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August 11, 2026
 

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Matthew Brooker
England¡¯s Bukayo Saka takes on France¡¯s Mike Maignan during the 2026 FIFA World Cup third-place match at Miami Stadium on July 18. England won the match 6-4.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 9, 2026
Half a month out, and England was a World Cup winner after all
The 2026 World Cup¡¯s success in the North American market may provide a template for the Premier League¡¯s future commercial management.
British Queen Elizabeth greets then-Business Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson during the annual State Opening of Parliament in November 2009.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2026
Sack a British prince? Easy. Fire a U.K. lord? Not so much.
Mandelson, facing a police investigation for passing internal government communications to Epstein during the global financial crisis, resigned from the House of Lords this month.
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 Britain¡¯s property tax system is unfair and outdated, and a proportional national levy could improve fairness, mobility and long-term economic growth.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
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.
The recent China spy scandal in the U.K. highlights a chaotic, disorienting political and intelligence environment, resembling something more likely found in spy fiction rather than real-world espionage.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2025
U.K.¡¯s China spying scandal is a ¡®Slow Horses¡¯ plot
The China spy scandal currently gripping U.K. politics and media is again redolent of a fictional milieu.
Protesters wave a Hong Kong flag and a sign during a demonstration against the city¡¯s deteriorating freedoms outside the Chinese Embassy in London in July 2020.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2025
Britain must keep its promise to Hong Kongers
The U.K. has a moral obligation and an economic interest in safeguarding the path to citizenship for migrants from the territory it formerly ruled.
Britain¡¯s abolition of the "nondom" tax regime has triggered an exodus of wealthy residents to tax-friendlier countries like Italy, sparking warnings of lost revenue, diminished appeal and a missed chance to reform the system more effectively.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2025
The ultrarich move in herds. Just ask London.
The beneficiaries are countries such as Italy, which is attracting wealthy foreign residents with an annual flat fee of €200,000.
Hyde Park's famed Speakers' Corner in London, which some call the home of free speech, is a place where anyone has the right to turn up every Sunday and talk about whatever is dear to their heart.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2025
Britain¡¯s free-speech retreat can¡¯t be denied
Britain¡¯s climate for free expression is deteriorating, as seen in aggressive police crackdowns on peaceful activists and dissenters across the political spectrum.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer addresses medical staff and media during a visit to a hospital in Epsom, England, on on Jan. 6.
COMMENTARY
Jan 22, 2025
There¡¯s a target on the back of Britain¡¯s NHS
The scale of the improvement Starmer is targeting has been achieved before, under a previous Labour government in 2007.
U.K. university tuition fees for domestic students are set to rise for the first time in seven years due to a financial crisis in higher education.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2024
Britons don¡¯t pay enough to go to university
U.K. university tuition fees for domestic students are set to rise for the first time in seven years due to a financial crisis in higher education.
Since the Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008, Manchester City has gone from a middling team to winning six of the last seven Premier League titles, an unprecedented success in over 130 years of English soccer.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2024
Soccer needs to avoid a tyranny of the rich
A dispute between the Premier League and Manchester City has both sides claiming victory.
A man searches through the rubble of a wrecked house in the Turkish town of Cankiri after a strong earthquake hit central Turkey in June 2000.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2024
Earthquakes, hurricanes and other disasters will shape our future cities
The progress of Antakya¡¯s renewal bears watching. However it proceeds, there will be lessons to learn.
A U.K. biannual customer satisfaction index based on a survey of 15,000 consumers fell to its lowest since 2015 in January and has declined for three straight periods.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 9, 2024
Bad service is in the U.K.¡¯s cultural DNA
While the U.K. could treat its customers better, not doing so is a choice. Why? There¡¯s a strain of British society that doesn¡¯t accept the idea of service.
Mainland Chinese student Zhou Hongxu arrives for a court hearing on suspicion that he attempted to develop a spy network for China in Taiwan in March 2018.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2023
Spies bring their China warnings in from the cold
The spy chiefs say Western nations need to safeguard technology innovation, particularly in areas like artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2023
The Olympics are a giant money sink. So what?
Staging the world¡¯s greatest games is about way more than just making a profit
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2023
Manchester United looks immune to the banking crisis
The bidding war for Manchester United, a sporting institution, bears little connection to financial reality.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2022
An oligarch¡¯s yacht and 10,000 tons of China¡¯s love for Putin
Beijing surely had to have a hand in giving assurance that a Russian superyacht that sailed into Hong Kong waters was safe from confiscation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2022
Property crisis traps China into a market paradox
The effort to halt the spread of mortgage boycotts risks fueling the behavior officials are trying to prevent.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2021
Manny Pacquiao isn¡¯t the hero the Philippines needs
What¡¯s not to like about Pacquiao? There¡¯s plenty such as his lack of legislative accomplishments as a lawmaker and his support for President Rodrigo Duterte¡¯s war on drugs.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2021
Hong Kong¡¯s nonelection is momentous and meaningless
An ¡®election¡± devoid of genuine debate or competition is a momentous sign of the lack of genuine democracy Hong Kong can expect in the future. It is also meaningless.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2021
Is capitalism just a phase? China struggles with the math
Communist ideology declares that capitalism is just a stage in human society, and that party leaders are the architects of the future there to look beyond this phase.
America¡¯s cyberforces grapple with cluster of deaths by suicide
The U.S. Cyber Command building (center) stands on the National Security Agency campus at Fort Meade, Maryland.
Many Indonesians named after Japanese anime characters
Some people in Indonesia are named Doraemon, the name of a lead character of the blockbuster anime series with the same title.
Yasukuni Shrine introduces ban on military attire and cosplay
People gather in front of thousands of lanterns on display at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on July 15 during the Mitama Matsuri, one of the capital's largest summer o-Bon festivals.
As countries ban social media for children, Japan mulls a different approach
Data from NTT Docomo¡¯s Mobile Society Research Institute released in June found that 55% of respondents across all age groups said they fiddled with their phones when they had nothing to do, even when another person was in front of them.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
As Â鶹´«Ã½ concrete jungles sizzle, urban forestry offers an all-natural fix
People and birds find relief from the sun in Tokyo's Nakano Ward earlier this month. While experts agree that urban greening is crucial to mitigating the impact of climate change, trees are becoming even more scarce in Japanese cities.
Â鶹´«Ã½ brewers experiment with a secret ingredient: music
At Smoke Craft, a craft beer brewery in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, music isn't just a background to the brewing process ¡ª it's an ingredient.
As countries ban social media for children, Japan mulls a different approach
Data from NTT Docomo¡¯s Mobile Society Research Institute released in June found that 55% of respondents across all age groups said they fiddled with their phones when they had nothing to do, even when another person was in front of them.
J. League enters new era as league kicks off first fall-spring campaign
Players from each J. League club pose during a kickoff event on Monday ahead of the start of the 2026-27 campaign.

Podcast

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

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

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