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September 07, 2025
 

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DEFENSE

Virginia-class attack submarine USS Hawaii passes by Diamond Head crater on Oahu in Hawaii in July 2009.
WORLD
Apr 3, 2024
U.S. attack submarines to counter China are up to two years late
Delivery dates for Virginia-class subs are an estimated 24 to 36 months past the contracted dates
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Izumo destroyer docked in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in November 2021
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2024
Online video of Japanese destroyer may be fake: Defense Ministry
Video seemingly shot by a drone, which are banned around the military base.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg presents the alliance's annual report at NATO headquarters in Brussels on March 14.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 3, 2024
NATO ministers mull €100 billion military fund for Ukraine
The plans will be discussed during a two-day meeting in Brussels.
The top U.S. military commander in the Indo-Pacific, Adm. John Aquilino, has said that Beijing is maintaining its goal of being able to invade Taiwan by 2027.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 2, 2024
Will China truly be ‘ready’ to invade Taiwan by 2027? It’s complicated.
The most important factor shaping any plan will not be based on just military readiness, but rather on political and strategic objectives, analysts say.
Vladimir Putin knows that if NATO member states are dragged back into policing a restive Balkans, they will be distracted from their focus on supporting Ukraine.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2024
Putin’s new front in the Ukraine war is in the Balkans
The Russian leader is pushing propaganda and religious strife in Kosovo and Bosnia to distract NATO from his illegal invasion.
A woman walks past a TV showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at the main railway station in Seoul on March 18.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 2, 2024
North Korea launches intermediate-range missile as elections loom for South
The Defense Ministry said the weapon had traveled some 650 kilometers before splashing down in waters outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.
Chinese Coast Guard ships fire water cannons at a Philippine boat during a supply mission near Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed South China Sea on March 5. This incident highlights the danger that such confrontations could have for sparking a wider conflict.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2024
Beware the steady creep toward crisis in the South China Sea
The Philippines is pushing back. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has adopted a policy of “assertive transparency” to show the world what China is doing.
A boy watches Self-Defense Forces live-fire drills in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, in 2017. Japan’s defense posture is shifting, as the government’s recent approval of new arms export regulations signals.  
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 1, 2024
Is Japan leaving pacifism behind?
How a previous generation of Japanese leaders, those who made defense budget and arms export limits a national credo, would view the current shift.
Smoke rises from Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, on March 17. Ending the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and deterring conflicts in the Indo-Pacific region is a key global goal.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Mar 31, 2024
How should Japan deal with Ukraine, Gaza and the Indo-Pacific region?
The power, institutions and values that underpin the international security order are being compromised worldwide.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attend a meeting at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's far eastern Amur region last September.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 31, 2024
What does Russia's veto on North Korea sanctions monitoring mean?
Ending the U.N.'s monitoring will provide North Korea's Kim Jong Un with a major win, experts say.
With emerging headwinds in the U.S. and Japan, U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will have their work cut out for them next month as they look to maintain the momentum driving change in the alliance between both countries.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 31, 2024
Kishida heads to U.S. with a mission — maintain alliance momentum amid challenges
Defense and security will likely top the agenda, though it is unclear how the PM will handle the issue of Ukraine assistance amid a split U.S. Congress.
Commercial and residential buildings are seen on Ishigaki Island, in Okinawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2024
Japan to set up new shelters on southwestern islands
The central government has picked five municipalities on the Sakishima southwestern islands in Okinawa Prefecture.
A U.S. military Osprey aircraft flies over the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the center of the city of Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, in August 2022.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 30, 2024
Japan designates U.S. bases in Okinawa as security-linked sites
The government has designated 184 sites in 28 of the country's 47 prefectures as critical to national security in the fourth round of such designations.
Japan’s Cabinet agreed to ease defense export rules for the nation’s next-generation fighter jet, a concept model of which is seen on display here at a defense show in Chiba in March 2023.
EDITORIALS
Mar 29, 2024
Japan greenlights its defense industry
The government's steps on easing defense export rules will allow Japanese companies to participate more fully in the global market for defense equipment.
