Stephen R. Nagy - The Japan Times

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Stephen R. Nagy

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Stephen R. Nagy

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, during a welcoming ceremony before talks at the Kremlin in Moscow in May 2025.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 25, 2026

Scarier than fiction: ‘The Wizard of the Kremlin’ comes to life

The objective is not to promote authoritarianism directly, but to corrode the trust that sustains democratic societies and international cooperation grounded in rule of law.

A giant screen shows Chinese leader Xi Jinping meeting U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing on May 14. China distorts narratives portraying Japan as a military threat while similar dynamics in the U.S. erode truth and accountability.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 3, 2026

Defending democracy from the global war on reality

From Beijing to Washington, the very concept of objective truth feels unattainable

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing in January. Tokyo faces a more acute strategic challenge than Ottawa, balancing engagement with Beijing while strengthening regional deterrence capabilities.

COMMENTARY / Japan

May 27, 2026

Lessons for Japan from Canada’s ‘reset’ with China

Takaichi should neither retract her Taiwan remarks nor amplify them for domestic applause.

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson leads Japanese destroyers JS Ashigara (left) and JS Samidare during a transit of the Philippine Sea on April 26, 2017. Tokyo fears growing uncertainty as rivalry between Washington and Beijing deepens.

COMMENTARY / Japan

May 21, 2026

Japan caught in the U.S.-China geoeconomic crossfire

For Japan, this creates a precarious environment. More than 80% of its energy imports — and much of its trade — passes through waters around Taiwan and the South China Sea.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, Florida, on April 6, 2017. Trump informed Xi that night that he had ordered missile strikes on Syria.

COMMENTARY / World

May 13, 2026

Trump’s superpower, unpredictability, has given way to unreliability

It is an open question whether commitments made this week in Beijing will survive the flight home.

The West must look beyond caricatures and recognize that China’s aggressive actions are driven by insecurity, misperception and a calculated strategy to manage its rivals.

COMMENTARY / World

May 7, 2026

To counter China, the West must first understand its phobias

For a regime built on these institutional genes, the ultimate imperative is survival.

In a bipolar system dominated by America and China, Japan should navigate the rivalry by deepening its alliances, diversifying economic ties and maintaining flexible, practical diplomacy in Asia.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Apr 30, 2026

Japan’s balancing act in an era of U.S.-China dominance

Tokyo’s move toward defense spending of 2% of GDP is not militarism. It is overdue burden-sharing within an alliance that is the foundation of regional deterrence.

Demonstrators march past riot police outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing in September 2012. The global media often misrepresents Japan as nationalistic, driven in part by China-backed narratives and unfair stereotypes.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Apr 23, 2026

Falling for Beijing’s anti-Japan propaganda is dangerously naive

This mischaracterization is rooted in Japan’s wartime history, but also shaped by blatant ideological bias and propaganda.

U.S. allies should resist distancing themselves from Washington over Donald Trump and instead strengthen long-term economic and defense ties with the U.S. to safeguard their interests against emerging global rivals.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 16, 2026

The case for ‘hardened engagement’ with America

Allowing a distaste for one U.S. president (no matter how bombastic) to sever the ties that bind the free world is not only bad policy, it’s a recipe for strategic irrelevance.

Pedestrians cross Enghelab Square in Tehran, near a billboard showing Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new supreme leader, in the Iranian capital on Saturday.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 12, 2026

The Indo-Pacific price of a hasty war with Tehran

The allies are not abandoning the U.S.; they are recoiling from a war that lacks a defined strategy.

The United States has serious domestic flaws, but its freedoms, alliances and global influence distinguish it from authoritarian states, a distinction its allies must recognize and actively invest in through engagement.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Apr 3, 2026

The Moon and the Turtle: A lesson in false equivalence

Following the United States does not mean following blindly; it means understanding that the CRINKs offer no alternative order worth living in.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on March 19. When interpreting the mercurial U.S. leader's negotiating style, the prime minister must focus on his signals, not his promises.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 30, 2026

Decoding ‘Trump-Speak’ — a guide for Japan’s leaders

For Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the challenge of dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump is not about language or translation. The real difficulty lies in interpreting a presidential communication style that departs sharply from the postwar norms of diplomacy....

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi addresses a news conference at the Liberal Democratic Party’s headquarters in Tokyo on Feb. 9, a day after her party's landslide Lower House election victory.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 20, 2026

Memo to Takaichi: Reject the temptations of populism

The year 2026 has crystallized a geopolitical landscape defined by nationalist leadership.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and U.S. President Donald Trump speak to sailors and others aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington during a visit to the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in late October.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 13, 2026

Takaichi needs a new blueprint for a lasting U.S. alliance

To succeed, Takaichi must deploy a disciplined mix of flattery and hard deliverables, demonstrating to the 47th U.S. president that Tokyo is taking its own security seriously.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his wife Diana arrive in Sydney on Tuesday ahead of his Friday stop in Tokyo, where he will hold talks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 5, 2026

Canada has an opportunity to redefine its role in the Pacific

The solution for Canada is not to seek an alternative to the U.S. in Japan, but to join Japan in the project of keeping the U.S. engaged.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi must steer Japan between pressure from China and an unpredictable United States by bolstering defense, diversifying partnerships and asserting strategic autonomy.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Feb 27, 2026

Keeping the Chinese ‘tiger’ and U.S. ‘wolf’ at bay

Often mischaracterized by detractors as a radical nationalist, Takaichi represents a center-right continuity of the “Abe line.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi meet on the sidelines of the 62nd Munich Security Conference on Feb. 14.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Feb 20, 2026

In a new Cold War, Japan-U.S. ties grow in importance

After a decade of strategic drift, Washington has finally aligned its resources with the reality Japan has lived with for a generation.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks at Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday, a day after her ruling coalition secured an overwhelming majority in Sunday’s Lower House vote.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Feb 10, 2026

Takaichi’s big win: A major victory for hard-nosed realism

The turnout was driven primarily by a craving for security. Voters rallied behind Takaichi’s willingness to stand up to Chinese economic coercion and disinformation campaigns.

China’s promise of stability is undercut by its tendency toward coercion and control, leaving middle powers still reliant on the U.S. for security and deterrence.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 6, 2026

Memo to middle powers: Time for a reality check

Middle powers do not design the system they inhabit. They can maneuver inside it, but they cannot wish away the forces that set the boundaries of that maneuvering.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi holds talks with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Nara on Jan. 13. Once a central diplomatic actor, Japan is increasingly absent as global power rivalries intensify.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jan 30, 2026

The cost of silence: Japan’s diminishing relevance

This diplomatic fade is more than a temporary slump. Japan is experiencing a crisis of international relevance at precisely the moment when the rules-based order is fracturing.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.

What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival

By Alex K.T. Martin

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