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September 18, 2025
 

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Brad Glosserman

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Brad Glosserman
Japan’s high-tech toilets, from bidets to innovative public lavatories, offer a unique lens through which to explore the country’s culture, technology and even soft power.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 16, 2025
‘Perfect Days’ spent pondering the Japanese potty
The Japanese toilet is an engineering and technological marvel that transforms daily ablutions.
Chinese DF-61 intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles are displayed during a military parade in Beijing, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II on Sept. 3. 
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2025
The global nuclear picture grows darker and darker
It’s hard, if not impossible, to escape the conclusion that the world is in a grim place when measured by nuclear metrics.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping attend the BRICS Summit plenary session in Kazan, Russia, on Oct. 23.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2025
Realism and realpolitik rule Indian foreign policy
A decade from now, there is likely to be heated debate in the United States over “who lost India,” an accounting that may rival the “who lost China?”
Chinese Premier Li Qiang addresses the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 26, where he emphasized “the deep integration of AI with the real economy” and its relevance to daily applications.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2025
Al and our brave new world of ‘weaponized interdependence’
In the U.S.-China race for AI dominance, failure is not an option.
A worker displays a handful of shredded hard drive pieces for e-waste processing at a facility in Festac, Nigeria, in 2020.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 21, 2025
Urban mining eases the critical minerals crunch 
Governments are waking up to the potential of e-waste recycling, and Japan is leading the way.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade delegation, comprising Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, meets with Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Li Chenggang and Vice Premier He Lifeng in Geneva on May 10 to discuss tariffs and trade issues.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2025
Trump’s transactional approach shapes U.S.-China rivalry
There are intense debates about how the U.S. can prevail in that struggle but there are no signs that a single strategy guides the administration.
Demonstrators protest U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Brazilian products at a rally outside the U.S. Consulate in Sao Paulo on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2025
Trump’s tariffs defy the doomsayers — so far
Despite nearly uniform predictions of doom and disaster, the global economy has largely ignored the Trump trade revolution.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba addresses a news conference in Tokyo on Monday. He repeated his pledge to stay on to prevent a political vacuum from forming after his party's poor performance in the Upper House election.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 29, 2025
The LDP struggles to define its future after election flub
The public doesn’t know what it wants — other than “not this” — so indecision by the LDP and other parties is understandable.
In an era of fierce technological and geopolitical competition, especially in AI, true scale combining size, efficiency and cooperation with allies has become an urgent strategic necessity the U.S. and the West must master to counter China’s growing advantages.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2025
The AI arms race with China demands scale. The West must think bigger.
The race to create scale is critical amid the sizzling geopolitical competition over leadership in new technologies.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron hold a news conference in London on July 10 after wrapping up a joint military visit.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2025
France and U.K. tighten nuclear ties amid questions over U.S. commitment
While France and the U.K. are taking a positive step for European security, the announcement is both more and less than it seems.
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends the EU-Japan summit in Brussels in July 2023. Economic cooperation between the EU, Japan and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership is showing promise but faces political and structural hurdles that could limit progress.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 8, 2025
EU-CPTPP talks highlight shared goals and stubborn obstacles
EU economic cooperation with Japan and the CPTPP shows promise but could face political and structural hurdles that limit progress.
This digital visualization shows the small modular nuclear reactor being developed by Rolls-Royce SMR, which is set to be the first in the U.K. A widely cited IEA report says global data center electricity demand will more than double by 2030 to 945 TWh — more than Japan’s current total usage.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2025
Data centers and small reactors could change Asia’s nuclear dynamic
