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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2023

Ardern’s ‘politics of kindness’ was both effective and exhausting

New Zealand’s charismatic leader, Jacinda Ardern, stepped down, citing fatigue and other factors. Burnout is typical for women politicians who are often plagued by double standards.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jul 6, 2022

Harassment of female candidates a growing issue in Japanese politics

Despite moves to draw more women to public office, Japan remains far behind other developed countries, in part due to abuse on the campaign trail.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2022

The elusive politics of Elon Musk

Musk, 50, who was born in South Africa and only became an American citizen in 2002, expresses views that don't fit neatly into America's binary, left-right political framework.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Nov 3, 2021

Trump's real estate empire pays the price for poisonous politics

Trump's business brand was once synonymous with success, an image that now clashes sharply with a political brand rooted in the anger of his largely rural and working-class voter base.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2019

Labour's defeat offers the left hard lessons

Some serious rethinking needs to happen if the Labour Party is not planning to be a spent, past force in British politics.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2018

The last president from good old America

The loss of President George H.W. Bush symbolizes the end to the era of elite U.S. statesmanship.
EDITORIALS
May 19, 2018

Fix gender imbalance in politics

Tough challenges confronting the nation require policy responses from more diverse perspectives than male-dominated politics can offer.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2017

The populist wave breaks

The 'populist wave' that seemed to be sweeping through Western politics turns out to be merely a storm in the Anglosphere teacup.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 20, 2014

Komeito's 50 years of losing its religion

Back in 1964, when the lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai founded Komeito, many people looked on warily: They believed it violated the Constitution's separation of religion and politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2014

Americans should be worried about polarization

Americans should worry about a new Pew report on political polarization not because there's too much genuine ideological competition, but because our most energetic citizens appear to be dividing every more coherently into factions that can't stand each other.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 27, 2014

Politicians running in place

Today, there's not so much political competition in Japan between the ruling and opposition camps as there is among opposition parties seeking to ally themselves with the ruling camp. Have individual lawmakers become less willing to take risks by speaking up?
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014

Language of Indian politics

Even those Indians who are assumed will automatically vote their caste in the current election have choices and will make a number of fairly sophisticated mental trade-offs.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014

Voters do not deserve blame for low turnout

There was a time in America when political activitists used to say that a candidate whose main strategy was to talk about how rotten the other side was wasn't worth a vote. Can the today's voters who share that sentiment be blamed for not voting on Nov. 4?
EDITORIALS
Aug 10, 2013

Why Mr. Silver is golden

American guru of statistical analytics Nate Silver, a winner in predicting political race outcomes, has removed his star from The New York Times to move to ESPN.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 4, 2013

A term for Abe's ilk? Well, nonliberal

Foreign media and overseas Japan experts largely use 19th- and 20th-century labels to describe Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and current Japanese politics led by his Liberal Democratic Party — "right-wing," "hawkish," "conservative" and "nationalist."
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 29, 2013

Four core 2008 Clinton staffers would pass on a 2016 bid

Howard Wolfson, the 2008 communications director for Hillary Rodham Clinton, has said he will not return for a 2016 presidential campaign. Neither, for that matter, will Neera Tanden, the campaign's policy director. Ditto for Mark Penn, the chief strategist, and Patti Solis Doyle, the embattled campaign...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 10, 2013

Future leaders stress 'politics of the daily'

In 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar's current president, Thein Sein, will both turn 70, so a great deal depends on future leaders. On a recent visit I caught up with two promising aspirants who focus on the "politics of the daily."
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2012

Demilitarizing Muslim politics

Can Muslim governments free themselves from their countries' powerful militaries and establish civilian control comparable to that found in liberal democracies? This question is now paramount in countries as disparate as Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey.
COMMENTARY
Dec 25, 2010

Revitalizing national politics

The Democratic Party of Japan realized a dramatic change of government with its great win in the Lower House election in August 2009. The DPJ victory came when policy evolution in the later years of the coalition administration by the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito stagnated, prompting mass media...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2010

Islam's place in politics

BEPPU, Oita Prefecture — The dynamics of Islam and politics in Indonesia are always worth following. Conventional wisdom says that moderates rule the game. In reality, this is not always true.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2007

Caste politics keeps India's poor divided

LONDON — Caste, once again, is casting its shadow over India's politics. Caste-based "reservations" (reserved places) in education and government employment are supposed to benefit India's most deprived, but in reality they have hardened, rather than eroded, India's ancient system of discrimination....
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 1999

Bad news for party politics

What role did the nation's political parties play in the first round of the current nationwide local elections Sunday? True, the parties supported many candidates who ran for gubernatorial or mayoral posts in some prefectures or for seats in prefectural or municipal assemblies. But in most of those local...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 28, 2023

A small Japanese town sets new precedent for women in politics

Among the country’s city councils and assemblies, men held more than 80% of the total seats as of 2021. But in Ebetsu, more than 40% of the city council members are women.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 28, 2022

Politics trumps business in Truth Social’s war on Big Tech

The Trump venture's pugnacious political approach has hobbled the company's development from its inception.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 18, 2020

Five things to watch in Japanese politics in 2021

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's power atop the government is not assured, and with some significant elections scheduled, domestic politics could once again shake things up at the top.
JAPAN / Politics / Notebook
Sep 13, 2023

What Kishida’s reshuffle says about female participation in politics

Political family ties of most of the female appointees speaks to the difficulty women face in entering the political arena.
The former lead singer of The Pogues, Shane MacGowan, attends the funeral service of his mother in Silvermines, Ireland, in January 2017.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 6, 2023

The life of the Pogues' frontman and the ‘banality of crazy’ in U.S. politics

The current focus on performative acts in politics diminishes serious policy debates, leading to social and political divides.
A protester holds a placard stating "Sunak Supports Genocide" in support of Palestinians as police stand guard during a visit from Britain's Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak to Cannock College, in Cannock, Staffordshire, England, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
May 25, 2024

Sometimes U.S. and U.K. politics seem in lock step. Not this year.

In 2016, Britain voted for Brexit and America for Trump, heralding a populist wave. Both countries face pivotal elections this year — but their paths appear to have diverged.
Then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida holds a news conference in Tokyo in December 2023 where he addressed the political fundraising scandal and announced plans to replace several implicated ministers.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2025

Cost of living trumps corruption as Japan heads to the polls

A recent NHK poll asked that question to prospective voters, and the majority answered “measures to deal with rising prices” and “social security and the declining birthrate.”

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