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Leo Lewis

Leo Lewis

Financial Times

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Japan is the ultimate Halo trade

So much that once struck investors as ungodly suddenly looks redeemed

26.02.2026 8

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

A new era of realism for Japan

Takaichi is telling a country now encouraged to believe in its strengths to lean in to its true challenges

13.02.2026 30

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Takaichi’s great election gamble

Japan’s first female prime minister is pulling out all the stops in presenting herself as a force for real change

30.01.2026 4

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

An unreliable America is making Japan turn to drumstick diplomacy

If Tokyo can’t count on Washington, forging pragmatic new alliances with former foes increasingly makes sense

16.01.2026 9

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Japan’s ‘Goldilocks crisis’ is a make-or-break moment

The curious surge in the shares of retailer Aeon underlines the pressure building in the country’s economy — and politics

02.01.2026 60

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

The rise of humanoid robots threatens political disruption

Our delighted faith in the automatons raises the question of how they will integrate into human society

04.12.2025 10

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Toyoda’s Maga cosplay disguises Japan’s pain

The shrinking, ageing economy is in critical need of mechanisms to attract the world’s best

20.11.2025 10

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Japan’s adventures in Trump’s irrational-rational land

A shiny Ford pick-up truck has become the symbol of Sanae Takaichi’s diplomatic dance with the US

07.11.2025 8

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Japan has an ‘enshortification’ problem

An ageing workforce is affecting all sorts of professions

09.10.2025 10

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

What superstition tells us about humanity

Japan’s demographic plunge suggests our embrace of the unscientific hasn’t gone away

25.09.2025 8

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Japan confronts the increased price of US friendship

The Japanese government cannot spin its one-sided $550bn investment commitment to Trump’s America as a win

12.09.2025 10

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

The bullish signs from Japan’s bear panic

Even as it faces national dotage, the country remains a formidable industrial power

28.08.2025 10

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Japan’s pacifist self-image is under attack from realpolitik

At a Tokyo defence show, the shocking reality of preparing for possible future wars was unmissable

14.08.2025 10

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

A weak yen is the root of Japan’s lurch to the right

Populism has caught up with the country and found fertile soil

18.07.2025 20

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Japan’s great unsticking has begun

The end of the zero-interest era is unleashing competition in the banking sector and changes in saver and investor behaviour

03.07.2025 10

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Trump, Japan and the era of ‘stick-holder capitalism’

Nippon Steel’s $15bn deal for US Steel reflects a version of capitalism that does not fully serve the interests of shareholders

19.06.2025 10

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

The all-seeing pen that feeds our need for motivation

We are obsessed with self-quantification in everything from running to handwriting, but Kokuyo’s gadget goes beyond that

05.06.2025 8

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Japanese leaders need to give up their rice obsession

Many more people in the country owe their livelihoods to the car industry than to farming

22.05.2025 10

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

The ants, the grasshopper and Japan’s future

Trump’s trade crisis will answer whether the country’s corporates have saved or danced all summer

08.05.2025 20

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Is this still the Asian century?

The theory is that hegemonies run in cycles, but Trump and a trade war may disrupt the pattern

24.04.2025 8

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

How to celebrate the world as it falls apart

The Osaka Expo 2025 is a masterclass in smiling through tariff calamity

10.04.2025 9

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Japan’s apex survival instinct is put to the test

The erosion of the post-1945 world order has rattled the country

27.03.2025 20

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

What Japan can teach the US in an age of boycotts

The country wanted to do everything itself and largely still does

13.03.2025 10

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Steak mousse and a vibrating sofa: Japan shows the way for baby boomers

The practical impact of mass ageing has suddenly become more dramatic and potent

27.02.2025 10

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Shareholder capitalism, the Japanese way

An obsession with the UN’s SDGs allows companies to create a smokescreen

13.02.2025 8

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

DeepSeek hints that China has mastered the art of ‘kaizen’ — the west should be worried

The Japanese concept of continuous industrial improvement helps to explain Beijing’s technological success

30.01.2025 10

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

An anti-Japan tirade takes the US back in time

Attack by Cleveland CEO is symptomatic of an abrasive environment building as Trump inauguration nears

16.01.2025 20

Financial Times

Leo Lewis

Why it’s hard to be a friend of America

Nippon Steel’s bid for US Steel shows the flaws in the ‘friendshoring’ approach

02.01.2025 9

Financial Times

Leo Lewis