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Memo to Takaichi: Reject the temptations of populism

Memo to Takaichi: Reject the temptations of populism

In this era of renewed great power competition, the U.S.-Japan alliance remains the indispensable geopolitical linchpin of the Indo-Pacific. Yet the...

latest 20

The Japan Times

Stephen R. Nagy

Chinese AI videos used to look fake. Now they look like money.

Chinese AI videos used to look fake. Now they look like money.

Even six months ago, artificial intelligence-generated videos still betrayed themselves, with extra fingers, jerky limbs and uncanny facial...

latest 20

The Japan Times

Catherine Thorbecke

South Korea Is learning the hard truth about U.S. promises

South Korea Is learning the hard truth about U.S. promises

South Korea is getting a rude awakening about what happens when U.S. priorities shift: Even long-standing alliances can start to look like...

latest 20

The Japan Times

Karishma Vaswani

The war in Iran hits Indian curries — and crematoriums

The war in Iran hits Indian curries — and crematoriums

The war in Iran was always going to creep up on India, the world’s second-largest destination for oil exiting the Strait of Hormuz. Surprisingly,...

yesterday 30

The Japan Times

Andy Mukherjee

We have to stop discussing Japan's birthrate like this

We have to stop discussing Japan's birthrate like this

As the global fertility crisis deepens, the world keeps looking for a convenient explanation. Housing prices, perhaps. Feckless millennials, the Peter...

yesterday 30

The Japan Times

Gearoid Reidy

A world on the eve of destruction

A world on the eve of destruction

The world has entered a period of wrecking-ball politics. Leaders have risen to prominence by promising sweeping demolition rather than careful...

yesterday 30

The Japan Times

Tobias Bunde And Sophie Eisentraut

The era of humanoid robots is here: Governments must seize the moment

The era of humanoid robots is here: Governments must seize the moment

For an industry that’s only just getting started, there’s a lot of hype around humanoid robots. You can thank Elon Musk and his bold...

previous day 40

The Japan Times

Thomas Black

The next Cuban revolution could be peaceful

The next Cuban revolution could be peaceful

Ever since Fidel Castro’s forces overthrew Fulgencio Batista’s regime in 1959, Cuba has served as a revolutionary paradigm for Latin American...

previous day 30

The Japan Times

Roberta lajous

Take the China technology challenge seriously

Take the China technology challenge seriously

Uh oh. Survey data from Politico, the media giant, shows that “the 21st century is more likely to belong to Beijing than to Washington,” at least...

previous day 40

The Japan Times

Brad Glosserman

From stimulus to structure: Japan’s next economic agenda

From stimulus to structure: Japan’s next economic agenda

For years, Japan’s fiscal debate has centered around short-term ideas — tax cuts or cash transfers, stimulus or austerity. Recent discussions have...

previous day 40

The Japan Times

Sayuri Shirai

Japan’s energy dilemma in an era of volatility

Japan’s energy dilemma in an era of volatility

Energy shocks are once again rippling across global markets and Asia sits on the front line. The escalating conflict in the Middle East has already...

previous day 30

The Japan Times

Parul Bakshi

Lost in AI translation: What’s at stake? Our humanity.

Lost in AI translation: What’s at stake? Our humanity.

According to a recent article in The New York Times, you no longer need to learn Japanese to connect with locals in Tokyo. Invest 2,000 hours to...

previous day 40

The Japan Times

Eric Margolis

Japan’s energy dilemma in an era of volatility

Japan’s energy dilemma in an era of volatility

Energy shocks are once again rippling across global markets and Asia sits on the front line. The escalating conflict in the Middle East has already...

previous day 40

The Japan Times

Parul Bakshi

Those who most need to understand AI don’t get it

Those who most need to understand AI don’t get it

There are times when a major global development demands a special response from many academic disciplines, industries and departments of government....

16.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Charles Ferguson

How Pokemon and Resident Evil rewrote gaming history

How Pokemon and Resident Evil rewrote gaming history

In the space of just 23 days three decades ago, two initially unassuming releases changed videogames forever. On Feb. 27, 1996, Pokemon Red and Green...

