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July 12, 2025
 

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Ruth Pollard
A Buddhist monk walks past the damaged Mandalay Palace on Monday. The country's ruling military junta can repeat the mistakes of 17 years ago by blocking aid after Cyclone Nargis left 140,000 dead or allow urgent assistance to flow freely.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2025
The quake in Myanmar should force the junta’s hand
The ousted civilian administration initiated a two-week ceasefire in quake-hit areas to allow aid to reach victims. It doesn’t look like the junta will do the same.
The International Criminal Court is pursuing arrest warrants for Taliban leaders accused of human rights abuses against Afghan women and girls, but legal and political obstacles complicate the process.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025
The long road to justice for Afghan women
Afghan women and girls need every bit of global support they can get to push back against the Taliban’s unhinged misogyny.
Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte holds a news conference in Quezon City, in Metro Manila, on Tuesday. She denied she was plotting to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., saying recent comments that sparked a government probe only reflected "consternation" with her one-time ally.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2024
Philippines politics is often mad. It just got crazier.
Manila cannot afford to be distracted by the latest round of clan rivalry and violent threats.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2024
China and India bury the hatchet — for now, at least
Despite the agreement to disengage, the lack of trust is palpable. We are still just one misstep from an army patrol from another dangerous flare-up.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April. Both leaders face an uphill battle to stay at the helm of their respective parties and countries.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 10, 2024
Japan too is wrestling with a flawed leader
Questions about election prospects plague Biden in the U.S. and Kishida in Japan, with both trying to hang on to their commanding positions despite growing discontent.
Telecoms giant KDDI plans with Mitsubishi to take convenience store operator Lawson private could help it as it currently stands behind FamilyMart and Seven & I Holdings in a three-horse race.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 14, 2024
There are clouds on the horizon in Japan’s 'conbini-land'
Industry consolidation has pushed minor players out of the conbini game.
Mourners at a funeral on Nov. 19 carry the body of a Palestinian shot dead earlier during a raid by Israeli forces on a refugee camp near the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2023
While Gaza burns, the West Bank is at a boiling point
Mideast violence spreads beyond Gaza into the West Bank causing the U.S. to take a stand against extremist Israeli settlers.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 5, 2023
Just how dangerous are India’s generic drugs? Very.
The red flags for Indian drugs have been there for years. The world deserves much better than contaminated medicine and children poisoned by cough syrup.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 27, 2022
Shinzo Abe’s funeral furor is Japan’s most unedifying debate
Partisan bickering over Shinzo Abe's state memorial was an embarrassment for the nation on the world stage.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 6, 2022
India’s heatwaves are testing the limits of human survival
Each summer in India is a fresh roll of the dice on whether a freak event will occur that leads to a vast number of deaths.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2022
Rape: The war crime that goes mostly unpunished
What's happening in Ukraine is one of the worst large-scale campaigns of sexual violence in war since Islamic State's attacks on the Yezidi minority in Iraq in 2014.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 2022
The West forgot about the Pacific Islands. China didn’t.
A crucial World War II battle was fought in the Solomons. It's now the focus of the latest Pacific power struggle.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2022
Is the civilian resistance tipping the balance in Myanmar?
'Myanmar has been in a state of civil war for a long time, but until now it has been limited to certain territories and ethnic regions. Now, even the Bamar heartland is in conflict.”
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2022
The second drone age is here and it’s a free-for-all
Drones have opened the door to weaponized artificial intelligence, algorithmic and robotic warfare and loosened human control over the deployment of lethal force.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2022
Djokovic debacle exposes Australia’s xenophobic policies
The furor over Novak Djokovic's COVID-19-related detention has brought to global attention the nation's strict immigration policies.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2021
Out of Texas, a cowboy solution to an Afghan crisis
The informal currency swap will prop up a small part of the Afghan economy but certainly won't be enough to prevent the country from slipping into full-blown famine this winter.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2021
Diplomats dither while millions of people starve
Afghans are trapped between a radical Islamist group and a global community apparently content to sit back and let their aid-dependent country plunge into crisis.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2021
Starvation is as much a threat to Afghan women as the Taliban
In an aid-dependent economy already in deep trouble, the removal of tens of thousands female workers, many supporting large families, will only add to those facing hunger.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2021
The coming carnage between the Taliban and their jihadist rivals
IS has argued that the Taliban's actions weren't so much a conquest as a takeover coordinated with the U.S. and that its violent path to victory over the West is the right way.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2021
The world told Afghan women it had their backs — it doesn’t
More women and children were killed and wounded in Afghanistan in the first half of 2021 than in the first six months of any year since records began in 2009.
Tokyo hit by torrential rainfall at rush hour
People line up at Shibuya Station in Tokyo as they try to avoid the heavy rain on Thursday.
Foreign drivers in Japan to face tougher license conversion rules from October
According to the National Police Agency, there were 75,905 people who converted their foreign driver’s license to a Japanese one in 2024, up from 48,885 in 2019.
Chinese fighters came within 30 meters of Japanese spy aircraft, Tokyo says
A Chinese JH-7 fighter jet makes an near an Air Self-Defense Force YS-11EB surveillance aircraft over the East China Sea this week in this image released Thursday.
Air India crash report to offer peek into last seconds
Members of the Indian Army's engineering arm prepare to remove the wreckage of an Air India aircraft in Ahmedabad on June 14.
What Japanese politics could look like after Upper House election
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.
New IG Arena set to dial down temperature at Nagoya Basho, in a good way
With IG Arena getting glowing early reviews as the Nagoya Basho’s replacement venue, it may be a while before fans wax nostalgic about the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium.
Once a niche, anime is now mainstream content for Netflix and other streaming services
Though Netflix remains the dominant choice globally for anime viewers, Amazon Prime Video has also invested heavily in anime, steadily adding titles to their catalogue.
NGOs condemn rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric ahead of Upper House vote
Sanseito head Sohei Kamiya holds a board that reads "Japanese First" in Tokyo on July 2. In a joint statement on Tuesday, eight human rights nongovernmental organizations described the far-right party's stance as "hate speech."
Japanese dancers find a home abroad at Houston Ballet
“Giselle” lead Yuriko Kajiya (center), performing with Connor Walsh as Albrecht, is one of six Japanese dancers at Houston Ballet.
From the Abes to the Ohtanis: How siblings shape athletic development
Olympic judoka Uta Abe (second from left) and Hifumi Abe (second from right) with their brother Yuichiro (center) and their parents. “I’m always consciously trying to be a good older brother,” Yuichiro said.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji
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