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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2021

When the fantasy of better battery science doesn’t match reality

The technical challenges of making better batteries (and therefore, electric vehicles) are enormous and the expectations associated with them are even more fantastical.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2021

The beautiful game has turned ugly in China

Pressure on embattled retailer Suning Appliance Group Co. forced the conglomerate to reconsider its investment in the team. China's soccer bubble is rapidly deflating.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2021

Trump’s not-quite-triumphant return

Trump sounded most sad and pathetic as he again circled back toward the Big Lie about the 2020 election.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2021

Clubhouse won over Elon Musk. Now it’s conquering the world.

With its stunning emergence this year, Clubhouse has already become the biggest U.S. social-media success story in nine years after the Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat era.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Feb 28, 2021

China expected to unveil hike in military budget as tensions rise

Beijing likely to reveal a robust increase in defense spending at the March 5 annual opening of its parliament, as its economy rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2021

Vaccine fears are crippling China’s COVID-19 fight

The country has so far managed to administer just 2.89 doses per 100 people (or 40.5 million shots), far behind the 19.33 doses for every 100 people in the United States.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 27, 2021

China punishes those who question ‘martyrs.’ A sleuth keeps track.

An online spreadsheet with an anonymous minder tabulates Xi Jinping's crackdown on speech.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2021

Twitter’s moment in the sun won’t last

Does Twitter deserve the benefit of the doubt? They may see something to cheer but, at least for now, I don't.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 26, 2021

Mori’s resignation highlights changing gender norms

Yoshiro Mori reportedly decided to resign immediately after the remarks. It was the secretariat of the organizing committee who strongly pleaded with him to stay in his position.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2021

Northern Ireland is the first test of the post-Brexit order

Trade deals, like peace agreements, aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on without good faith vested in their implementation.
Tokyo officials are pushing back against arguments that blame the dwindling national population partly on the concentration of people and businesses in the capital.
JAPAN / FOCUS
May 15, 2025

Regional revitalization faces Tokyo-countryside divide

Some blame Japan's dwindling national population partly on the concentration of people and businesses in the capital.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said the government will do all it can to raise wages, particularly for small and midsize businesses, which account for 70% of employment in Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 15, 2025

Japan to target 1% real wage gains within the next five years

The goal is based on the premise that stable and sustainable 2% inflation is in place.
Carlos Ghosn, then president and CEO of Nissan Motor and Renault, delivers a speech during an opening ceremony of a Nissan car factory in St. Petersburg in June 2009.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 15, 2025

Nissan is dying and taking globalization with it

Nissan is a Japanese business in name only: Despite accounting for 45% of jobs and about 35% of manufacturing assets, just 16% of sales are at home.
Japan's Shohei Ohtani carries the Japanese flag onto the field before the start of the World Baseball Classic final against the United States in Miami on March 21, 2023.
BASEBALL
May 15, 2025

Historian Rob Fitts discovers earliest ever reference to baseball in Japan

The widely held belief is that American Horace Wilson introduced the sport to Japan in 1872. Fitts' discovery revises the timeline to 1869.
The annual Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9 marks Russia's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 16, 2025

Russian nationalists call for Moscow to fight on in Ukraine

Analysts say the nationalists have been useful to the Kremlin, but those who make too much of a fuss about any eventual peace deal risk being purged.
Xander Schauffele pitches up to the green on the 10th hole during the first round of the PGA Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS
May 16, 2025

No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 3 Xander Schauffele blast PGA over 'mud balls'

The PGA of America said Wednesday it would not use preferred lies to allow players to lift, clean and place balls despite the rain dumped on the course.
Civic Coalition presidential candidate Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski speaks during an election rally in Krakow, Poland, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 16, 2025

In Poland, a presidential election with European stakes

The country's presidential elections come at a fraught moment for Europe, analysts said ahead of the first round of voting on Sunday.
A new U.S. citizen holds a U.S. flag after a naturalization ceremony in Boston on March 11.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2025

