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July 29, 2025
 

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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2023

Satellite-saving robots can turn killer, too

Orbiting machines used to repair other spacecraft can just as easily be used to destroy them and will require new international rules to keep the peace.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2023

Why the Fed needs to take the digital yuan seriously

The e-CNY will be more than just a paperless version of cash for China's local economy, its use in trade settlements would pose a challenge to the U.S. dollar.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2023

What fracking can tell us about the future of fusion

Energy breakthroughs such as with fusion usually come through refinements of existing technologies and processes, not blinding flashes of transformation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2023

Russia and a return to Soviet-style central planning

With Russia's economy crumbling, some of the country's leading economists are advocating for a return to Soviet-style central planning.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 14, 2023

In Cairo's male-dominated electro scene, women DJs spin up more than deep beats

It's a party on the banks of the Nile, and more and more often, it's a woman on stage who's mixing the night's music.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2023

Pope Benedict and the art of strategic retirement

Joseph Ratzinger wasn't supposed to be pope. As pope emeritus, he was supposed to go quietly into history. He may be more influential after death.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2023

Why America doesn’t know how to stop school shootings

After a ban of more than two decades, the U.S. government is finally funding studies on how to prevent death and injury from firearms.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2023

Even with the electric car boom, the U.S. need for oil is climbing

U.S. consumption of fossil fuels is heading toward records — even amid the electric-car boom — and plastics are to blame.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 13, 2023

Japan’s standing is rising, but not so for its leader

Japan's significance as a geopolitical power has rarely been higher, but that's little solace for its unloved prime minister, Fumio Kishida.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent before a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 19, 2025

Ishiba and Bessent say 'good' trade agreement still possible

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba urged U.S. Treasury chief Scott Bessent to continue talks with Japan’s chief negotiator to achieve a win-win deal.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, waves to voters from atop an election campaign van during a rally Friday in Yokohama for Sunday's Upper House election.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 19, 2025

Ishiba's future in balance as polls hint at rout in Upper House election

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba likes the nitty gritty of policy, cigarettes and making models, but his dream job as Japanese leader could go up in smoke this weekend.
Soil from the Fukushima No. 1 plant is delivered to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's office in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2025

Fukushima soil delivered to Ishiba's office for reuse

With few willing to take the contaminated earth, the government took it upon itself to reuse some of the soil to show it is not dangerous.
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Jul 20, 2025

Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate

The debate over the damage sunscreens cause to the marine environment is heating up as some regions ban certain chemical ingredients.
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.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, leaves at the party's headquarters following announcement of Upper House election result projections in Tokyo early Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

Japan ruling bloc loses majority in Upper House after election drubbing

The ruling LDP-Komeito coalition's devastating loss in Sunday’s poll could lead to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s resignation or political gridlock in parliament.
England's Jess Carter attends a news conference in June.
SOCCER
Jul 21, 2025

England's Jess Carter receives racist abuse during Euro 2025

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer posted his support for Carter on X.
Modern global politics, marked by personal rivalries, nickname-driven rhetoric and apocalyptic religious fervor, resembles a “re-medievalization” that challenges the ideals of the Enlightenment.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2025

The Middle Ages are making a political comeback

Increasingly medieval language from the world’s leaders does not bode well for the rest of us.
Peruvian chef Mitsuharu Tsumura’s restaurant Maido in Lima was named the best restaurant on the planet on June 19 by the influential “World's 50 Best Restaurants” list.
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2025

Why there isn’t a best chef in the world

Awards are one thing but the culinary universe has no real center. For that you can thank two chefs.
The EU flag and Meta logo in an illustration from 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 22, 2025

Meta, X and LinkedIn appeal unprecedented VAT claim by Italy

Italian tax authorities argue that free user registrations with X, LinkedIn and Meta platforms should be seen as taxable transactions.
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.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba looks on after meeting with the Liberal Democratic Party executives at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 23, 2025

Ishiba denies reports he will resign next month, leaving his fate unclear

Some media outlets had reported that the prime minister was poised to step down in the coming weeks.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to London earlier this month to meet with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer shows how a changing Europe and shifting global threats could let Britain move past Brexit and help shape a new European security order.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2025

