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November 05, 2025
 

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Candidates for Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election stand together on stage before a debate in Tokyo in September 2024. Pictured are future Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Yoshimasa Hayashi, Sanae Takaichi, Shinjiro Koizumi and others. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 9, 2025

Ishiba’s resignation triggers a battle for the soul of the LDP

To become the next prime minister, the new LDP leader will also need to secure enough support from one or two of the other larger conservative opposition parties.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba holds a news conference on Sunday in Tokyo where he announced his resignation.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 10, 2025

The Liberal Democratic Party’s internal coup is complete

Ishiba came into the prime ministership last year with the odds already stacked against him. The LDP was a fractured party with waning public support.
Chinese DF-61 intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles are displayed during a military parade in Beijing, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II on Sept. 3. 
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2025

The global nuclear picture grows darker and darker

It’s hard, if not impossible, to escape the conclusion that the world is in a grim place when measured by nuclear metrics.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents execute an enforcement operation at a Hyundai-LG electric vehicle battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia on Sept. 4.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2025

The ICE raid on the Georgia Hyundai plant makes no sense

The raid antagonized U.S. ally South Korea, a country that had signed a $350 billion trade pact with U.S. President Donald Trump just weeks earlier.
Soldiers walk next to a site where a roof of a house was destroyed after suspected Russian drones violated Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine, in Wyryki, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland, on Wednesday.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Sep 11, 2025

Suspected Russian incursion in Poland raises drone defense questions for NATO

NATO’s more traditional air defense systems were designed to protect against missiles and manned aircraft.
Children walk past Nepal's Parliament house in Kathmandu Thursday, just days after it was set on fire by protesters angered by a social media ban and government corruption.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2025

Gen-Z protesters across Asia are challenging the old guard

On Tuesday, Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned after two days of demonstrations over a sweeping social-media ban.
This damaged drone was found in a field near the eastern Polish village of Czosnowka on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2025

Lessons for NATO after Putin sends drones over Poland

The U.S. and Europe have a lot to learn from Russia’s warning shot.
Geopolitical shifts, technological transformation and climate change are reshaping, not reversing, globalization.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2025

What happens next to globalization?

For starters, the rise of China and other economies is bringing an end to the postwar world order dominated by the United States.
A soldier on a tank waves an Israeli flag amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas near the Israel-Gaza border in January 2024. 
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2025

War responsibility across borders and generations

The Asia-Pacific War is often remembered for the culpability of leaders, but this overlooks the multitudes who filled the ranks below.
Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attends a funeral Thursday in Doha for Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike on Hamas members in the city days earlier.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2025

Israel’s Doha strike has destroyed American credibility

After decades of enjoying impunity for its violations of international law and norms, Israel no longer even hesitates to do whatever it wants.
False social media stories about Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba planning mass immigration obscure Japan’s real and growing reliance on foreign labor.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 12, 2025

Japan needs an immigration debate, not social media myths

There’s no mass immigration from the Global South into Japan, though you might not know that if you primarily consume your news on social media.
Australia’s plan to ban under-16s from using social media, including YouTube, has reignited debate over how best to protect kids online.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 14, 2025

Banning teens from YouTube won’t keep them safe

Part of the reason YouTube’s inclusion has struck such a nerve is because it’s impossible to overstate how intertwined it has become with pop culture.
People attend a vigil in Provo, Utah, on Friday to honor slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. The killing of Kirk is highlighting the deep asymmetry in American politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 14, 2025

Is violence policy in Donald Trump’s new America?

This does not mean that the U.S. is sliding toward civil war, though some appear to be itching for it and might feel well-prepared.
China is reshaping its AI strategy by backing domestic chipmakers and pushing startups to raise funds through stock markets, with the goal of reducing reliance on Nvidia and creating self-sufficient supply chains.
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2025

China gets closer to finding its own Nvidia

Cambricon has become a stock market darling, precisely because investors recognize China has a good chance to take market share in inference chips.
Japan’s high-tech toilets, from bidets to innovative public lavatories, offer a unique lens through which to explore the country’s culture, technology and even soft power.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 16, 2025

‘Perfect Days’ spent pondering the Japanese potty

The Japanese toilet is an engineering and technological marvel that transforms daily ablutions.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announces his intention to resign during a news conference at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo on Sept. 7. The Japanese leader decided to step down following weeks of calls for his departure in the aftermath of a second national election setback. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 16, 2025

Can anyone save the fracturing Liberal Democratic Party?

This is shaping up to be an even less predictable race than the last one, when Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba pulled off a surprise victory.
U.S. soldiers participate in the Freedom Shield joint U.S.-South Korea exercise near the North Korean border in Yeoncheon, South Korea, in March.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Sep 16, 2025

Trump 2.0 and the U.S.-South Korea alliance

Debate in Seoul over the future of the U.S.-South Korea alliance has intensified since Trump returned to the White House
Australia’s past economic “golden ages” show how bold reforms drove growth, but policymakers now face the challenge of boosting productivity and preparing the nation for a more competitive global environment.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 16, 2025

Can Australia achieve a third economic golden age?

