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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 12, 2021

TIFF's Director in Focus Keisuke Yoshida makes a case for compassion

The underrated director of films such as “Himeanole,” “Blue” and “Intolerance” gets his due at this year's Tokyo International Film Festival.
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
Nov 10, 2021

There’s an $80 billion hole in India’s climate pledge

As long as free electricity for pumping groundwater remains a popular ploy to garner farmers' votes, politicians won't want to lose control of the power sector.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2021

Energy’s year of recovery more like a remission

Until news of the COVID-19 vaccine broke, energy had been the worst performing sector in 2020, falling by more than half.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2021

The U.S. should be realistic about missile defense

The U.S. should be vigilant about emerging threats, but pouring more money into unproven missile-defense technologies isn't the answer.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2021

China’s bid to join CPTPP: Neither serious nor sincere

China cannot believe it can abuse countries in pursuit of its national interests, defying international law, and then expect those same countries to offer it material benefits under the CPTPP.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 9, 2021

Taiwan outlines plans to counter China’s ‘gray zone threats’

The biennial military strategy report cited warplane incursions, speedboats ramming coast guard vessels and 'cognitive warfare.”
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Nov 9, 2021

Why the U.S. is struggling to formulate a trade policy on China

Any measures taken against Beijing could see retaliatory moves leveled at Washington, and could run counter to world efforts for peaceful exchange.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2021

Hey, Elon: We made a $6 billion plan to end world hunger

In the coming decades, what we eat and how we grow it will change radically, and we need everyone onboard — the U.N. and Elon Musk alike — to fund the shift to sustainability.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2021

COVID-19 drugs will change the way we live with the virus

New COVID-19 drug approvals couldn't be timelier as hospitals face massive backlogs of delayed procedures.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2021

There’s an unseemly rush to power EV batteries

While lithium has been through a similar surge on the back of EVs before, this time there's a legitimate demand-supply issue with a shortage on the horizon.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 22, 2024

China tension highlights risk of Taiwan’s nuclear phase-out plan

Public opinion had turned sharply in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, prompting the government to halt construction on all projects.
Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump are seen in a combination of file photographs taken in Chandler, Arizona, on Oct. 10 and in Evans, Georgia, on Oct. 4.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 22, 2024

Harris and Trump pick up the pace two weeks before Election Day

The frenzied campaign schedules of both candidates underlining the importance of small pockets of voters in the U.S. who could put either over the top.
A sculpture representing Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, located on the grounds of a park in Budapest
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2024

Who was Bitcoin’s Satoshi? I need to know and so do you.

It’s only natural, and even healthy, to be curious about who could have created more than $1 trillion in market capitalization.
An apartment building damaged by a Russian air strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Oct. 1
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2024

Selling out Ukraine casts shame on the West

This war started because Moscow refuses to tolerate a successful democratic, independent neighbor, which also remains the chief impediment to ending it.
The concept of "Buy American" has gained political traction among both leading U.S. parties, appealing to nationalist sentiments and the idea of supporting domestic jobs. But such a policy comes with real costs, monetary and otherwise.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2024

‘Buy American’ policies don’t help Americans

Overall, the study's researchers estimate that "Buy American" provisions cost about $125,000 per job created, a relatively expensive investment.
Yahya Sinwar gives a speech in Gaza City in April 2023. Israeli forces cornered and killed the leader of Hamas in a ruined house in Gaza on Oct. 16.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2024

The killing of Sinwar presents a tricky opportunity

It’s always a mistake to speak of "solutions” in the Middle East, but plausible grounds for optimism can do a lot to dissolve the allure of fanaticism.
People wait in a line to vote during the Super Tuesday primary election in Edinburg, Texas, on March 5.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 24, 2024

Chinese operation targeting U.S. down-ballot races, Microsoft says

The lawmakers were targeted because they had historically denounced Chinese government policies.
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.
Ramen shop Menya Taisei's owner Taisei Hikage cooks ramen at his shop in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 24, 2024

Japan's rising ramen prices give election voters food for thought

The problems facing ramen shop owners reflect a cost-of-living crunch that has become a top issue for voters in the general election on Sunday.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is launched for a mission to study one of Jupiter's 95 moons from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Oct. 14.
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2024

In space, no one can hear Musk's rivals scream

The billionaire's gravity-defying lead is a painful one for competitors. Is it too late to catch up?
Suspect Shiho Hosoya enters the Asakusa Police Station in Tokyo on Friday. The handcuffs and waist ties are blurred for privacy reasons.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 25, 2024

Tokyo police rearrest couple suspected of multiple murders of family members

Investigators are looking at inheritance as the primary motive behind the string of murders.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, makes a speech at a campaign event for the Lower House election, in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 26, 2024

In tight Japan election, candidates make last-ditch appeals

Opinion polls have suggested the ruling bloc might fall short of a majority, delivering a potentially devastating blow to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 27, 2024

Is Kamala Harris’ race or gender affecting her support? ‘It’s very complicated.’

While she frequently recounts her background on the campaign trail, Harris tends to focus more on her middle-class roots than her race or gender.
This screen grab released on Oct. 26 by the Israeli military shows one of its air force planes departing to carry out strikes on Iran.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2024

Israel’s strike on Iran was smart. Now take the win.

Both Iran and Israel need to reconsider their aggressive postures to prevent a devastating regional conflict.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is also LDP president, dissolved the Lower House only eight days after assuming office on Oct. 1
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 27, 2024

Why Ishiba’s strategy of a surprise battle backfired

His dissolution of the Lower House only eight days after assuming office and backtracking on previously touted policies left voters with little to base votes on.
Supporters react as Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Novi, Michigan, on Saturday.
WORLD
Oct 28, 2024

Will Trump's unbridled rhetoric cost him the U.S. election?

Kamala Harris is increasingly pointing to Donald Trump's ramblings as evidence he isn't fit for the presidency.
Lebanese soldiers inspect a damaged vehicle marked as 'Press' at the site of an Israeli strike that killed a few journalists and wounded several others as they slept in guesthouses used by media, Lebanon's health ministry and local media reported, in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon, on Friday.
WORLD
Oct 28, 2024

Deadly Israeli strike on journalists in Lebanon prompts global outcry

The strike hit a collection of guesthouses housing only reporters in the southern Lebanese town of Hasbaya, killing two journalists.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the Liberal Democratic Party's headquarters on Sunday, the day of a general election in which his party failed to secure even a simple majority together with its junior coalition party, Komeito.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 28, 2024

Breaking down the LDP’s punishing defeat

The LDP has been delivered a crushing electoral setback. How did this happen? What comes next? What does this mean for policymaking? Some of the key questions answered.
Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Chisato Morishita bows to reporters on Sunday in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, after she was projected to win a seat in the Lower House election.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2024

Record number of women elected to Japan's Lower House

A total of 73 female candidates won seats in Sunday’s general election, making up about 16% of the membership of the chamber of parliament.

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