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December 17, 2025
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December 17, 2025
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Tourists at Sensoji, Asakusa. Chinese visitor statistics are mixed after China warned against travel to Japan.
BUSINESS
Chinese visitor numbers up on year and down on month in November
By Francis Tang
The monthly statistics were the first to be released since China warned its citizens on Nov. 14 not to travel to Japan following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan.
Tourists at Sensoji, Asakusa. Chinese visitor statistics are mixed after China warned against travel to Japan.
A mock model of the upgraded Mogami-class frigate is displayed during the Defense Security Equipment International Japan exhibition in the city of Chiba in May.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Japan has long had tough rules on arms exports. That may soon change.
By Gabriel Dominguez
Japan is likely to scrap long-standing limits on its exports of lethal arms next year — a move that will have lasting implications for the ostensibly pacifist country.
People pose for pictures in front of festive light installations at Mohri Garden in Roppongi district, in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Society
For the first time, Tokyo reaches second place in Global Power City Index
By Elizabeth Beattie
The executive director of the Mori Memorial Foundation, which releases the index, said other Japanese cities — such as Fukuoka and Osaka — were rapidly moving up the rankings, too.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Takaichi says Japan 'always open' to dialogue with China
"China is an important neighbor for Japan, and we need to build constructive and stable relationships," the prime minister told a news conference.
Japan is currently seeking to strengthen its economic security, including institutional frameworks and policies, to safeguard critical technologies and promote international economic security cooperation.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Japan continues to set the pace for economic security
Brad Glosserman
Tokyo is a great place to discuss these issues since Japan has been the pacesetter for economic security policy for nearly a decade.
Japan is currently seeking to strengthen its economic security, including institutional frameworks and policies, to safeguard critical technologies and promote international economic security cooperation.

JAPAN

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on Wednesday canceled the launch of its eighth H3 rocket and said that at this point, it is not possible to say when it will be rescheduled.
JAXA calls off launch of eighth H3 rocket due to emergency shutdown
By Jessica Speed
This is the second time that the launch of the rocket carrying the Michibiki No. 5 satellite has not gone according to plan.
An Instagram post on Dec. 6 shows Cocona, a member of a popular Japanese pop group XG, coming out as transmasculine nonbinary, assigned female at birth.
XG member Cocona’s coming out as nonbinary puts spotlight on gender identities
By Yukana Inoue
The announcement drew support from fans, but also backlash, which highlights a limited understanding of nonbinary identities in Japan.
Japan to broaden use of ETC's driving data for disaster response and tourism
Passenger jets are Japan’s newest tool to track climate change
By Aaron Clark
Victims of 2021 Osaka clinic arson attack remembered
U.S. approves aid for upgrading MSDF's Aegis destroyers

BUSINESS

Akihiro Kaneko, president of the Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers’ Unions, has expressed concern over the Bank of Japan’s anticipated rate hike Friday possibly weighing on companies’ ability to raise wages in the coming fiscal year.
Japan’s auto union chair fears BOJ hike may impede wage momentum
By Erica Yokoyama and Akemi Terukina
A sharp drop in the yen after the expected hike on Friday could affect corporate sentiment.
Marine Drive in Mumbai. Dealmakers say Japanese buyers only account for a small fraction of all deals targeting Indian companies right now, which totaled $90 billion in value this year, but that their share of them is growing.
Mizuho, MUFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui setting trend for growth-focused India tie-ups
By Baiju Kalesh
Dealmakers say Japan buyers account for only a small fraction of deals targeting Indian firms right now, but that their share of them is growing.
High coffee prices are changing how consumers take their daily brew
By Harry Black and Ilena Peng
Retreat by U.S. and Europe from electric cars risks ceding race to China
By Linda Lew
Japan households' financial assets rise to record ?2.286 quadrillion.
Japan’s exports to U.S. rise for first time since Trump's April tariffs
By Yoshiaki Nohara and Erica Yokoyama