The ’80s and ’90s were the heydays of reform. The challenge now is how to move forward.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin meet in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15. Putin is growing vulnerable, but Trump’s wavering and Europe’s divisions risk wasting the chance to end the Ukraine war.
COMMENTARY
Sep 17, 2025

Did Putin finally overplay his hand with Ukraine?

Vladimir Putin grows vulnerable, but Donald Trump’s wavering and Europe’s divisions risk squandering the chance to force an end to the war.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi, Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong at the State Department in January.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2025

Japan and India must anchor America in the Indo-Pacific

Neither Japan or India possess the military strength to counter China independently.
Despite centuries of overfishing and ecological collapse, the recovery of tuna stocks shows that strong regulation and economic self-interest can make once-endangered species sustainably abundant again.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 16, 2025

Tuna sushi is safe from extinction, for now

With the exception of Mediterranean albacore (a favorite of Spanish canneries) and bigeye in the Indian Ocean, every population is now being fished within sustainable levels.
A woman passes a graffitied wall outside Nepal's torched Parliament in Kathmandu on Sunday. The country's new leader, Sushila Karki, vowed the same day to follow protesters' demands to "end corruption" as she began work as interim prime minister.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2025

Why Nepal’s new power brokers should worry India and China

If India and China continue treating Nepal primarily as a geopolitical pawn, they risk alienating future leaders.
AI systems will never be true friends, companions or agents — they are data-driven tools that can help us but must never replace real human connection or moral judgment.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2025

Artificial intelligence is not your friend

But despite the industry’s bold claims, today’s data-based systems lack the capacity for moral reasoning required to guide real-world decision-making.
Polls suggest a head-to-head contest in the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential race, but powerbrokers may sideline veteran contenders to engineer a youth-versus-youth showdown that could reshape both the party and Japan’s political landscape.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 18, 2025

Whiteboarding the LDP election

As I whiteboard the election scenarios, Koizumi vs. Takaichi is the most obvious race.
A U.S. flag flies at half mast in front of the White House on Sept. 11 in honor of Charlie Kirk, a right-wing activist who was fatally shot the previous day at an event at a university in Orem, Utah. The tragedy comes as the Trump administration shutters terrorism-prevention programs despite rising extremist violence.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2025

Why is Trump killing programs designed to prevent terrorism?

Political violence is rising worldwide while the Trump administration dismantles prevention programs, weakening U.S. security and global counterterrorism efforts.
Candidates take part in the Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership race in September 2024 at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, including many of the contenders for next month’s contest. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 19, 2025

LDP candidates through a 'Japanese conservative' lens

The three key elements of Japanese conservatism are preserving national identity and traditions, sustaining the imperial succession and affirming the Self-Defense Forces’ role.
Channing Tatum, one of the English-language voice actors, and others attend the premiere of “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle” at the TCL Chinese 6 Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 9. Japanese anime has surged from niche fandom to global box-office powerhouse with the latest “Demon Slayer” installment.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 19, 2025

Anime’s ‘Demon Slayer’ hit is a watershed for Japan

Its animation finally has a global box-office smash. Now the country must capitalize on it.
A woman carries a portrait of a relative killed in clashes with security forces while joining a protest march moving toward the prime minister's office in Kathmandu on Sept. 13.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2025

Nepal’s Gen Z protests and humanity’s shared future

This is not Nepal's story alone. It is a reminder that the future isn’t inherited but forged by today’s youth.
Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, visits Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Aug. 19.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 21, 2025

The world needs Japan’s leadership in life sciences

For decades now, Japan has understood the value of global health investment better than almost any other country on the planet.
A crude oil tanker berths at an oil terminal, off Waidiao Island in Zhoushan, China. The country’s large-scale oil stockpiling is driven by cheap prices, expanded storage, new legal mandates, energy security worries and efforts to diversify away from U.S. assets.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2025

Why is China stockpiling so much oil?

In problem-solving, the principle of Occam’s razor recommends searching for the simplest explanation. So perhaps the answer is as straightforward as "because it’s cheap.”
More Japanese universities pushing toward teaching in English
Waseda University in Tokyo
The unstoppable rise of konbini tourism
Guests typically follow Ryo Ito’s lead as he weaves through the narrow, colorful aisles of convenience stores.
A narrow Pacific waterway at heart of U.S. plans to choke China’s vast navy
Philippine and Australian troops fire an M777 howitzer during live fire exercises as part of joint military drills in Laur, Nueva Ecija, the Philippines, in August.
The second life of Japan's net cafes
Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
Takaichi’s balancing act: Supporting Taiwan and stabilizing China ties
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi shakes hands with Lin Hsin-i, Taiwan’s presidential adviser, on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Saturday in this image posted to Takaichi's official X account.
More Japanese universities pushing toward teaching in English
Waseda University in Tokyo
Young Indonesians in Japan find their political voice
Indonesian students at Hiroshima University hold posters of the 17+8 Demands, demanding transparency and action from their homeland’s government.
The unstoppable rise of konbini tourism
Guests typically follow Ryo Ito’s lead as he weaves through the narrow, colorful aisles of convenience stores.
Kenshi Yonezu, 'Chainsaw Man' and the art of pop ubiquity
Kenshi Yonezu's “Iris Out” was an instant hit when it dropped in September. Its association with smash anime "Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc" has spread it to even more people.

Podcast

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

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes
By Alex K.T. Martin

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