The Bank of Japan lifted its policy rate to 1.25% on September 18, 2026, the highest since 1995, and the yen still fell past 157 to the dollar. Why a hike failed to lift the currency, and Japanese Reactions on X.
Genta Koja won Okinawa's governor election on September 13, 2026 with 423,124 votes against Denny Tamaki's 276,060. Why the All Okinawa coalition lost, what the exit polls show, and Japanese Reactions on X.
On September 9, 2026 the Centrist Reform Alliance decided to break apart eight months after it was founded, keeping the party alive with a single lawmaker to settle its election debts. What the lower-house-only merger kept, what it lost, and Japanese Reactions.
The AfD won 43.8 percent in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6, 2026, three seats short of a majority. Why the party gained, what a state government could actually do, whether the firewall holds, and Japanese Reactions.
The United States sanctioned Tomoko Akane, the Japanese president of the International Criminal Court, on August 18, 2026, and Japan's government said only that the measures were very unfortunate, drawing charges of weak diplomacy at home. Six days earlier it had called Putin's visit to Etorofu absolutely unacceptable. This analysis separates words, concrete countermeasures, and security conditions, and includes Japanese reactions on X.
Trump ordered the US-South Korea Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise cut from 11 days to 5, with no advance notice to Seoul. A look at why the same card that helped open talks in 2018 buys less in 2026, with Japanese reactions from X.
Japan's Q2 2026 GDP grew 1.1% annualized while consumption fell and the 10-year JGB yield hit 2.945%, its highest since 1996. A look at the tax-cut-plus-rate-hike policy mix, with Japanese reactions from X.
Japanese reactions to PM Takaichi's decision to skip the Yasukuni visit on August 15, 2026, and the 40-year-old framework behind it: the 1986 Gotoda statement, the one official visit in 1985, and how the office reshapes what a visit can be.
Putin made his first visit to Etorofu on August 13, 2026. Why can Russia never return Etorofu and Kunashiri while it offered Shikotan and Habomai in 1956? The Sea of Okhotsk bastion, a 1960 Soviet memorandum, and 80 years of frozen talks, explained from Japanese primary sources.
Two Trump orders, Aug 2026. Birth tourism entry was restricted in 2020; the new question is whether an executive order can except the 14th Amendment.