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While U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed new tariffs on nearly every country in the world, China is clearly his primary target.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2025

How should Beijing respond to Trump’s tariffs?

Many are already comparing it to President Herbert Hoover’s 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which slashed global trade by 66% in five years and deepened the Great Depression.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba hold a news conference at the White House in Washington on Feb. 7. Tokyo's focus on economic strength to promote security contrasts with Washington's current era of unpredictability.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 15, 2025

For real national security, try a Japanese perspective

Genuine national security starts from a strong economy, one that provides for its citizens, incentivizes growth, production and wealth, and invites foreign participation.
Donald Trump’s punitive tariffs have dealt a blow to U.S. credibility and the greenback. It’s a bigger leap to project the currency's demise.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 16, 2025

King dollar’s reign looks secure — for now

The greenback survived Trump's first term at the pinnacle and will likely endure his second.
U.S. soldiers take part in a live-fire exercise as part of the Balikatan drills with Philippine troops, at Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Philippines, in May 2024.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2025

In a first, Japan will join major Philippine-U.S. drills as participant

The Self-Defense Forces will dispatch about 150 personnel and a warship to the multidomain Balikatan exercises, which begin next week.
Nomura Holdings is seeking to build scale in the U.S. asset management market despite recent volatility caused by escalating trade tensions.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 23, 2025

Nomura bets big on U.S. market rebound with $1.8 billion deal

Nomura's executive officer said the latest disruptions don’t change the fact the U.S. remains the largest asset management market in the world.
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to the media upon arriving at his office on Parliament Hill on Tuesday in Ottawa. Carney pledged Tuesday to beat the United States in Donald Trump's trade war after winning Canada's election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 30, 2025

Carney’s plan to manage Trump: Keep calm, find new friends

Carney assured anxious voters that the country could not just survive the trade war — but win it.
A satellite image shows Nur Khan air base in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 14, 2025

How backchannel diplomacy pulled India and Pakistan back from the brink of war

At 2 a.m., explosions began. By nightfall, a U.S.-brokered ceasefire ended the deadliest escalation between India and Pakistan in decades.
The 90-day truce in the U.S.-China trade war was a huge relief for small businesses and millions of workers on both sides of the Pacific.
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2025

Trump and Xi tone down a senseless trade war

It was a huge relief for small businesses and millions of workers on both sides of the Pacific.
Cars on display at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama on Tuesday. The automaker posted a massive annual net loss and confirmed that it plans to cut thousands of jobs worldwide.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025

Japanese automakers looking at a ¥1 trillion hit from Trump tariffs 

No matter what happens, they expect the new levies to cost them a lot.
Warriors guard Stephen Curry (left) celebrates with Jimmy Butler during a game against the Rockets in Houston on April 20.
BASKETBALL / NBA
May 16, 2025

Stephen Curry excited about Warriors' future despite playoff exit

Curry is hoping the summer will provide some much-needed recovery time.
Brazilian real and a U.S. dollar notes are seen in this illustration taken on Dec. 18, 2024
BUSINESS / Markets
May 20, 2025

Dollar set for more weakness as 'Brand USA' falls further out of favor

Investors see the currency losing more of its luster as the greenback comes back to earth from lofty valuations.
U.S. President Donald Trump (left) announces the Golden Dome missile defense shield next to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 21, 2025

Trump selects $175B Golden Dome defense shield design and appoints leader

U.S. Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein will be the lead program manager for an effort widely viewed as the keystone to Trump's military planning.
Elon Musk boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on March 21
BUSINESS / Tech
May 21, 2025

Musk commits to Tesla CEO role and plans political pullback

"If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it,” Musk said. "I do not currently see a reason.”
The Harvard University shield "VERITAS" sits above a campus entrance gate at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, last month.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / FOCUS
May 24, 2025

Long advantageous, Harvard's China ties become a political liability

The ties have yielded major financial gifts, influence in international affairs and global prestige for the school.
U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to deliver the commencement address at the graduation ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy West Point in West Point, New York, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
May 25, 2025

Trump 'on brand' with anti-woke rant at army officer graduation

The U.S. president's speech at the West Point Military Academy veered between attacks on transgender people and DEI policies to slamming his predecessors.
Takahiro Mori, executive vice president of Japan's biggest steelmaker Nippon Steel, speaks about its strategy in its headquarters in Tokyo on Nov. 28, 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
May 26, 2025

