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Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 28, 2020

U.S. judge puts TikTok ban on hold as ByteDance claims overreach

The Justice Department cited an assessment by the FBI director that China poses the 'greatest long-term threat to our nation's information and intellectual property.”
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2020

Selling advanced fighter jets to the UAE is all about Israel

The problem with providing the F-35 to Arab states is it might erode Israel's QME, a U.S. assurance that it will not sell its most advanced arms to Israel's opponents.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2020

Modi bets the farm. It was about time.

Almost 9 out of 10 Indian farmers have less than five acres. A majority carry on reluctantly, barely able to scratch out a living.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Sep 27, 2020

Establishing resistance to overseas influence

With Beijing seeking to build power in other countries, Tokyo must get wise, without turning to anti-China sentiment.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 27, 2020

Amy Coney Barrett picked by Trump to push court further to right

The loss of liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the confirmation of the conservative Barrett, 48, could cement the court's rightward shift for a generation.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 26, 2020

The changing social narrative on Japan's entrenched gender roles

Little can be done as long as a country's cultural norms are built into a social structure that delineates gender roles.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2020

How COVID-19 is killing good manners

With social distancing now part of everyday life, simple actions like shaking hands may be consigned to history.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2020

Thailand’s leaders missing their teachable moment as education system falters

Teachers climb the ranks regardless of student results, so it's perhaps unsurprising that in both national tests and international lists, scores are grim.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 24, 2020

How Trump fell out of love with his generals, and why the feeling is mutual

The president has ridiculed his top generals, ignoring their advice on some key issues and questioning their intelligence, courage and commitment to their soldiers.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2020

Coal’s last refuge crumbles with China’s renewables plan

If Asia — and in particular China, which accounts for about half the world's coal consumption — can't break the habit, devastating climate change will be unavoidable.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2020

Blacklisting U.S. tech would highlight China’s own weakness

Pulling the trigger on such a threat could end up proving that the importance of the world's most populous country as a global buyer may be smaller than many imagine.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 22, 2020

China sharply expands mass labor program in Tibet

The program mirrors the one in the western Xinjiang region that rights groups have branded coercive labor.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2020

Don’t give up on recycling plastics

Fortunately for the world, the recycling industry has a history of transforming what was previously “unrecyclable” into useful products. It's poised to do so again.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Sep 22, 2020

You ought to know how 'beki' can help your Japanese

The negative 'bekarazu' structure may be old, but you can still find it in written Japanese with a strong prohibitive nuance attached to it.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 22, 2020

Trump to name Supreme Court pick by Saturday

Democrats' hope of keeping the seat empty faded when two Republican senators, Chuck Grassley and Cory Gardner, signaled their support for moving forward quickly.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2020

The 737 MAX debacle won’t be the end of Boeing

Is Boeing Co. capable of making commercial aircraft at all?
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 21, 2020

Abortion was on the back burner in the U.S. presidential race — not anymore

An all-out fight over the issue could further alienate the more moderate suburban voters both sides are competing for.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Sep 21, 2020

China’s rejection of Taiwan buffer zone raises risk of clash

The latest actions come as Beijing seeks to deter Taipei from continuing to deepen ties with the U.S. and other like-minded democracies.
Mexican defender Jorge Sanchez battles for the ball with Japan's midfielder Kaoru Mitoma during a friendly in Oakland, California, on Saturday.
SOCCER
Sep 7, 2025

Japan and Mexico play to goalless draw as World Cup preparations ramp up

A lively Japanese side could not break through against a Mexico team that lost captain Edson Alvarez when he hobbled out with an injury in the first half.
NASA says its satellite imagery shows the Earth is becoming drier — at least the parts where most people live.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2025

The Earth is drying out and we need to act urgently

Measurements from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites suggest the continents have been losing fresh water at an alarming rate since 2002.
Elon Musk takes part in a news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on May 30. Musk continues to dominate Tesla’s narrative, linking the company’s future to his vision of AI, robotics and autonomous technology.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2025

Tesla is offering Musk a trillion-dollar ransom

Elon Musk continues to dominate Tesla’s narrative, linking the company’s future to his vision of AI, robotics and autonomous technology.
Sexual abuse survivor Anouska de Georgiou speaks at a news conference on Wednesday on Capitol Hill in Washington, where she called where she called for the release of remaining files related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigations under the Epstein Files Transparency Bill.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2025

Jeffrey Epstein’s victims aren’t a hoax

Why was Jeffrey Epstein so protected? Who is still being protected? And who protected them all?
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 9, 2025

Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation

Sometimes it makes sense to act before the investigation is done.
Shigeru Ishiba’s brief, tumultuous prime ministership weakened Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, alienated conservatives and left the party scrambling to find a new leader capable of restoring credibility.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 9, 2025

Japan deserves far better leadership than this

While the country is mostly back where it was a year ago, the LDP is in a much weaker position.
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.
Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA founder, puts on a MAGA hat during an event in Phoenix, Arizona, in December 2024.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 11, 2025

Death of Charlie Kirk lays bare deep U.S. political divisions

His death left many of his fellow conservatives seething and blaming liberals for the assault, while Democrats largely kept to a more reserved tone.
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.

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