At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2025, Japan fell silent for one minute. At the exact time when, fourteen years earlier, the largest earthquake and tsunami in the nation’s recorded history struck eastern Japan, people across the country paused to offer profound condolences for the more than 20,000 who died or remain missing.
On September 22, 2025, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) formally announced the leadership election to choose a successor to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who declared his resignation on September 7