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Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 4, 2020

At the end of a chaotic campaign, an Election Day that defied the worst fears

There were glitches and partisan skirmishes as voters went to the polls, but for the most part the system held up.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 29, 2020

Too hard to vote? Fired-up Black Americans are doing it anyway.

In the historically Black neighborhoods of Waco, Texas, the usual get-out-the-vote activities in this U.S. presidential election year were upended by the pandemic.
Japan Times
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2020

Tokyo's gubernatorial race holds lessons for the nation

Political leaders need to hammer out measures to tackle pressing issues, and voters must realize that they have the power to change the course of Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2019

Trudeau survives but ...

The elections have made Canadian politics more complex: It is now chess — not checkers.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 8, 2019

Osaka's governor-mayor duo quit in audacious bid to swap posts in name of merger referendum quest

Frustrated by their failure to merge Osaka's wards, Gov. Ichiro Matsui and Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura shock political circles by quitting to run for each other's positions next month.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2019

Midnight's children

The only realistic solution to the conflict would be to recognize Kashmir as an autonomous state within a loose, federal regional structure through the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 12, 2016

Hong Kong's 'Umbrella Soldiers' visiting Taiwan to see democracy at work

Hundreds of residents of Hong Kong, the Chinese-ruled territory rocked by street protests demanding free elections in 2014, have flown to Taiwan for Saturday's elections to see free-wheeling democracy in action.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2015

Corruption threatens to implode Bangladesh

With bomb explosions almost taking the life of the prime minister, the opposition leader charged with murder, and violent protests and arson sweeping the capital, Bangladesh again seems poised at the edge of an abyss.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 8, 2015

Is Australia ready to import Japan’s revolving-door-style politics?

Australian politics has worked itself into a frenzy. Prime Minister Tony Abbott, after ridiculing the previous Labor government for its public infighting, faces a leadership challenge from inside his own Liberal Party.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 21, 2013

Islamic law takes root in Syria's rebel-held territory

The evidence was incontrovertible, captured on video and posted on YouTube for all the world to see. During a protest against the Syrian regime, Wael Ibrahim, a veteran activist, had tossed aside a banner inscribed with the Muslim declaration of faith.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 22, 2012

Ishihara's resignation doesn't come cheap

Tokyo taxpayers are going to have to pay a lot for their former governor's capriciousness.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2009

Oceania presses Fiji leader for free election this year

SYDNEY — An Australian newspaper has fired an editorial salvo at the military government of the Republic of the Fiji Islands while reminding the world of what happens when a country tramples on media freedom.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 23, 2008

DPJ has a foot in the door

As the odds grow that the No. 1 opposition Democratic Party of Japan will take the reigns of government after the next general elections, the focus in the Japanese political arena is shifting to the lineup of a Cabinet headed by DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa, and to who would succeed him if he retired early...
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2008

Mr. Aso has his Cabinet

Mr. Taro Aso was chosen as the nation's 92nd prime minister by the Diet and immediately formed his Cabinet on Wednesday. For Mr. Aso, a grandson of the late former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida and a son-in-law of the late former Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki, this should be an auspicious occasion.
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2007

A body blow for Nigerian democracy

OXFORD, England -- Nigeria's first attempt since independence in 1960 to transfer power from one civilian government to another has just ended -- farcically. Indeed, the presidential election degenerated into a crude exercise in ballot rigging and voter intimidation.
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2007

Temporary boost for Mr. Abe

In five gubernatorial elections Sunday, candidates supported by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and those supported by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan fought head on against each other. The LDP took three and the DPJ two. Although the results are not a direct indication of a similar trend...
EDITORIALS
Aug 9, 2005

Mr. Koizumi raises the stakes

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the Lower House on Monday after a rebellion within his Liberal Democratic Party in the Upper House killed the postal privatization bills, the centerpiece of his reform agenda. Despite his prompt countermove, Mr. Koizumi's overall political agenda has suffered...
COMMENTARY
Dec 27, 2004

Democracy by cookie cutter

LONDON -- U.S. President George W. Bush claims his policy is to promote democracy because democratic countries do not wage aggressive wars.
COMMENTARY
Sep 27, 2004

Election shows Indonesia has come of age

BRUSSELS -- All the appearances are that Indonesia, the world's third largest democracy and largest Muslim state, has come of age, with the consolidation this year of a democracy that was reborn after 44 years in 1999.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 14, 2004

Indonesians' choice: change or status quo

SINGAPORE -- Indonesians go to the polls Sept. 20 in the second round of balloting to choose between Megawati Sukarnoputri and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (affectionally known as SBY) as president for the next five years.
COMMENTARY
Apr 26, 2004

Democracy, Filipino style

MANILA -- Before I moved to Manila two years ago, a Filipino parliamentarian told me about election-related violence in his country. At that time I could hardly believe my ears. Now I have come to understand that ballot snatching, intimidation of voters and even assassinations are a sad reality in many...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2003

'Manifesto' replaces slogans in election wordplay

Now that there is a fall election in the air, once again politicians are couching their platforms with the buzzword "manifesto."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2003

LDP bags three new Diet seats; DPJ one

The ruling bloc was sailing to victory in three of the four Diet by-elections held Sunday, while the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition force, was assured of winning in the House of Representatives by-election in Tokyo, early returns showed.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Sep 26, 2002

Iraq dominates Washington's agenda

WASHINGTON -- The Oct. 4 target date for the adjournment of Congress is fast approaching. The top priority for President George W. Bush is to convince Congress to give him some form of support for his crusade against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Sep 5, 2002

Unions build political power

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President George W. Bush spent Labor Day just like he did last year. He attended a union picnic in Pennsylvania. The difference is that last year he was courting the steelworkers. This year it was the carpenters. He and his advisers seem intent on improving his showing among union...
People read newspapers at a roadside tea stall in Patna, Bihar, India. Newsrooms are being reshaped, journalists say, by India’s richest press barons, many of whom are close to the ruling party and depend on millions of advertising dollars from the government.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 26, 2024

Billionaire press barons are squeezing media freedom in India

Many press barons are close to the ruling party and depend on millions of advertising dollars from the government.
Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen visits army bases ahead of the Lunar New Year in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Feb. 6. Over 400 stories portraying Taiwan's military exercises as rehearsals for its leadership to desert in the event of war have been uncovered by an NGO based on the island.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 1, 2024

Chinese state media stoked allegation Taiwan's president would flee war

They are among the many unsupported tales that have been fed into the island by Chinese state media outlets, according to an analysis by Taiwan-based NGO.
Nippon Ishin no Kai chief and Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura smiles at voters in Osaka's Chuo Ward on July 3 as campaigning for the House of Councilors election officially begins.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 8, 2025

In Upper House election, Nippon Ishin faces key test in birthplace Osaka

One senior Nippon Ishin no Kai official said the party leader's goal of six seats in the July 20 election can't happen without two seats from Osaka.
Kiyoshi Shibata stands in front of one of the rice paddies in Murayama, Yamagata Prefecture, where he produces the prefecture's signature rice brand Tsuyahime.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 17, 2025

Japan's rice farmers are confounded by Shinjiro Koizumi’s policies

Farming communities, a key base for the Liberal Democratic Party, are increasingly voicing their distress at how the rice situation is being handled.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight