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August 28, 2025
 

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DEFENSE

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to the media after a meeting in Tokyo last month.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 19, 2025
Ishiba says Japan considering role in security guarantees for Ukraine
The “coalition of the willing,” which groups 30 nations backing Ukraine that includes Japan, has been working for months to craft a comprehensive package of security guarantees.
Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. undersecretary-general and high representative for disarmament affairs, speaks during a news conference on Monday in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2025
U.N. official Nakamitsu urges Japan to attend disarmament summit
Nakamitsu highlighted the importance of Tokyo's involvement in disarmament in the face of rising tensions and nuclear threats.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the Choe Hyon destroyer in this photo released Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 19, 2025
North Korea's Kim threatens rapid nuclear expansion amid U.S. war games
The call by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un comes amid escalating tensions with the U.S. and South Korea as the allies conduct joint military drills.
Australia’s decision to select Japan's upgraded Mogami-class warship, seen in this computer-generated image, has been “well received across Japanese industry," a Defense Ministry official said.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 17, 2025
Winning warship bid gives Japan confidence boost as Tokyo eyes more exports
Japan’s successful offer of state-of-the-art warships to Australia is seen as a "model" case for the future export of entire military systems, including to Southeast Asia.
Rescuers clear debris as they work at the site of a destroyed residential building following a Russian air attack in Kyiv on July 31.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 16, 2025
Trump’s pause on Ukraine aid hurt its readiness, watchdog finds
The eight-day halt in March "had tangible effect” on the conflict as well as "significant residual effects on the delivery of security assistance,” the U.S. European Command said.
The HMS Prince of Wales arrives at the Port of Darwin, Australia, in July during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025.
EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2025
Operation Highmast reinforces claims that ‘security is indivisible’
European governments recognize that developments in the Indo-Pacific have a profound impact on their national interests.
Russia's Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system unit is put on show during a military parade in central Moscow on May 9.
WORLD / Politics / EXPLAINER
Aug 15, 2025
Why is Putin talking about a new nuclear weapons treaty with the U.S.?
If a U.S.-Russian summit on Ukraine makes progress toward a new arms control treaty, the Russian president could argue he is engaging on wider peace issues.
U.S. President Donald Trump makes an announcement regarding the Golden Dome missile defense shield in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in May.
WORLD
Aug 15, 2025
Trump’s Golden Dome still shrouded in mystery, even for its builders
Government officials told defense contractors last week they weren’t even allowed to mention the project by name.
A U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey aircraft flies over the island of Okinawa in March 2018.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 14, 2025
Precautionary Osprey landings signal safety, not alarm
Two precautionary V-22 Osprey landings in northern Honshu demonstrated the aircraft’s safety and its role in enhancing Japan’s rapid-deployment and island-defense capabilities.
This handout video grab released and taken on Monday by the Philippine Coast Guard shows a Chinese Coast Guard ship with a damaged bow following an incident with a Chinese Navy vessel, as seen from a Philippine fisheries boat near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 13, 2025
China's military says it 'drove away' U.S. destroyer near Scarborough Shoal
The shoal has been a major source of tension in the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.
A worker at Stetman LLC repairs a damaged Starlink terminal in an undisclosed location in Ukraine on July 14.
WORLD
Aug 13, 2025
Starlink techies keep Musk’s network running, even in a war
Despite his on-and-off feud with Trump and the subsequent exile from the White House, Musk remains a central figure in the war.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (left) inspects troops from a vehicle during the Operational Troops and Military Honors ceremony at Suparlan Airfield, in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 12, 2025
Indonesia expands military as defense budget soars
The inauguration of new commands for the army, navy and air force marks the largest reorganization since the era of the authoritarian ruler Suharto.
Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer; Bob McGrew, an adviser at Thinking Machines Lab and OpenAI’s former chief research officer; Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technology officer; and Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s chief product officer at a military ceremony in Arlington, Va., in June 2025. The four current and former executives were pronounced lieutenant colonels in a new unit, Detachment 201, which will advise the Army on new technologies for potential combat.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 11, 2025
Silicon Valley is in its ‘hard tech’ era
Instead of the tap-to-pay apps of a decade ago like Clinkle and Bump, young companies are now making unmanned aerial drones stocked with AI-guided Barracuda cruise missiles.
Visitors have their photo taken by a portrait of President Xi Jinping at the Military Museum in Beijing on Oct. 20, 2023. The Chinese leader’s crackdown on military corruption reveals how deep his concerns run, not only about battlefield readiness, but about political survival, as well.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 11, 2025
Xi looks to tighten grip after scandals shake China’s military elite
Outwardly, China’s military has never been stronger. Its naval ships venture farther across the oceans. Its nuclear force grows by about 100 warheads every year. Its military flights around Taiwan are increasingly frequent and intimidating. Every few months, China unveils new weapons, like a prototype...
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on July 28. Germany will halt the export of military equipment to Israel, which could be used in the Gaza Strip.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 11, 2025
Germany says halting arms exports to Israel is response to Gaza expansion plans
The worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and Israel's plans to expand military control over the enclave have pushed Germany to take the historically fraught step.
The Palantir logo and a rising stock graph are seen in this illustration taken Aug. 3.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 11, 2025
Palantir’s meteoric rise has investors scrambling to justify valuation
Shares of the defense maker closed at another all-time high Friday, bringing gains since its 2021 debut to near 2,500%.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to U.S. troops based in Osan Air Base in South Korea in June 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 10, 2025
Defense to take top billing at U.S.-South Korea summit as Trump eyes alliance reset
With China looming large, security ties will take center stage at the first summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean leader Lee Jae Myung.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on July 14.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Aug 9, 2025
The hottest new credit deals in Europe are anything to do with defense
There are few investing booms in the world right now that are bigger than the rush to tap into Europe’s military buildup.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin on July 29.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 9, 2025
Germany suspends arms exports to Israel for use in Gaza
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said It was "increasingly unclear" how Israel's latest military plan would help disarm Hamas and save the remaining hostages.
A Chinese warship takes part in a military drill off the Chinese coast near Fuzhou, Fujian Province, across from the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands, China, in April 2023. Recent Chinese military drills have seen its vessels encircle Taiwan.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 8, 2025
Simulated Chinese blockade of Taiwan reveals Singapore as lifeline
Singapore's discreet and decades-old security presence inside Taiwan gives it an edge among Southeast Asian nations, which have close to a million of their nationals on the island.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan Post to stop accepting some parcels for shipment to the U.S.
Japan Post's UGX will still be available for many rejected packages.
Japan aims to tighten rules for business manager visas from October
The number of foreign residents with business management residency status had reached a record 41,615 as of the end of 2024.
Tokyo releases AI-generated video of Mount Fuji erupting
A screenshot from an AI-generated video showing what could happen to Tokyo if Mount Fuji erupted
Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.
Is Kishida plotting a return of the king? Or would he rather stay a kingmaker?
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chairs a plenary session at the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Philippines quietly deepening ‘unofficial’ defense ties with Taiwan
Filipino soldiers take part in a flag-raising ceremony on Mavulis Island during a visit by the Philippines' Armed Forces chief of staff, in Batanes, the Philippines, in June 2023. Batanes, a group of idyllic islands at the country’s northernmost tip, sits about 160 kilometers from Taiwan.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.

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

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