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![]() Kuni MiyakeThe Japan Times |
Kyodo News on Feb. 25 ran an article with an incredible headline that said “Japan (now) can shoot at foreign government vessels attempting to land...
During an online executive meeting on Feb. 3, former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, in his capacity as president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organizing...
At exactly 14:26 p.m. on March 11, 2011, when a huge earthquake struck northeastern Japan, I was giving a speech in downtown Tokyo. Fortunately, the...
U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken and China’s most senior foreign policy official Yang Jiechi talked on the phone last Friday. The Japanese and...
There was something unusual in the air on Wednesday when I was visiting some of my former colleagues at the Japanese Foreign Ministry. Moments later,...
A week has passed since U.S. President Joe Biden was sworn in, and Washington is gradually returning to normalcy. One example is the daily press...
Joe Biden’s inauguration last week was the most heavily guarded in memory: Washington’s entire National Mall was fenced off; numerous military...
While the second state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic has expanded in Japan, the incumbent U.S. president faced a second impeachment in...
Donald Trump, the incumbent lame duck U.S. president, recently pardoned more than 40 convicted criminals in a span of some 40 hours. The total number...
It has been a month since the editorial board of The Financial Times wrote about the rapid deterioration in the relationship between Beijing and...
“Nope,” I told my friends at the Prime Minister’s Office on Dec. 9 when asked if anything will change as President-elect Joe Biden tries to...
Every four years, Washington D.C. is inundated with numerous policy papers for the next president, many of which nobody in town ever really bothers to...
Last week, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist, was reportedly ambushed and killed outside Tehran by “a highly trained hit...
“Will China join the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership)?” a director of a TV news show asked me on a...
Is this a serious South Korean diplomatic offensive or a perfectly innocent flirtation by Seoul in order to get Tokyo’s attention? “To mend the...
Joe Biden may become the first U.S. president in American history who assumes office without his opponent having given a concession speech. People in...
Donald J. Trump, a political entertainer of the 21st century like no other, never failed to deliver over the past four years. Thanks to him, I have at...
I always feel depressed in the last week of October before the U.S. presidential election every four years as people always ask me questions like who...
What a difference seven short years makes when it comes to Cabinet policies. After reading Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s major policy speech on...
When invited to a private Sunday lunch on Oct. 4, I never dreamt I would soon be advising him on foreign policy. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, to my...
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi hosted the second Quad foreign ministerial meeting on Oct. 6. “Quad,”...
An ugly but strategically important debate recently erupted between China and the United States over Taiwan. The truth is, it is really of no concern...
“Their eyes fixed on the ballots to be counted starting Nov. 3,” wrote Sylvie Kauffmann of Le Monde for The New York Times, “Western European...
In the heat of media frenzy over the unsurprising LDP presidential election last week, a National Security Council meeting was held on Sept. 11 with...
In a parliamentary democracy, the political weather can change overnight. The sudden announcement of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s resignation on Aug....
Last week’s “gathering” was the most unconventional Democratic National Convention I’ve seen since 1976, when Jimmy Carter (“who?”) was...