Britain and Europe are changing together

Britain can help shape the continent’s new security order, so long as it banishes the Brexit mindset.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who is unable to satisfy his supporters’ demands for answers he can’t deliver, is now trapped by the very Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy he once promoted.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2025

Trump can’t put the Epstein genie back in the bottle

Trump now finds himself in the unusual position of trying to stuff the Epstein genie back into a bottle that he helped uncork.
London’s worsening disorder — from soaring petty crime to reckless delivery riders and rising drug use — reflects a decades-old pattern of authorities and citizens normalizing lawlessness.
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2025

What turning a blind eye to deviant behavior is doing to London

The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, needs to take growing disorder on the streets more seriously.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade deal opening Japan to U.S. auto exports sounds big but means little in practice because American carmakers don’t make what Japanese consumers want, such as the Honda N-Box, the nation's best-selling model.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 24, 2025

Japan trade deal offers U.S. automakers relief, not new markets

The peculiar tastes of America’s consumers put its vehicles at a disadvantage overseas that tariffs won’t fix.
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
The Liberal Democratic Party’s historic Upper House defeat leaves the party fragmented and searching for a capable leader who can reunite conservatives, modernize its appeal, deliver real policies and rebuild its internal power structure.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2025

Who will save the Liberal Democratic Party?

The LDP is now faced with two fundamental questions: what tasks must it accomplish to restore its political dominance and who is actually capable of accomplishing them?
Japan’s ruling coalition is weakening as rising populist parties like Sanseito gain support, raising concerns that Japan could shift toward unstable multiparty coalition politics similar to Israel’s fragmented Knesset.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2025

Is Japan drifting toward fragmented and ineffective politics?

In a system with many small parties, even minor players can hold the balance of power in forming coalitions.
A supporter (center right) of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba holds up a placard reading "Don't quit Ishiba" as he takes part in a rally across the street from the Prime Minister's Office in central Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 27, 2025

Stay or go? Key events give Ishiba time to ponder his future.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has pledged to stay in office — in defiance of growing calls for him to step down after the LDP's poor showing in the Upper House election.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, promises a rent freeze that’s easy to deliver but it remains to be seen if it will solve the city’s deeper housing problems.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2025

Freezing rent is easy. Making NYC housing affordable isn’t.

Zohran Mamdani’s campaign pledge would be simple to put into effect but wouldn’t do much to solve the underlying problem.
Japan to start new residency system for foreign workers
Students hoping to work in Japan attend a Japanese class at a job placement company in Hanoi in October 2022.
Japan to regularly accept assistant language teachers from India
Indian assistant language teachers pose for a photo with Japanese Ambassador Keiichi Ono (center) at the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi on Friday.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear
Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
‘Demon Slayer’ movie slashes its own box office records
“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle” is the first installment in a trilogy that's set to wrap the anime adaptation of Koyoharu Gotoke's manga about sword-wielding heroes fighting man-eating demons.
Kyoto University researchers find mechanism behind malignant pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer, the third-leading cause of cancer death in Japan, has the lowest five-year survival rate of any cancer at just 8.5%.
Amid fossil fuel shift in U.S., hope emerges for India and Japan tie-up on solar
A technician works on the assembly line at a solar panel manufacturing hub on the outskirts of New Delhi last October.
Three decades and a pile of notebooks: The beat writer who chronicled Ichiro’s career
Reporters and photographers, including long-time baseball beat writer Keizo Konishi, swarm around Ichiro Suzuki during the World Baseball Classic in San Diego in 2009.
Behind the scenes: Inside Fuji Rock’s strategy for staying on top
In recent years, Fuji Rock has had fewer blockbuster performers and showcased more top-selling Japanese acts and international musicians' first-time performances in Japan.
Tokyo is the No. 2 choice for international students
The University of Tokyo. International students are increasingly flocking to Asia, with affordability being a particularly important metric.
Japan leans into homegrown AI amid rising competition
McKinsey’s 2025 Technology Trends Outlook, published Wednesday, says that the use of “sovereign AI” is a trend gaining significant global traction, including in Japan.

Podcast

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

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear
By Jason Coskrey

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