Search - about-us

 
 
Economists often struggle to predict business downturns and different economic theories may apply in different situations.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2023

What economists got wrong about the Great Recession

Macroeconomics faces challenges and limitations in predicting and understanding economic events.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (C) arrives in Saudi Arabia on Monday prior to a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco. Top U.S. and Russian diplomats will meet in Riyadh on Tuesday for talks on resetting the countries' fractured relations and making a tentative start on trying to end the conflict in Ukraine.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Top Russia, U.S. officials to meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday

Meanwhile, European leaders were gathering for emergency talks on how to respond to the radical pivot by the new U.S. administration.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo speaks during an interview on the sidelines of the Australia-ASEAN summit in Melbourne on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 4, 2024

Philippines foreign minister urges China to 'stop harassing us'

Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo was speaking on the sidelines of an ASEAN-Australia summit in Melbourne.
Cute characters like Pikachu are deeply ingrained in Japanese culture. The global reach of kawaii has contributed to Japan's soft power and international appeal.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 26, 2024

What does the global power of kawaii say about us?

Kawaii is one of Japan's greatest cultural exports. But cuteness is more than just a fad or a commercial success story: It's part of our evolution.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
WORLD / Politics
Jun 19, 2024

Netanyahu tells U.S., ‘Give us the tools, and we’ll finish the job’

The Biden administration has become increasingly critical of Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip to root out Hamas.
A gas station damaged by Hurricane Helene in Perry, Florida, on Sept. 27. Extreme weather and climate change are exposing the flaws in how we handle hazardous waste.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 3, 2024

Toxic waste is at the mercy of climate change

Among Hurricane Helene’s roster of disasters is a storm surge that deluged a retired nuclear power plant in Florida. While radioactive material there remains secure, according to operator Duke Energy, one of the plant’s industrial wastewater ponds overflowed amid the flood. With luck, any resulting...
Visual AI allows us to see more than meets the eye when looking at cities like Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2023

AI will show us the future of cities, if we guide the way

Visual AI can help us better see our cities, from crime rates to property values, but only human intelligence can tell the forest from the trees.
Lowell House on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2024

What’s bad for Harvard is good for the rest of us

The elite degree and the signal it sends is neither as accurate nor as valuable as the Ivy League would like you to think.
U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson steel mill in Braddock, Pennsylvania
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 11, 2024

How the U.S. Steel takeover became about Biden and swing states

The turmoil threatens to strain U.S. relations with Japan while underscoring how the politics of winning swing-state voters influences business.
Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki speaks to reporters on Tuesday at the prefectural government office.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 26, 2024

Foreign Ministry delayed telling Okinawa about U.S. airman's alleged sex crime

The delay in informing the prefectural government could further strain the relationship between Okinawa and Tokyo.
A television station broadcasts U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Chair Jerome Powell speaking in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Aug 24, 2024

Powell's Fed not shy about election-year cuts and ready to defend job market

The Fed chief sent a strong signal that the central bank will start cutting interest rates in mid-September, roughly seven weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
Although a quick resolution to the war may seem appealing, forcing Ukraine to capitulate would merely embolden Russia and its Chinese, Iranian and North Korean allies.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2024

Trump’s best hope for peace is to support Ukraine

Nearly two months before his return to the White House, Donald Trump appears intent on pressuring Ukraine to accept territorial losses in exchange for ending the war.
U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House in Washington on Friday. The two leaders expressed views opposing China's military actions in the South and East China seas.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2025

China complains to Japan about 'negative' references in joint statement

According to a joint statement, the U.S. and Japanese leaders expressed views opposing China's military actions in the South and East China seas.
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 13, 2024

Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says

The nascent concept goes beyond more regulations and restrictions, says Japan's first economic security minister, Takayuki Kobayashi.
A drone view shows Gary Works, the largest integrated steel mill in the U.S., which is operated by U.S. Steel, in Gary, Indiana, on Dec. 12.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 6, 2025

Rival CEO allegedly spread doubt about Nippon Steel deal to Wall Street

The private remarks the CEO made throughout 2024 about the deal process show the extent of his effort to cast doubt.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters after a three-way virtual summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 13, 2025

Ishiba urges Biden to dispel concern about investment in U.S.

