91²Ö¿â

 
Menu
Search
 
December 07, 2025
 

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY

World

World
Japan
Fostering technical, digital and social skills across all working-age groups, including older workers, is essential for Asian economies to harness AI effectively.
COMMENTARY / World
Can AI be Asia¡¯s next growth engine?
Using new digital technologies ¡ª and, in particular, AI ¡ª Asia can invigorate productivity growth, ease labor shortages and extend people¡¯s working lives.
COMMENTARY / World
BBQ gas is helping to cool a warming planet
A widening array of national-level regulations, prompted by the United Nations-backed Kigali Amendment on HFCs, are gradually pushing hydrofluorocarbons out of the market.
COMMENTARY / World
Photoshopping, not chatbots, might be AI¡¯s killer app
Enforcement across the world wide web remains an open question and rising mistrust of digital media could trigger stricter interventions elsewhere.
Whether it's within NATO or through bespoke coalitions, Europe must coordinate its military and diplomatic efforts to deter aggression, protect allies, and ensure it can project power effectively beyond the EU¡¯s highly regulated and limiting institutions.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2025
The EU is the wrong power player for Ukraine
By Marc Champion
Europe lacks the institutions, resources and political cohesion to defend against Russia and China, leaving NATO, bespoke coalitions and individual nations to fill the gap.
A person pays their respects at a makeshift memorial for the victims of last week¡¯s deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Hong Kong. ?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2025
How an unfree press stoked the flames of Hong Kong¡¯s deadly blaze
By Mark L. Clifford
Many of the people who lived in the housing complex knew about problems in the renovation project that saw building towers wrapped in plastic netting and windows filled with foam.
Social media, the internet and other modern-day pressures like digital overload, complexity and declining community ties are fueling loneliness and mental strain across Western societies.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2025
The West is facing fearsome new 'giants'
By Adrian Wooldridge
The old postwar ¡°Five Giants¡± have been defeated, but new challenges ¡ª loneliness, addiction, distraction, lies and complexity ¡ª threaten Western societies.
A campaign poster for a Labour Party candidate in Burnley, England, in June 2024. Britain¡¯s property tax system is unfair and outdated, and a proportional national levy could improve fairness, mobility and long-term economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2025
The U.K.'s property taxes are an irrational mess
By Matthew Brooker
There was no justification for a system that imposed a higher tax burden on a terraced house in Burnley, a deprived town in the northwest, than on a fancy mansion in London.
Pope Leo XIV prays at the Tomb of Saint Francis in Assisi, Italy, last month. The Vatican is pushing a global conversation on how AI can uphold human dignity and serve the common good.?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2025
The Vatican¡¯s voice of reason on artificial intelligence
By Anne Bouverot
The Vatican is pushing a global conversation on how AI can uphold human dignity and serve the common good, echoing the Church¡¯s historic responses to past technological upheavals.
China achieved manufacturing dominance thanks to its weaker protections for workers, communities and the environment. Now it¡¯s exporting that model.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2025
China¡¯s unfair labor model is going global
By Li Qiang
China's low rights model is no longer a domestic labor issue but a systemic challenge to global labor standards, supply chain governance and fair market competition.
The U.S. and the world face a growing security risk due to heavy dependence on China for key pharmaceutical ingredients, prompting calls to diversify supply chains to reduce geopolitical vulnerabilities.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2025
China holds all the cards in global pharmaceuticals
By Juliana Liu
China is the exclusive supplier of at least one chemical used in nearly 700 crucial medicines.

Trump security strategy demands more from Japan while unveiling ¡®burden-sharing network¡¯
U.S. President Donald Trump makes a speech aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier during his visit to the U.S. Navy's Yokosuka base in Kanagawa Prefecture on Oct. 28.
Spotlight shines on humanoid robots at Tokyo show
A representative from Noitom Robotics demonstraties remote robot operation at the iREX International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo on Friday.
Japan¡¯s bear-related casualties hit record on escalating attacks
Bear bells are displayed for sale at a souvenir shop at Shirakawa-go, a popular tourist spot and one of Japan's UNESCO World Heritage sites, in the village of Shirakawa, Gifu Prefecture, on Nov. 15.
Suspected ³Ù´Ç°ì³Ü°ù²â¨± masterminds in Tokyo-area robberies arrested
Takuya Saito, 26, is one of four men arrested by Japanese police on Friday on suspicion of masterminding a series of robberies in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Average price of rice in Japan hits new record high
In the week ended last Sunday, the average price of rice sold at about 1,000 supermarkets across Japan rose by ?23 from the previous week to ?4,335 per 5 kilograms.
Trump security strategy demands more from Japan while unveiling ¡®burden-sharing network¡¯
U.S. President Donald Trump makes a speech aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier during his visit to the U.S. Navy's Yokosuka base in Kanagawa Prefecture on Oct. 28.
Will Takaichi bank on her high approval ratings to call a snap election?
While media polls show a high support rate for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi¡¯s Cabinet, the support for the LDP is not as great, meaning there¡¯s no guarantee of a coattail effect if a snap poll is called.
¡®Black Box Diaries¡¯ is Shiori Ito¡¯s unflinching case for the truth
¡°Black Box Diaries¡± documents Shiori Ito¡¯s legal case, while also showing her thoughts and feelings through journal style videos she recorded herself.
Kashima or Kashiwa: J. League title chase goes down to the wire
Kashima's Yuma Suzuki (center) takes a shot during a game against Kashiwa in March.
2025 was the year Japan¡¯s box office returned
In 2025, ¡°Demon Slayer¡± and ¡°Kokuho¡± broke box-office records, while films such as ¡°Renoir,¡± A Pale View of the Hills¡± and ¡°Two Strangers, Two Seasons¡± garnered acclaim on the international film festival circuit. The year¡¯s biggest loss was the death of Tatsuya Nakadai, an highly regarded actor who had worked with nearly all of the top directors of Japanese cinema¡¯s postwar golden age.

Podcast

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

Longform

Yumi Matsutoya began her decades-long career under her maiden name, Yumi Arai, but Japanese fans might know her better as ¡°Yuming.¡±
Yumi Matsutoya¡¯s human touch in an AI age
By Patrick St. Michel

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER