Search - opinion

 
 
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 9, 2022

Should the U.S. have a monarchy?

A U.S. monarchy is a terrible idea, but the very question says a lot about the current state of thinking on the American right.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 8, 2022

Opposition CDP submits no-confidence motions ahead of election

CDP leader Kenta Izumi has lambasted Lower House speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda over sexual harassment allegations and targeted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's response to price hikes.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2022

Here come the Jan. 6 hearings

No, these events won't change everything. And very few people will really be watching. But an awful lot is still at stake
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2022

The drug that could transform breast cancer treatment

The early success of Enhertu, from AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, bodes well for an entire class of medicines that may one day replace conventional chemotherapy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 7, 2022

Three years out, the verdict is still out on ‘Peak Japan’

The real test is yet to come. In the most optimistic telling, Japan turns its liabilities — a declining population in particular — into assets.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 7, 2022

Five things to know about the LDP going into election

The LDP is enjoying a wide approval margin over the opposition, with nearly a 35-point lead over its nearest competitor, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 7, 2022

Putin and COVID-19 may help Kishida keep Japan’s top job for years

Kishida's tough stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and cautious virus response have swung previously skeptical voters behind the former foreign minister.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2022

Rwanda deserves U.K. censure over handling of ‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero

The Biden administration is pushing back against President Kagame's treatment of u2018Hotel Rwanda' hero Paul Rusesabagina. Boris Johnson should do the same.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2022

Banking could go the way of news publishing

Tech giants pose a far bigger challenge to brick-and-mortar lenders than fintech startups that don't have the scale of platform businesses.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 6, 2022

U.K.'s Boris Johnson to face Tory leadership vote as 'partygate' angers MPs

Uncertainty over Johnson's future comes as Britons grapple with soaring energy bills and the highest inflation in four decades.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2022

Omicron is turning out to be a weak vaccine

Unvaccinated people who got COVID-19 last winter have little protection from reinfection, and even vaccinated people might be vulnerable after only a few months.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 4, 2022

Thousands swept up as Kremlin clamps down on war criticism

The arrests are a stark gauge of how Russia has intensified repression of critics. At least 50 people now face yearslong prison sentences.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 3, 2022

Long COVID takes toll as Japan patients seek answers

There are still a lot of unknowns about long COVID, including what exactly causes it and how best to treat it. But the scale of the problem alone is alarming.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 3, 2022

Beaming Queen Elizabeth waves to jubilee crowds, but will miss Friday service

The 96-year-old monarch appeared alongside her family, but the palace later said she had experienced a recurrence of mobility problems and some discomfort.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2022

South Korea eyes China with growing concern

China's territorial assertiveness and bullying are becoming harder for South Korea to ignore.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 2, 2022

The U.S. is sending advanced weapons to Ukraine. But conditions apply.

There is no question that the decision to give Ukraine the weapons they have requested for weeks marked a major escalation in the kind of military aid that Washington is providing.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2022

With 100 million refugees, the migrant crisis has barely begun

War and famine will make millions more take flight. And then comes climate change. How will the world cope?
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 1, 2022

Biden agrees to provide Ukraine with longer range missiles

The U.S. is providing Ukraine with high mobility artillery rocket systems after Ukraine gave 'assurances' they will not use the missiles to strike inside Russia.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 31, 2022

When will Kishida fully reopen Japan's borders?

A look at the political forces that have been driving Japan's draconian stance on incoming tourism for the past two years.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2022

America may be broken beyond repair

It will be impossible to do anything about guns in the country as long as Democrats depend on the cooperation of a party that holds in reserve the possibility of insurrection.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2022

The best outcome for Ukraine in this conflict

For the aggressor, Russia, it appears, all possible outcomes are shades of terrible — a sign of just how colossally Moscow miscalculated. For the defenders, most scenarios are also dire.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 30, 2022

For NATO, Turkey is a disruptive ally

Within an alliance that operates by consensus, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come to be seen as something of a stickup artist.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 30, 2022

Trump’s primary losses puncture his invincibility

With many of the former U.S. president's endorsed candidates falling to defeat in recent primaries, some Republicans see an opening for a post-Trump candidate in 2024.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2022

Why so few big rats have fled Putin’s ship

If the rats aren't running, Vladimir Putin's ship isn't sinking, at least not from the rats' point of view.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 28, 2022

Europe’s push to punish Putin is falling short of the rhetoric

Diplomats and officials are getting increasingly frustrated the EU may already be reaching the limits of the short-term pain it can inflict on Russia.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2022

Biden shores up U.S. alliances with Japan and South Korea

After four years of alliance management chaos under former U.S. President Donald Trump, the language and consideration used during Joe Biden's Asia trip were a change.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 27, 2022

Japan preparing to reopen to tourists, but industry's full recovery far off

The sector was a major driver of the economy prior to the pandemic, but the government's gradual approach and public division over reopening will stymie any rapid bounce back.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 25, 2022

Johnson must bear responsibility for U.K. party scandal, probe finds

The revelations in a report on the issue have the potential to undermine Prime Minister Boris Johnson, both within his ruling Tory party and especially among the wider electorate.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2022

The left and right’s terrible ideas for fixing the internet

The leading ideas from lawmakers are variously unworkable, unconstitutional, irrelevant and unserious, and many of them betraying a profound ignorance about how the internet actually works.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2022

Monkeypox isn’t looking like a COVID-sized threat

It's still early, but contact-tracing efforts and analysis of the virus's genome offer hope that this outbreak can be contained.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan