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July 15, 2026
 

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COMMENTARY

Japan

World
Japan
What Budapest¡¯s Pride march taught me about Japan
COMMENTARY / Japan
What Budapest¡¯s Pride march taught me about Japan
Marching is good. But the right to marry, to adopt, to be recorded as a family in the koseki would be great.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Long-held strategic assumptions no longer hold
For Japan, then, any real discussion of security must start with questions about the U.S. commitment to the region.
COMMENTARY / Japan
The weak yen is not Japan¡¯s new strength. It is a warning.
The absence of Japan-bashing should not be mistaken for international approval. It may simply mean the world no longer sees Japan as the central imbalance problem.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends an Upper House budget committee session at the Parliament in Tokyo on April 7.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 10, 2026
Takaichi wants to make Japan Inc. great again
By Gearoid Reidy
The plan is the inaugural post-deflation outline for expansion and the first comprehensive industrial policy in decades, focusing on 17 areas with 62 priority products.
U.S. President Donald Trump attends a news conference at the NATO summit in Ankara on Wednesday. The U.S. leader's approach to alliances means American security guarantees can no longer be taken for granted.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 10, 2026
Trump just made Japan¡¯s security dilemma more urgent
By Imran Khalid
Japan should respond to growing uncertainty over U.S. security commitments by taking greater responsibility for protecting its own maritime and strategic interests.
Gaming enthusiasts check out the Sony PlayStation booth during the Tokyo Game Show at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture in September.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 8, 2026
Sony hits eject on the era of owning games
By Gearoid Reidy
Fans are losing one of their last bits of leverage over an industry that is going places many don¡¯t like and there are clear downsides from Sony¡¯s move.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets with her Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in New Delhi on July 2. AFP-JIJI
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 8, 2026
Time for middle powers to sustain ¡®free and open Indo-Pacific¡¯
By Gurjit Singh
The Japan-India summit¡¯s ambitious agenda demonstrated a willingness to move beyond declarations toward practical cooperation on economic security.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe holds a joint news conference with Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia's president, in Belgrade in January 2018.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 8, 2026
Remembering Shinzo Abe, an honored friend of Serbia
By Aleksandar Vucic
Serbian-Japanese diplomatic relations trace their beginnings to 1882, when King Milan Obrenovic and Emperor Meiji first exchanged letters.
An electronic board displays the exchange rate of the yen against the U.S. dollar and other currencies on a street in Tokyo on June 22.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 6, 2026
Fighting yen psychology is a losing battle
By Daniel Moss
Turning the currency around, never easy at the best times, has just become harder given the renewed embrace of the greenback.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, U.S. President Donald Trump, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other world leaders attend a working dinner during the Group of Seven summit in Evian, France, on June 15.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jul 5, 2026
Japan positioned to link U.S. and Europe in a fragmented world
By Hitoshi Suzuki
With Washington and Europe drifting apart, Tokyo¡¯s FOIP strategy offers a path to maintain unity.

America¡¯s new India doctrine: Never repeat the China mistake
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi take part in a joint news conference at the White House in February 2025.
Global demand is reshaping secondhand fashion in Japan
A rise in tourists on the hunt for on-the-ground deals as well as foreign-facing resellers seeking to turn a profit has Japan's secondhand fashion industry facing a crunch.
Extreme heat grips Japan with potential double storm brewing
As heat grips Japan, authorities are urging residents to use air conditioning, avoid unnecessary outdoor activity and drink fluids before feeling thirsty.
Japan is building a new intelligence agency with help from the West
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who serves concurrently as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, delivers a speech during the party's convention in Tokyo in April.
How Putin turned Japan into a den of spies
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Aeroflot CEO Sergei Aleksandrovsky at the Kremlin in Moscow on April 6.
Japan¡¯s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history
Miwa Yanagi¡¯s ¡°Elevator Girl House¡± series skewers the superficiality of gender roles through staged images.
Is ramen soup? An inquiry.
Ramen is one of Japan's national dishes. But what exactly is it?
Global demand is reshaping secondhand fashion in Japan
A rise in tourists on the hunt for on-the-ground deals as well as foreign-facing resellers seeking to turn a profit has Japan's secondhand fashion industry facing a crunch.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
¡®Princess Mononoke¡¯ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The ¡°Princess Mononoke¡± adaptation was created under Shochiku¡¯s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

For many people, utility poles and power lines have become such a familiar part of Japan¡¯s landscape that they often go unnoticed.
Why Japan¡¯s utility poles won¡¯t be disappearing anytime soon
By Alex K.T. Martin

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