WORLD INSIGHT

November 10, 2025
Debate on Introducing Nuclear-Powered Submarines: A Historic Turning Point for Japan’s Defense Policy?

As November 2025 began, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi spoke about the need for Japan to introduce nuclear-powered submarines (hereafter, “nuclear subs”).

By Honourway Asia Pacific Limited

October 16, 2025
Tensions over the Senkakus: Chinese Government Vessels Enter Territorial Waters—A Trial for the New Takaichi Administration

On the morning of October 16, 2025, a new incident emblematic of rising tensions in the East China Sea occurred. According to the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Naha, at around 10:00 a.m. that day, four China Coast Guard (“Haijing”) vessels in succession entered Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture.

By Honourway Asia Pacific Limited
August 15, 2025
80 Years Since the War’s End: A Pledge of Inheritance and a Return to “Reflection”

On August 15, 2025, Japan’s summer was wrapped in deep prayer and silence. Marking 80 years since the end of World War II, the government’s National Memorial Service for the War Dead was solemnly held at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan.

By Honourway Asia Pacific Limited
August 6, 2025
80 Years Since the Atomic Bombing: Hiroshima’s Prayer and the World at a Crossroads

At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 2025—the very moment when Hiroshima was reduced to ashes 80 years ago—the “Bell of Peace” tolled through the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

By Honourway Asia Pacific Limited

May 18, 2025
Princess Aiko Visits Noto — A Legacy of Compassion and a New Pledge for the Future

On May 18, 2025, Princess Aiko, the daughter of Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress, arrived in Ishikawa Prefecture, one of the regions hardest hit by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake.

By Honourway Asia Pacific Limited
May 16, 2025
The Active Cyber Defense Law — Japan’s National Security Enters a New Dimension

On May 16, 2025, Japan’s National Diet passed the Cyber Response Capability Enhancement Act, widely known as the Active Cyber Defense Law (ACD Law).

By Honourway Asia Pacific Limited
April 7, 2025
Eighty Years After the War: Prayers for Iwo Jima

On April 7, 2025, Japan quietly embarked on a solemn journey of remembrance marking eighty years since the end of World War II. Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress chose as their first destination Iwo Jima, one of the fiercest and bloodiest battlefields of the Pacific War. That morning, the Imperial couple departed the Imperial Palace, boarded a government aircraft at Haneda Airport, and after a flight of about two and a half hours, landed on the isolated island approximately 1,200 kilometers south of Tokyo. This was their first-ever visit to Iwo Jima.

By Honourway Asia Pacific Limited
March 11, 2025
Fourteen Years Since 3/11: Prayer and the Road Toward the Future

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.

By Honourway Asia Pacific Limited
March 6, 2025
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Acquittal of Former TEPCO Executives Finalized

The accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which accompanied the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, was an unprecedented disaster that shocked not only Japan but the entire world.

By Honourway Asia Pacific Limited
March 3, 2025
The Young Prince Who Bears the Future Throne: His True Self and Determined Resolve

On March 3, 2025, at the Akasaka East Residence in Tokyo’s Moto-Akasaka district, a young man who carries the future of Japan’s Imperial Family addressed the nation in his own voice for the first time. His Imperial Highness Prince Hisahito, the eldest son of Crown Prince and Princess Akishino, held his first official press conference—about six months after reaching adulthood on his 18th birthday in September 2024.

By Honourway Asia Pacific Limited
March 29, 2024
Extended Deterrence in Northeast Asia Needs Tokyo-Washington-Seoul Operational Boost

Extended deterrence, which involves nuclear weapons, has two dimensions: the hardware aspect, concerning the number, capability, and deployment of nuclear weapons, and the software aspect, concerning planning and consultation.

By Masashi Murano
March 28, 2024
Ukraine’s PR Strategy and “War Advertising Agencies”

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, sales of my 2002 book, Documentary: War Advertising Agencies, suddenly surged.

By Toru Takagi
March 26, 2024
Peace by Communicating the Realities of the Atomic Bombing: Interview with Hiroshima Mayor

At the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, the mayor of the atomic-bombed city, Kazumi Matsui, gave the world leaders a tour around Peace Memorial Park while advocating for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

By Kazumi Matsui
March 22, 2024
Japan’s Role to End the War in Ukraine: After Visiting Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, and Afghanistan

In February 2023, I published How to End the War in Ukraine: Limitation and Possibilities of Peace Mediation (Iwanami Shinso, in Japanese).

By Daisaku Higashi
March 19, 2024
You and Information

This article leads off the magazine’s special feature, “Prepare for the ‘Information Warfare Crisis.’” Yet, it is intended neither as an introduction nor as a summary of the other essays following this one.

By Hiroshi Nakanishi
March 15, 2024
Can China Be a Mediator?

From the start, China has consistently viewed the war in Ukraine within the framework of a major-powers confrontation, instead of a bilateral war between Russia and Ukraine.

By Emi Mifune
March 1, 2024
How the U.S. Conquered Information Warfare in Ukraine with Open-Source Intelligence

In the war in Ukraine, the U.S. thoroughly disclosed its classified intelligence and urged the international community to unite, while countering Russian disinformation, and gained an advantage in the information warfare.

