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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 13, 2023

Unpacking the limits to Japan’s military awakening

Japan must find ways to frustrate China's furtive efforts to alter the regional status quo while avoiding the risk of open combat.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2023

Prime Minister Kishida’s 2023 survival strategy

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has a tough road ahead, but he is politically savvy and has been adept at making the moves necessary to remain in office so far.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2022

Are Putin and Xi in decline? Populism and autocracy still have deep resources.

Liberal democracy is still imperiled, despite all the recent cheerfulness from enemies of authoritarianism.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 28, 2022

Haruhiko Kuroda spent 2022 showing the courage to be disliked

Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda ticked nearly everyone off in a chaotic year. He won't care.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2022

Don’t turn your hobby into a side hustle

It's not good for our mental health to assess the potential profitability of every pastime.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Women at Work
Dec 27, 2022

Battling the odds to rise to the top: One woman's career in the IT sector

Yuki Shingu found taking a career break to help nurse her ailing father gave her a broader perspective on her rise through company ranks.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 26, 2022

Kishida Cabinet unpopular among young people, survey shows

Approval ratings for Kishida's Cabinet tend to drop as the ages of the respondents go down, according to the results of the opinion poll.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2022

Java without java? The crisis brewing in coffee

The Indonesian island is a byword for caffeine. The woes piling up for the coffee industry are on full display.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 13, 2022

Is Japan’s counterstrike capability a departure from its post-WWII pacifism?

What is the future of Japan's defense-oriented security posture amid growing military threats and a worsening geopolitical environment?
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 30, 2022

U.S. Senate passes same-sex marriage bill with bipartisan support

The bill, named the Respect for Marriage Act, passed with 12 Republicans joining all Democrats present in support.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2022

Is the clock running out for the prime minister?

Will Prime Minister Fumio Kishida be able to recover from his political troubles, or is he on a path to join the party's long list of short-lived prime ministers?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2022

Republicans misjudged the power of abortion rights

Republicans found out in the U.S. midterms that reproductive freedom is as much a core issue as inflation.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 26, 2023

My Number woes put digital minister Taro Kono under pressure

Another misstep could deal a further blow to the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and jeopardize the political standing of Kono.
Former U.S. President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump arrives to speak at an event in West Palm Beach, Florida, on July 15.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 2, 2023

Indictment could push Trump closer to 2024 Republican nomination

The former U.S. president has made the indictments a central plank of his campaign platform, portraying himself as the target of a biased justice system.
A demonstration is held in Hong Kong on Thursday over the release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 24, 2023

The Fukushima hysteria has a lesson for the nuclear renaissance

From the reaction prior to the Fukushima release across Asia, you’d think Tokyo was embarking on a program to poison the region’s water supplies.
The Black unemployment rate fell to 5% in March, the lowest level ever recorded in the monthly data, but then rose to 6% in June, showing how erratic it can be.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2023

The mysterious fall and rise of Black unemployment

After a roller-coaster move this spring, it’s now essentially back to where it was in February. How much is statistical noise?
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Kursk during World War II in Russia's Kursk region on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 26, 2023

Russia pushes long-term influence operations aimed at U.S. and Europe

Russian spy agencies are using the techniques to hide the Kremlin’s involvement in cultivating pro-Russia messages, a U.S. analysis has shown.
Former Foxconn founder Terry Gou gestures during a news conference in Taipei on Monday. Gou announced that he will run for president of Taiwan as an independent candidate.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 28, 2023

Foxconn founder Terry Gou announces Taiwan presidential bid

Trailing his competition, he will must secure signatures from around 290,000 voters for his bid to become official.
Then Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and U.S. President Donald Trump meet during their final debate ahead of the 2020 election, in Nashville, Tennessee, in October of that year.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2023

Trump vs. Biden: Do American voters want either?

Confidence among the American public in their leaders and in their political system continues to erode.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and members of his new Cabinet at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Wednesday
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 14, 2023

More flash than substance in Kishida’s Cabinet reshuffle

The reshuffle was consistent with past Liberal Democratic Party practices and portends a continuation of status quo policies and initiatives.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 21, 2023

Scandal-tainted Yuko Obuchi's appointment could backfire on Kishida

Obuchi still faces questions over a nearly decade-old political funds scandal, and last week she was hit with fresh allegations of financial impropriety.
Slovaks will vote on Sept. 30 in a tight election that polls show could deliver an unlikely comeback for Robert Fico.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 25, 2023

Russia may be about to get a new friendly leader in Europe

Slovaks will vote on Sept. 30 in a tight election, and former Prime Minister Robert Fico has tapped into concerns over the fallout from the Ukraine war.
Central to China’s global media campaign is the aggressive use of new technologies to target and spread messages, silence critics and create a digital infrastructure that is more easily controlled.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023

Pushing back against China’s media offensive

China is using propaganda, disinformation, censorship and covert tactics to promote its preferred narrative and suppress critical reporting.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends a news conference after his Cabinet reshuffle in Tokyo on Sept. 13.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 3, 2023

Two years in, Kishida delivers stability but fails to wow

Despite little to boast about, Kishida is on his way to becoming one of the longest-serving prime ministers in recent history.
Ukrainian and Russian forces fight for control of the city of Bakhmut in May. Elon Musk asked why so many American lawmakers care more about what happens in Ukraine than the migrant crisis at the U.S. border.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023

Message for Elon: We must keep supporting Ukraine

Elon Musk asked, "Why do so many American politicians from both parties care 100 times more about the Ukraine border than the USA border?”
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a high level Security Council meeting on the situation in Ukraine, on the sidelines of the 78th U.N. General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York on Sept. 20.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 11, 2023

Ukraine fatigue unlikely to reach Japan anytime soon

Japan’s support for Ukraine remains steadfast at a time when popular opinion across several Western countries shows growing signs of weariness.
People gather on Wednesday near the al-Ahli hospital where hundreds of Palestinians were killed earlier in a blast that Israeli and Palestinian officials blame on each other.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2023

Gaza hospital tragedy escalates war risk, no matter who’s to blame

The Gaza hospital tragedy escalates the conflict and raises questions as to what really happened and who is to blame?
Iran holds its National Army Day parade in Tehran in April 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 25, 2023

U.S. must press its advantages over Iran or war will spread

The Hamas attack on Israel was a geopolitical earthquake. The aftershocks will reverberate for years to come.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 1, 2023

Hotly debated tax cuts risk backfiring on Kishida administration

When Kishida announced plans to cut income and residence taxes to ease the hit from inflation, there was a chorus of skepticism rather than joy.
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.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear