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Gearoid Reidy

Japan’s global soft power through anime and video games has grown in recent years in part because it largely remains more attuned to fans than investors.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jun 17, 2026

Don’t let Wall Street crush Japan’s soft power

Gamers fear that big money, foreign or otherwise, is going to ruin what might be one of the least-touched bastions of nerd entertainment.

Ground Self-Defense Force troops lower the Japanese flag at the end of the day at their camp on Miyako Island, Okinawa Prefecture, in April 2022.?

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jun 15, 2026

Who’s afraid of ‘Japanese neo-militarism’? Nobody

More countries see a stronger Japan not as a danger, but a counterweight to China’s actions and growing U.S. untrustworthiness.

Samsung Electronics workers chant slogans during a rally ahead of a planned strike outside the company's semiconductor plant in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, on April 23.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jun 5, 2026

Do Japan’s chip workers need a Samsung-style strike?

Even as Tokyo firms prepare to award customary summer bonuses, there will be nothing on the scale that South Korean companies are offering.

Tokyo’s push for cooler office attire has sparked backlash in Japan, where conservative workplace norms still shape office culture and critics say shorts and sandals do not belong in the workplace.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jun 1, 2026

Tokyo wants you to wear shorts to work. Say no.

While the image of the suit-and-tie salaryman endures, in recent years summer office fashions have become much more casual.

Toshifumi Suzuki, then an honorary adviser of Seven & I Holdings, attends the 50th anniversary ceremony of 7-Eleven Japan in Tokyo in April 2023.

COMMENTARY / Japan

May 26, 2026

The father of Japan’s konbini was right to ignore his critics

Since his departure, Seven & I has looked strategically unsettled, ensnared with activist investors and takeover bids.

Despite record Switch 2 sales and blockbuster movie success, Nintendo's shares have plunged as investors worry about rising costs and the company's lack of announced hit games for the crucial holiday season.

COMMENTARY / Japan

May 24, 2026

Nintendo gamers love surprises. Investors don’t.

The stock selloff is not entirely irrational: Investors can’t value what they don’t know and Nintendo’s plans for this year are a mystery.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is frustrating Japan’s traditional media establishment by limiting press access and communicating directly through social media, highlighting how technology is weakening the influence of legacy news institutions.

COMMENTARY / Japan

May 22, 2026

Takaichi’s press snub sweeps away another tradition

Back home, the press is getting restless at its lack of access to the premier. Takaichi has spoken with the media on fewer occasions than any leader in the past 15 years.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi rings the bell during a ceremony marking the end of trading in 2025 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Dec. 30.

COMMENTARY / Japan

May 22, 2026

There’s no Truss moment for Takaichi this time, either

A lettuce famously outlasted Liz Truss’s 49-day premiership. Japan has outlasted its doomsayers for 30 years.

Japan’s popular cheap curry lunches and other popular dishes at international restaurants are increasingly under threat as tighter visa rules and labor shortages squeeze the migrant workers and restaurant owners who sustain them.

COMMENTARY / Japan

May 14, 2026

Japan food sector: immigration, a labor crunch and rising costs

While you might think this is the result of the immigration policy of the Sanae Takaichi administration, both issues can be traced to her predecessors.

The yen has traded in a narrow ?158 to ?159 range against the dollar for two months as Japan steps up efforts to contain further weakness.

COMMENTARY

May 5, 2026

‘Keep phones on,’ Tokyo warns as yen battle intensifies

Traders are going to need to hold onto their devices going forward, as these kinds of interventions are becoming the new normal.

Sanae Takaichi’s economic strategy seeks to break Japan’s stagnation by boosting investment and demand despite high debt, a theory that remains promising but uncertain according to some experts.

COMMENTARY

Apr 27, 2026

Struggling to understand Sanaenomics? A new book helps.

Takaichi argues the solution is investment — with Aida proposing a “high-pressure economy” where demand outstrips supply and the government breaks the deadlock.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi greets members of British rock band Deep Purple, Ian Paice (left), Ian Gillan (center) and Roger Glover at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo on April 10.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Apr 20, 2026

Iran risks are smoke on the water for Takaichi

Japan gets some 94% of its oil imports via the Strait of Hormuz. The lack of panic so far has been thanks to a preparedness that comes from past bitter experience.

Japan’s iconic department stores, once central to urban culture, are rapidly declining due to e-commerce growth, tourism-driven sales and changing consumer behavior.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Apr 17, 2026

Has the death of the department store reached Japan?

Many thought Seibu would be one of the few landmarks to survive. Yet the owners were unable to renew terms with the Shibuya landowners, and it will close after nearly 60 years.

Young Japanese are rapidly embracing investing through programs like NISA amid rising markets, and while critics warn of “NISA poverty,” the trend largely reflects a positive shift toward asset-building.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Apr 14, 2026

Are Japan’s youth really in ‘investment poverty’?

let the young max out their retirement account if they like; politicians should focus on ways to boost young people’s take-home pay.

AI translation and algorithm changes on X unexpectedly connected American and Japanese users through shared content, highlighting the social media platform’s promise of cross-cultural exchange.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Apr 1, 2026

Japanese X is now America’s favorite corner of the internet

Japanese Twitter has been insulated from the culture wars and manipulation by foreign bots, one reason political discourse remains reasonably sane.

Japan is set to impose a "singles tax" next month as part of financing for measures to boost fertility rates.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 26, 2026

Japan’s ‘singles tax’ is just one battle after another

The plan has attracted vitriol due to its name and the fact that it burdens single-person households, which are now the most common type of household in Japan.

The last two students at Yumoto Junior High School attend their graduation ceremony in Ten-ei Village, Fukushima Prefecture, in March 2023.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 19, 2026

We have to stop discussing Japan’s birthrate like this

Declining Asian fertility is often framed negatively: a backlash against a crushing society. When it happens in the U.S., though, it’s young women taking control over their lives.

People wait in line to play Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 during the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles in June 2017.?Bloomberg.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 16, 2026

How Pokemon and Resident Evil rewrote gaming history

1996 was a seminal year for gaming, an era of rapid iteration and change that stands in contrast to the tedious yearslong development schedule of today.

Many Japanese companies — from Toto, a toilet manufacturer, to Fujikura — are quietly becoming key suppliers in the artificial intelligence supply chain but often fail to communicate their transformation effectively to investors and global audiences.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 11, 2026

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

Japanese firms often struggle to tell their success stories, particularly if they’re diversified or in niche industries.

Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Suzuki presents his credentials to King Charles at Buckingham Palace in May. Japanese diplomats like the ambassador are using social media, humor and local culture to win hearts and project soft power in ways traditional diplomacy cannot.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 2, 2026

Paddington, pints and the art of modern diplomacy

“48 times the Japanese ambassador made us proud to be British,” gushes one typical headline.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.

What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival

By Alex K.T. Martin

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