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July 02, 2026
 

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DPP

A Lower House plenary session is held to vote for a fiscal 2026 budget bill on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 15, 2026
Japan ruling bloc uses ‘power majority’ to push through fiscal 2026 budget
Opposition parties have intensified their criticism, calling the ruling bloc’s move a threat to fiscal democracy.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi discusses tax reduction at a national council in Tokyo on Feb. 26.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 10, 2026
CRA might join national council on consumption tax cut after all
Like the Democratic Party for the People, the party fears the political cost of not taking part in talks over the proposed consumption tax cut for food items.
Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the Democratic Party for the People, speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 5, 2026
DPP to join panel on consumption tax cut
The Democratic Party for the People’s announcement comes after it, along with the Centrist Reform Alliance, skipped the panel’s inaugural meeting on Feb. 26.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Thursday. While Takaichi wants to use a nonpartisan panel to achieve consensus across party lines on how to pause consumption tax on groceries for two years, opposition parties are concerned about the political fallout of being seen as agreeing too much, or not enough, with her effort.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 26, 2026
Consumption tax panel kicks off without two opposition parties
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi had hoped to use the panel to achieve consensus across parties on how to lift the tax for two years.
Japan’s newly convened special session of the Diet is set to debate legislation criminalizing damage to the national flag, strongly backed by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and the opposition party Sanseito.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 24, 2026
Parliamentary debate grows over move to criminalize flag desecration
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expressed a strong desire to enact a flag desecration ban, which is also supported by the opposition party Sanseito.
Nobuko Irie
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 21, 2026
DPP Lower House candidate arrested for election law violation
The defeated candidate, Nobuko Irie, 63, and the two others, are suspected of paying a total of ¥270,000 in compensation to five female campaign staffers.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks in a news conference Wednesday night at the Prime Minister’s Office.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 19, 2026
Takaichi’s rocky road ahead to eliminate consumption tax on groceries
Before the Feb. 8 Lower House election, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pledged to eliminate consumption tax on groceries for two years. How will she deliver?
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.
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.
Sanai Takaichi and the Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory demonstrated that when candidates find compelling issues that affect their lives, young people show up.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 10, 2026
Japan’s youth are quietly securing their nation’s future
Young voters didn’t just express opinions in polls, they showed up at voting stations in increased numbers, many for the first time.
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.
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.
The original promulgation copy of the Constitution of Japan, at the National Archives of Japan in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward in 2017
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 5, 2026
Road to constitutional revision emerging as key topic
The LDP lists four desired constitutional revisions in its campaign pledges, including specifying the role of the Self-Defense Forces and establishing a state of emergency system.
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 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.
Supporters of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attend an election campaign event in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 3, 2026
Where will Japan’s democracy go from here?
Many question the rationale for the snap election with some critics claiming that it is an election without a “just cause.”
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.
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
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.
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.
‘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’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.
A French ship with close ties to Japan combines arts and sciences on the high seas
Romain Troublé, the executive director of Tara Ocean Foundation, speaks to visitors aboard the Tara during a rare port call in Tokyo in April.
In Kyushu’s far south, Senti.U sparks a culinary destination
Chef Yasuhiko Uchida was born in Saga Prefecture but has made his home in Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture, since 2012.

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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