WORLD

Six-year-old Andy hugs his uncle Osvaldo before he leaves Miami International Airport on Dec. 4 to Guatemala to reunite with his recently deported father.
Children of U.S. deportees make lonely journeys to unfamiliar homes
Escorted to Guatemala by a nonprofit, one group of children face new lives in mostly impoverished rural areas where some will be unable to continue their education.
A woman grieves at a floral memorial in honor of the victims of Sunday's mass shooting targeting a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday.
Australia's gun laws riddled with loopholes and workarounds, experts say
By Byron Kaye
Tweaks by some states since laws were introduced in the wake of a mass shooting in 1996 have relaxed the oversight of the patchwork system.
Pakistani military chief in spotlight over Trump’s Gaza plan
Human?wave attacks and drones: How Myanmar’s junta is fighting back
Australian state to pass emergency gun laws as funerals of Bondi attack victims begin
Trump orders blockade of sanctioned oil tankers leaving and entering Venezuela

Sports

<i>Rikishi</i> train at the Otake stable in April 2017. While the sport of sumo hasn't changed, the ways in which fans engage with it has, and Otake <i>beya</i> recently joined the growing list of stables with their own YouTube channels.
YouTube proves vital for sumo in era of changing accessibility
By John Gunning
At a time when first-person access to “genuine” sumo is increasingly difficult to find, many stables are looking to fill the gap with online platforms.
Knicks beat Spurs in NBA Cup final on the back of Anunoby's 28 points
Legal restrictions on punishing dopers leave World Athletics chief frustrated
By Mitch Phillips
Shiffrin extends slalom domination with Courchevel win
FIFA announces $60 World Cup tickets after pricing backlash

Opinion

Japan has moved in a decade from pacifist protest to broad acceptance of stronger defense, driven by regional threats and doubts about U.S. protection.
What’s left of Japan’s pacifism meets reality
Gearoid Reidy
Despite the ruling LDP’s struggles in recent years, it’s striking how little support has shifted to traditional left-leaning parties that oppose revising the pacifist Constitution.
Bondi and Australia get swept into a violent world
By David Fickling
White House 2025 Asia upheaval set to continue in 2026
By Joshua Kurlantzick
South Korea is the answer to America's naval problem
By Juliana Liu
The Japanese canary in the global debt coal mine
By Barry Eichengreen

ENVIRONMENT

Smoke rises from chimneys at a factory in the port of Dunkirk, France, in January 2023. In the U.S., dozens of industries share a ready-made climate solution: electrification.
New roadmap shows how to cut a surprisingly big source of emissions
Favorable tax treatment under U.S. President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act could encourage industries to upgrade to clean technologies such as electrification.
Climate change supercharged $20 billion Asia floods, study finds
Energy demand boom keeps Asia tethered to coal
By Ishika Mookerjee and Dan Murtaugh
2025 on track to tie as second-hottest year on record, EU monitor says
Multilateralism works even as U.S., fossil fuel industry oppose climate action, U.N. chief says
By Valerie Volcovici

CULTURE

Netflix Japan’s newest reality-dating experiment “Badly in Love” follows self-identified delinquents as they try to find romance.
‘Badly in Love’: Netflix Japan’s most chaotic dating show may be its most honest
By Patrick St. Michel
Netflix Japan’s “Badly in Love” turns delinquent bravado into surprisingly earnest, character-driven reality television.
Japanese film director Masato Harada dies, aged 76
J-pop found new ways to diversify in 2025
By Patrick St. Michel
‘Good Luck’: A gently absurd road movie about filmmaker’s anxiety
By Mark Schilling
A movie buff in Jimbocho bets on independent cinema in a big way
By Matt Schley

