Tag - explainer

 
Menu
Search
 
August 31, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

EXPLAINER

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.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's political survival likely hinges on whether a leadership race will take place within the Liberal Democratic Party following its decision to have its election committee canvass the opinions of party members and prefectural chapters on the subject.
JAPAN / Politics / EXPLAINER
Aug 13, 2025
Will Ishiba's critics be able to garner enough support for a leadership race?
The only way to remove an LDP president from office — other than a resignation — is to invoke the recall clause and hold a leadership race.
A person records images of waves following a tsunami advisory generated by local authorities after an earthquake struck off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, prompting warnings and evacuations stretching across at the South Pacific, in Vina del Mar, Chile, on Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / EXPLAINER
Jul 31, 2025
Why did such a powerful earthquake produce such a weak tsunami?
Part of the reason the waves were weaker than anticipated may have to do with the size of the quake off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.
Attorney General Pam Bondi participates in a Cabinet meeting sy the White House in Washington or July 8.
WORLD / Politics / EXPLAINER
Jul 16, 2025
'Epstein files' explained: Why Trump is under pressure
U.S. President Donald Trump has struggled to quell his supporters' obsessions with the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which continues to generate outrage.
Firefighters work to tackle a wildfire spread at Les Pennes-Mirabeau, near Marseille, southern France, on July 8
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / EXPLAINER
Jul 15, 2025
How climate change is fueling wildfires in Europe
Wildfires have burnt 227,000 hectares of land since the beginning of the year — more than double the average for this time of year over the past two decades.
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.
The U.S. Capitol in Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax bill largely benefits business investors and wealthy Americans.
WORLD / Politics / EXPLAINER
Jul 4, 2025
Who won and lost in Trump’s tax bill
Those hit the hardest by the sweeping package include elite universities and immigrants.
A satellite image shows the damaged Arak heavy water reactor facilities, following Israeli airstrikes, in Iran, on Thursday.
WORLD / EXPLAINER
Jun 20, 2025
What are the nuclear contamination risks from Israel's attacks on Iran?
The major concern would be a strike on Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr.
A screenshot of a submarine cable map on TeleGeography’s website shows a network of cables connecting with Japan.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 16, 2025
The underlying risks to Japan’s undersea cables
What exactly are undersea cables, and how real is the threat of disruption in Japan?
A demonstrator against impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol reacts after the Constitutional Court ruled to remove him from office in Seoul on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / EXPLAINER
Apr 4, 2025
What happens next after South Korea removes President Yoon
Yoon's removal from office was the culmination of months of turmoil in which hundreds of thousands took to the streets, either to protest or support him.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the Upper House of the Diet on Friday. The clock is ticking for Ishiba's administration to get the budget for fiscal 2025 passed in parliament.
JAPAN / Politics / EXPLAINER
Mar 28, 2025
Is it a big problem if the budget fails to clear parliament by the end of March?
Government functions won't be significantly hindered, but the Ishiba administration's reputation will take another beating.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waits for a session of the House of Councillors Budget Committee to begin in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Explainer
Mar 19, 2025
What's the fuss over Ishiba's gift vouchers?
The prime minister's standing has worsened following reports that he handed out gift vouchers worth ¥100,000 ($668) each to rookie lawmakers from his party.
Alimentation Couche-Tard founder Alain Bouchard (center), CEO Alex Miller (left) and CFO Filipe Da Silva attend a photo session after a news conference on their bid for Seven & I Holdings in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies / EXPLAINER
Mar 17, 2025
Why Couche-Tard's deal with Seven & I isn't going anywhere
The buyout bid has seen a mixed response in Japan, with some expressing concerns over the convenience store chain being taken over by a foreign company.
France's President Emmanuel Macron addresses the media during a news conference at the end of a Special European Council to discuss continued support for Ukraine and European defense at the EU headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / EXPLAINER
Mar 7, 2025
How realistic is France's offer to extend its nuclear umbrella?
France has only a fraction of the number of airborne nuclear weapons the U.S. can provide, and any upgrade of its systems would be costly.
Firefighters work to extinguish the forest fire in the city of Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, in this screenshot of a video footage from the Fire and Disaster Management Agency on Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / EXPLAINER
Mar 3, 2025
Why the latest Iwate wildfire is so difficult to extinguish
The unusually dry weather, strong winds, the prefecture's mountainous terrain — as well as what's known as a fire cycle — have made the situation worse than usual.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar, are stuck in limbo at a compound in Myawaddy, Myanmar, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal / EXPLAINER
Feb 28, 2025
Southeast Asia's latest scam center crackdown
Here's a look at why the crackdown is happening now and the broader implications for relations between China, Thailand and Myanmar.
Leaders of patients' groups submit signatures opposing the move by the government to raise the medical copayment ceiling on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / EXPLAINER
Feb 14, 2025
Japan to rethink medical copayment hike amid patient outcry
Many patients, especially those undergoing costly but effective cancer therapy, say a hike might force them to abandon their treatments.
The International Criminal Court building
WORLD / Crime & Legal / EXPLAINER
Feb 8, 2025
'Existential threat': What next for the ICC after U.S. sanctions?
Experts say the sanctions announced by Trump will have a wide-reaching impact on the court.
China said on Tuesday it would impose tariffs on imports of U.S. energy, vehicles and equipment, firing a return salvo in an escalating trade war between the world's two biggest economies.
BUSINESS / Economy / EXPLAINER
Feb 4, 2025
Where things stand in China-U.S. trade tensions
China has made good on its threats to retaliate in the escalating trade war with the United States, imposing tariffs on American imports of energy, cars and machinery parts.
Construction workers near a sinkhole in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, on Monday
JAPAN / Society / EXPLAINER
Feb 3, 2025
Why it's taking so long to reach the driver trapped in a Saitama sinkhole
The biggest challenge for the operation, now in its seventh day, is that the sinkhole continues to expand, complicating the rescue efforts.
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 to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Top Japan trade negotiator canceled U.S. trip over rice, report says
Ryosei Akazawa
Most Japanese teens struggling with school find end of summer ‘painful’
Some 93.1% of Japanese teenagers who struggle with school life said they felt like they “wanted to disappear from the world" at the end of summer vacation ahead of the start of a new term, according to a recent survey released by Yokohama-based nonprofit Daisan Kazoku.
Most Trump tariffs are not legal, U.S. appeals court rules
Workers hang a large poster of U.S. President Donald Trump on the facade of the Department of Labor headquarters building in Washington on Wednesday.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
YouTube Music Weekend is where Japan’s internet-born performers go global
Headlining the second day of YouTube Music Weekend is Vocaloid artist Kikuo, who, with 1.46 million YouTube subscribers, is one of the most popular artists in the genre.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.
Jesse Kirkwood: ‘Languages are entire cultural universes with all sorts of baggage’
Jesse Kirkwood is part of a vibrant field of translators who have nurtured what might be called a “post-Murakami era of Japanese literature and translation,” one book at a time.

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

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality
Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER