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September 16, 2025
 

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RELATIONS

The Palestinian Embroidery Obi Project brings together a traditional Japanese garment and age-old designs from the Middle Eastern region.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 19, 2025
In Gaza-made obi, Palestinian embroidery meets Japanese kimono
Kimono sashes from the Palestinian Embroidery Obi Project combine Japanese materials with Middle Eastern designs.
A Sanseito campaign van in Shinjuku. The populist party is gaining ground and challenging the more centrist parties.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 18, 2025
Japanese markets brace for triple whammy if opposition wins big
Bonds, stocks and the yen could be destabilized if spendthrift parties gain influence.
Japanese officials made a similar call in March to China to expand a program allowing certain mainland investors to put more money abroad when they held a high-level economic dialogue in Tokyo with their Chinese counterparts.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 18, 2025
Japan official urges China to expand foreign investment quota
China has been easing its strict controls over capital outflows in recent years.
A member of staff works on a production line that manufactures small metal coils at Mitsuwa Electric in Tokyo on July 11.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 18, 2025
Japan's smaller firms say they are ready to adapt to Trump tariffs
Millions of small- and medium-sized firms that make up 99.7% of Japan's companies are world-class in their specialist niche, giving rise to confidence about weathering tariffs.
A think tank researcher said anti-government propaganda by Russian bot accounts was what has made the small far-right party Sanseito so popular leading up to the Upper House election.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 18, 2025
Concerns grow in Japan over possible Russian interference in Sunday’s election
A blog post from a member of the Japan Institute of Law and Information Systems went viral for stating Russian bots were interfering in the upcoming Upper House election.
"Japan said that tariffs aren’t really the right tool to fix excessive current accounts imbalances,” Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato told reporters Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 18, 2025
Finance minister says tariffs not right tool to fix trade imbalances
Katsunobu Kato's comments come as the global economy braces for higher U.S. tariffs.
Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, in Beijing on Thursday
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 18, 2025
Trump’s U-turn on Nvidia spurs talk of grand bargain with China
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the administration wanted Chinese developers "addicted” to American technology.
Once seen as an unlikely prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba has struggled to deliver on promises, mishandled ties with U.S. President Donald Trump and now faces an election where the odds don’t look good for his party to come out victorious.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 18, 2025
A trade deal fumble could be Ishiba’s last mistake
Ishiba already leads a coalition that lacks a majority in the Lower House, and another bad showing Sunday will likely mean Japan is looking for its third leader in as many years.
Mazda employees walk at the company's main plant in the town of Fuchu, Hiroshima Prefecture, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 18, 2025
Japan voters see little hope for tariff reprieve in carmaker Mazda's hometown
The economic engine of Hiroshima Prefecture faces U.S. tariffs of 25% on cars, a dispiriting prospect for an electorate already battling inflation.
Members of Japan's Self-Defense Forces stand in formation during a review at Camp Asaka in October 2018. The government’s latest Defense White Paper warns of growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea.
EDITORIALS
Jul 18, 2025
Japan must be ready for an increasingly dangerous world
If there is a complaint to be issued against this year’s Defense White Paper, it is its reluctance to fully address the impact of Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency.
Campaign posters in Tokyo. Voters in Japan put immediate economic issues ahead of longer-term concerns about the effects of tariffs.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 17, 2025
Trump tariffs fail to register with Japanese voters ahead of key election
Only 8% of voters surveyed by NHK rated tariffs as their top priority.
A guilty ruling on a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma in China for a spying charge has shocked Japanese firms operating in China.
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2025
Japanese firms in China wary after Astellas employee spy conviction
"We don't know what actions (by the Astellas employee) were considered a problem" by Chinese authorities, a senior official of a Japanese manufacturer stationed in Beijing said.
Since the Sino-U.S. trade conflict began in 2018, China has used it to strengthen self-reliance, sharpen its strategies and turn Donald Trump’s tariffs into fuel for its long-term global resilience. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2025
China is winning Donald Trump’s trade war
While China does not want a trade war or to decouple, it is willing to risk a trade war that the United States may lose — and it would rather decouple than kowtow to Trump.
U.S. President Donald Trump in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 2017. Six months into his second term, Trump has softened his harsh campaign rhetoric that focused on the U.S.’ massive trade deficit with China and resulting job losses.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 17, 2025
Trump softens tone on China to secure Xi summit and a trade deal
U.S. President Donald Trump's warmer posture toward China contrasts with his threats against other trading partners to ravage their economies with crushing tariffs.
Visitors crowd Nakamise shopping street in the Asakusa district of Tokyo on June 22.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2025
Japan tourism growth slowed as quake rumor deterred Hong Kongers
Fears of an earthquake on or around July 5 originated from a manga by Ryo Tatsuki, whom some claim to have foreseen Japan’s disastrous 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum (left) and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 16, 2025
Trump signals the end of the road for Japan tariff negotiations
U.S. President Donald Trump's 25% "reciprocal" rate might simply be allowed to go into effect on Aug. 1
Astellas Pharma's headquarters in Tokyo
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 16, 2025
Chinese court jails Japanese executive after sudden detention for spying
The convicted man, an executive of Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma, was detained in March 2023 and charged with espionage in October of that year.
Elbridge Colby (center), then-nominee to be the Pentagon's undersecretary of defense for policy, is introduced by U.S. Vice President JD Vance (left), during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in Washington in March.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 16, 2025
Pentagon No. 3 praises Japan defense report, but vows to make alliance more 'equitable'
The Pentagon's top policy official Elbridge Colby labeled the defense white paper “an important, clear-eyed strategic assessment from our close ally."
A driverless car by Apollo Go, Baidu's robotaxi service, drives on a road in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on July 19, 2024.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 16, 2025
Uber teams up with China’s Baidu on global robotaxi rollout
Baidu’s autonomous vehicles will be available on the Uber app in Asia and the Middle East later this year, the companies said in a statement Tuesday.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks at the opening ceremony of the third China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 16, 2025
U.S. says Nvidia's sales of AI chips to China are part of rare earths talks
The planned resumption is a reversal of an export restriction imposed in April that is designed to keep the most advanced AI chips out of Chinese hands.
SDF spots China’s biggest aircraft carrier for first time
The Fujian aircraft carrier is seen in Shanghai in May 2024 as it leaves for its first sea trial.
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens?
Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life and 7-Eleven, a chain that began in the U.S. in 1927, opened its first store in Japan in 1974 — and then became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005 through parent company Seven & I Holdings.
Final weeks of World Expo in Osaka likely to see large crowds
With one month left to go, crowds are expected to swell at the World Expo in Osaka during its final weeks.
Japan's elderly population down at around 36.2 million
The estimated number of people age 65 or older in Japan stands at 36.19 million as of Monday, accounting for record 29.4% of the country's total population, according to the internal affairs ministry.
Strikes on Qatar and Poland shake U.S. sway among friend and foe
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Museum of the Bible in Washington on Sept. 8. Israeli strikes in Qatar and Russian drone incursions into Poland have challenged the U.S. leaders claims of global respect.
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

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