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July 12, 2026
 

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Mihir Sharma
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2022
Pakistan won’t quickly recover from Imran Khan’s shooting
The attack on the former prime minister is likely to put any political equilibrium out of reach for years.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2022
There’s one way to wean India off Russian weapons
Switching to Western platforms is expensive. Instead India needs to do the hard work of developing a viable domestic defense industry.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 31, 2022
Forgiving student debt is a bad idea — just ask Indian farmers
Evidence from elsewhere in the world is clear: Canceling out debt incentivizes bad choices among borrowers and political leaders.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2022
The roots of Salman Rushdie attack lie in India, not Iran
British-era laws against insulting religion led to the banning of “The Satanic Verses” 30 years ago and continue to exact a high price in the subcontinent today.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 11, 2022
Shinzo Abe forged a new Asia
Shinzo Abe transformed “Indo-Pacific” from a catchphrase into an aspiration, defining a security and economic architecture to preserve free thought and free trade in the region and beyond.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 29, 2022
The death of the WTO has only been delayed
For the organization to recover its relevance, China and the U.S. both need to make more serious compromises.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2022
Companies should go green abroad, not just at home
Companies need to be rewarded for reducing emissions globally, not for scaling down their ambitions to focus on geographies where greener manufacturing is easiest.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2022
Why India is losing faith in the West
Criticizing India for continuing to buy oil from Russia is especially galling, given that European nations have yet to wean themselves off Russian energy supplies.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2021
Biden’s democracy summit is a South Asian diplomatic flub
As in many parts of the world, including in South Asia, the Biden’s Summit for Democracy summit is likely to do more harm than good
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 31, 2021
Modi’s green new deal might actually work
There is no growth story left in India’s economy that can enthuse voters and investors, so Prime Minister Modi is hoping a green-growth narrative will pay off economically and politically.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2021
Big tech crackdown could have unintended victims
Global efforts to rein in U.S.-based social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook Inc. risk restricting democratic freedoms.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2021
The world should learn from India’s COVID-19 cataclysm
Strategies that kept the pandemic at bay in 2020 won’t necessarily work in 2021.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2021
Twitter should stick to its guns in India
In its battles with India’s government and others around the world, Twitter needn’t surrender its principles too easily.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2021
World shouldn’t laugh at U.S. too soon
It’s OK to have a fun few days laughing at America’s discomfiture and at the breast-beating exaggerations of its pundits and politicians.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2020
India’s angry farmers have reason to worry
The third rail of Indian politics has always been agriculture. While the economy has been partly liberalized since opening up to the world in 1991, the process has largely bypassed the three-fifths of Indians who depend for their livelihoods, directly or indirectly, on farming. In September, the government...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2020
There will be a price to pay for making vaccines too expensive
Most rich-country governments have produced pandemic-response packages that are sharply nationalist and inward-looking.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2020
World’s populists may regret their embrace of Trump
The likes of Putin, Bolsonaro and Erdogan may be about to see an end to their years as part of a U.S.-led strongman brotherhood.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2020
This Nobel-winning idea has failed India
India’s telecom revolution only took off after the government moved away from auctions and started assigning spectrum to licensees in return for a share of their revenue.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 4, 2020
Rest of Asia will miss Abe more than Japan will
Asian democracies will have to hope that Japan continues down the path Prime Minister Shinzo Abe laid out.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2020
India’s Hindu nationalists reverse the tide of history
None of the world’s populist leaders has turned back the clock as dramatically and as dangerously as Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
China’s demand for Soviet-style apartments shows limits to revival
Apartments built during a Soviet Union-inspired construction drive in the 1970s and 1980s tend to suffer from poor insulation and outdated plumbing, but they are seeing a revival in interest due to their attractive locations.
Japanese scientists identify neural mechanism that may explain why we dislike people
The aggressive mouse (left) used in the experiment and a mouse defending itself
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
Lenders seek $700 million after Japanese payments firm’s collapse
The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Japan’s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history
Miwa Yanagi’s “Elevator Girl House” series skewers the superficiality of gender roles through staged images.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.

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

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