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July 02, 2026
 

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DEVELOPMENT

World Bank Chief Economist Indermit Gill speaks during an interview in Washington on Feb. 3.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 9, 2026
World Bank economist seeks cooperation from Japan on AI
Some worry that differences in the pace of AI adoption could further widen the gap between advanced economies and low-income countries.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi poses for a photograph with the African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa on Jan. 8.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 27, 2026
African nations send more money to China than they receive in new loans
A ONE Data report also highlighted a broader decline in bilateral finance flows and private external debt.
China is turning its homegrown Kunming dog into a symbol and tool of its internal and international security strategy, using the breed to project control and shape security practices and norms in other countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2025
Chinese diplomacy goes to the dogs — literally
China is using its homegrown Kunming dog as a symbol to project control and influence security practices at home and abroad.
A 3-year-old receives treatment at Nasir Medical Center in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Aug. 4. A recent Focaldata survey found the majority polled favors cooperation on global challenges, even if it means compromising on some strictly national interests.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2025
Multilateralism is not dead yet
Electorates are far more aware than ever of the connection between what is happening in their local communities and what is happening globally.
The world has made astonishing progress, yet far too often governments and their expert advisers bestow aid in a paternalistic spirit of “we know best,” that, while preferable to violent subjugation, still denies beneficiaries independence and equal standing.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2025
A brief history of enlightened oppression
Enlightened oppression, even stripped of violence and cruelty, is still oppression.
Hellen Etiman, 30, stands as her malnourished son, Peter Lokoyen, 4, eats wild fruits outside their thatch hut in Lomolem village, in Turkana County in Kenya, on Oct. 29.
WORLD / Society
Dec 12, 2025
Cuts to U.S. aid under Trump disrupt life-saving treatment for starving children
Before the cuts, the U.S. Agency for International Development funded purchase and distribution of half global food paste supplies for the most undernourished children.
Nobumitsu Hayashi, head of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), is interviewed in Tokyo last week.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 1, 2025
Japan’s JBIC shifts financing focus to economic security projects
JBIC’s role has expanded in response to China’s growing influence and rising geopolitical risks, evolving into a tool of economic statecraft.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin, China, on Sept. 1. Xi unveiled a new diplomatic framework, the Global Governance Initiative, which Wang called “a blueprint for humanity’s shared future.”
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Nov 28, 2025
Beijing’s ‘globalist’ agenda under Trump 2.0
China is leveraging the Global Governance Initiative to expand its influence in the U.N. and Global South as U.S. retrenchment under Trump creates a leadership vacuum.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang speaks during the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept. 26. On Sunday at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, Li laid out China’s rationale for its sweeping curbs of rare earths, then unveiled details of a global mining initiative with friendly nations.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 24, 2025
China’s Li launches charm offensive on rare earths at G20
Critical minerals became a defining theme of Africa’s first G20 summit, with sessions dedicated to the topic as European leaders grappled with supply chain issues.
Beneficiaries wait in line to receive support following the exit of USAID, at a World Food Program distribution center in Dikwa, Borno State, Nigeria, in August.
WORLD
Nov 21, 2025
World’s richest nations are pulling back from global development efforts, study shows
The ranking comes as South Africa is gearing up to host leaders of the Group of 20 major economies this weekend.
Akihiko Tanaka, president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, speaks at a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers program, held in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Nov 18, 2025
Japan’s overseas volunteer effort faces personnel shortage as it marks 60th year
Grassroots human exchanges have fostered multilayered relations with other countries, but private sector alternatives and public perceptions are creating recruitment headwinds.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and European Union President Ursula von der Leyen meet in Belem, Para State, Brazil, on Wednesday. Belem will host the COP30 U.N. climate summit from Monday through Nov. 21.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2025
Make COP30 about human welfare
In poor countries, parents are not kept awake by concern about achieving a 0.1 degrees Celsius temperature reduction in a century.
An investor watches a board showing stock information at a brokerage office in Beijing.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Oct 6, 2025
Thriving emerging markets look poised to wrap up banner year
Sentiment has rarely been this buoyant, with an HSBC Holdings survey showing emerging markets fund managers as the most bullish since the start of 2021.
Moroccan youth from a collective calling itself GenZ 212 chant slogans as they rally for a seventh straight day to demand reforms to public health care and education.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 5, 2025
Gen Z anger at ruling elites is erupting across the world
There has been a surge in Gen Z demonstrations in Africa and Asia against aging leaders and corruption.
Bangladeshis celebrate in Dhaka on Aug. 5, the first anniversary of student-led protests that ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2025
What Western media call insurrection at home, they call revolution abroad
Western media have perfected a seductive but dangerous narrative: the romanticized tale of youth-led “revolutions” toppling supposedly repressive, graft-ridden governments abroad.
An aerial view of Tuvalu in 2024. Rising sea levels caused by climate change have prompted the Tuvalu government to strike a climate migration pact with Australia.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 30, 2025
Developing countries accuse rich of broken climate promises at U.N.
Leaders of developing countries say rich nations must provide resources to cope with climate change, a crisis they created, but such nations have not met their commitments.
Bipinkumar Padaya (center) sits with his wife and son at home in Dharavi, a slum settlement in Mumbai.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 27, 2025
In India’s Mumbai, the largest slum in Asia is for sale
The plan to redevelop Dharavi, led by Mumbai authorities and billionaire tycoon Gautam Adani, reflects modern India — excessive, ambitious, and brutal.
The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to withhold $4 billion in foreign aid that had been appropriated by Congress in a major test of President Donald Trump’s efforts to wrest the power of the purse from the legislature.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 27, 2025
U.S. Supreme Court lets Trump withhold $4 billion in foreign aid
The case raises questions about how much authority the president has to rescind funds for programs that don’t align with his policies.
China is reshaping the global energy landscape by pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy investments across the Global South, creating jobs and long-term influence on a scale comparable to the Marshall Plan.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2025
China is winning its power play for the Global South
Beijing’s green energy projects are bringing jobs, growth and cheap electricity to the developing world.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez listens to Bill Gates speak during an interview at the annual Gates Foundation's Goalkeepers Summit in New York on Monday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 23, 2025
Bill Gates pledges $912 million to health aid, urging countries to reverse cuts
Speaking at an event in New York, Gates said the world was at a crossroads, with millions of children at risk of dying if funding drops too steeply.
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.
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
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