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August 14, 2026
 

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Robert D. Eldridge
Chinese warships and fighter jets take part in a military display in the South China Sea in April 2018.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 26, 2026
The world should reject China¡¯s latest maritime power grab
The U.S. and international community must immediately reject that claim. Otherwise, Beijing will interpret the silence as tacit acceptance.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi delivers a policy speech before the country's parliament in Tokyo in February. The Japanese leader recently argued that requiring candidates to disclose prior citizenship would violate equality before the law.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 8, 2026
In trust¡¯s name, disclose candidates¡¯ prior citizenship
The issue is whether voters have the right to know the backgrounds of the people seeking to govern them. In any healthy democracy, the answer is yes.
Then-Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers a policy speech during an ordinary session at the Lower House of parliament in Tokyo in January. Sanae Takaichi¡¯s victory may result in fewer proportional seats in parliament, a shift that could hurt smaller parties.?Bloomberg
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 21, 2025
How the LDP-JIP coalition could hurt smaller parties
If the JIP¡¯s proposal goes through unchanged, it would mean a reduction of 46 seats from the proportional representation districts.
A U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey aircraft flies over the island of Okinawa in March 2018.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 14, 2025
Precautionary Osprey landings signal safety, not alarm
Two precautionary V-22 Osprey landings in northern Honshu demonstrated the aircraft¡¯s safety and its role in enhancing Â鶹´«Ã½ rapid-deployment and island-defense capabilities.
Japan, despite facing multiple territorial disputes, lacks a dedicated university program on the issue, unlike Western countries, and would benefit from an interdisciplinary academic initiative to foster expertise.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 17, 2025
Japan needs academic programs focused on territorial issues
While many countries have territorial disputes with their neighbors ¡ª in fact, there are at least 150 active disputes worldwide ¡ª Japan faces issues with nearly all its neighbors.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira share a laugh ahead of talks in Tokyo in June 1979.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 30, 2024
Jimmy Carter¡¯s surprising connection to Japan: his Christian faith
The former U.S. president, who died Sunday, bonded with his counterpart, Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira, over their shared faith.
The U.S. decision to suspend the use of a firing range in the Senkakus has had lasting consequences, undermining Japan's claims to the islets and sending mixed signals about U.S. support for Japanese sovereignty over the area.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 10, 2024
A restart of Senkaku firing ranges is long overdue
The suspension also had strategic consequences, depriving both U.S. and Japanese forces of vital military training ranges.
The Osprey provides vertical takeoff and landing like a helicopter but is also capable of flying at high speeds over long distances when operating as a conventional plane.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 3, 2024
The Japan-U.S. alliance needs the versatile Osprey
In Japan, there has been an outsized and lingering concern about the aircraft¡¯s safety. That concern is, frankly, misplaced,
Self-Defense Force soldiers search for survivors after a landslide swept through a residential area in Asaminami Ward, in the city of Hiroshima, in August 2014. Despite the nation¡¯s numerous natural disasters, the government needs better contingency planning.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 28, 2024
Is Japan ready for the worst-case scenario?
Is the nation ready for massive disasters? Based on my studies of Â鶹´«Ã½ crisis management system, I say ¡°no¡± and unfortunately not.
Taiwanese soldiers train at a base in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Tuesday. The island has decided to extend compulsory military service for young males from four months to one year amid increasing threats from China.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 7, 2024
Taiwan extends military conscription, a system Japan might want to consider
As Japan struggles to fill its military ranks, compulsory national service might be its only solution.
U.S. President Richard Nixon in the Oval Office of the White House in June 1972
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 19, 2023
Nixon¡¯s 1953 trip to Okinawa and its lasting impact
Nixon¡¯s trip to Okinawa 70 years ago this month planted seeds for his agreeing to its reversion when he became the U.S. president.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 21, 2023
Memorializing those lost in the GSDF helicopter crash
All 10 SDF members on board a helicopter that crashed in the Miyako Island group are believed to have died in the crash.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2023
Disasters can be deadly, but the aftermaths can be deadlier
Largely forgotten, more people died in the days, weeks and months after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes due to illness and depression than in the quakes themselves.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2023
The global community should recognize Taiwan ¡ª or else
Diplomatic acceptance by the global community of the self-ruled island of Taiwan may be the only way to deter Chinese aggression.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2022
Soviet air incursions and the birth of the ASDF
In light of the impact of military aerial incursions, it would not be an exaggeration to describe the Soviet Union as the father of the ASDF.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 20, 2022
Lessons for the LDP from Okinawa¡¯s gubernatorial election
The LDP had better get its house in order if it wants to even begin to reverse the trend of opposition-supported candidates winning office in Okinawa.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 15, 2022
Behind the Japanese government¡¯s purchase of the Senkaku Islands
Tokyo¡¯s attempts to not aggravate Beijing further over the Senkakus raises questions over how far it will go to defend its own territory.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 18, 2022
Pacific War hostilities didn¡¯t exactly end on Aug. 15, 1945
The Soviet Union, and thus Russia, permanently damaged Â鶹´«Ã½ trust with its actions in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 19, 2022
Fix structural problems now or face SOFA revision later
The bottom line, however, is that without transparency, accountability and trust, the U.S.-Japan alliance will not enjoy the full support of the public.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2021
Not everyone is sold on the new U.S. ambassador to Japan
Emanuel¡¯s appointment is worrisome for Japan, which desires the ambassadors sent to Tokyo to have influence and support in their home governments, something he does not seem to enjoy.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
New ¡®Katsu Curry Index¡¯ aims to show how weak the yen really is
A CoCo Ichibanya curry house in Tokyo.
Mexican man arrested over attempt to smuggle some 200 lizards into Japan
Mexican alligator lizards seized by Tokyo Customs from a Mexican man who attempted to smuggle them into Japan on Saturday through Haneda Airport
Gut bacteria may be behind many of Â鶹´«Ã½ colorectal cancer cases
A Japanese research team found that a toxin produced by certain E. coli strains, colibactin, caused genetic mutations in nearly half of colorectal cancer cases studied
She is Russia¡¯s richest woman. Her business empire is going up in flames.
Tatyana Kim, the head and co-founder of Wildberries, speaks about Ukrainian drone attacks on the company's warehouses in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at an unidentified location, in this still image from a handout video released on July 31.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
Ikarigata closer to emulating older brother Fujinokawa than many think
The future Fujinokawa (third from left) and Ikarigata (right) compete against each other at ages 5 and 3, respectively.
Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?
The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that allows burials, albeit with conditions for the deceased, including foreign nationality and permanent residency in Kanagawa Prefecture.
¡®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.

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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