U.S. citizenship could soon look very different

Trump's vision tilts heavily toward the wealthy and well-to-do, with special shortcuts for them and barriers to entry for the rest.
Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, the presidential candidate of the Civic Coalition, and his wife, Malgorzata Trzaskowska, kiss following exit polls for the first round of Poland's presidential election, in Sandomierz, Poland, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
May 19, 2025

Polish centrist's narrow presidential lead leaves pro-EU path in balance

If confirmed, the result would mean Rafal Trzaskowski and Karol Nawrocki will go head-to-head in a runoff vote on June 1.
A Rheinmetall  Leopard 2 tank production line in Unterluess, Germany. The country's new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has pledged to make the Bundeswehr Europe’s strongest army, marking a sharp departure from post–Cold War pacifism and sparking economic optimism rather than fear.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 19, 2025

German rearmament is a welcome 'war dividend'

Merz’s planned arms buildup means the definitive end to the "peace dividend” that the Western world had enjoyed since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Pakistan's Chinese-made J-10C fighter jets fly over Islamabad in March 2024. Claims that Chinese fighter jets downed advanced Western-made Indian aircraft in recent clashes have caught investors' attention, raising prospects for increased arms sales for Beijing.
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2025

China’s defense industry is getting a DeepSeek moment

Investors are reassessing Beijing’s military capacity and potential to rise as an arms exporter.
Moody’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating reflects growing concern over Washington’s unwillingness to confront rising debt, soaring deficits and interest costs — even as global investors keep piling into Treasuries.
COMMENTARY
May 19, 2025

Moody’s tells us what we already know about U.S. debt

Take the firm’s decision to strip the country of its top AAA credit rating seriously, not literally.
Indonesian President Prabowo delivers a speech during a May Day rally in Jakarta on May 1.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 19, 2025

In Indonesia, fears grow that new history books may rewrite dark past

The 10-volume series would have an Indonesia-centric narrative and aims "to reinvent the Indonesian identity," Culture Minister Fadli Zon said.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te (center) and Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (right) take part in a flag-raising ceremony at the Presidential Office in Taipei, on Jan. 1.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 19, 2025

Taiwan's Lai Ching-te tied up by political chaos after year in office

Analysts say the current dysfunction is distracting lawmakers and eroding public confidence — to the benefit of Beijing.
Nipppon Ishin no Kai members submit to the Lower House on Monday a bill to give legal validity to maiden names.
JAPAN / Politics
May 19, 2025

Nippon Ishin submits bill to give legal validity to maiden names

The DPP is preparing its own bill and Komeito plans to wait for the LDP to consolidate party opinion on the issue.
Tomomi Bitoh, seen crossing the finish line in Antarctica, on the first stop of the World Marathon Challenge, is one of the very few Japanese athletes to speak publicly about her experience with egg freezing.
MORE SPORTS
May 19, 2025

The race for more time: Japanese runner decided to freeze eggs for her future

More women in Japan are expressing interest or following through with freezing their eggs in recent years, but only a few athletes in Japan have spoken about it publicly.
Ursula von der Leyen (left), president of the European Commission, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (center) and Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, visit the HMS Sutherland frigate as part of the U.K.-EU summit in London on Monday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
May 20, 2025

Britain’s big EU reset turns out to be just the start of talks

Most of the "renewed agenda” unveiled at a summit in London amounted to an agreement to keep negotiating.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers an address to mark the first anniversary of his inauguration at the Presidential Office in Taipei on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 20, 2025

Taiwan willing to talk to China, Lai says, as island boosts defenses

Lai, a staunch defender of Taiwan's sovereignty and detested by Beijing, delivered wide-ranging remarks on the need "to prepare for war to avoid war."
A lot at a Nissan plant in Mexico. The company may have overextended itself during the Ghosn era.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
May 20, 2025

Nissan’s troubles might go all the way back to Ghosn 

Some analysts argue that aggressive expansion by the iconoclastic executive left the company overextended.

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