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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2020

The geopolitical consequences of the coronavirus outbreak

Will China be forced into 'hibernation' amid the epidemic?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2020

North Korea's 2020 vision: A nuclear shield, not a sword

The longer Kim keeps nuclear weapons, the more credible the claim will become that his primary interest is in nuclear deterrence.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 1, 2020

Shinjiro Koizumi's paternity leave raises a few eyebrows

Shortly before Shinjiro Koizumi’s wife, Christel Takigawa, gave birth to a baby boy last month, the environment minister told reporters during a regular news conference he would be taking time off for paternity leave. It was a revelation that surprised some because after the pair had revealed she was...
Japan Times
WORLD / Commentary
Jan 30, 2020

Why is Tokyo defying population outflows among world's 'superstar' cities?

Like a lot of big cities in the developed world, Amsterdam lost population in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s as its inhabitants opted for newer dwellings and more space outside the city. During those same decades, newcomers arrived in large numbers from former and current Dutch territories as well...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 29, 2020

Meet the fiery negotiator behind South Korea's biggest disputes with Japan

With the clock ticking on South Korea's withdrawal from a security pact with Japan in November, President Moon Jae-in sent a blunt-speaking aide on a secret mission to Washington.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 29, 2020

Peru's Keiko Fujimori vows aggressive 'response to political persecution' as she's jailed again

As Peruvian authorities detained opposition leader Keiko Fujimori on Tuesday night for a new 15-month jail term, the politician published a pre-recorded video alleging "persecution" and vowing to "end her silence" on the case.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 27, 2020

Closing Japan's gender gap: The role of women in media

Women in media are discriminated against first by being women, and then in the way they work once they have children.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 27, 2020

Seoul draws wrong THAAD lessons

China's growing economic influence in South Korea has provided a wedge that Beijing has tried to use to separate Seoul from Tokyo and Washington.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2020

America is safer when Trump alone can't start a war

No matter who is president, Congress needs to re-establish its role in the use of force.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 25, 2020

Okinawa base debate ignores the bigger picture

Like many construction projects supported by the public sector, the new U.S. Marine Corps air base being built in the Henoko district of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, has seen its budget skyrocket since it was first proposed and its completion date postponed. When the project was first announced jointly...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 25, 2020

Decline of social engagement may betray democracy

Japan's three leading newspapers, disagreeing on much, agree on this: Japan's democracy is in crisis.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2020

Close the glaring SDG gap

Quickly reducing global inequities is crucial to fulfilling the U.N.'s 2030 agenda.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 22, 2020

Paternity leave controversy: It's time to walk the talk

Leading by example, Koizumi and his colleagues in the government may have a chance to change the mindsets of Japanese men about work and fatherhood.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 22, 2020

The U.S.-Iran crisis and Tokyo's response

Stability in the Persian Gulf region is crucial for Japan's energy security.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 22, 2020

Hong Kong protesters set up alternative bazaars after dry good ban for Lunar New Year markets

The politics of protest was a running theme at Lunar New Year fairs in Hong Kong this week as stall holders sold T-shirts, tattoo transfers, tote bags and coasters bearing slogans popularized during months of pro-democracy demonstrations.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2020

Japan ranked 15th worldwide for social mobility: World Economic Forum report

Japan has the 15th highest level of social mobility in the world, according to a report published Monday by the World Economic Forum.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Davos Special 2020
Jan 20, 2020

WEF gathering in Davos strives for solutions amid global instability

In 1971, the inaugural European Management Symposium was held in Davos, a ski resort in the Swiss Alps, the event a precursor to what would later become the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 20, 2020

Candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders try to move past feud as early voters sound alarm

U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders attempted over the weekend to tamp down a weeklong disagreement over whether Sanders told Warren in a 2018 private meeting that a woman could not beat Republican President Donald Trump in 2020.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 17, 2020

Japan opposition parties' failing merger bid offers glimpse into divisions

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People missed a golden chance ahead of the Diet's opening Monday, and time is running out.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 16, 2020

Japan-China ties, according to Beijing

Beijing's perceptions of the state of Japan-China relations and Japan-U.S. relations reflect an aspiration of what they hope to manifest.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 15, 2020

U.S. Democratic debate: Warren points to women as winners; candidates tangle on Middle East wars

Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday dove into their dispute over whether a woman can win the 2020 presidential election, with Sanders denying he ever said it was impossible. Warren was having none of it.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2020

Iran admits to plane shootdown, but Russia still won't

Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russia's overseas propaganda channel, RT, had a telling reaction to Iran's admission that its Revolutionary Guards Corps had accidentally shot down a Ukrainian civilian airliner last week.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 14, 2020

The not-so-irreversible Renault-Nissan alliance

Carlos Ghosn's dramatic escape reopens old wounds and shows how tough it is to keep two politically-sensitive and financially lop-sided carmakers together.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2020

U.S. to lift China currency manipulator tag ahead of trade deal

Washington's abrupt declaration Monday that China is no longer a currency cheat — two days before the signing of a trade deal with Beijing — shows how U.S. President Donald Trump has turned a routine technical report on foreign exchange into a political cudgel.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 13, 2020

Workplace equality 'decades away' in Britain as men dominate top jobs

Equality for women at work is decades away in Britain, according to a study released Monday that found just 6 percent of chief executives at leading companies are female, with representation in some sectors going backwards.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo