku district in December 2024. Tokyo’s “coolest” neighborhood is subjective and constantly shifting, as the city’s appeal lies in its diversity of areas, each offering a unique mix of trends, culture and hidden gems.
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2025
Tokyo’s coolest neighborhood? There isn’t one.
Tokyo can’t be reduced to a single trendy suburb: What’s appealing is precisely the incongruity of its locales.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets with U.S. President Donald Trump at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo on Tuesday. The encounter capped a strong first week for the new prime minister.
COMMENTARY
Oct 29, 2025
With Trump, flattery will get Takaichi everything
Whereas Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, played for a draw at his White House meeting in February, this encounter was redolent of Abe’s best moments.
Aeon's My Basket chain is challenging Japan's traditional convenience store model by offering supermarket-level variety at lower costs.
COMMENTARY
Oct 28, 2025
The sleeping retail giant Aeon has a ‘conbini’ killer
Meet My Basket, the rapidly growing chain of outlets the size of a convenience store, but with the selection of a supermarket.
An extra edition of a newspaper announces Sanae Takaichi becoming Japan’s new prime minister on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 22, 2025
Japan’s new 'Iron Lady' can play 'heavy metal' politics
One of the few things the world knows about Takaichi is her fondness for heavy-metal music.
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.
The second life of Japan's net cafes
Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
More Japanese universities pushing toward teaching in English
Waseda University in Tokyo
Takaichi leads first ministerial meeting on policies regarding foreign residents
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends a ministerial meeting on policies regarding foreign nationals and immigration on Tuesday at the Prime Minister's Office.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slumps 4%, led by losses in tech sector
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei stock average index briefly tumbled more than 2,000 points on Wednesday morning following a downbeat session on Wall Street fueled by fears of a bubble in the artificial intelligence sector.
A narrow Pacific waterway at heart of U.S. plans to choke China’s vast navy
Philippine and Australian troops fire an M777 howitzer during live fire exercises as part of joint military drills in Laur, Nueva Ecija, the Philippines, in August.
Takaichi’s balancing act: Supporting Taiwan and stabilizing China ties
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi shakes hands with Lin Hsin-i, Taiwan’s presidential adviser, on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Saturday in this image posted to Takaichi's official X account.
From 1973 to 2025: A Japanese American skater’s long ride to recognition
Judi Oyama at Winchester Skatepark in San Jose, California, in January 1979. The Skateboarding Hall of Fame inductee and Guinness World Record holder still skates and hopes to inspire older women.
More Japanese universities pushing toward teaching in English
Waseda University in Tokyo
Young Indonesians in Japan find their political voice
Indonesian students at Hiroshima University hold posters of the 17+8 Demands, demanding transparency and action from their homeland’s government.
The unstoppable rise of konbini tourism
Guests typically follow Ryo Ito’s lead as he weaves through the narrow, colorful aisles of convenience stores.

Podcast

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

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes
By Alex K.T. Martin

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