An estimated 402.74 million terabytes of data are created each day and storing and processing all that information creates virtual volcanoes.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects nuclear warheads at an undisclosed location. Events in Iran are likely to reinforce Pyongyang's belief that nuclear weapons ensure regime survival, with Pakistan and Libya providing lessons on how to get them and why giving them up can be fatal.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2025
Kim Jong Un’s nuclear lessons should trouble the rest of us
Operation Rising Lion has reaffirmed the belief that nuclear weapons are essential to protect a nation from attack.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s reversal on the Nippon Steel deal creates a "win-win-win-win" situation benefiting both companies, the U.S. economy, and the Japan-U.S. alliance, but the golden share raises concerns about increased government control.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 17, 2025
Nippon Steel deal signals a win for the U.S. economy and Japan alliance
Last week, Trump lifted the Biden block, saying that the acquisition could go forward if the two companies signed a national security agreement with the U.S. government.
A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor undergoes testing at an undisclosed location. The Trump administration’s ambitious “Golden Dome” missile defense plan revives Reagan-era dreams of a high-tech shield but faces immense technical, financial and geopolitical hurdles. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2025
Golden Dome is a glittering gamble — and a likely mistake
Trump’s EO outlined an MD system that would use a network of hundreds of satellites to detect, track and intercept incoming missiles “to protect our homeland.”
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani meets with his U.S. counterpart, Pete Hegseth, at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 3, 2025
Why Japan isn’t panicking about Trump’s foreign policy
Hegseth’s SLD speech is the first extended statement about U.S. policy and it checked all the boxes.
AI hallucinations — when generative models fabricate information — are becoming more frequent, harder to detect and increasingly dangerous as we embed the technology deeper into society.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2025
AI hallucinations? What could go wrong?
The notion that we can’t ensure that AI will produce accurate information is, uh, “disturbing” if we intend to integrate that product so deeply into our daily lives.
China’s Made in China 2025 program set an ambitious agenda, and a decade later, initial assessments conclude it had mixed success but maintain its goals will shape Chinese policy for years to come.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2025
Ten years of Made in China 2025 sees mixed success
MIC2025 set an ambitious agenda, and a decade later, early reviews say it has had mixed success but maintain that its goals will shape Chinese policy for years to come.
Shinzo Abe, then the Chief Cabinet Secretary, shakes hands with former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage during a symposium in Tokyo in July 2006.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 9, 2025
Remembering two titans in Japan-U.S. relations
Their good humor, unflagging optimism and commitment to building a stronger Japan-U.S. alliance continues to shape that partnership.
The Trump administration has launched a full-scale federal "plastic patriotism" effort to eliminate paper straws, arguing they are ineffective, hazardous, more expensive and become soggy.
COMMENTARY / World
May 6, 2025
A world restored: The U.S. takes the offensive against paper straws
The Trump team has issued an executive order and a national strategy to rid the country of the pulpy, soggy mess of paper straws that torments too many of America's citizens.
Wealthy foreign nationals picking up ultimate souvenir — a condo in Tokyo
A high-end property in the fashionable Daikanyama district in Tokyo
Japan dispatches five language education 'partners' to India
Five members of the Japan Foundation's Nihongo Partners program (front) gather at the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi on Monday.
Struggling train firm in Chiba Prefecture turns to self-deprecating humor
"Laughter is important when you're in a difficult situation," said Katsunori Takemoto, president of Choshi Electric Railway, on Aug. 5 in Choshi, Chiba Prefecture.
Japan's elderly population down at around 36.2 million
The estimated number of people age 65 or older in Japan stands at 36.19 million as of Monday, accounting for record 29.4% of the country's total population, according to the internal affairs ministry.
China says Philippine ship ‘deliberately rammed’ coast guard vessel in South China Sea
A China Coast Guard ship navigates near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea in August.
Japanese athletes inspired by raucous home fans at World Athletics Championships
Fans cheer on the home favorites during the women's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Sunday.
Pole vault rivals in awe after Duplantis has another historic night in Tokyo
Sweden's Armand Duplantis competes in the men's pole fault final during the World Athletics Championships at National Stadium in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
Tara Davis-Woodhall leaps to gold and finds redemption at world championships
Tara Davis-Woodhall celebrates after winning the women's long jump final at the World Athletics Championships at Tokyo's National Stadium on Sunday night.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

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