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July 04, 2026
 

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CRA

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is applauded after being reelected as prime minister in the Lower House on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 18, 2026
Takaichi heads into parliament with key agenda points in mind
Passing the budget, setting up an intelligence agency, and cutting the consumption tax are all top priorities for Sanae Takaichi, who was reelected as prime minister.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends a Liberal Democratic Party executive meeting at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2026
Time for Takaichi to tackle Japan’s political taboos
How Takaichi spends her political capital will define her prime ministership, and she may very well be in a position to finally tackle some unresolved voting issues.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo on Feb. 9
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 16, 2026
LDP retains high approval rating post election, Nikkei poll shows
While the Liberal Democratic Party’s high approval ratings continued after its Feb. 8 election win, support for the Democratic Party for the People and Sanseito stayed sluggish.
Junya Ogawa, the new head of the Centrist Reform Alliance, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday after winning the party's leadership election.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2026
CRA to study joining national congress on consumption tax cut
Shinji Inoue, deputy secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said he wants “as many parties as possible” to join the national congress.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends a Cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 14, 2026
Takaichi still wants budget to pass parliament before fiscal 2026
In order to speed up deliberations, the Liberal Democratic Party may shorten the time for questions from lawmakers in the ruling coalition.
Newly elected Centrist Reform Alliance leader Junya Ogawa speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 13, 2026
Junya Ogawa elected leader of Centrist Reform Alliance
The former CDP lawmaker pledged to strengthen the CRA’s internal structure as the party reels from its election defeat.
Nobuyasu Nikai, the Liberal Democratic Party's candidate for the October 2024 Lower House election, shakes hands with supporters in Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture.
JAPAN / Politics / First person
Feb 13, 2026
Looking at politics from a different perspective
Three campaigns in 15 months showed how fragile support can be — and how national power begins far from Tokyo.
Yoshihiko Noda, co-leader of the Centrist Reform Alliance, waves during a campaign event in Osaka on Feb. 3. The alliance suffered a crushing defeat in the Feb. 8 election.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2026
Nothing ‘unexpected’ about the left’s election blowout
The dominance of conservative parties reflects a longer-term shift in Japan’s political center of gravity.
Junya Ogawa (left) and Takeshi Shina, Lower House lawmakers for the Centrist Reform Alliance, filed their candidacies Thursday for Friday's party leadership election.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 12, 2026
Ex-CDP’s Takeshi Shina and Junya Ogawa enter race to lead CRA
A vote to elect the new opposition party’s leaders will be held at a general meeting of its lawmakers on Friday, after its former co-leaders stepped down following election losses.
Centrist Reform Alliance co-leader Yoshihiko Noda (right) speaks at the party's plenary assembly in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 11, 2026
CRA soul-searching begins with vote to elect new leader
After its disastrous defeat on Sunday, the fledgling Centrist Reform Alliance is hoping a new face at the top will help it find its bearings.
Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the Democratic Party for the People, poses with his supporters during an election campaign event on the first day of campaigning for the Feb. 8 snap election, in Tokyo, Japan, Jan. 27.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 10, 2026
Takaichi’s big win leaves opposition dividing unequal shares of the pie
Right-leaning parties and those with fresh ideas gained some ground, while those seen as touting the ‘same-old’ politics saw their fortunes decline.
Taro Aso, vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party and a former prime minister, is the oldest winner in Sunday's Lower House election at 85 years old.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 10, 2026
Japan’s Lower House grows younger as the average age of election winners falls
The average age of winners in Sunday’s election was 54.7 years old.
Centrist Reform Alliance co-leaders Yoshihiko Noda (left) and Tetsuo Saito during a news conference on Monday in Tokyo
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 9, 2026
The long road to recovery after the CRA’s election loss
The new party must find new leadership after a crushing debut defeat.
Hikaru Fujita (second from left) greets people in the city of Azumino, Nagano Prefecture, on Feb. 3.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 9, 2026
With 68 seats, record-high female representation in Lower House slips slightly
The women account for 14.6% of all elected Lower House lawmakers, after female candidates secured a record 73 seats the 2024 general election.
Election officials work at a ballot counting center on Sunday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 9, 2026
Exit poll shows over 40% of voters want LDP-JIP bloc to continue ruling
The backing far outpaced support for any other alternative arrangement.
Centrist Reform Alliance co-leaders Yoshihiko Noda (left) and Tetsuo Saito speak during a live TV program Sunday in Tokyo following the party's defeat in the Lower House election.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 9, 2026
CRA’s Noda and Saito hint at resignations after electoral drubbing
The Centrist Reform Alliance’s poor performance in Sunday’s Lower House election could force co-leaders Yoshihiko Noda and Tetsuo Saito to resign.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday night
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 9, 2026
LDP secures two-thirds supermajority in Lower House election victory
Results early Monday showed the LDP had won 316 seats, giving it a higher proportion of representatives in the body than any other party in postwar Japan.
People gather at an election campaign event on Tuesday in Higashimatsuyama, Saitama Prefecture.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 8, 2026
Voting kicks off for Lower House election seen as referendum on Takaichi
The prime minister’s Liberal Democratic Party has kept the make-or-break line low, saying its coalition with the Japan Innovation Party is aiming for a simple majority.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi enters the Prime Minister's Office between election campaign activities in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 7, 2026
Takaichi overwhelming rivals in social media battle to go viral
An analysis showed that Takaichi had made 65 posts during the reporting period, garnering an average of about 5,200 reposts each.
A child cycles past posters of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and a candidate running for the upcoming Lower House election, in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 7, 2026
Momentum for political reform stalling in Japan
Momentum for political reform in Japan is faltering as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sidesteps the topic in her campaigning for Sunday’s vote.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Japan plans to sharply raise fees for residence permits from October
Foreign tourists walk on the path leading to the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in May.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.

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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