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July 08, 2026
 

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DIET

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.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi addresses a news conference at her ruling party's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday, a day after the Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide victory in the Lower House election.
EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 2026
After another historic victory, Takaichi takes command
Not only is she the country’s first female prime minister and a symbol of a new Japan, her career also marks a break from traditional politics.
Japan Innovation Party leader Hirofumi Yoshimura speaks at a news conference on Monday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 12, 2026
Why coalition partner JIP is now set to take a Cabinet post
A JIP member is expected to take up a ministerial post sometime later this year.
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.
The National Diet building in Tokyo. The Japanese government's total debt as of the end of December 2025 rose to a record ¥1.34 quadrillion.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 10, 2026
Japan government debt rises to record ¥1.34 quadrillion in 2025
Of the total balance, general government bonds stood at ¥1.09 quadrillion, up ¥6.27 trillion.
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.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who also serves as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, stands next to LDP Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki (left) and party Election Strategy Chief Keiji Furuya, placing a red paper rose on the name of an elected candidate at LDP headquarters in Tokyo during the Lower House election on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 9, 2026
It’s Sanae Takaichi’s Japan, as PM’s persona powers LDP to electoral success
Sunday’s electoral triumph by the Liberal Democratic Party is less a master stroke of the party than a success of its indisputable architect: Takaichi herself.
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.
The Nikkei 225 stock index crossed 57,000 for the first time on Monday following Sunday's election.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 9, 2026
Nikkei 225 rises 3.89% and hits record after Takaichi’s big win on Sunday
The benchmark index hit an all-time high of 57,337.07 in the morning and is now up more than 45% over the past year.
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.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday. The party secured a fresh mandate and a supermajority in the Lower House in an election the same day.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 9, 2026
Five key takeaways from Takaichi’s landslide victory
The LDP secured a supermajority on its own, giving Takaichi the golden opportunity to implement her policy agenda.
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.
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.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and other LDP leaders celebrate at the Diet after the dissolution of the House of Representatives on Jan. 23, days after calling for a snap election.
EDITORIALS
Feb 6, 2026
Takaichi and the LDP appear poised for a big win
Takaichi’s performance has surprised most observers. Not only did she take office with sky-high approval ratings, but she has maintained them since October.
Sanseito, a party led by Sohei Kamiya (second from right), opposes the long-term settlement of foreign nationals but supports the use of short-term foreign labor.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 5, 2026
Conservative parties push for capping of foreign resident population
The Japan Innovation Party, Sanseito and the Conservative Party of Japan are taking a hard-line stance while other parties are proposing alternative measures.
Nihon Hidankyo executives release the results of a survey conducted on lawmakers, during a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 4, 2026
117 lawmakers say Japan should join nuclear ban treaty, survey shows
The atomic bomb survivor group said that only 20% of members of parliament responded to the survey.
Yoshihiko Noda, co-leader of the Centrist Reform Alliance, the nation’s largest opposition party, greets supporters during a campaign event in Osaka on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 4, 2026
Is this election really unpredictable?
Despite media uncertainty, opposition weaknesses and recent polls suggest Takaichi and the LDP are likely headed for a strong victory.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who is also president of the Liberal Democratic Party, speaks at an LDP election rally in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 4, 2026
Takaichi seen avoiding discussing plan to cut Lower House seats
The prime minister seeming to avoid discussing the Lower House seat-cut proposal now is believed to reflect concerns within the Liberal Democratic Party about it, observers said.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi joins Japan Innovation Party leaders Fumitake Fujita (right) and Hirofumi Yoshimura at an election event in Tokyo on Jan. 27, the first day of campaigning for the Feb. 8 snap election.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 4, 2026
A cheat sheet to Takaichi’s snap election
Parties with traditional vote-generating architectures in place before Japan’s snap election have a significant advantage.
Sanseito supporters listen as the party’s leader, Sohei Kamiya, speaks at an election campaign event in Tokyo on Jan. 27, the first day of official campaigning for the Feb. 8 snap election. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 3, 2026
Has Takaichi secured a win? Conservative voters are returning to the LDP.
Takaichi’s confidence in calling an election just four months into her tenure as Japan’s leader comes from high public approval and a general fragmentation in the opposition ranks.
Japan needs caregivers. Young Indians are answering the call.
Young people in India's northeast are increasingly studying Japanese in hopes of building new lives and careers in Japan.
Prior to launch, Japan ‘strongly urged’ China to reconsider missile test in Pacific
A missile is fired from a Chinese Navy nuclear-powered submarine on Monday.
Suspected Asian fraud ring exec served fresh warrant in Japan
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and Osaka Prefectural Police have issued arrest warrants for three people, including a suspected fraud network leader, over alleged immigration and residency violations.
Japan might be giving the currency market the silent treatment
Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama has issued verbal warnings recently using the same language and the same tone, saying authorities “will take appropriate action at any time, as necessary.”
Japanese teen arrested for booting users off streaming service
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a 15-year-old boy for allegedly creating a malicious program and canceling subscription accounts on the Bandai Channel.
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.
Filmmaker explores history of discrimination against foreign nationals in Japan
Takashi Nishihara, the director of "Now and Then," in Tokyo on Wednesday. The director has spent 10 years traversing politically charged terrain while exploring youth-driven grassroots political movements that scrutinize the status quo.
Japanese nail salons are tourists’ new obsession
Tourists in Japan have always been interested in quintessentially Japanese approaches to modern culture, and, increasingly, visits to nail salons have become the new hot thing.
Okinawa’s prized seaweed under threat as oceans warm
Local harvesters gather <i>mozuku</i> during low tide at Hyakuna Beach in the city of Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture. As the planet warms, rising ocean temperatures are placing increasing pressure on the seaweed industry.
‘Defense,’ not ‘warfare,’ stressed as pacifist Japan beefs up capabilities
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi attends an annual training session near Mount Fuji at Higashifuji Training Field in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, on June 7.

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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