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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2020

What Bitcoin's new record means for Wall Street

Bitcoin won't be viewed as an existential threat to the banking system just because its price is soaring. But it won't be ignored either.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2020

Progressives may not like Biden’s foreign policy

Biden has signaled that his national security cabinet will be more centrist than the left flank of his party would like.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 1, 2020

I'm sorry, but I think you can complain a little bit better than that

Japanese is well-known for being an indirect language, but that doesn't mean you can't make your dissatisfaction with a situation clear to others.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2020

Warp speed for clean energy? That won't work.

It might it be easier for the government to subsidize battery research, rather than pre-ordering particular battery units for later distribution? Maybe so, and it would be smart policy.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 30, 2020

Iran says it won’t fall into trap of scuttling any U.S. talks

Iran has vowed it won’t "fall into the trap” of scuppering any future talks with a new U.S. administration following the assassination of a top nuclear scientist.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 30, 2020

Hong Kong’s courts are still independent. Some want to rein them in.

As the Chinese Communist Party extends its grip over Hong Kong, pro-Beijing forces are increasingly targeting the city's independent judiciary.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2020

Iranian nuclear scientist killing will have fallout

The killing certainly has some of the hallmarks of a campaign of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, attributed to Israel: four were killed between 2010 and 2012.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 29, 2020

Trump comes to grips with his loss while fundraising off outcry

U.S. President Donald Trump is aware his fight to overturn the election is winding down, according to people familiar with the matter, but he isn’t ready to end the effort as he fundraises off the furor, directing much of the proceeds to his political action committee.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2020

There will be a price to pay for making vaccines too expensive

Most rich-country governments have produced pandemic-response packages that are sharply nationalist and inward-looking.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2020

Coronavirus is helping African economies compete

Africa's 54 countries now include seven of the globe's 10 fastest-growing economies, in part because the lethal virus may have improved their competitive advantage.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 27, 2020

Hungary and Poland hold EU budget to ransom over rule of law condition

Brussels is investigating the two countries over democratic backsliding, making them prime candidates for cuts to funding that could top a combined u20ac180 billion.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Nov 27, 2020

Kim Jong Un likely to let his missiles do the talking with Biden

Having branded the president-elect an 'imbecile,' Pyongyang has made clear that it prefers dealing with Trump.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2020

What a 95% effective vaccine could do is pretty exciting

A rough estimate based on the infectiousness of COVID-19 is that about 70% of the population would have to be immune for its spread to slow without any other preventative measures.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2020

Beyond Meat takes on tough rival in China: tofu

Beyond Meat Inc., the U.S. maker of plant-based burgers and sausages, announced a new product designed to crack China, the world's biggest meat market: imitation ground pork.
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Jul 20, 2025

Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate

The debate over the damage sunscreens cause to the marine environment is heating up as some regions ban certain chemical ingredients.
Canada’s Couche-Tard has abandoned its bid for Japan’s Seven & I, easing fears it would ruin the beloved convenient store experience, while giving the company a chance to refocus and strengthen its business.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 18, 2025

The bid for Japan’s 7-Eleven was doomed from the start

Seven & I ’s more measured response shows the company is ready to move on.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, leaves at the party's headquarters following announcement of Upper House election result projections in Tokyo early Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

Japan ruling bloc loses majority in Upper House after election drubbing

The ruling LDP-Komeito coalition's devastating loss in Sunday’s poll could lead to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s resignation or political gridlock in parliament.
England's Jess Carter attends a news conference in June.
SOCCER
Jul 21, 2025

England's Jess Carter receives racist abuse during Euro 2025

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer posted his support for Carter on X.
Modern global politics, marked by personal rivalries, nickname-driven rhetoric and apocalyptic religious fervor, resembles a “re-medievalization” that challenges the ideals of the Enlightenment.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2025

The Middle Ages are making a political comeback

Increasingly medieval language from the world’s leaders does not bode well for the rest of us.
Peruvian chef Mitsuharu Tsumura’s restaurant Maido in Lima was named the best restaurant on the planet on June 19 by the influential “World's 50 Best Restaurants” list.
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2025

Why there isn’t a best chef in the world

Awards are one thing but the culinary universe has no real center. For that you can thank two chefs.
The EU flag and Meta logo in an illustration from 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 22, 2025

Meta, X and LinkedIn appeal unprecedented VAT claim by Italy

Italian tax authorities argue that free user registrations with X, LinkedIn and Meta platforms should be seen as taxable transactions.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a news conference at Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday, a day after his coalition lost its Upper House majority.
COMMENTARY
Jul 22, 2025

Ishiba loses his ‘mandate from heaven’

After Sunday’s humiliation at the polls, whatever mandate from heaven Ishiba once commanded is lost.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba looks on after meeting with the Liberal Democratic Party executives at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 23, 2025

Ishiba denies reports he will resign next month, leaving his fate unclear

Some media outlets had reported that the prime minister was poised to step down in the coming weeks.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to London earlier this month to meet with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer shows how a changing Europe and shifting global threats could let Britain move past Brexit and help shape a new European security order.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2025

Britain and Europe are changing together

Britain can help shape the continent’s new security order, so long as it banishes the Brexit mindset.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who is unable to satisfy his supporters’ demands for answers he can’t deliver, is now trapped by the very Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy he once promoted.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2025

Trump can’t put the Epstein genie back in the bottle

Trump now finds himself in the unusual position of trying to stuff the Epstein genie back into a bottle that he helped uncork.
London’s worsening disorder — from soaring petty crime to reckless delivery riders and rising drug use — reflects a decades-old pattern of authorities and citizens normalizing lawlessness.
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2025

What turning a blind eye to deviant behavior is doing to London

The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, needs to take growing disorder on the streets more seriously.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade deal opening Japan to U.S. auto exports sounds big but means little in practice because American carmakers don’t make what Japanese consumers want, such as the Honda N-Box, the nation's best-selling model.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 24, 2025

Japan trade deal offers U.S. automakers relief, not new markets

The peculiar tastes of America’s consumers put its vehicles at a disadvantage overseas that tariffs won’t fix.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s last-minute trade deal with the U.S. may calm tariff fears but has cost him politically, leaving Japan’s ruling party divided and his leadership on the brink.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 24, 2025

‘Mr. Japan’ bends the knee — and falls on his sword

Shigeru Ishiba’s trade deal with Donald Trump will be his last act as leader

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