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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2022

The 2% inflation target should be consigned to history

It's time for rigid inflation targets to be scrapped and for more flexibility to be breathed into monetary frameworks.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2022

The West’s cyberattack appeasement helped give Putin a green light

A failure to respond in-kind on hacking since 2014 sent a signal of weakness on Ukraine. But it's not too late to fight back.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 27, 2022

Germany to lift defense spending in latest historic policy shift

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country will spend more than 2% of GDP each year on defense, in line with a NATO target that Berlin has consistently failed to meet.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / Perspectives
Feb 26, 2022

Will the Ukraine crisis upend political ambitions in Asia?

The Russian invasion sets an alarming precedent, but China is unlikely to follow Putin's bellicose playbook.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Feb 25, 2022

Russia facing widespread fallout as sports world condemns invasion of Ukraine

'I'm sorry for the innocent people that are losing their lives, that are getting killed for stupid reasons and a very, very strange and mad leadership,' F1 driver Sebastian Vettel said.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2022

Putin's invasion of Ukraine is a sin all Russia will bear

It is not Putin who is cursed now — it's all of us Russians. Our identity will be tainted by this invasion, by our failure to stop the dictator long before he crossed this unspeakable line.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2022

Six early thoughts on Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Be wary of anyone who is certain about how all of this will turn out. No one knows today whether the Ukraine invasion will be a great success or total disaster for Putin.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2022

Biden’s misery index doesn't bode well for Democrats' political fortunes

Democrats are rightly worried that surging inflation will hurt them in the midterm congressional elections this November — and possibly even in the 2024 presidential election.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Feb 24, 2022

Brooks Koepka says threat of Super Golf League isn't going away

'Somebody will sell out and go to it,' Koepka said.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 23, 2022

South Korean support for a domestic nuclear arsenal is growing — for surprising reasons

A new survey has found that a robust majority strongly backs a domestic nuclear program over stationing U.S. nukes in the country, with China cited as a growing concern.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2022

Japan set to fall short of February booster goal

The government plans to give boosters to 37.5 million people by the end of February, but to attain that target the pace of vaccinations would need to more than double.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2022

New COVID-19 variants complicate the question of vaccine mandates

Officials mulling new pandemic policies need to know how quickly vaccine protection wanes. But scientists don't have a clear answer.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 21, 2022

Bond between China and Russia alarms U.S. and Europe amid Ukraine crisis

China and Russia declared that they would work with other countries to 'promote genuine democracy” and counter American-led ideology and institutions.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Feb 21, 2022

Will a presidential election mark the end of South Korea's tattoo taboos?

Almost all of the country's 50,000 tattoo artists are at the mercy of potential police raids and prosecution, facing huge fines as well as prison terms, in theory as much as life.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2022

How China’s 'COVID zero' policy is giving a polish to gold

Gold has mostly traded sideways since the start of the year, and the usual negative correlation between higher U.S. Treasury yields and lower gold prices — and vice versa — has disappeared.
While Japan’s media may influence global perceptions of robots as friendly and lovable, the near-future robots will likely not match the capabilities or roles depicted in TV show's like "Sunny."
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2024

Japan isn't the 'robotopia' Apple TV's 'Sunny' portrays

One of the reasons we still see relatively few robots doing the menial jobs is that human labor is cheap.
Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris boards Air Force Two as she departs from Ellington Airport in Houston, Texas, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 26, 2024

Harris pushes ahead with campaign blitz, gaining ground on Trump

A series of polls conducted recently show Harris and Trump beginning their head-to-head contest on roughly equal footing.
Beijing's push to integrate core socialist values into its chatbots highlights a significant challenge in China's bid to compete with the U.S. in AI development.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2024

What's wrong about ‘Chat XiPT’ is bigger than China

The difficulty of creating AI models infused with specific values will likely hurt China’s efforts to create chatbots as sophisticated as those in the U.S.
TikTok has deployed Washington power brokers and $1,500-an-hour attorneys to fend off a new law barring the app unless its Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, divests.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jul 27, 2024

TikTok’s survival is at stake in all-out fight against U.S. ban

TikTok has deployed Washington power brokers and $1,500-an-hour attorneys to fend off a new law barring the app unless ByteDance divests.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks in Widnes, England, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 28, 2024

Keir Starmer’s clash with Labour left sets up wider fight on tax rises

Making the numbers add up while keeping her tax promises is the unenviable task that’s been top of U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ mind.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro greets supporters at a campaign rally in Caracas on Thursday. The weekend election outcome and how the military responds could either restore democracy to the country or worsen the authoritarianism there.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2024

Venezuela’s military holds the key to Maduro’s exit

Venezuela needs support from neighboring countries and the international community to steer the nation toward stability and democratic governance.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during question time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra June 27.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 28, 2024

Australia reshuffles senior ministers ahead of upcoming election

If Albanese wins the upcoming election, he will be the first Australian leader to secure consecutive victories since 2004.
A doctor consults with a COVID-19 patient at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney in 2021.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 29, 2024

Excess deaths in Australia reveal COVID-19's long, lethal tail

Excess mortality — the increase above the expected toll had the pandemic not occurred — was 5% for Australia in 2023.
 U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris waves upon arrival at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 30, 2024

As Democrats embrace Harris, some pivotal House candidates hold back

In the 35 competitive races that will determine control of the House, 12 Democratic incumbents or challengers have so far held off on endorsing Harris.
The U.S. Capitol building stands past visitors taking photographs at the Washington Monument in Washington in 2017.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 30, 2024

Russia, Iran and China all seek to shape U.S. election, officials say

Some U.S. citizens have been knowingly helping foreign governments shape the election narrative while others have been tricked into helping.
Tadanobu Kanno, the vice principal of Shoin Gakuen Fukushima High School in the city of Fukushima, goes through the itinerary of the school's trip to the Kansai region this year.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Aug 5, 2024

Fukushima schools hesitate to resume overseas trips

The yen's weakness and inflation have resulted in the cost of such excursions to surge — in some cases, more than double what it was prepandemic.
Demonstrators march in Valencia, Venezuela, on Monday, a day after the Venezuelan presidential election. Protests erupted in parts of Caracas and elsewhere against the re-election victory claimed by President Nicolas Maduro.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2024

Venezuela needs its neighbors’ help more than ever

Maduro was never going to accept defeat and the idea he would quietly exit the presidential palace was always wishful thinking.
The world needs a smaller, more focused Olympics to ensure sustainability and relevance amid changing global conditions.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2024

Olympics host cities don’t belong on a warming planet

The world needs a smaller, more focused Olympics to ensure sustainability and relevance amid changing global conditions.
Gold medalist Pan Zhanle of China celebrates on the podium after winning the men's 100-meter freestyle event at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS / Swimming
Aug 1, 2024

Chinese swim fans hit back at doping claims as Pan takes gold

Pan burnished his reputation in his home country with a world-record time of 46.40 seconds, beating the previous fastest time of 46.80 he had set in February.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda holds a news conference at the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday. The bank raised rates to 0.25% in just the second hike since 2007.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 1, 2024

Ueda’s big day was lost in a communication black hole

The BOJ should improve its information release process, including fixing leaks and setting fixed release times, to avoid similar issues in the future.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years