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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2020

Did Trump’s impeachment matter in the end?

It's easy to conclude that, without the pandemic, Trump would have won. And if that's correct, it would seem that the impeachment would not have made any difference.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 20, 2020

For some in Russia’s elite, Putin’s future is again a hot topic

The regular revival of speculation about the 68-year-old leader's future highlights how central Putin remains to the Russian state.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Dec 20, 2020

U.S. hacking attack adds to Putin mystique, even if Russia faces pain

The storm over the cyberattack on U.S. government agencies only helps Putin's image at home as a strong leader unafraid to confront the former Cold War enemy.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 20, 2020

London begins emergency lockdown as U.K. fights new coronavirus strain

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had planned to ease pandemic rules during the holiday but made an abrupt shift after emergency talks on the virus mutation with his top officials.
JAPAN / Society / 2020 in Review
Dec 19, 2020

Anxiety over coronavirus in 2020 spurs unprecedented societal change in Japan. Will it last?

For many in Japan, 2020 has been a year hijacked by uncertainty, a tumultuous period spent improvising and adapting to an unfamiliar way of life.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Dec 19, 2020

Sake brewing in 2020: ‘Hard times are going to be with us for a while’

After years of incremental gains due to growing popularity abroad, Japan's sake producers struggled with substantial losses this year.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Dec 19, 2020

World looks to spring for pandemic relief as vaccinations start

The developed world could start to emerge from the deadly grip of the pandemic by late spring if the first wave of COVID-19 vaccines are deployed effectively.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 19, 2020

Trump’s future: Tons of cash and plenty of options for spending it

Donald J. Trump will exit the White House as a private citizen next month perched atop a pile of campaign cash unheard-of for an outgoing president, and with few legal limits on how he can spend it.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2020

U.S. blacklists dozens of Chinese firms, including SMIC and DJI

The United States added dozens of Chinese companies, including the country's top chipmaker SMIC and Chinese drone manufacturer SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd., to a trade blacklist on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration ratchets up tensions with China in his final weeks in office.
BUSINESS / View from Osaka
Dec 19, 2020

From Expo 2025 to tourists, Kansai’s hopes for the coming year

Economic recovery and making plans for a post-coronavirus world are set to be on the minds of residents and businesses in the region going into 2021.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 18, 2020

As Singapore ventures back out, migrant workers are kept in

As the government prepares for the final phase of reopening this month, migrant workers will not be part of it.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 18, 2020

Pfizer first drugmaker to seek COVID-19 vaccine approval in Japan

Officials said the approval would be made 'a top priority in the screening process' once the firm submits data from an ongoing clinical trial specific to Japan, expected in February.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Dec 18, 2020

Hokkaido fishing villages face tough decision over nuclear disposal sites

While a traditional industry is slowly dying out, some see a nuclear site as bringing valuable income, while others feel very differently.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers a campaign speech next to a Liberal Democratic Party candidate for the Upper House (top center left) in Yokohama on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 7, 2025

Foreign nationals' presence in Japan emerges as key issue in Upper House poll

In their campaign promises, parties are offering different solutions to problems caused by the record number here to visit, work and invest in real estate.
Former Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 7. Starovoit, who was fired after barely a year in the job on Monday, was found dead with a gunshot wound hours later in his car outside Moscow.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 8, 2025

Sacked Russian transport minister found dead in his car with gunshot wound

Roman Starovoit, 53, was fired after barely a year in the job, purportedly in connection with a corruption probe in the region he once ran.
San Diego Padres pitcher Yu Darvish before the start of a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix on June 14
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 8, 2025

Padres' Yu Darvish to make season debut against Diamondbacks

Darvish cleared the final hurdles to return to action with four innings in a simulated game Tuesday and a short bullpen session on Saturday.
Maki Takubo, mayor of Ito, Shizuoka Prefecture, holds a news conference Monday evening to announcer her intention to resign and seek re-election.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 8, 2025

Scandal-hit mayor in Shizuoka to resign and seek reelection

Maki Takubo, who has admitted that she did not graduate from Toyo University but was actually expelled, was elected as mayor in May.
Mourners pay their respects to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday in the city of Nara where he was shot to death while giving a stump speech three years ago.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / EXPLAINER
Jul 8, 2025

Three years after Abe's shooting, where do things stand?

The criminal trial against the alleged shooter is proceeding at a snail's pace due to the sensitivity, complexity and social impact of the case.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 8, 2025

Japan to set up 'control tower' for crimes by foreign residents

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said the organization at the Cabinet Secretariat will work "to realize an orderly and inclusive society with foreign residents."
South Korean Ambassador to Japan Park Cheol-hee delivers a speech at a reception marking the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between Japan and South Korea on June 19 in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 8, 2025

Ishiba thanks outgoing South Korean envoy

Park Cheol-hee said he hopes that cooperation will continue under the administration of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.
Search and rescue teams work along the shoreline as another passes by on a boat in the Guadalupe River in Center Point, Texas, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Jul 9, 2025

More than 160 people still missing days after deadly Texas floods

The death toll includes at least 27 girls and counselors from a nearby youth summer camp, with more still missing.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington on Tuesday. Trump's latest comments suggest he is running out of patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin after having openly expressed admiration for him in the past.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 9, 2025

Trump slams Putin again as he backs more weapons for Ukraine

U.S. President Donald Trump said he’s also looking "very strongly” at a bill introduced in the Senate that would impose severe sanctions on Russia.
U.S. President Donald Trump (center) with Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the White House on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 9, 2025

Trump vows no tariff extension and hardens threats on copper and drugs

The U.S. president stresses he would not offer additional extensions on country-specific levies set to now hit in early August.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi (center) during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on Tuesday. Bondi had assured Fox News she had a client list of financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on her desk in remarks endorsed by the White House.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 9, 2025

Trump faces MAGA meltdown over Epstein reversal

The shutting down of conspiracy theories surrounding a purported client list of the notorious sex offender has sparked backlash from the U.S. president's support base.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past