Japanese firms invested almost $800 billion in the United States in 2023, more than any other country, and 14.3% of the total, according to official U.S. data.
Donald Trump could take a cue from China's approach in Africa, where, rather than attempting to buy countries outright — like Greenland — Beijing has secured access to critical minerals and influence by offering money, expertise and labor to nations pursuing economic development.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2025

Why would Trump buy Greenland when he can rent it?

U.S. strategic interest, however crudely Trump advertises it, reflects warranted concerns about encroachment by Russia and China.
Prime Minster Fumio Kishida talks with his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, as they arrive at the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Jakarta on Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 8, 2023

The ASEAN Summit gives us just more of the same

ASEAN needs to address problems internal divisions and maintain its role in the region.
A replica of the Statue of Liberty in Taipei. There are markers all over Taiwan of its courtship of the United States.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 21, 2024

Taiwan’s doubts about America are growing. That could be dangerous.

Will deepening skepticism about the United States as a trustworthy nation diminish Taiwan’s belief that it could fend off China?
A mob of supporters of President Donald Trump outside the Capitol building in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. Former President Donald Trump has recently taken to publicly celebrating the riot and those who took part in it, putting a revisionist history of the attack at the heart of his campaign.
WORLD
Apr 14, 2024

Inside Donald Trump’s embrace of the Jan. 6 rioters

The former president initially disavowed the attack on the Capitol, but he is now making it a centerpiece of his general election campaign.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at a fairgrounds in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 16, 2024

Inside Donald Trump’s embrace of the Jan. 6 rioters

Former President Donald Trump's words and actions regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters suggest he is trying to normalize violence in politics.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken dines at the Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant at the Yu Gardens in Shanghai on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 27, 2024

When U.S. diplomats visit China, meal choices are about more than taste buds

Visits to China by U.S. officials like Secretary of State Antony Blinken can bring fame to local restaurants, as well as scrutiny to the dignitaries.
Donald Trump in West Palm Beach, Florida, on July 27. A sophisticated breach of American telecommunications systems has extended to the presidential campaigns, raising questions about the group behind the attack and the extent of its efforts at collecting intelligence.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 27, 2024

What to know about the Chinese hackers who targeted the 2024 campaigns

The far-reaching operation has been linked to the Chinese government and attributed to a group experts call Salt Typhoon.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) walks with French President Emmanuel Macron (center) and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump after a meeting at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 10, 2024

Zelenskyy warns Trump and Macron about risk of frozen conflict

Ukraine can only enter into ceasefire talks with Russia from a position of strength, Ukrainian president says.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump and other Asian leaders pose for a family photo during a the ASEAN-U.S. 40th Anniversary Summit in Manila in November 2017. The U.S. president-elect’s Cabinet secretary level and other picks for his second term point to a tougher China policy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2025

What Trump’s appointments tell us about his Asia policy

Donald Trump’s second term as president appears set to intensify efforts to curb China’s influence while maintaining crucial alliances in Asia.
Emperor Hirohito speaks during a welcome ceremony hosted by U.S. President Richard Nixon in Anchorage, Alaska, on Sept. 26, 1971.
JAPAN / History
Feb 11, 2025

Emperor Showa was cautious about Nixon's 1972 visit to China, document shows

That the emperor voiced his own position on the visit to China may raise questions about diplomacy involving the imperial family.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, earlier this month.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 21, 2023

Americans are worried about finances, helping Trump in key states

Trump was trusted more on the economy by 49% of swing-state voters surveyed, compared to 35% for Biden.
A protest against the visit by then-U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August 2022
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2023

The truth about ‘America skepticism’ in Taiwan

Distrust of the U.S. among Taiwanese people stems more from Washington’s policies than propaganda or misinformation.
Then-Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa (left) and then-U.S. President Bill Clinton meet for talks at the White House on April 16, 1993.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 26, 2024

Ex-PM Miyazawa aired doubts about China's democratization to Clinton in '93

In a summit with the then-U.S. president, then-Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said he was skeptical about democracy taking root in China as living standards improve.
Black American women, who still heavily vote for the Democratic Party, are taking a much-needed break from political engagement after the last election, with the idea that rest and renewal will prepare them for future activism.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2024

Temporarily disconnected from politics? Feel no guilt about it.

Opposition movements are a recurring feature of American politics and predicts a robust, reenergized response when the time comes.

Longform

Tokyo Koon stands at the forefront of tackling the so-called 2025 issue, also known as the “Magnetic Tape Alert.”
The race to save 20th-century history