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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 30, 2022

Proud, scared and conflicted. What the China protesters told me.

After nearly three long years of COVID zero, which has turned into a political campaign for Chinese President Xi Jinping, China's future looks increasingly bleak.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2022

Britain's Rishi Sunak is trapped in a Tory civil war

The Conservative Party has broken into antagonistic camps. Can the conflict-averse prime minister quell the rebellions rising within his own party?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2022

Believe it or not, Putin's foes are now 'Nazi satanists'

Russians have been told Ukrainians are pawns of the West. Or they don't exist at all. Or they're Nazis. And satanists. And many believe these absurdities.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 27, 2022

Attention turns to presidential poll after Taiwan ruling party thrashing

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as DPP chairwoman after the defeat, the worst showing in the party's history, highlighted that its focus on China had backfired with voters.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 27, 2022

Taiwan president quits as party head after China threat bet fails to win votes

The main opposition party, the Kuomintang, was leading or claimed victory in 13 of the 21 city mayor and county chief seats up for grabs, including the capital Taipei.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2022

Musk must preserve Twitter’s most vital function

The platform's experience in Japan shows how it can play a crucial role in providing a public service during times of disaster — if Elon Musk doesn't break it.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 24, 2022

Kremlin faces rising ire from wives and mothers of mobilized troops

Families' demands typically aren't political, focusing on ensuring their menfolk get adequate training and equipment and are taken care of at the front.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 22, 2023

Zelenskyy under pressure as Ukraine's allies shift priorities

Allies are pushing the Ukrainian leader to turn his attention to what kind of country will emerge from the war, even as Kyiv struggles for a breakthrough.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's disapproval ratings stood at 59%, according to a recent poll, up from 37% when elected last year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 22, 2023

South Korea's Yoon lambasts critics, calling them ‘communists’

The remarks may rally his conservative base and distract from unease about some of his policies, but it risks fueling division and alienating some voters.
Protesters on Thursday held a rally in the Armenian capital Yerevan urging the government to intervene in the Nagorno-Karabakh region after Azerbaijani forces entered the enclave earlier this week.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2023

Azerbaijan may have won the war, but a bigger test begins

The strength of a cease-fire and peace talks over Nagorno-Karabakh will be tested by Azerbaijan's commitment to a true, long-term transition.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 22, 2023

Is this the end for Japan’s iconic Studio Ghibli?

It’s tough to find an appropriate analogy for the Ghibli sale; the only one that comes close is Disney's purchase of Pixar for $7.4 billion in 2006.
Since the arrival of ChatGPT and other bots, fears over the potential for abuses and unintended consequences have gripped the public conscious.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2023

Worried about rogue chatbots? Hire a hacker.

It’s the good hackers being dangerous that allows us to find out what are the risks to artificial intelligence.
Wales' Aaron Wainwright celebrates with fans after his team's win over Australia at the Rugby World Cup in Lyon, France, on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Sep 25, 2023

Wales blows out Australia to punch ticket to World Cup quarterfinals

Wales became the first team to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup after producing a record-breaking performance against Australia.
The Nikkei stock index on June 1. Japan equity has gained 95% since 2020, the highest rate among G7 nations.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 25, 2023

Japan shows how to defeat secular stagnation

Outperforming other G7 countries on several economic indicators, Japan is demonstrating how prosperity can grow despite a shrinking population.
Rupert Murdoch in his office in New York in 2007. Murdoch's decision to step down from the boards of News Corp. and Fox Corp. marks the end of a decadeslong media career.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2023

Rupert Murdoch, the last of the press barons

No living person has influenced the media landscape like Rupert Murdoch. Should we view his career in a favorable light, or is his legacy one of darkness?
A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) banner outside the party's state office in Kolkata, India.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 26, 2023

Modi's ruling BJP plots election drive of epic scale

Growing anti-incumbency sentiment is conspiring with a newly formed national alliance to pose what BJP officials say will be Modi's toughest test by far.
Ukrainian refugees arrive at Haneda airport in Tokyo on April 5, 2022.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 26, 2023

Japan to introduce new residency status for asylum-seekers

A program to offer a long-term residence status that will allow asylum-seekers to work in Japan will be introduced in December.
Prominent Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed on the grounds of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in British Columbia, Canada, in June.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2023

India-Canada clash should be a wake-up call on diaspora extremism

Western countries are failing to keep the radicalization of certain migrant communities in check. They have much to lose.
Finnish Army conscripts with the 2nd Military Police Company during a training exercise in a suburb of Helsinki on Sept. 6. After decades of going it alone in security issues, Finns are finding that life in a large alliance is complex, expensive and deeply political.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 26, 2023

Finland raced to join NATO. What happens next is complicated.

The country must integrate itself into the alliance and its requirement of collective defense — with all of its financial, legal and strategic hurdles.
Customers load their shopping into a vehicle at a New World supermarket in Wellington, operated by Foodstuffs New Zealand.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 27, 2023

Cost-of-living stress fuels crime wave in Australia and New Zealand

While the thefts are brazen, organized and increasingly violent, experts say the shoplifting underscores the hardship many people are facing.
Nintendo Tokyo at the Shibuya Parco department store complex, the first such official Nintendo store in Japan
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 27, 2023

Microsoft buying Nintendo would have been a disaster

Imagine the clash of cultures. Nintendo executives famously cut their own salaries rather than lay off workers during the failure of the Wii U.
A cryptocurrency mining center in Russia
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2023

Bitcoin’s power-hungry history offers lessons for AI’s future

As AI grows, so does its energy footprint, but its developers needn't look much further than bitcoin's recent past to find climate-friendly solutions.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Sep 27, 2023

Frustrating September tournament contained silver linings

The worst possible outcome for a playoff has set up an even more intriguing storyline for the final grand tournament of the year in November.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 27, 2023

Tsushima mayor turns down request for nuclear waste site survey

The mayor expressed his decision at a municipal council meeting, saying that “there is not enough consensus building among citizens.”
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 27, 2023

Supreme Court may adjust requirements for gender status change

If the court deems the surgery requirement for a gender change to be unconstitutional, it is expected to pave the way for an amendment of the law.
In Australia, past El Nino events have led to destructive fire seasons, including the catastrophic Black Summer of 2019-2020.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2023

Australia hoped to dodge wildfires. El Nino has other plans.

The 1983, 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2015 fire seasons, some of the most damaging in the country’s history, all occurred during El Nino.
The higher interest rates that many countries are now experiencing are raising the costs of renewable electricity, the prices of which are dependent on the upfront expenditures needed to build new facilities.
COMMENTARY
Sep 28, 2023

What happens when renewable energy isn’t so cheap?

Renewable prices are determined by the upfront cost of building facilities whereas fossil-fuel energy prices are a mix, including fuel costs.
Many art critics rank Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d’Avignon," which hangs in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, as one of his greatest. But other critics describe the masterpiece as racist or exploitative.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2023

What should be done with art that is seen as racist?

So what exactly should we do when people consider extant art racist?
The yen's slide to the cusp of ¥150 per dollar has put investors on high alert for the risk of intervention.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 29, 2023

Yen intervention a hard sell even as 'red line' beckons

To make even a ripple in the $5 trillion currency market, the BOJ would need to draw down massive amounts of dollar reserves.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes