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Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Mar 7, 2022

Municipal assemblies in Japan face shortage of candidates

Younger generations are seen to be shunning local assemblies because of members' precarity and low remuneration.
JAPAN / Politics / EXPLAINER
Dec 15, 2020

Heavyweight Nikai and his scandal-plagued LDP faction ruffling feathers

Allegations of bribery against two former farm ministers now threaten to weaken the Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction and its powerful leader.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 6, 2016

Consensus rule blunts ASEAN's effectiveness

Although the requirement that all decisions be made by consensus enables disparate member states to unite while protecting their national interests, it also limits ASEAN's effectiveness in dealing with emerging security threats.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2004

Would permanent UNSC seat beget more responsible Japan?

OSAKA -- Becoming a permanent member of an expanded United Nations Security Council could force Japan to become a more responsible international player.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2004

Japan to accelerate push for permanent UNSC seat

When United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan met with Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in Egypt's Sharm el Sheikh last week, he playfully asked whether the so-called G4 nations' campaigning for U.N. Security Council reform stands for the "Gang of Four."
Japan Times
JAPAN / 50 years of ASEAN
Aug 9, 2017

Working to boost regional business

The year 2017 is a landmark for the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which was established half a century ago.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / AEC SPECIAL
Jan 29, 2016

Working to optimize relationships

Japan welcomes the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community, or AEC, as the prosperity of the Association of South East Asian Nations is expected to also benefit Japan, the world's third-largest economy.
JAPAN / Politics / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Apr 10, 2023

Harassment of women in politics is rampant in Kyushu, survey finds

The text-based survey found that more than half of the 145 female members of prefectural and municipal assemblies surveyed had experienced some form of harassment in their work.
JAPAN / Politics / EXPLAINER
Aug 27, 2021

Off to the races: LDP presidential election campaign begins

A number of challengers to Suga are beginning to emerge, with Fumio Kishida currently being the prime minister's strongest rival.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 20, 2015

Japan bears a greater responsibility at the U.N.

No country is better positioned to serve as a 'bridge' between the U.N. Security Council and the general U.N. membership than Japan, given its leading experience as a non-permanent member of the UNSC.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 13, 2023

A showdown in Jamaica is deciding the fate of the deep ocean

Seabed mining has the potential to become a trillion-dollar industry as the transition to electric vehicles spurs demand for metals like cobalt and nickel.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio shakes hands with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers meeting at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.
WORLD
Apr 3, 2025

U.S. to remain in NATO, Rubio says, but higher defense spending needed

Rubio said Washington’s goal is for member states to prioritize defense spending to enable the alliance to become “stronger and more viable.”
The skyline during sunset in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Japan's new underground criminal groups operate under a highly organized and brutal system.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 10, 2025

How police are cracking down on 'scout' sex broker groups

Major scout groups are under scrutiny, as authorities uncover a far more systematized and sinister network than previously imagined.
The incoming and outgoing presidents of Johnny & Associates, Noriyuki Higashiyama and Julie Keiko Fujishima, bow at a press conference on Sept. 7.
PODCAST / deep dive
Sep 14, 2023

Johnny’s talent agency has admitted to a past of abuse. What next?

Karin Kaneko joins the show to update us on how the story is unfolding.
Leaves of marijuana plants from which hemp fibers are extracted at Japan's largest legal marijuana farm in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, on July 5, 2016
PODCAST / deep dive
Sep 21, 2023

Does a university cannabis scandal point to a larger trend?

A drugs scandal at Japan’s biggest university draws attention to a troubling statistic: Cannabis use among young people is on the rise.
Finnish Army conscripts with the 2nd Military Police Company during a training exercise in a suburb of Helsinki on Sept. 6. After decades of going it alone in security issues, Finns are finding that life in a large alliance is complex, expensive and deeply political.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 26, 2023

Finland raced to join NATO. What happens next is complicated.

The country must integrate itself into the alliance and its requirement of collective defense — with all of its financial, legal and strategic hurdles.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2023

Drug scandal at Nihon University American football club seen spreading

The university suspended the football club's activities indefinitely in August following the arrest of one person the same month over cannabis.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield addresses an emergency session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the United Nations headquarters on Oct. 27.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2023

Where’s the United Nations in all this? Oh, right, nowhere.

In times of crisis, the United Nations turns into a Babel in which everybody distrusts everybody else and finding common ground becomes impossible.
China's dominance in the electric vehicle market has prompted the European Union to take action regarding economic security.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Nov 7, 2023

How electric vehicles became subject to EU economic security

The bloc has felt the pressure from China in the EV market, leading it to take steps to better protect vehicles, batteries and materials.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks at a news conference following the central bank's policy meeting on Oct. 31.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 9, 2023

BOJ debated groundwork for future easy-policy exit at meeting

The October discussions highlight how the central bank is looking to exit its decade-long accommodative regime.
An pride flag is seen under a rubber door mat at an entrance to a basement of an office building in Kherson, Ukraine, in 2022.
WORLD / Society
Nov 14, 2023

Can EU talks boost LGBTQ+ rights in Ukraine, Moldova and Bosnia?

Several candidate countries have faced criticism over lack of protecting LGBTQ+ rights.
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Dec 2, 2023

The entertainment story of the year is long overdue

As entertainment heavyweights Johnny & Associates and Takarazuka Revue are hit by scandals, hope for reform emerges with changing attitudes toward abuse.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 3, 2023

Second LDP faction suspected of breaching political fund law

The allegation came after a similar practice at the faction previously led by the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to light recently.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen arrives at the U.K. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, Britain, on Nov. 2.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 6, 2023

EU set to hold talks to finalize agreement on world's first AI law

Brussels wants a legal armory to protect EU citizens' rights, while some member states worry that too much regulation will stifle innovation.
Incoming Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi arrives at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 14, 2023

Kishida axes Abe faction members from government over funds scandal

In replacing nearly a dozen ministers and officials, the prime minister is attempting to contain the worst crisis of his administration so far.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 19, 2023

Prosecutors search sites linked to scandal-hit LDP factions

Prosecutors searched the biggest faction, once led by late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and another led by former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 8, 2024

Storage media from offices of arrested LDP lawmaker were found damaged

Prosecutors believe that Yoshitaka Ikeda or his staff damaged the storage media in an attempt to destroy evidence.
A man photographs parts of an unidentified missile on Saturday, which Ukrainian authorities believe to have been made in North Korea and which was used in a strike in Kharkiv earlier this week.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 11, 2024

Ukraine is 'test site' for North Korean missiles: Seoul

Moscow and Pyongyang have both denied conducting any arms deals but they vowed last year to deepen military relations.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 16, 2024

Abe faction's seven senior members won't be prosecuted, reports say

Proving a criminal conspiracy between them and the group's treasurer to not report excess income from fundraising parties has been deemed too difficult by investigators.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Jan. 4.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 20, 2024

Kishida takes risky gamble by dissolving LDP faction

Members of the factions led by LDP Vice President Taro Aso and Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi have resisted following suit, potentially endangering the PM.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?