Developments in Berlin and Tokyo show how far the strategic environment has shifted in response to authoritarian threat and American unpredictabilityWhen Donald Trump hosted Sanae Takaichi, the Japanese prime minister, last month, he could not resist a…
A 1,200-year dataset shows the ‘peak bloom’ is arriving earlier. Global heating is unsettling nature’s rhythms – and their cultural meaningA picture posted on social media last April by Prof Yasuyuki Aono of a spreadsheet, with its blank row for 2026, …
Ultra-low rates turned the yen into easy cash for bankers. But the carry trade now binds global markets to decisions in TokyoIn 2015, Clyde Prestowitz’s book Japan Restored imagined a Japanese century emerging from upheavals such as an Israeli att…
Donald Trump’s remarks on resuming nuclear testing have highlighted the risks. Proliferation must not be considered inevitableWhen Eisaku Satō, a former prime minister of Japan, received the Nobel peace prize in 1974 after committing his country to not…
Though the US president’s meeting with Xi Jinping appears to have staved off a global trade war, this is far from a win for WashingtonThe diverging verdicts offered by the Chinese and American leaders after their talks in South Korea on Thursday reflec…
Liz Truss fell not for borrowing, but for incompetence. Rachel Reeves mustn’t repeat the mistake with rules markets don’t demandIn 1995, Nick Leeson, a 28-year-old trader for Barings Bank, brought down the City’s oldest finance house by, among other th…
Over the holidays, this column will explore next year’s urgent issues. Today we look at why an unqualified belief in nuclear deterrence can’t keep us safeNext November marks 40 years since the US president Ronald Reagan and the Soviet leader Mikhail Go…
Pyongyang may be moving away from its Juche dating system, but others cling to their own kinds of time despite the Gregorian supremacyIn one regard – and one regard only – North Korea appears to have moved somewhat closer to global norms. Several state…
The latest anime from director Hayao Miyazaki aced at the box office without any marketing. All credit to his unique vision and passionate fansIn the razzmatazz that has greeted the big releases of the last fortnight, Mission: Impossible and Barbie, a …
Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities are increasing, but there is limited international capacity for or interest in addressing themThe details vary, but the pattern is immediately recognisable: a volley of missiles, followed by chilling new rhetoric. This …
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has followed in the footsteps of thousands of others deserting Lukashenko’s totalitarian stateAlexander Lukashenko has largely squeezed the life out of the protest movement that threatened his despotic hold on power last summer….
Female competitors come very close to equality at the games. But Tokyo still highlights ongoing sexism and discriminationStrength, resilience and determination make sportswomen champions in the field. The same qualities are ensuring that more of them g…
Many will cheer on the Games. But we should also understand the host nation’s reluctance After a year and a half of the pandemic, the world is short of causes for celebration. Diversion, spectacle and surprise may never have been more welcome. At a tim…