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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 1, 2022

Atsushi Murakami: ‘If Tono becomes synonymous with hops in Japan, I’ll be happy’

Atsushi Murakami has played many roles in his life, including as the creator of the Murakami Seven hop variety.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Apr 27, 2022

LDP proposal heralds big changes for Japan's security policies

Touting need to break precedent, the ruling party has recommended that Japan acquire 'counterattack capabilities' and boost defense spending to 2% of GDP within five years.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 21, 2022

Hunger and blackouts are just the start of an emerging economic crisis

Compounding the danger is the most aggressive monetary tightening campaign the Federal Reserve has embarked on in two decades.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 2022

The West forgot about the Pacific Islands. China didn’t.

A crucial World War II battle was fought in the Solomons. It's now the focus of the latest Pacific power struggle.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2022

Is Donald Trump a lock for the 2024 nomination?

The argument that Trump has the nomination locked up is pretty straightforward. Still, we don't know for sure that he'll be running in 2024 but he is certainly running for 2024 right now.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 16, 2022

Opponents of French far-right plan protests as election campaign enters final week

Emmanuel Macron is slightly ahead in opinion polls, but far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is proving to be a difficult challenge.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 15, 2022

French President Macron knows inflation is Le Pen’s best weapon

If there's one thing that could make French voters more receptive to the far right, it's a shake of the magic money tree.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 14, 2022

Three-quarters of Japan firms bemoan current yen weakness as bad for business

A survey also showed almost 60% think the government should move quickly to restart nuclear reactors, evidence that higher energy costs may be changing opinion on nuclear policy.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 12, 2022

U.S. weighs shift to support Hague court as it investigates Russian atrocities

The Biden team strongly wants to see Russian President Vladimir Putin and others in his military chain of command held to account.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 11, 2022

China is just one of the headaches facing Australia’s next prime minister

The center-right Liberal National coalition government is campaigning for a fourth term in office after grappling with a pandemic and a slew of climate change-related disasters.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 7, 2022

More Russians consider costs of war in Ukraine as casualties mount

Six weeks after the start of Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the reality of war is increasingly intruding into the lives of regular families as death notices and body bags arrive.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2022

Bitcoin may serve many masters in the war in Ukraine

Cryptocurrencies face a bad rap, but they're showing the world they have the ability to be a force for good with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 2, 2022

Shaken at first, many Russians now rally behind Putin’s invasion

Polls and interviews show many Russians now accept the Kremlin's assertion that their country is under siege from the West. Opponents are leaving the country or keeping quiet.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 20, 2022

Russian rocket attack turns Ukrainian marine base to rubble, killing dozens

That number of Ukrainian marines killed in the missile strike would make it one of the single deadliest attacks on Ukrainian forces since the start of the war three weeks ago.
Benny Gantz has held a clear lead over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in opinion polls for months, but the latest surveys show a noticeable swing toward the prime minister.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 1, 2024

Israel's Gantz at crossroads over challenge to Netanyahu

The former general faces a reckoning over his revolt against Netanyahu, who has been gaining ground in opinion polls.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which polices deceptive advertising practices, saw a jump in complaints over the past year about ads that either used AI or claimed to use it to lure people into scams.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2024

AI scam complaints are just the tip of the iceberg

The U.S. FTC, which polices deceptive advertising practices, saw a jump in complaints over the past year about ads using AI to lure people into scams.
Voters show their index fingers marked with indelible ink after casting their ballots at a polling station in Amritsar, India, on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2024

India keeps its glorious, messy tradition alive

"People were fed up with the BJP,” a local business leader said. "People will not always fall for the caste or temple-mosque politics."
Claudia Sheinbaum, former mayor of Mexico City and Mexico's president-elect, during the closing campaign rally at Zocalo Plaza in Mexico City on May 29, 2024.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 7, 2024

Traders stunned by election surprises from Mexico to India

Voters in countries representing roughly 40% of the world’s population and its gross domestic product will have elected new leaders before the year is out.
A health worker puts on an adhesive bandage after inoculating a man with a booster shot of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in Manila in January 2022.
WORLD
Jun 14, 2024

U.S. ran secret anti-vaccine campaign to undermine China during pandemic

The clandestine operation aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China.
After just 1.3 degrees Celsius of warming above preindustrial levels, the countries with the most refugees, asylum-seekers, and displaced people are already among those hardest hit by climate change.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2024

It’s far cheaper to help migrants before they leave home

As global temperatures rise, so will the frequency of heat waves, droughts, floods, pandemics, natural disasters, food and water shortages and conflicts over resources.
The European leader to watch in the months and perhaps years ahead is Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right party was among the big winners in the recent European elections.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2024

EU populists are blind to the real threat to the bloc

The center-right will continue to dominate parliament, the surge in support for the extreme right evokes memories of the ugliest moments of the 20th century.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen's National Rally party is expected to win snap parliamentary elections called by French President Emmanuel Macron.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2024

French elites’ silence on Le Pen is deafening

Despite the economically risky promises of the far right (and far left), France's business leaders are not weighing in on the crucial elections only a week away.
Monitors show the rate of the yen against the U.S. dollar at a foreign exchange brokerage in Tokyo on Monday. Traders are falling out of step with the Bank of Japan, expecting hawkish steps that are instead met with a cautious approach.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 24, 2024

Traders are out of step with the BOJ’s Ueda

Time and time again, traders predict that the Bank of Japan will take bold next steps, but these rarely come. That's because Gov. Ueda is, most of all, cautious.
An image of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange released on social media on Tuesday. Assange pleaded guilty to a single charge of disseminating classified documents in a plea bargain that leaves him a free man.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2024

Julian Assange’s saga will forever exist in a legal gray area

WikiLeaks founder Assange’s case lies on the boundary between espionage and protected speech. Its outcome has done nothing to shed light on this gray zone.
People look at the election poster board at Kasai Rinkai Park in Tokyo. The board includes posters for each of the candidates running in that specific riding.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 28, 2024

Tokyo's election day is coming. Are you comfortable talking about politics in Japanese?

Even if you don't want to talk about politics, expressing your opinion on a particular topic is always a good skill to have in your daily life.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump has some immunity from election interference charges, though most of the charges are likely to stand.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2024

Hold up, Trump is still in serious legal trouble

Most of the election interference case against Trump stems from 'unofficial' acts not shielded from prosecution by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a barbecue with active-duty military service members and their families on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 5, 2024

Biden tries to ease fitness concerns as Democrats debate his future

A shaky showing at the debate on June 27 has sparked questions about U.S. President Joe Biden's mental and physical fitness for the job.
U.S. President Joe Biden attends a NATO event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the alliance in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 12, 2024

Why Joe won't go: Behind Biden's rejection of calls to leave the race

The reasons U.S. President Joe Biden won't step down range from the deeply personal to party politics.

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