16.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Gearoid Reidy

The new ‘scramble for Africa’ risks becoming divide and conquer

The new ‘scramble for Africa’ risks becoming divide and conquer

It has been raining trade deals. The U.K.’s Keir Starmer has agreed to closer trade ties with China’s Xi Jinping. The European Union and India...

16.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Justice Malala

Mirrors and blind spots: Japan, Canada and gender equality

Mirrors and blind spots: Japan, Canada and gender equality

On a crisp morning on Parliament Hill in Canada’s capital, I watched a group of schoolchildren pose for photographs in front of the Peace Tower. The...

13.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Waka Ikeda

How a baseball game in Japan is testing China on Taiwan

How a baseball game in Japan is testing China on Taiwan

A weekend appearance by Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai at Tokyo Dome, where he cheered on his island’s team at the World Baseball Classic, has...

13.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Karishma Vaswani

Takaichi needs a new blueprint for a lasting U.S. alliance

Takaichi needs a new blueprint for a lasting U.S. alliance

When Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrives in Washington this month to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, she will face the most complex...

13.03.2026 60

The Japan Times

Stephen R. Nagy

Japan should urge Iran to release people in detention

Japan should urge Iran to release people in detention

During a Jan. 14 news program by NHK, Shinnosuke Kawashima, the Japanese public broadcaster’s Tehran bureau chief, described the atmosphere in the...

13.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Teppei Kasai

A Soviet-era water scheme returns as a Eurasian lifeline

A Soviet-era water scheme returns as a Eurasian lifeline

For decades, the idea of redirecting a small share of Siberia’s vast freshwater resources toward Central Asia has been considered a relic of...

12.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Djoomart Otorbaev

Today’s Iran is like Japan in 1944

Today’s Iran is like Japan in 1944

When the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” I was reminded of Japan before the end of the...

12.03.2026 70

The Japan Times

Kuni Miyake

U.S. strikes on Iran will only harden North Korea's nuclear resolve

U.S. strikes on Iran will only harden North Korea's nuclear resolve

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un will draw a dangerous conclusion from the U.S. and Israel’s strikes on Iran: Nuclear weapons are the ultimate...

12.03.2026 60

The Japan Times

Karishma Vaswani

From toilets to fiber optics, Japan’s unlikely AI players

From toilets to fiber optics, Japan’s unlikely AI players

A Japanese maker of high-tech toilets has been causing a splash in the world of artificial intelligence. Activist investor Palliser Capital recently...

11.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Gearoid Reidy

Development provides security as effectively as hard power

Development provides security as effectively as hard power

This year’s Munich Security Conference brought plenty of talk about geopolitics, spheres of influence, the future of NATO and defense budgets. But...

11.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Alexander de croo

Amid a regional transformation, deterrence remains ‘simple’

Amid a regional transformation, deterrence remains ‘simple’

I spent last week at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Just past the United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum and the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado...

11.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Brad Glosserman

Why some people live to 100 despite doing everything wrong

Why some people live to 100 despite doing everything wrong

Some people who live to 100 and beyond smoke, drink hard liquor and down a beer every evening. Others indulge in daily ice cream or even drink three...

10.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

F.d. Flam

When is an illegal conflict morally defensible?

When is an illegal conflict morally defensible?

In international relations, manifestly illegal government action can sometimes be morally defensible. While historical examples of legitimacy trumping...

10.03.2026 60

The Japan Times

Gareth Evans

Tired of spending billions on dementia care? Try a brain workout.

Tired of spending billions on dementia care? Try a brain workout.

If ever you needed a nudge to give your brain a workout, new research underscoring the benefits of "brain training” should offer fresh...

10.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Lisa Jarvis

Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake

Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake

Wednesday marks 15 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. People the world over remember where they were and what...

10.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Julia Gerster

The long road to war between the U.S., Israel and Iran

The long road to war between the U.S., Israel and Iran

As the conflict with Iran reshapes global security assumptions and energy markets, the debate in the United States has focused largely on why U.S....

09.03.2026 70

The Japan Times

Carla Norrlof

British lessons about American decline

British lessons about American decline

When issuing their warnings about Western “civilizational erasure,” U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance often point to the...

