Search - local-elections

 
 
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 11, 2020

The murky politics behind Japan's campaign financing

Katsuyuki and Anri Kawai are accused of using campaign funds to buy favors, but the use of cash for gift-giving is so prevalent in Japan as to make it difficult to prove.
EDITORIALS
Feb 21, 2018

LDP's proposed electoral system amendment

The LDP's proposed electoral system amendment won't solve the vote-value disparity problem and may conflict with the Constitution's Article 43.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2016

Trump pitches jobs to blue-collar Ohio, oil pipeline across sacred lands, coal industry revival

Shiny new Jeep Wranglers and Cherokees, lined up in their thousands, wait to be shipped out by train from the Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio, where Donald Trump has come to court blue-collar voters with promises of jobs.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Mar 27, 2016

Life good, clean, prosperous in Japan's backup capital of Osaka in 2060

Imagine, if you will, Japan in 2060.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 25, 2016

Ginowan mayoral victory gives Abe much-needed ammunition in Futenma battle

Top government officials in Tokyo welcome the victory by the ruling bloc-backed candidate in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture's mayoral election, saying it will give momentum to the Futenma base relocation.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 15, 2014

How China spies on Hong Kong's democrats

James To was growing uneasy. When the veteran Hong Kong Democratic Party lawmaker looked in his rearview mirror, two silver Mercedes Benz saloons kept appearing behind his gray Volvo sedan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2014

Japan's 3/11 tsunami evacuees caught in $30 billion money trap

Some ¥3.28 trillion in funding for roads, bridges and thousands of new homes in areas devastated by the tsunami in Tohoku 3½ years ago is still languishing unspent in the bank. That means Keiko Abe is heading into a fourth winter of subzero temperatures in a cramped, temporary dwelling that is succumbing...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 2, 2014

Ray of hope for democrats

For those Japanese who grumble about low voter turnouts in local and national elections, or who complain about the secretive character of political procedures, the open, democratic process of the recent Scottish referendum on independence was an object of envy.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 20, 2022

Malaysian coalitions start maneuvering after hung parliament

Saturday's vote may extend a political crisis that has seen the government change three times in four years.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 14, 2022

Democrats defy 'red wave' forecasts to keep Senate control

Democratic leaders portrayed the better-than-expected performance as vindication of their agenda and a rebuke of election denialism and extremist candidates on the right.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 9, 2022

Putin's elite tremble as hard-liners call for ‘Stalinist’ steps

One senior official likened the current situation to a military dictatorship but without the military coup that usually precedes it.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 4, 2022

Trump makes strongest suggestion yet that he plans 2024 run

Trump has teased for months that he plans to make another White House run, routinely telling supporters they will 'be very happy” with his decision.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 29, 2022

Intruder hunting Pelosi attacks her husband with hammer

An intruder attacked the husband of the U.S. House speaker with a hammer, fracturing his skull, after breaking into their California home on Friday in search of her.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2022

Sustainable development is a matter of market design

High-level sustainable development objectives need to be implemented at grassroots levels and with the right market structures and incentives.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 7, 2022

Boris Johnson to quit as U.K. prime minister after months of scandals

He leaves a nation mired in political and economic uncertainty and still showing the strains of his singular though deeply divisive triumph — the U.K.'s exit from the European Union.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 4, 2022

Upper House election seen as precursor to key Okinawa governor race

Okinawa Prefecture is in the middle of a year full of key elections, with the anti-base movement having been put on the back foot due to defeats and disorganization.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 12, 2022

Biden’s fear of free-trade deals risks isolating friends in Asia

Southeast Asian nations are increasingly disappointed with the U.S. over a lack of progress on trade issues, undermining Biden's efforts to strengthen ties with the region's leaders.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 21, 2022

Hunger and blackouts are just the start of an emerging economic crisis

Compounding the danger is the most aggressive monetary tightening campaign the Federal Reserve has embarked on in two decades.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 6, 2022

Rising prices threaten Modi’s hold on India’s most crucial state

Soaring prices, joblessness and health complications from a vicious wave of delta-fueled COVID-19 infections last summer are high on the minds of voters in Uttar Pradesh.
A policeman stands guard near a polling station during national mid-term elections in Buadiposo town, Lanao del Sur province, on the southern island of Mindanao on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 13, 2025

Dutertes outperform in Philippine midterms in blow for Marcos

Ex-President Rodrigo Duterte looks set to become mayor of Davao City despite his detention by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.
Belarus opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski  and his wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, speak with released prisoners Sergei Sheleg, Ihar Karnei, Natalia Dulina and Kirill Balakhanov, in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Saturday in this screen shot taken from social media video.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 22, 2025

Belarus opposition leader freed from jail in U.S.-brokered deal

Lukashenko issued pardons for all those released in response to a U.S. request, the president's spokeswoman, Natalya Eismont, said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement during a visit to the site of the Weizmann Institute of Science, which was hit by an Iranian missile barrage in the central city of Rehovot, Israel, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 25, 2025

Netanyahu sees redemption in Iran war, but Gaza looms large

After months of political turmoil, war and plummeting popularity, Israel's powerful strike on Iran is likely to reframe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's legacy, allies and analysts say.
A street in Suttsu, Hokkaido, with a sign put up by an anti-nuclear organization. The small community is considering hosting a facility that would hold nuclear waste.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Jul 6, 2025

Ainu land rights in crosshairs as Hokkaido communities debate nuclear waste

Some scholars and activists are raising concerns that Indigenous voices are not being heard amid the debate over whether to host nuclear waste storage facilities.
Mayu Ushida, a former NHK newscaster running for election in the Tokyo electoral district on the Democratic Party for the People ticket, signs an autograph for a voter after a public rally at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 17, 2025

From stalking to death threats, female candidates still face harassment

As Japan aims to increase the number of women in politics, addressing the issue of unwanted attention from men remains a challenge.
Japan’s ruling coalition is weakening as rising populist parties like Sanseito gain support, raising concerns that Japan could shift toward unstable multiparty coalition politics similar to Israel’s fragmented Knesset.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2025

Is Japan drifting toward fragmented and ineffective politics?

In a system with many small parties, even minor players can hold the balance of power in forming coalitions.
Network School’s co-working space in Johor Bahru, Malaysia
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 1, 2025

Techno-utopia rises in Malaysia's $100 billion Forest City flop

Entrepreneurs experiment with "startup societies” defined less by historical territory than shared beliefs in technology, cryptocurrency and light regulation.
Azamat Iskaliyev, accused of the murder of his ex-girlfriend, stands in a courtroom cage as he is sentenced to 19.5 years in jail, in Saratov, Russia, on July 9.
WORLD / Society
Sep 9, 2025

Heroes and villains: Russia braces for eventual return of its enormous army

Verstka, an independent Russian media outlet, calculated in October last year that almost 500 civilians had become victims of veterans returning from fighting in Ukraine.

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