Possibly the most suburban Tokyo scene ever? The vending machines, the canopy over a shop that no longer exists, the mama chari.

Bombshell 2.0 from @JeKavanagh: strategic clarity in the opposite direction. The argument is that the United States needs a Taiwan policy that explicitly rules out military intervention should the island come under attack, given how far the military balance has shifted in China’s favor. I disagree with much of the prescription, but it raises one important question that I am hearing more often in Japan: “Leaders in Japan and South Korea may worry that Chinese control of Taiwan would bring risks even if unification occurred peacefully by making it easier for China to interdict trade in nearby waters.” For Japan and South Korea, the concern is not only war over Taiwan. It is what the regional balance looks like afterward. That concern is real. asia.nikkei.com/opinion/the-…

Trump may have just handed Beijing a useful new line against Tokyo. Standing beside Xi, he hailed China as America’s WWII ally. The catch is that Washington’s ally was Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China, not Mao’s Communist government. Xi ran with it, as Beijing steps up claims that Takaichi’s Japan is returning to militarism. asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/tr…

The Trump-Xi summit showed who holds the cards. @Aligarciaherrer points to: • Lots of pomp, very little substance • Trade truce now just two months • Rare-earth controls merely postponed • Taiwan arms sales still frozen Washington needs stability more than Beijing. And Xi knows it. China now holds the whip hand over Trump asia.nikkei.com/opinion/chin…

Who’s left? China has formally expelled Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, leaving just two active members on the once seven-member Central Military Commission, including Xi himself. China expels 2 top officers from party and military, alleging disloyalty asia.nikkei.com/politics/def…

Just got woken up from a nap by a landslide warning in various places of Tokyo’s Setagaya ward. Looks mostly like the Meguro river area.

My first ever view of the Yellow Sea.

Hardly a reshuffle, just a few tweaks. - Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and trade minister Ryosei Akazawa all stay on. - Biggest political change is the appointment of Hiroshi Nakatsuka of the Japan Innovation Party as regulatory reform minister. - Yoshimasa Hayashi, who challenged Takaichi for the LDP leadership last year, is out. Japan's Takaichi carries out first cabinet reshuffle with few changes asia.nikkei.com/politics/jap…

Spent the morning spotting North Korean farmers.

This brings back memories. Tempted to take a kid or two of mine on an adventure soon. japantimes.co.jp/life/2026/0…

New arrivals of highly skilled professionals to Japan are down 20%-40% on the year as AI hits demand for IT workers and translators, and tougher immigration scrutiny raises the bar for employers. Japan sees slower inflow of foreign professionals as AI crimps hiring asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/ja…

Big political shift in Okinawa. I’m quoted: “Koja’s victory gives Tokyo greater freedom to prepare Okinawa for a Taiwan contingency, but it should not be mistaken for an Okinawan mandate to fight one.” asia.nikkei.com/politics/oki…

EXCLUSIVE: Taiwan and the Philippines are finalizing plans for Taipei to open a second quasi-diplomatic mission in Cebu. The move comes as China piles pressure on both places, and it strengthens the southern end of the First Island Chain -- showing Beijing that Taiwan is far from isolated diplomatically. asia.nikkei.com/politics/int…

A big political shift in Okinawa has consequences stretching across the Taiwan Strait. The election of Genta Koja, Okinawa’s first conservative governor in 12 years, could open more of the prefecture’s ports and airports to Japan’s military and end the long-delayed relocation of the U.S. Futenma base to Henoko. The result removes a political barrier to strengthening Japan’s deterrence against China. But Koja is no blank cheque for Tokyo, as he sees himself as a coordinator seeking the best practical outcome for Okinawa. asia.nikkei.com/politics/oki…

Japan has just passed its first major retrial reform since 1948. But in this op-ed for @NikkeiAsia, freelance journalist Gavin Blair argues it leaves the deeper problems in the justice system largely untouched, particularly the enormous power wielded by prosecutors. He points to the rarity of acquittals and cases where questionable forensic evidence can take years, even decades, to unravel. The most notorious example is Iwao Hakamata, who spent decades on death row (mostly in solitary confinement) after being convicted of a 1966 quadruple murder before finally being exonerated in 2024, with the retrial court finding that investigators had fabricated evidence. In a more recent case, Christopher Payne, an American convicted of sexual assault, has spent nearly five years in solitary. That is despite Tokyo High Court overturning his conviction and ordering a retrial after questions emerged over DNA testing that had been repeated dozens of times and manually edited. Blair’s point is that speeding up retrials only goes so far if the system that produces wrongful convictions remains largely unchanged. “The seating arrangements changed but the power structure remained intact.” asia.nikkei.com/opinion/japa…

Japan lags behind major countries in creating safe bike lanes s.nikkei.com/3UJOFcB