Japan

Explore our coverage of Japan’s politics, economics, business and culture, in articles, charts, podcasts and video


Asia

America recreates a warfighting command in Japan

The threat from China hastens the biggest military transformation in the Pacific in decades

Asia

Is this a new age of warrior Japan?

The country is spending more on its armed forces. But not everyone is on board

Finance and economics

Japan’s strength produces a weak yen

Currency meddling will prove futile

Asia

Social-media populists have arrived in Japan

A small-town mayor shakes up Tokyo’s election

Asia

Japan’s mind-bending bento-box economics

The paradox of red-hot labour markets, falling demand and rising prices

Asia

Takashima Ryosuke is Japan’s youngest ever mayor

At 27 years old, he is bucking the trend of the country’s gerontocratic politics

Leaders

Japan and South Korea are getting friendlier. At last

As the world economy fragments, two export powerhouses see the virtue of chumminess

Business

Japanese businesses are trapped between America and China

Could geopolitics kill off an incipient corporate revival?

Culture

The controversial cult of the host club in Japan

Why women pay men in make-up to flatter them

Asia

Japan and South Korea are struggling with old-age poverty

Their problems may be instructive for other countries

United States

A surprising Japanese presence in a traditional American craft

Quilting connects continents

Leaders

Japan is wrong to try to prop up the yen

Supporting the currency is expensive and futile

Finance and economics

Japan will struggle to rescue its plummeting currency

Expensive government intervention looks likely to provide only brief respite

Asia

Why do the Japanese love CDs?

They have not taken to streaming as keenly as the rest of the world

Asia

An obscure communist newspaper is shaping Japan’s politics

Stories by Shimbun Akahata consistently pack a punch

Asia

America’s Asian allies are trying to Trump-proof their policies

Kishida Fumio meets Joe Biden in Washington, DC, to shore up deterrence

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