Garage meets and sleepless flights: How Nippon Steel's negotiator stuck at U.S. merger

With Biden's incoming successor Donald Trump also voicing opposition to the planned purchase, the outlook was bleak.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (center) arrives at Argentina’s Ministry of Health to meet with Argentinian Health Minister Mario Lugones in Buenos Aires on Monday.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 28, 2025

RFK Jr. says COVID-19 shot isn’t recommended for healthy kids

The decision reverses the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s earlier stance that everyone six months of age and older get vaccinated.
Demonstrators hold signs during a protest in support of international students at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
May 28, 2025

Japanese universities urged to open doors to students blocked from Harvard

The education ministry has asked universities nationwide to support students affected by the White House's push against foreign enrollments at Harvard.
People hold up signs during a rally in support of international students at the Harvard University campus in Boston on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Society
May 29, 2025

Halt of U.S. visa process puts Japanese students' futures in question

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo has confirmed that the embassy and U.S. consulate offices in Japan have suspended scheduling new interviews for student visa applicants.
The defense chiefs of “the Squad” grouping, which brings together Japan, Australia, the U.S. and the Philippines, meet Saturday in Singapore for talks on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue regional security summit.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 31, 2025

‘Squad’ defense chiefs meet with eye on countering China

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the grouping the most “strategically positioned to manifest deterrence" amid “an unprecedented military buildup by China.”
Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich speaks at a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington on March 17. Grynkewich is expected to be the U.S. nominee for the positions of both Supreme Allied Commander Europe and U.S. European Command.
WORLD
Jun 1, 2025

America's next top general in Europe will also lead NATO forces

Since taking office in January, Trump's administration has pressured Europe to ramp up its own defense spending.
Australian defense chief Richard Marles speaks during the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 2, 2025

U.S demands Australia increase defense spending to 3.5% of GDP

Officials in Tokyo are closely watching how U.S.-Australia defense spending talks unfold, with U.S. President Donald Trump thought to be pushing Japan to also spend more.
Elon Musk looks on during a news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Saturday. Musk has dubbed Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill as a "disgusting abomination."
WORLD / Politics
Jun 4, 2025

Trump's 'big, beautiful bill?' Musk calls it a 'disgusting abomination.'

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO says the U.S. president's sweeping tax and spending bill will increase the federal deficit.
Kenji Yanobe’s spacesuited cats are the main characters of “Ship’s Cat Island,” the inaugural exhibition at Hyper Museum Hanno in Saitama Prefecture.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 7, 2025

What can Kenji Yanobe’s cosmic cats teach us about humanity?

The spacesuited felines will be familiar to those who have visited the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka or Tokyo’s Ginza Six shopping complex last year.
Demonstrators deploy a giant banner reading "We the People," the first three words of the U.S. Constitution's preamble, during a "No Kings" rally in Los Angeles on Saturday, on the same day as President Donald Trump's military parade in Washington.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 15, 2025

As Trump celebrates army’s founding, his critics take to the streets

U.S. President Donald Trump held a military parade the same day that hundreds of protests took place, in what amounted to a split-screen show of force.
Rare earths from Australia's Mount Weld mine. Japanese companies have a supply agreement with a company that sources rare earths from the mine.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Jun 16, 2025

Japan and the U.S. face challenges in economic security discussions

In their trade negotiations, the subject is much discussed, especially as rare earths become an issue.
Members of the California National Guard stand outside a federal building in downtown Los Angeles on June 8. California Democrats have unified against the Trump administration’s use of federal troops to quell unrest and its deportation campaign, but the stance may backfire for the party nationally.
COMMENTARY
Jun 16, 2025

ICE protests in LA are forcing a tough choice on Democrats

As the rightward shift among voters in the last election made abundantly clear, the state’s politics don’t always translate to other parts of America.
A Palestinian carries a sack of aid supplies from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 29.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 25, 2025

U.S. to give $30 million to Gaza aid operation despite violence concerns

This is the first known U.S. government financial contribution to the group, which uses private U.S. military and logistics firms to bring aid into Gaza.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 28, 2025

They voted for Trump. Most still back him — but not on everything

A group of 20 Trump voters were asked to share their thoughts on the president's performance so far. The results were a mixed bag.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, leaves for Washington on Thursday for his seventh round of trade talks with the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 1, 2025

Japan-U.S. trade negotiations stall as Trump fumes 

The two sides remain far apart, and no new talks are scheduled.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight