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Modern global politics, marked by personal rivalries, nickname-driven rhetoric and apocalyptic religious fervor, resembles a “re-medievalization” that challenges the ideals of the Enlightenment.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2025

The Middle Ages are making a political comeback

Increasingly medieval language from the world’s leaders does not bode well for the rest of us.
Voters cast their ballots at a polling station in Tokyo on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

47% turn to social media and videos for voting decisions: exit poll

Of those, the largest proportion, at 23.9%, cast proportional representation votes for Sanseito.
Former residents of Russian-held islands claimed by Japan hold a memorial service aboard the exchange ship Etopirika, which arrived off Kunashiri, part of the Northern Territories, on Sunday.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2025

Ex-residents of Japan-claimed isles hold memorial at sea

Former Japanese residents of the Russian-held islands cannot return to their hometowns because exchange programs between the two countries have been suspended.
Upper House votes being counted on Sunday. The Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition lost its majority in the upper chamber of parliament, but could still be effective in thwarting the opposition.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 21, 2025

Consumption tax cut not a given even after Upper House election

Political and economic realities suggest that opposition policies will not skate through.
“As the first party in parliament, we have to fulfill our responsibility with the public so as to prevent politics from stagnating or drifting away,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at a news conference at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 21, 2025

Ishiba clings to leadership after election setback

In the wake of another electoral setback, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s political capital has plunged.
Temporary shelters for abused or at-risk children in Japan's major cities are overwhelmed, as staff shortages and prolonged stays strain the child welfare system.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2025

Temporary child protection facilities in major cities hit capacity as staff shortages deepen

Extended stays by children who have nowhere else to go also compound the problem.
Rain gear? Check. Chicken hat? Check
CULTURE / Music
Jul 19, 2025

What to pack if you are heading to the Fuji Rock Festival

For those headed to the Fuji Rock Festival, these essential items will go a long way in making your festival experience a rousing success.
In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jul 21, 2025

The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan

AI chatbots are becoming stand-ins for pets and partners — offering comfort, connection and raising new concerns.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (left) and Donald Trump during their meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 8, 2024
WORLD / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

'Trump before Trump': Orban's illiberal model on show

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been accused of silencing critical voices from the judiciary, academia, media and civil society, and of restricting minority rights.
A man sits in a boat on the waters of the Brahmaputra river near the international border between India and Bangladesh in the northeastern state of Assam, India, in 2018.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 21, 2025

China starts construction on world's largest hydropower dam in Tibet

The project is part of China's push to expand renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions.
Delta Air Lines last week reported a 5% year-on-year jump in its second-quarter premium ticket revenue, compared to a 5% decline in main cabin revenue.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2025

U.S. airlines reap rewards from premium travel strategy amid demand slump

Strong demand from affluent travelers is helping airlines offset a pullback in spending by price-sensitive customers.
Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, in Tokyo on Sunday. Smaller conservative parties such as the DPP gained in the election at the weekend, at the expense of the Liberal Democratic Party.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 21, 2025

Conservatives win big in Japan — just not the Liberal Democratic Party

Sunday's election marks the first time the once-proud party has lost a majority in both houses since its foundation in 1955.
England's Jess Carter attends a news conference in June.
SOCCER
Jul 21, 2025

England's Jess Carter receives racist abuse during Euro 2025

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer posted his support for Carter on X.
Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), speaks to the media in Tokyo on Sunday hours after voting closed for the Upper House election.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 21, 2025

CDP shows ‘modest’ outcome as Noda struggles to unite the opposition camp

There is speculation the opposition party might form a coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party and its partner Komeito to form a stable, centrist-oriented government.
Ayaka Shiomura, running for an Upper House seat on a Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan ticket in the Tokyo district, was one of 42 women elected in Sunday's election.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

Japan elects record number of women to Upper House

Female candidates won 42 of the 125 seats contested on Sunday, up from 35 seats in the last election in 2022.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Jair Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago on March 7, 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

Brazil’s top court defies Trump and signals no retreat on Bolsonaro

After the U.S. threatened 50% tariffs on Brazil, a group of justices advocated for the court to issue a statement challenging President Donald Trump ’s assertion of a "Witch Hunt.”
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya in Tokyo on Sunday night
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

‘Japanese First’ Sanseito emerges as powerful force after Upper House poll

The small rightwing populist party led by firebrand Sohei Kamiya won 14 seats in Sunday’s Upper House election.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks at the opening ceremony of the third China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing on July 16.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 21, 2025

Jensen Huang, AI visionary in a leather jacket

Big tech's appetite for Nvidia's graphics cards has catapulted the California chipmaker beyond $4 trillion in market valuation, the first company ever to surpass that mark.
Israeli settlers swim in the Ein Samiyah spring near the village of Kafr Malik, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on July 15. The spring, which feeds the pumping station, is the main or backup water source for some 110,000 people, according to the Palestinian company that manages it — making it one of the most vital in the West Bank, where water is in chronic short supply.
WORLD
Jul 21, 2025

'No life without water': settler attacks threaten West Bank communities

Israeli settlers have been accused in several recent incidents of damaging, diverting or seizing control of vital Palestinian water sources.
A nurse takes a blood sample from a child for an HIV test at a clinic in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, South Africa, on March 12.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

Tighter borders bar poor nations from summits — on poor nations

Sudanese climate activist Roaa should have been leading meetings with other youth advocates at a United Nations climate conference in Germany in June.
An internal security forces member stands watch at a checkpoint in the village of al-Mazra'a on Sunday, after days of violence in Syria's Sweida province sparked by clashes between Bedouin fighters and Druze factions.
WORLD
Jul 21, 2025

Calm reported in Syria's Sweida, as Damascus says truce holding

With hundreds reported killed, the bloodshed is a major test for interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa.
Palestinians transport people who were killed or injured while trying to get humanitarian aid, into the Red Cross field hospital in the Mawasi area of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.
WORLD
Jul 21, 2025

Gaza civil defense says Israeli gunfire kills 93 aid seekers

Israel's military disputed the death toll and said soldiers had fired warning shots as thousands gathered near Gaza City.
Shipping containers at Barcelona port
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2025

EU to prepare retaliation plan as U.S. trade stance hardens

The overwhelming preference is to keep negotiations with Washington on track in a bid for an outcome to the impasse ahead of next month’s deadline.
A police officer walks past posters of Liberal Democratic Party candidates, as well as one showing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, outside the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday. As Japan’s foreign population continues to rise, one of the talking points during Sunday’s election was how the country should deal with the increase of international residents.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

Foreign residents closely follow Japan's election and party pledges

As electoral results could impact their lives, The Japan Times asked several foreign residents to weigh in.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan