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July 02, 2026
 

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Adrian Wooldridge
The greatest threat to the American republic is not any particular conspiracy but a paranoid political mindset that increasingly views opponents as agents of vast and sinister plots.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2026
U.S. politics is reaching peak paranoia
The paranoid style begins with a simple proposition: The world is divided between good and evil.
The rise of personality-driven leadership in business and politics, exemplified by Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Donald Trump, is undermining organizational stability and increasing systemic risk.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2026
America’s big personalities are shrinking its greatness
A new generation wearied of managerialism, partly because memories of the bad old days faded and partly because managerialism, like all regimes, became self-indulgent.
A punting boat passes the King's College Chapel at the University of Cambridge, England, where John Maynard Keynes studied. He predicted that advances like AI could one day free people from material necessity, leaving humanity to face the “permanent problem” of how to live well.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2026
AI is proving a 100-year-old prediction true
Keynes’ work on the problem of leisure has not been treated with the same reverence as his work on solving the problem of the great depression.
The resignation of U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, exposes Labour’s leadership and ideological vacuum.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2026
Britain needs so much more than a new prime minister
Britain has had four failed prime ministers since the Brexit referendum in 2016 not counting Starmer.
Social media, the internet and other modern-day pressures like digital overload, complexity and declining community ties are fueling loneliness and mental strain across Western societies.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2025
The West is facing fearsome new ‘giants’
The old postwar “Five Giants” have been defeated, but new challenges — loneliness, addiction, distraction, lies and complexity — threaten Western societies.
Keir Starmer, leader of Britain's Labour Party and now prime minister, speaks to supporters at a reception celebrating his election win in London in July 2024.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2025
Britain’s political system is undergoing a risky revolution
The British have traditionally prided themselves on the uniqueness of their political system; an aristocratic arrangement that evolved peacefully into a democratic one.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announces the winners of the 2025 Nobel economics prize at a news conference in Stockholm on Oct. 13. The prize was awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for their work on innovation-driven economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2025
This year’s economics Nobel holds a warning for the U.S
Between 1875 and 1926, 44% of the world’s breakthrough inventions took place in the U.S., with Britain, France and Germany hovering between 14% and 22%.
London’s worsening disorder — from soaring petty crime to reckless delivery riders and rising drug use — reflects a decades-old pattern of authorities and citizens normalizing lawlessness.
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2025
What turning a blind eye to deviant behavior is doing to London
The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, needs to take growing disorder on the streets more seriously.
Modern global politics, marked by personal rivalries, nickname-driven rhetoric and apocalyptic religious fervor, resembles a “re-medievalization” that challenges the ideals of the Enlightenment.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2025
The Middle Ages are making a political comeback
Increasingly medieval language from the world’s leaders does not bode well for the rest of us.
A post-election analysis by the polling company Blueprint discovered that the top reason why American swing voters eventually supported Donald Trump over Kamal Harris was culture (+28) followed by inflation (+23).
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2024
It’s too soon to say wokeism is dead
The Republicans ran the most unwoke man in America for the presidency, Donald Trump, and were amply rewarded for it.
Tech entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist Masayoshi Son made his fortune by becoming a bridge between California's technology culture and Japan.
COMMENTARY
Oct 31, 2024
Masayoshi Son may be the oddest of the oddball billionaires
Masayoshi Son made his fortune by becoming a bridge between Californian tech culture and Japan.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak inspects troops at a military base in North Yorkshire, Britain, on May 3. Sunak is making the question of protecting Britain and navigating dangerous geopolitical conditions central themes of his election campaign.
COMMENTARY / World
May 27, 2024
War is at the heart of the U.K.’s summer election
British Prime Minister Sunak is nevertheless right to inject defense into the heart of the election campaign.
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron (right) and former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg are both experiencing a revival in U.K. political and business circles.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2024
Has the U.K. learned nothing from Brexit?
The current success of David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the U.K. suggests that the country — and the world — have learned little from populism’s rise.
Actor Joaquin Phoenix (left), actress Vanessa Kirby and director Ridley Scott arrive for the U.K. premiere of the movie "Napoleon" in London on Nov. 16.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2023
Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’ and our need for historical heroes
The new movie Napoleon’ reignites the debate on the role of great individuals in history
Rupert Murdoch in his office in New York in 2007. Murdoch's decision to step down from the boards of News Corp. and Fox Corp. marks the end of a decadeslong media career.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2023
Rupert Murdoch, the last of the press barons
No living person has influenced the media landscape like Rupert Murdoch. Should we view his career in a favorable light, or is his legacy one of darkness?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2023
Scratch a tech bro and you’ll find a naked ape
The fitness antics of Silicon Valley titans suggest that 21st-century business leadership is as much about displaying physical dominance as it is about showing foresight.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2023
A sick America can’t compete with global powers
Poor health is not just a tragedy for individuals. It is a constraint on the U.S.’s productivity and its ability to defend itself.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2022
Are Putin and Xi in decline? Populism and autocracy still have deep resources.
Liberal democracy is still imperiled, despite all the recent cheerfulness from enemies of authoritarianism.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2022
Rishi Sunak is a new and old-fashioned Tory
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the first Hindu to lead the country, is a fascinating combination of the new and the old in the world of the ruling Conservative Party.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2022
The revolutionary monarchy of Queen Elizabeth II
The British queen defied the informal styles of other European royals and transformed the Windsors into a staunchly bourgeois, yet mesmerizing dynasty.
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.
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