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Waka Ikeda

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Waka Ikeda

Waka Ikeda is a freelance journalist based in Budapest and Tokyo. Her work has appeared in Nikkei Asia, Newsweek Japan, Vogue Japan and Elle Japan, among other publications.

Protesters opposed to revising Japan’s “peace” Constitution take part in a rally in Tokyo on May 3.

COMMENTARY / Japan

May 29, 2026

Goyo gakusha: Welcome to Japan’s new cancel culture

Guilt by affiliation is not scholarship. It is the abandonment of scholarship.

An experiment by a small city in Aichi Prefecture suggests that smartphone restrictions targeting only children are less effective than those targeting the entire family, as children’s screen habits closely mirror their parents.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Apr 17, 2026

The parent problem: When smartphone rules end at the school gate

Children who exceeded two hours of daily screen time tended to have parents with similarly high usage. The relationship held across age groups.

Japan’s pacifist identity, rooted in Article 9 of the Constitution, has hardened into a reflex that avoids confronting modern security realities facing the world.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 22, 2026

Repeating Article 9 like a mantra isn’t a foreign policy

Any serious defense debate becomes, by rhetorical sleight of hand, a warning of imperial revival.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her Canadian counterpart, Mark Carney, meet in Tokyo on March 6. Takaichi is Japan’s first female prime minister, while Canada has not had a woman serve in the post in more than three decades.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 13, 2026

Mirrors and blind spots: Japan, Canada and gender equality

Canada's numbers do not describe a country that has solved gender inequality. They suggest one that may be coasting on a progressive reputation not fully matched by outcomes.

Sanai Takaichi and the Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory demonstrated that when candidates find compelling issues that affect their lives, young people show up.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Feb 10, 2026

Japan’s youth are quietly securing their nation’s future

Young voters didn’t just express opinions in polls, they showed up at voting stations in increased numbers, many for the first time.

Prime minister Sanae Takaichi and Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama attend a budget committee session in the Lower House of parliament in Tokyo on Nov. 11. Their rise to the nation’s highest offices underscores the growing prominence of women in Japanese politics.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jan 16, 2026

Feminism’s failures and the secret to Takaichi’s success

A movement that cannot accommodate this complexity — that insists feminists must agree on everything or be dismissed as traitors — consigns itself to irrelevance.

Documented evidence shows schools that implement smartphone-free policies see measurable improvements in academic performance and student well-being, even within a single semester.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Dec 19, 2025

It’s time for Japan to ban smartphones in schools

Excessive screen time creates addiction comparable to substance abuse, but it is more nefarious in that it impacts people in unseen ways, unlike tobacco or alcohol.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a self-made politician from a humble family, earned her way into Japan’s old-boys’ club through sheer determination, an achievement worth celebrating.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Oct 31, 2025

Takaichi deserves better than gendered stereotypes

Takaichi’s diplomatic interactions don't strike me as “selling her womanness” to Trump, as some have claimed.

Refugees and migrants, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, crowd a platform at a train station in Budapest in September 2015. Hungary's focus on pro-natalist policies and minimal immigration has led to a significant improvement in its fertility rate compared to Japan.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Oct 15, 2025

Asia can learn from Europe’s immigration mistakes

The result is dangerous confusion where legitimate policy debates about labor shortages become entangled with xenophobic fears about cultural invasion.

East Asia’s fertility plunge is driven not just by financial costs but by perfectionist cultural expectations that burden parents with intense educational and social demands.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Sep 5, 2025

‘Confugenics’ and East Asia’s demographic crisis

The numbers are staggering when you dig into them. Parents in Japan covered half of higher education costs in 2024 — more than double the OECD average.

Students in South Korea sit the annual College Scholastic Ability Test. There is huge pressure on this exam, which determines young people's university choices and, in turn, their job and even marital prospects, leading to a heavy mental health burden.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 26, 2025

Entrance exam wars: A pressure cooker for South Korean youth

South Korea comes to a standstill on the day of the national university entrance exam. But so does students' possibility to determine their future paths beyond a mere test score.

An advertisement in Tokyo's Kabukicho, Japan's largest red-light district. The country is home to a thriving adult entertainment industry and has recently seen a boom in sex tourism fueled by the weak yen and availability of red-light services.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Dec 30, 2024

From geisha to oshikatsu, toxic tropes fuel sex industry

It isn't only the foreign gaze that produces stereotypes of Japanese women as submissive and promiscuous. Local laws and cultural norms play just as important a role.

An archival photo depicting a CWAJ board meeting from April 6, 1966

COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element

Aug 15, 2024

From the division of war, 75 years of intercultural aid

Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, the mission of the College Women’s Association of Japan remains straightforward yet ambitious: Women supporting women.

Hungary, which has increased its birth rate since 2010, has adopted policies that support those who want or have children, including financial incentives, housing subsidies and better work-life balance.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jul 31, 2024

Why do young people in Hungary want kids more than in Japan?

Marriage and birth rates are plummeting in Japan, while many young people in Hungary want families thanks to measures that support their choices in life and at work.

Japan’s custody system may soon change with the introduction of joint custody, though issues like a lack of protection against domestic violence and abuse must also be tackled.

COMMENTARY / Japan

May 10, 2024

Joint custody alone won’t fix Japan’s flawed system

Japan could be on the verge of adopting joint custody. While to some this is a step in the right direction, it may not be enough to protect families.

Yulia Naumenko is one of many Ukrainians living in Japan as the war in their home country stretches into its third year.

COMMUNITY

Mar 11, 2024

In war’s third year, Ukrainians in Japan still face daily trials

Two years of conflict has left Ukraine scarred and evacuees living in Japan with just as many struggles as when they arrived.

Beyond factors such as the "motherhood penalty," Japanese women struggle to advance in their careers due to the structure of the workforce, including the two-tiered clerical versus managerial track.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 6, 2024

Why is it taking so long to break the glass ceiling?

Japan isn't unique in having a thick glass ceiling, but some factors don't apply to other countries, like the U.S., where many more managers are women.

Japan is the only country with a law requiring married couples to adopt the same surname. In 95% of cases, it is women who take their husband's name.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Feb 7, 2024

The land where single surnames are the only option

The business lobby recently joined calls for Japan to accept separate surnames after marriage. What, then, is standing in the way of change? Politics.

As Japan's productivity declines due to the shrinking working-age population, policies that allow for everyone’s full participation in the labor force, especially women, are needed more than ever.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Dec 29, 2023

A look back at Japan’s gender laws and fairness in 2023

Gender equality needs to improve to boost Japan’s prospects. What hits and missed opportunities will we remember from 2023?

University students attend a job fair. If Japanese companies continue hiring people based on the university they graduated from, acquiring extra qualifications or reskilling won't impact candidates' job prospects.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Nov 29, 2023

Kishida’s stimulus package needs rethinking, not reskilling

The government aims to promote reskilling for nonregular workers to boost their job prospects, but this won't matter if hiring practices don't change.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Community programs and tracking systems are expanding across Japan as local governments search for ways to prevent dementia-related disappearances.

He told his wife he was ‘coming home.’ Then he disappeared.

By Alex K.T. Martin

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