09.03.2026 50

The Japan Times

Harold James

Anthropic’s partners are making a deal with the AI devil

Anthropic’s partners are making a deal with the AI devil

Anthropic PBC made an announcement late last month that flew under the radar. Having sparked selloffs in the equity market with a relentless stream of...

09.03.2026 40

The Japan Times

Parmy Olson

Takaichi and Trump are natural fossil fuel buddies — or are they?

The first fruits of a promised $550 billion investment agreement between the U.S. and Japan are already tainted with pollution. A unit of SoftBank...

08.03.2026 70

The Japan Times

David Fickling

China’s long-range DF-27 missiles are a game changer

Long before Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi drew Beijing’s ire by stating the obvious — that a Chinese military assault on Taiwan could be seen as...

08.03.2026 70

The Japan Times

Rintaro Inoue

The limits of Japan’s immigration charade

Following the Liberal Democratic Party’s electoral landslide last month, the government has once again affirmed a familiar contradiction: Japan will...

06.03.2026 70

The Japan Times

Midori inagaki

Hong Kong’s democracy fight is also a battle for women’s freedom

This weekend, as the world marks International Women’s Day, the Hong Kong human-rights barrister Chow Hang-tung is preparing to return to court on...

06.03.2026 60

The Japan Times

Frances Hui

Why the Iran war morphed into panic selling in Asia

It turns out, the biggest financial victim of U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran is not the S&P 500, but equity markets...

06.03.2026 70

The Japan Times

Shuli Ren

Israel has become America's not-so-secret weapon

The ongoing war against Iran has raised a number of important issues: the ability of air power alone to achieve regime change, the ethics and...

06.03.2026 60

The Japan Times

Hal Brands

Europe is stronger than the world thinks

If there is one key takeaway from the just-concluded Munich Security Conference, it is a message of trust and confidence in Europe. The European Union...

06.03.2026 60

The Japan Times

Nadia Calviño

Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei and his deadly legacy

Within hours of the massive explosion near the Tehran compound of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Saturday morning, Israeli and...

06.03.2026 80

The Japan Times

Pegah Banihashemi

AI is proving a 100-year-old prediction true

Great minds go off on odd tangents. In 1930, John Maynard Keynes took time out from thinking about the Great Depression, which was throwing millions...

06.03.2026 70

The Japan Times

Adrian Wooldridge

Regimes come and go. China’s interests in Iran will endure.

Those who view U.S. President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran as a blow to China should think again. Beijing will manage any potential leadership...

06.03.2026 70

The Japan Times

Karishma Vaswani

A win — and a lesson — from Toyota’s Elliott deal

Sometimes the most important lessons in life involve what not to do. The Toyota group may have prevailed over minority shareholders in a buyout, but...

05.03.2026 90

The Japan Times

Juliana Liu

Canada has an opportunity to redefine its role in the Pacific

As Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney touches down in Tokyo this week, he steps onto a geopolitical chessboard that has been radically reconfigured...

05.03.2026 80

The Japan Times

Stephen R. Nagy

AI leaders may spend billions only to lose the market

I recently asked Claude to help me think through the structure of my next book. I already knew where the weak point was — I just wanted to see what...

03.03.2026 70

The Japan Times

Gautam Mukunda

SoftBank’s Ohio power plant delivers an AI sticker shock

U.S. President Donald Trump famously likes to build big things — or at least have others build big things to which he can attach his name. True to...

03.03.2026 80

The Japan Times

Liam Denning

The Middle East ensnares another U.S. president

Little about the U.S. attacks on Iran makes sense. I will leave it to regional experts to explain the rationale behind and the impact of the strikes...

03.03.2026 70

The Japan Times

Brad Glosserman

The high price of political paranoia

In authoritarian systems, national interests and objectives often conflict with the leader’s beliefs, desires and insecurities. The more centralized...

03.03.2026 70

The Japan Times

Nina L. Khrushcheva

Lessons for Japan from Russia’s war in Ukraine

With a mandate after its Feb. 8 election victory, the Takaichi government will likely accelerate its planned revisions to Japan’s core...

02.03.2026 90

The Japan Times

Yuichi yoshida