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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2021

India’s COVID-19 crisis threatens a global oil recovery

Stay-at-home advisories are likely to hit motor fuels, which until now had been supported by a mass switch from public transport to private cars and motorbikes.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2021

The two sides of Chinese GDP

And the key takeaway here is that China remains a poor country, despite its phenomenal headline GDP growth over the past four decades.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 1, 2021

Hate speech can’t be met with indifference and ignorance

When the head of DHC began making anti-Korean comments, many news outlets decided it was just better not to talk about it.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2021

Science shows why simplifying is hard and complicating is easy

Spotting solutions that are simple and elegant, in other words, requires mental effort or what the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman calls slow as opposed to fast thinking.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 1, 2021

Japan's political state of play following the by-elections

The LDP's inability to pick up seats in the by-elections was unsurprising; after all, two of those seats were only up for election because of highly publicized scandals.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2021

Marine Le Pen doubles Macron's pandemic pressure

Emmanuel Macron's voter base of affluent urban white-collar workers still supports him, but his push for economic reform and European integration no longer resonates.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2021

Kick Russia out of the Iran nuclear talks

Zarif says that Russia 'put all its weight” against the deal because, as the Times dryly explains, 'it was not in Moscow's interests for Iran to normalize relations with the West.”
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2021

When the CEO’s son makes $3 million, I worry

Transactions with related parties, which include both relatives of and entities controlled by company insiders, have a long and checkered history.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2021

The myth of America’s Anglo-Saxon political traditions

America's founding fathers were well aware of the Saxon theory — Thomas Jefferson studied the subject — but they didn't emphasize it publicly.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2021

The pandemic will be more deadly this year — particularly for India

The more people infected in emerging countries, the more opportunities COVID-19 will have to develop into fresh strains and prolong this death and misery.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2021

As satellites proliferate, telescopes go dark

Satellites reflect sunlight, causing bright trails across the night sky, which in turn can impede crucial observations or corrupt astronomical data.
U.S. President Donald Trump's deal-focused approach to diplomacy may prevent a hostile China-Russia-North Korea-Iran alliance, but weakens U.S. global leadership.
COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2025

The art of the deal meets a four-power axis

Trump's deal-focused approach may prevent a hostile China-Russia-North Korea-Iran alliance but weakens U.S. global leadership.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney greets colleagues after at a news conference at the Port of Montreal in Montreal on Friday.
WORLD
Mar 29, 2025

Trump and Carney talk about new deal and plan meeting after Canada election

The Canadian election campaign has turned into a contest in which U.S. threats against Canada’s economy and sovereignty have become the dominant issue.
Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre speaks at a rally in Surrey, British Columbia, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 30, 2025

Trump drama drowns out Canadian Conservatives’ election message

Trump has drowned out the debate on domestic issues with his barrage of tariffs and proclamations that the country should be the 51st U.S. state.
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore speaks during a news conference in Paris on Saturday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mar 30, 2025

Trump can't stop 'sustainability revolution': Al Gore

Gore also condemned the administration's treatment of universities and student activists, but said the tide is turning.
Christian worshippers take part in a Good Friday procession as they carry a cross with a Jesus statue in the town of Klayaa, in southern Lebanon, on March 29, 2024.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2025

Can the Jesus of history support the Christ of faith?

I would not expect a non-Christian writer to simply embrace the thesis that events in the New Testament did mostly happen as related.
Relatives and friends of prominent Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who died after she was injured by a Russian missile strike in the city of Kramatorsk, attend her funeral in Kyiv on July 4, 2023.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2025

Contemplating victory and defeat in Ukraine

Ukrainians and their friends still cling to hope for victory — some are idealistic, others just fueled by anger.
A woman holds a poster of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol during a street rally in Seoul on Saturday, ahead of the impeachment verdict for the president.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 1, 2025

South Korea to rule on President Yoon’s impeachment on Friday

If the impeachment is upheld, then Yoon will immediately lose power and an election to replace him will be held within 60 days.
A Buddhist monk walks past the damaged Mandalay Palace on Monday. The country's ruling military junta can repeat the mistakes of 17 years ago by blocking aid after Cyclone Nargis left 140,000 dead or allow urgent assistance to flow freely.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2025

The quake in Myanmar should force the junta’s hand

The ousted civilian administration initiated a two-week ceasefire in quake-hit areas to allow aid to reach victims. It doesn’t look like the junta will do the same.
America’s economic exceptionalism has traditionally been driven by its deep capital markets, culture of risk-taking, history of innovation and the dollar’s status as the world’s primary reserve currency.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2025

Is this really how American exceptionalism ends?

Uncertainty around trade and the future strength of the dollar has led some big European investors to retreat from American stocks.
An anti-Trump sign is pictured during a rally against gender-based and sexual violence against women, in Paris in 2018.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2025

Anti-American sentiment rises in Europe as Trump fuels anger

There’s currently no country in Europe where more than half of the population has a positive attitude toward the U.S.
Japanese cars awaiting export at a port in Yokohama. The United States will start collecting new 25% import duties on cars and car parts from Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 2, 2025

Japan has some cards to play in trade war with the United States 

It could offer voluntary restraints on exports, or it could offer to buy more from the U.S. in order to reduce the trade surplus with that country.
The bus stop sign for the Ghibli Museum at Mitaka Station. The viral trend of AI-generated Ghibli-style images reflects both a longing for comfort in uncertain times and the ongoing debate over AI’s impact on art.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 2, 2025

For a brief moment, everything was Ghibli

ChatGPT will make almost anything Ghibli-ish, but it won’t draw Totoro.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is reasserting military influence in politics, pushing fiscal policies that challenge long-standing restraints and accelerating democratic backsliding — moves that are causing economic instability and political unease.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2025

Prabowo tries to remake Indonesia, but at what cost?

The economic and political pillars that emerged after the turmoil of 1998 are in peril. Markets are rightly apprehensive. 
Michael Johnson (center) believes Grand Slam Track will be a landmark moment for track and field.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Apr 3, 2025

Michael Johnson's ambitious Grand Slam Track series prepares for first event

The circuit gets under way in Kingston on Friday.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order after delivering remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event titled "Make America Wealthy Again" at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 4, 2025

‘Liberation Day’ will weigh heavily on the world

While some nations will fight U.S. tariffs, Japan is among those more likely to make a deal.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Osaka in 2019. With his global tariffs announcement, Trump may have undercut his own China strategy.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 4, 2025

Trump's global trade war may defeat U.S. strategic goals on China

Tariffs could cause an economic moat to form around the U.S. that ultimately undermines Washington's strategic goals on Beijing, analysts warn.
While tariffs and value-added taxes seem similar, a VAT would be a more effective, long-term solution for boosting the U.S. economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2025

Europe’s VAT hurts the U.S.? Retaliate with a VAT.

Maybe misconceptions about tariffs and trade can be turned to America’s advantage.

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