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COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2016

Donald Trump can easily win in November

Hillary Clinton would be making a grave error if she underestimates Donald Trump's formidability as a politician.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
May 16, 2016

Obama's 'pivot' to Asia staggers as trade deal stalls, China rises

With two rows of sailors standing behind him, President Barack Obama strode along Manila Harbor last November to inspect an aging U.S. Coast Guard cutter that is now the pride of the Philippine Navy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 15, 2016

Xi Jinping — a son of the Cultural Revolution

Power is Xi Jinping's lodestar, and he appears willing to go to any length to secure it. In this effort, he has one key advantage: Mao Zedong's legacy.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 14, 2016

Pakistan opposition leader Khan, a former cricket hero, admits using an offshore company

Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan, who tried to oust Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a row over offshore wealth, has acknowledged using an offshore company to avoid paying British tax on a London property sale.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
May 14, 2016

Has pacifism always been doomed to fail in Japan?

Japan had a pacifist "constitution" long before 1947, when the current one went into effect. It was issued in the year 604, its author so esteemed, in his own time and since, as to merit the posthumous name Shotoku Taishi (Crown Prince Sage-Virtue). His lifetime (574-622) spanned an early phase of Japan's...
JAPAN / View from Osaka
May 14, 2016

Obama's Hiroshima visit sparks 'what if' questions

U.S. President Barack Obama's historic visit to Hiroshima later this month, the first ever by a sitting president, has rekindled the debate on both sides of the Pacific on what happened during the weeks leading up to the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of the city in the closing days of World War II.
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2016

For Taiwan, the best defense is a good offense

Taipei needs to develop an approach aimed at deterring Beijing from initiating diplomatic offensives or, once they get under way, at least rolling them back.
JAPAN
May 11, 2016

Tokyo's governor becomes embroiled in fresh public funding scandal

Yoichi Masuzoe once again finds himself mired in ignominy, this time over a possible violation of political funding laws.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2016

Five powerful forces are driving inequality

Income inequality is driven by both political and economic forces and it waxes and wanes over time.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
May 11, 2016

Japan, America welcome Obama Hiroshima plans; Pearl Harbor visit mooted

Experts discuss how the U.S. president's visit may be viewed; meanwhile Suga denies any plans for Abe to visit Pearl Harbor.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 11, 2016

Islamist party leader hanged in Dhaka for 1971 war rape, genocide

Bangladesh hanged Islamist party leader Motiur Rahman Nizami on Wednesday for genocide and other crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, the law minister said, a punishment that risked provoking an angry reaction from his supporters.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2016

The U.S. Federal Reserve's risky new mandate

The U.S. Federal Reserve has all but explicitly recognized a new role: promoting global financial stability inches closer to achieving its targets for the domestic economy.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 10, 2016

Kim taps image of his grandfather, North Korea's eternal leader, to project power

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is attempting to move away from the "grim" era of his father as he seeks to project power by tapping the charismatic image of his grandfather — the nation's revered founder and "eternal leader" Kim Il Sung.
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
May 9, 2016

Let's discuss leadership workshops for female Japanese students

The U.S. Embassy will hold workshops for female Japanese junior high and high school students on leadership and speaking up, in a bid to promote gender equality.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 9, 2016

Abe's questionable handling of the Kumamoto quakes

The Abe administration is making a shameful attempt to use the Kumamoto earthquakes to further and unrelated political agenda.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 9, 2016

JCP uniting with other parties, tries to lose chains of Soviet-era stigma

The Japanese Communist Party is riding high.
COMMENTARY / World
May 8, 2016

Canada's thorny arms deal

An arms deal with Saudi Arabia brings into sharp relief the collision between Canada's self-righteous national identity and a self-interested foreign policy.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 8, 2016

Trump's Scottish island ties are a world away from fireworks of U.S. politics

Donald Trump has played up his family roots from Lewis, an island off the northwestern tip of Scotland, but his success in the U.S. Republican presidential battle has not drawn the kind of rapture the billionaire might like from his home crowd.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 7, 2016

Kenny re-elected as Irish prime minister following 10-week stalemate

Enda Kenny was re-elected Irish prime minister Friday to end 10 weeks of political deadlock, when his party's biggest rival abstained to usher in the first minority government in decades — and one many believe will be short-lived.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2016

Britain's Labour suffers losses in regional election

Britain's Labour Party suffered losses on Friday in regional and local elections, especially in Scotland, but waited to see if it would, as expected, capture the big prize of London mayor.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2016

November U.S. election turning into 'unpopularity' contest

The U.S. presidential election may turn out to be one of the world's biggest unpopularity contests.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2016

Republicans weigh 'pipe dream' third-party candidate to thwart Trump

Donald Trump's emergence as the last man standing in the Republican presidential race has prompted his critics inside the party to intensify their search for a candidate they could back as a serious third-party alternative.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 5, 2016

Labour candidate Khan set to become London's first Muslim mayor after bitter campaign

Labour candidate Sadiq Khan was set to become the first Muslim to be elected mayor of London on Thursday, loosening the ruling Conservatives' hold on Britain's financial center after a campaign marred by charges of anti-Semitism and extremism.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 4, 2016

Foreign priests find a spiritual home in Shinto

Though few and far between, a handful of non-natives are blazing a trail in Japan's ancient native faith.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2016

'Six Four': Japan held hostage by the Showa Era

'Don't you understand what is to have a child taken from you? How could you be a policeman and not understand that?"
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 4, 2016

Bongbong Marcos leads family's revival in the Philippines

For the son and namesake of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, winning the vice presidency in next week's election is as much about restoring his family's tainted image as it is about making the country a better place.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 3, 2016

North Korea party congress set to be Kim's coronation

As its "70-day campaign of loyalty" wraps up, North Korea on Friday will hold its first Workers' Party Congress in nearly 40 years, with young Kim Jong Un looking to cement his position as the country's supreme leader — showing his people and the world who's in charge.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2016

Andrew Jackson's reckoning with paper money

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew's decision to replace Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill reminds us of a delicious historic irony: He was an ardent critic of paper money.

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