Russia's Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya described the panel as unjustified in the absence of an annual review to assess and potentially modify the sanctions on North Korea.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 29, 2024
Russian veto ends monitoring of U.N.'s North Korea sanctions
Ukraine's foreign minister called the veto "a guilty plea" amid allegations that Pyongyang is aiding Moscow in its war against Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the 344th Army Aviation Center of aircrews combat training and transition in Torzhok in the Tver region of Russia on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 28, 2024
Putin says Russia will not attack NATO but will shoot down Ukraine's F-16s
F-16s sent for use in Ukraine's war effort and used from airfields in third countries would "become for us legitimate targets," the Russian leader said.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, who chairs the German parliament's defense committee, argues that the security of Europe is inseparable from that of the Indo-Pacific.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 28, 2024
German MP warns of complacency amid growing Indo-Pacific threats
Closer attention need to be paid to the often-belligerent rhetoric coming from places such as China and North Korea, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann said.
Self-Defense Force soldiers search for survivors after a landslide swept through a residential area in Asaminami Ward, in the city of Hiroshima, in August 2014. Despite the nation’s numerous natural disasters, the government needs better contingency planning.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 28, 2024
Is Japan ready for the worst-case scenario?
Is the nation ready for massive disasters? Based on my studies of Japan’s crisis management system, I say “no” and unfortunately not.
Activists opposed to lethal autonomous weapons, or so-called killer robots, protest in Berlin in March 2019.
COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2024
Don’t fear AI in war, fear autonomous weapons
It’s not the algorithmic intelligence in our weapons and nukes but automaticity that poses an existential risk.
A U.S. Marine prepares to demonstrate the use of night vision goggles to Ground Self-Defense Force troops at the GSDF's Camp Somagahara in Gunma Prefecture in March 2017.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 25, 2024
U.S. eyes revamped military command in Japan, reports say
The allies are expected to announce the landmark agreement when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visits the White House next month.
‘Confugenics’ and East Asia's demographic crisis
East Asia’s fertility plunge is driven not just by financial costs but by perfectionist cultural expectations that burden parents with intense educational and social demands.
Japan prince comes of age as succession crisis looms
Prince Hisahito concludes his elaborate "kakan no gi" coming-of-age ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Saturday.
Bangladesh is a South Asian time bomb
Many Bangladeshis hoped that the overthrow of long-time leader Sheikh Hasina last year would revitalize the country’s democracy after an authoritarian lurch under the “iron lady.” Instead it has led to proliferating human-rights abuses, intensifying repression and widespread Islamist violence.
Japan to experience blood moon lunar eclipse on Monday
A blood moon is seen during a partial eclipse in the sky over Lake George near Canberra on March 14.
Japan's $550 billion investment pledge outlined in MOU
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, sign trade agreements on Thursday in Washington.
In rural Hokkaido, the stops and starts of tourism revival on full display
Redevelopment plans for Kawayu Onsen have hit some snags — an example of how bringing tourists back to declining rural communities is far from easy work.
London’s calling and sumo’s top division — along with Hello Kitty — are ready to answer
Yokozuna Hoshoryu and Hello Kitty, an ambassador for sumo's upcoming tour to London, at Tokyo's Kokugikan on Tuesday
Resonac creates 27-member consortium to pursue advanced chip developments
Representatives from member companies of JOINT3, a consortium working together on semiconductor-related developments announced by Resonac, pose for a photo in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Haru Nemuri’s radical new album refuses easy listening
Musician Haruna Kimishima, better known as Haru Nemuri, confronts Japan’s politics, nationalism and censorship on her recent output.
Overseas sluggers step up to bat in small-town Hokkaido
The Betsukai Pilot Spirits welcomed new players (left to right) Yuta Yamanaka, Roman Guthrie, Scott Bellina and Leo Jiminian this year, pictured here with Yassir Lachkar of the Ishikari Red Phoenix.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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