LIFE

Crowded with links, icons and graphics, Japan’s major web portals deliver information at full volume, echoing an online culture that favors abundance over empty space.
Why Japan’s internet looks weird — unless you live here
By Thu-Huong Ha
A closer look at Japan’s maximalist web design shows how cultural values and practical needs create an online world richer than it appears.
Christmas brings the smell of cinnamon, cloves and matcha
By Simon Daly
The ‘bear’ defined kanji in 2025. The internet defined almost everything else.
By Yuko Tamura
Osaka Expo and ‘Kokuho’ top 2025’s sumo-style consumer interest rankings
By Mark Schreiber
Beppu Hirokado puts the spotlight on Kyushu's rich seafood
By Robbie Swinnerton

COMMUNITY

Bilateral relations between China and Japan may be tense, but life goes on for the hundreds of thousands of Chinese people in Japan. “Politics and daily life are very separate,” says Zhang, a mother of three.
Japan-raised Chinese children navigate complex cultural terrain
By Yang Xiong
Despite bilateral tensions, daily life goes on for the hundreds of thousands of Chinese people who call Japan home — including the children and teenagers who have grown up here.
Hector Herrera: ‘Tolerance means remaining in the conversation’
By Kimberly Hughes
Finding a way forward from financial abuse
By Louise George Kittaka
Sunny fellow Naruto wins hearts and minds
A French cabbie behind the wheel in small-town Japan
By Isabelle Steen

Editors' Picks

BUSINESS
What will change with Japan’s first attempt at regulating Big Tech?
By Gabriele Ninivaggi
Under a new law, Google and Apple will have to allow third parties to run independent app stores and offer their own payment options.
LIFE
Why is 'Harry Potter' so big in Japan? ‘Oshikatsu’ fandom.
By Gendel Gento
Despite its decidedly European setting, the Harry Potter franchise has proven surprisingly popular in Japan, a country with no direct ties to the series.
CULTURE
NHK envisions a multicultural Mars in its newest sci-fi series
By Mike Fu
The miniseries "Queen of Mars" was made in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the NHK.
CULTURE
In 2025, Japanese literature took a turn for the weird
By Kris Kosaka
Japanese literature in translation abroad has only grown in popularity with every year, resulting in a wide variety of titles available in English, from cozy fiction to crime and horror.
ASIA PACIFIC
Calling AI ‘a gift from God,’ Catholic bishops draft usage guidelines for Asia
By Elizabeth Beattie
Cardinal Stephen Chow, the bishop of Hong Kong, speaks during Mass in Hong Kong in November 2023. During the opening Mass a three-day event to draft guidelines for the clergy’s use of artificial intelligence in the region Asia, he described AI as a "gift from God."

Podcast

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

Longform

Crowded with links, icons and graphics, Japan’s major web portals deliver information at full volume, echoing an online culture that favors abundance over empty space.
Why Japan’s internet looks weird — unless you live here
By Thu-Huong Ha

JT Directory Service

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WHAT’S TRENDING

JAPAN
China aircraft carrier flotilla headed home, one week after Japan radar incident
By Jesse Johnson
China's Liaoning aircraft carrier sails through the Miyako Strait near Okinawa on its way to the Pacific in April 2021.
BUSINESS
China confronts the cost of dismantling the world’s biggest coal sector
Unmanned Chinese electric mining trucks at an open-pit coal mine in Yimin, China, in May
LIFE
Why Japan’s internet looks weird — unless you live here
By Thu-Huong Ha
Crowded with links, icons and graphics, Japan’s major web portals deliver information at full volume, echoing an online culture that favors abundance over empty space.
BUSINESS
Japan’s $550 billion investment pledge might fall short of Trump’s hopes
By Francis Tang
Trade minister Ryosei Akazawa (left) and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speak in front of Kabukiza Theatre, Tokyo, in October, more than a month after the signing of an agreement for Japan to invest $550 billion in the U.S.
COMMUNITY
Japan-raised Chinese children navigate complex cultural terrain
By Yang Xiong
Bilateral relations between China and Japan may be tense, but life goes on for the hundreds of thousands of Chinese people in Japan. “Politics and daily life are very separate,” says Zhang, a mother of three.