By Koichiro Takagi
February 2, 2024
A Conversation: Japan-U.S.-South Korea Security Cooperation Enters a New Phase

Focus on universal values and stronger deterrence against North Korea—South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol administration shifted its basic foreign policy.

By Junya Nishino and Tsuneo Watanabe
January 17, 2024
Challenging Russia’s Dominance in Nuclear Power Market: Efforts by Japan, U.S., and Europe

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, tighter sanctions have been imposed in the energy sector, Russia’s major source of income.

By Yuki Kobayashi
November 7, 2023
Meditating Nuclear Issues in Hiroshima

The 49th G7 Summit in Hiroshima became a noteworthy event that will go down in history.

By Hideaki Miyama
December 20, 2022
China’s Elite School Targets Abolished School in Japan to Build Base

Two white three-story school buildings stood quietly at the foot of the mountains, while cicadas cried loudly in the background complementing the summer heat.

By Rui Sasaki
October 19, 2022
Japan’s Economic Security and Cybersecurity

The intensifying U.S.-China conflict and supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are fueling the debate on economic security policy in Japan.

By Takahisa Kawaguchi
September 21, 2022
North Korea Races to Strengthen Its Offensive Capabilities

North Korea, which had been in a wait-and-see mode for some time after the United States-North Korea summit, has gradually transitioned to a strategic hardline stance from July of this year.

By Kinichi Nishimura
September 15, 2022
French Think Tank Report Sounds the Alarm over Chinese Influence around the Globe

With the attention on the moves by Europe amid the U.S.-China conflict, the IRSEM released a report on the information warfare waged by China around the world.

By Mina Mitsui
September 7, 2022
India Builds Counter-Strike Capabilities Against China

Military tension has continued to rise at the India-China border since 2020.

By Satoru Nagao
July 12, 2022
Why Japan Should Join Five Eyes Intel-Alliance

A talk is in progress for Japan to join the Five Eyes, a classified information-sharing agreement consisting of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

By Masatoshi Fujitani
June 22, 2022
Fear of Decline That Haunts Xi Jinping

Following the 2008 global financial crisis, Fu Ying, then spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, spread the phrase, “China is up, the U.S. is down” across the world with her fluent English.

By Hiroshi Yuasa
June 10, 2022
Taiwan Defense Strategy: The Next Move by the U.S.

A comment by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) Mark Milley at a Congressional hearing on June 17, 2021, took some by surprise.

By Masashi Murano
June 6, 2022
Why Russia Is Intensifying Anti-Japanese Propaganda

Since 2021, Russia’s hostile behavior towards Japan is picking up stream.

By Andrii Gurenko
April 27, 2022
Discourage China from Invading Taiwan

In early March 2021, Admiral Philip S. Davidson, then commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, sent shock waves in the U.S., Japan, and across the world by telling a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that China could invade Taiwan in the next six years.

By Robert D. Eldridge
April 5, 2022
Tough Stance Sparks Backlash: Growing Wariness for Belt and Road Initiative

A quarter of the low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs) receiving loans related to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have debt exposure to China exceeding 10% of their GDP.

By Kenji Yuasa
March 17, 2022
For Taliban, Power Is Everything: What Are the Two Bargaining Chips?

20 years have passed since the September 11 attacks.

By Toru Takagi
March 11, 2022
Why Taliban Remains Intact 20 Years After 9/11: Realities Explained by a Former Diplomat

Now, 20 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, old and new questions are coming once again before us.

By Toru Takagi
January 24, 2022
Army Colonel Norihiro Yasue, the Man Jews Will Never Forget

On April 26, 1954, a memorial service was held at the Aoyama Funeral Hall in Tokyo.

By Yasuhiro Shoguchi
December 27, 2021
North Korean Missiles Extend Distance in Military Buildup as U.S. Talks Collapse

North Korea launched a succession of missiles again.

By Katsumi Sawada
December 21, 2021
China Is Set to Wage Hybrid Warfare

The Ukraine Crisis in 2014 marked the beginning of the hybrid warfare in the world.

By Junjiro Shida
December 3, 2021
Deploying Wolf-Warrior Diplomacy and Social Media to Achieve the Chinese Dream

On April 26, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian retweeted a post showing Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” from the “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji” and its parody version side by side.

By Fukushima Kaori
August 31, 2021
Why a Chinese Invasion of the Pratas Islands Is a Blind Spot in the Controversy over a Taiwan Contingency

The cover of The Economist (May 1 issue) caused a buzz as it depicted U.S. and Chinese military forces heading towards Taiwan on the center of a radar screen.

By Tetsuo Kotani
August 31, 2021
Southeast Asia: How Will It Survive the Era of US-China Confrontation?

As pandemics reach a climax, a number of phenomena are taking place that will determine the future course of the world. From a geopolitical point of view, the most important of these is the further escalation of tensions between the United States and China.

By Yutaka Iimura,Senior Fellow at GRIPS Alliance,Visiting Professor at National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies,Former Ambassador of Japan to Indonesia and to France