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June 30, 2026
 

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COMMENTARY

Japan

World
Japan
The world should reject China’s latest maritime power grab
COMMENTARY / Japan
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.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Japan lays the groundwork for submarine cable resilience
Fiber-optic cables carry nearly all the world’s data between continents.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Japan’s manufacturing sector and the race for physical AI
Turning industrial strength into leadership in the next AI frontier.
Visitors at a park in Budapest watch a traditional Japanese fencing demonstration by a classical samurai sword school during Japanese Cultural Program Day in July 2021.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 22, 2026
Is Cool Japan really the secret to soft-power success?
By Waka Ikeda
The part of Europe where Japanese culture is growing fastest is also where Japan has invested least.
A concept model of the Global Combat Air Program fighter jet is displayed during a security trade exhibition in Chiba in May 2025.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 19, 2026
Japan’s GCAP push signals a new security role beyond the U.S. alliance
By Maria Mezzetti
The renewed GCAP backing comes less than a week after the apparent failure of the Future Combat Air System — a program led by France, Germany and later Spain.
A monument to Japanese immigrants stands in the port city of Santos in southeastern Brazil.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 17, 2026
Brazil’s Nikkei fishers offer lessons for ocean governance
By Danilla C. Azevedo
Japanese immigrants and their descendants did not simply copy Japanese coastal practices but adapted them to local environments and social conditions.
Japan’s global soft power through anime and video games has grown in recent years in part because it largely remains more attuned to fans than investors.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 17, 2026
Don’t let Wall Street crush Japan’s soft power
By Gearoid Reidy
Gamers fear that big money, foreign or otherwise, is going to ruin what might be one of the least-touched bastions of nerd entertainment.
Ground Self-Defense Force troops lower the Japanese flag at the end of the day at their camp on Miyako Island, Okinawa Prefecture, in April 2022. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 15, 2026
Who’s afraid of ‘Japanese neo-militarism’? Nobody
By Gearoid Reidy and Ruth Pollard
More countries see a stronger Japan not as a danger, but a counterweight to China’s actions and growing U.S. untrustworthiness.
Japan’s real challenge in the age of artificial intelligence is not technological progress but rebuilding the trust and human connections that help young people feel heard, supported and safe.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 12, 2026
Japan’s real AI problem is not technology. It is trust.
By Toshiaki Sasao
People who feel they matter are more likely to seek help when they need it because they trust that someone will listen. People who feel invisible often remain silent.
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
By Robert D. Eldridge
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.

Uruguay federation reportedly cancels charter flight after World Cup exit
Uruguay's Jose Maria Gimenez reacts after the team's loss against Spain at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Friday.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
India’s gig workers pay the price for exposure to New Delhi’s hazardous air
Rohit Kushwaha waits for a customer as he delivers his last parcel of the day, in New Delhi in January. His work as a delivery driver has helped pay the family’s bills, but has had a significant impact on his health.
Chinese and Russian bombers and fighter jets stage joint patrol near Japan
A Chinese Air Force H-6 bomber is seen during a joint patrol with Russian military aircraft on Saturday.
U.S. missile moves in Japan send China clear message: A new era has arrived
Soldiers conduct the first Typhon midrange capability live-fire exercise outside of the continental United States, firing an SM-6 missile in July last year in Australia's Northern Territory during Exercise Talisman Sabre.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
A French ship with close ties to Japan combines arts and sciences on the high seas
Romain Troublé, the executive director of Tara Ocean Foundation, speaks to visitors aboard the Tara during a rare port call in Tokyo in April.
LGBTQ+ families are building lives Japanese lawmakers still struggle to see
Haru Ono founded Nijiiro Kazoku in 2010 after forming a same-sex stepfamily. She said the impetus for founding the organization was that she couldn’t find much reliable information out there for families such as hers in Japan.
In Kyushu’s far south, Senti.U sparks a culinary destination
Chef Yasuhiko Uchida was born in Saga Prefecture but has made his home in Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture, since 2012.
‘The colors speak for themselves’: How Japan’s chroma bible went global
“A Dictionary of Color Combinations” is meant to function as a quick-reference guide for artists, designers and anyone with a passing interest in aesthetics as a quantifiable pursuit.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

New Logistics Consortium baton to accelerate trucking efficiency
New Logistics Consortium baton to accelerate trucking efficiency

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