Opinion

Urmas Teder, Journalist Japan often presents itself as a country committed to administrative transparency and evidence-based policymaking. Public consultations are one of the mechanisms through which the government seeks to reinforce that image, allowing citizens and stakeholders to comment on proposed regulations before they are adopted. Yet the latest revision of immigration-related fees raises an uncomfortable question: how meaningful is a consultation if many of those most directly affected cannot realistically participate? The Ministry of Justice has opened a public comment period on a proposal that would substantially increase a range of immigration-related administrative fees. The most striking measure would…

Japan has not changed its sanctions against Russia. But it has changed something equally important: it has publicly acknowledged that diplomacy cannot function without dialogue. Toshimitsu Motegi's explanation after his brief conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was not really about Russia. It was about Japan. More precisely, it was an implicit acknowledgement that foreign policy cannot be built exclusively around political alignment when geography continues to impose its own rules. Japan remains fully committed to the G7's sanctions, yet it also recognises that a neighbouring nuclear power cannot simply be ignored. Territorial disputes, fishing rights, energy security and…

Urmas Teder, Journalist Sanae Takaichi’s declining approval ratings offer an early warning for Japan’s new conservative government. According to the latest Mainichi poll, support for her cabinet has fallen to 41%, while disapproval has risen to 44%. The figures do not necessarily indicate an immediate political crisis, but they reveal a growing gap between the symbolic appeal of Takaichi’s agenda and the practical expectations of a society facing some of the world’s most difficult economic and demographic challenges. Takaichi’s rise was built around a promise to restore national confidence: a stronger defence policy, a more assertive foreign policy, stricter immigration…

For years, Japan's defining economic challenge was stagnation. Today, for the first time in a generation, some of the country's key indicators offer cautious grounds for optimism. Wages are rising, household incomes are increasing, and inflation -while uncomfortable- is also evidence that Japan has finally emerged from decades of deflation. On paper, the economy appears to be entering a healthier phase. Yet statistics tell only part of the story. When more than half of Japanese households still describe their financial situation as difficult, it becomes clear that economic recovery and public perception are not necessarily moving in the same direction.…

Urmas Teder, Journalist Japan has entered a decisive moment in its demographic debate. For years, the country approached immigration cautiously but pragmatically, gradually expanding labour migration to offset an ageing population and a shrinking workforce. Today, however, the political conversation is shifting. What was once a discussion about economic necessity is increasingly framed as a question of national identity, social cohesion and public security. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's response to calls from Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya for stricter immigration controls illustrates this change. Although she stopped short of committing to numerical limits on foreign residents, she accepted much of the…

On 12 July 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague issued one of the most consequential rulings in contemporary maritime law. The tribunal unanimously concluded that China's expansive claims in the South China Sea, particularly those based on so-called "historic rights", lacked legal foundation under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Ten years later, however, the significance of that decision lies less in its legal conclusions than in a more fundamental question: can international law still shape state behaviour when confronted by geopolitical realities? The joint statement issued this month by fifteen countries—including…

Urmas Teder, Journalist There is a certain irony in history that no speechwriter could invent. Japan has elected its first female prime minister, yet one of the defining legislative battles of her administration seeks to ensure that a woman will never inherit the nation's highest symbolic institution. Politics, as always, has a remarkable sense of humour. Sanae Takaichi has defended the reform of the Imperial House Law as a necessary measure to preserve centuries of uninterrupted patrilineal succession. Her government argues that tradition must prevail over changing public opinion. The difficulty is that public opinion appears remarkably united: according to…

When Sanae Takaichi chose New Delhi as one of her first major international destinations, the gesture carried far greater significance than it might initially have appeared. Japan is not simply looking for another economic partner or a counterweight to China's rise. It is acknowledging that India has moved beyond the label of an emerging power to become an indispensable actor in any discussion about Asia's future. For decades, the West viewed India largely through the prism of comparison with China. It always seemed one step behind: less developed infrastructure, weaker manufacturing, more bureaucracy, greater poverty. Yet that comparison overlooked a…

Urmas Teder, journalist There are restrictive immigration policies. And then there are policies that, under the banner of integration, end up punishing precisely those who have already built their lives in the country. The proposals championed by Kimi Onoda to tighten language requirements for foreign residents are moving uncomfortably close to that line. Learning Japanese is desirable. Few would dispute that. The problem arises when language proficiency becomes a condition for a family to enjoy legal stability. Once the right to permanent residence depends on passing an examination that many elderly people, individuals with cognitive disabilities, or long-term residents may…

For more than three decades, globalization was driven by a simple principle: let markets decide. Governments dismantled trade barriers, outsourced production to wherever costs were lowest and assumed that economic interdependence would, sooner or later, reinforce political stability. Efficiency became the overriding objective, while geopolitics was largely treated as a relic of the twentieth century. That assumption no longer holds. The change has not arrived because globalization failed. On the contrary, it became so successful that it created new forms of vulnerability. The concentration of semiconductor manufacturing, critical minerals, pharmaceutical ingredients or battery materials in a handful of countries has…