The Hormuz crisis highlights a concerning contradiction for Japan, writes Helen Cecile Nowatka. "Many of the supply chains underpinning Japan’s decarbonization strategy remain tied to the same vulnerable energy networks and maritime chokepoints the transition is meant to reduce dependence on."

The threat to French democracy of a Bardella/Le Pen win next year is so much bigger because of the slow but steady cultural coup by Bolloré.

I need to know when Anthropic is planning to release AI GACKT

I have always admired my partner's writing so I'm delighted she started a Substack that I can share with others

I have always admired my partner's writing so I'm delighted she started a Substack that I can share with others

I think it’s worth noting that the protest wave we’re seeing now is still mostly organized by and made up of those who have been protesting for decades. There was also an absolutely astonishing number of Kenshokai members handing out newspapers.

My most clickbaity headline yet

Interesting content, but the clearly AI "augmented" summary, cover, and other admissions of use within the text itself is driving me crazy.

I was today years old when I realized that Jazzman song is not just a Simpsons bit

My new reading list (only read two of these)

Buying Psyduck merch is basically a form of oshikatsu for me. While Psyduck itself isn't my favorite Pokémon, it is the favorite Pokémon of my dear senpai, friend, and fellow Tokyo Review editor @rmarcantuoni.bsky.social, and reminds me of him.

Two updates: I just got my Ph.D. and I'm starting an Assistant Professor position at Hosei University

Okay folks I've responded to the data center heat island paper. It is the worst study on AI and the environment I've ever read, by far. Thank you to @beijingpalmer.bsky.social for flagging. blog.andymasley.com/p/data-cente...

This post gets it EXACTLY right. At the end of the day, we DON'T KNOW how consciousness works! Therefore ANYTHING might be conscious, and in fact, LIKELY IS. All things have experienced the world in their own way and humanity is merely one throat frayed to bleeding by the wordless scream of history!

My most clickbaity headline yet

I love how clear it is in BLAME that the author doesn’t really want to write a plot, he just wants to draw sick structures

Pretty much the most important thing happening in the world right now. www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chi...

Als de Duitse centrale bankiers minder conservatief zijn dan Nederlandse ministers, dan is er wel iets heel bijzonders aan de hand. Ik vermoed dat de VVD met Eelco Heijnen een Europees anachronisme is.

Omission of special-needs graduates from official Japanese government data about the country's "18-year-old population" does not appear to reflect deliberate exclusion, but it nevertheless carries negative symbolic and practical consequences.

Constitutional revision was a wedge issue that the LDP could wield to divide the opposition. If that explains why they never went whole hog on revision then it follows that they would go ahead with it when it is no longer useful. With the CRA imploded that could very well be now.

the fake conspiracies are a distraction from the real conspiracies... this is what I found again and again while researching Doppelganger. And Bannon is doing it in overdrive these days.

We have started our Election 2026 coverage, beginning with a piece by editor Nishimura Rintaro about the challenges PM Takaichi faces this year

The idea of a unified opposition may have run its course. If so, what remains to be seen is whether or not the predicted defeat of the CRA will be a moment of creative destruction. www.tokyoreview.net/2026/02/is-t...

Thinking about this, from October last year: asia.nikkei.com/politics/jap...

My piece about this Lower House election. The project of a Big Opposition may be coming to an end. The question is whether the predicted defeat of the CRA will be an act of creative destruction or something more wanton. www.tokyoreview.net/2026/02/is-t...

My piece about this Lower House election. The project of a Big Opposition may be coming to an end. The question is whether the predicted defeat of the CRA will be an act of creative destruction or something more wanton. www.tokyoreview.net/2026/02/is-t...

An unintended side effect of the election being so unpredictable is that all of the actors are primed to learn the wrong lessons from the results

They’ve been on this for a minute. More teaching + post tenure review (and contracts) plus ai supercharged productivity surveillance tools also makes professors more vulnerable to student evals, which gives admin more power to fire you. That’s the plan.

All my priors are wrong

While I've enjoyed many console games over the years, I will always come back to PC gaming, because it is - at heart - about communities. Even if it all ground to a halt tomorrow and not another penny was exchanged for goods and services, people would still be making and sharing and improving games

My piece in Nikkei Asia on how Takaichi's stance against China's coercion has made her popular, but her ability to push back will be constrained by a public that wants her to focus on the economy, a budget that's coming under greater pressure, and a security ally who may not be there to help:

【『地平』アーカイブ】 参政党の台頭はなぜ可能になったか――解かれた極右の封印 chihei.net?p=5517 〈政治学者カス・ミュデ氏によれば、極右の国家像は「民族支配（ethnocracy）」である。要するに、「真の国民」を狭く定義し、それに沿わない人々の権利を厳しく制限するという発想である〉

A reminder won't hurt. Sanseito might fade away, or might turn out to be very dangerous.

Periodical reminder that people listen to Hiroyuki’s opinions on politics here in Japan

And the sudden rise in the use of such terms coincided with media coverage of the Upper House elections last summer Because they were reporting policies Sanseito and Hoshuto were running on Which is why Romeo stressed the media‘s role and responsibility in his Chihei piece bsky.app/profile/rmar...

the real essay to be done is on Harry Potter as a product of nostalgia for the English grammar school system.

Or -- and hear me out on this -- it's almost as if anti-gay prejudice has political determinants that can't be reduced to a psychological model of a linear trajectory of social acceptance. See also: remember when racism stopped? When we finally stopped misogyny?

💯 percent

I think it's a few things: 1) People, particularly women, don't want to root against the first female PM 2) I think a lot of younger people have this idea that she's not a typical LDP pol, and expect her to address their economic concerns 3) The public is more "hawkish" and so they like that too

“It is increasingly common for PhD holders to juggle part-time teaching positions at multiple universities simply to make a living… a doctorate often means entering a career path defined more by uncertainty than by opportunity.” Japan-specific issues, but the degradation of knowledge is universal.

In Japan, entering a PhD program can be a big gamble. Ryo Konishi and Stefan Aichholzer explain how the current state of graduate education and research funding is leading to steady declines in Japan's research workforce.

Thanks @nikkei.com Japan for this interview about the far right in Europe. We spoke also about the differences with the far left and the role of civil society. farpo.eu @scpo-research.bsky.social @sciencespo-cee.bsky.social www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZ...

What is this, the Chiss Ascendancy?

I’m going to try to blog about media and politics in 2026 hills-as-mountains.neocities.org/posts/bugonia/

"Japan’s low levels of street protest have not produced disengagement; participation has migrated online", Rina Komiya writes, as she explains how digital outrage increasingly manages to derail local inclusion policies in Japan.

Really happy with this new Tokyo Review piece. Not only is it an important topic in and of itself, but I think Japanese municipal politics in general deserve much more attention.

New piece on TR by Rina Komiya! www.tokyoreview.net/2025/12/how-...

“the current US government believes that its national security is best served by the destruction of liberal democracy in Europe. In other words, the US is not (just) an unwilling ally, it is a willing adversary.” @casmudde.bsky.social spitting fire here