Free Republic

Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister, declared in her inaugural address to parliament her intention to sign a peace treaty with Russia to formally end the state of war lingering since World War II. The statement sparked lively discussions in Moscow: is rapprochement with Tokyo possible given its sanctions policy and the long-standing dispute over the Kuril Islands? We explore what lies behind Takaichi’s words, why the treaty remains unsigned, and how the Kremlin views the situation. The Kurils: A Perennial Sticking Point Russia and Japan are the only World War II participants that have not concluded a peace...

WATCH: President Trump waves goodbye to Malaysia after a trip that featured a peace expansion, economic deals, and dancing.

Many people ease into Halloween by watching a scary movie or two. They might be classicists and opt for Universal horror like James Whale's Frankenstein films or Tod Browning's 1931 Dracula. Gentle souls might opt for a haunted romance like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, while cineastes will choose Kubrick's The Shining or William Friedkin's The Exorcist. Millennials who think they invented irony will go straight to the Scream franchise or horror comedies like Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead. I want to take you to hell. More specifically a Japanese hell, as imagined in Nobuo Nakagawa's cult classic Jigoku,...

On October 8, 2025, an 82-year-old woman was attacked by an Asiatic black bear in the city of Daisen in Akita Prefecture, Japan. The attack was caught on video. The bear is presumed to be an Asiatic black bear because the brown bears (Ursus Arctos) in Japan are limited to the northern island of Hokkaido. Daisen and Akita prefectures are not in Hokkaido. Akita prefecture is on the largest of the Japanese islands, Honshu. Honshu has a significant population of Asiatic black bears. From the bear’s actions, it appears to be a juvenile bear that has not yet perfected its...

The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs. The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts. TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT

As country music grew in popularity in America throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the roots of the genre also took hold in an unlikely place: Japan.A detail from the 1971 album of The Bluegrass 45, a legendary bluegrass band from Kobe, Japan. Rebel RecordsDuring World War II, the Armed Forces Radio Service provided entertainment for American troops stationed in Japan. But in the days after the war ended in 1945, the United States established a more permanent, far-reaching band of stations for its servicemembers remaining on bases in the rebuilding country. Until it was disbanded in 1997, this was known...

Staunch conservative Sanae Takaichi was elected Japan’s first female prime minister by parliament on Tuesday, in a landmark moment for the historically patriarchal country where both politics and workplaces are dominated by older men.Takaichi steps into the role as Japan faces mounting economic woes and a fractured politics, and just days before US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit. The 64-year old Takaichi, who is a heavy metal drummer and motorcycle enthusiast, grew up in Nara near Osaka. Her arrival at the pinnacle of Japanese politics tops a remarkable rise, from TV presenter to flag bearer of traditional and...

Billy Halloran's peaceful trail run in Japan turned into a fight for survivalWhen Billy Halloran set out on a training run in the forest surrounding Myoko, a mountain town in central Japan, one morning in early October, he was expecting little more than a quiet workout among the trees. That changed when he noticed movement in the undergrowth—two Asiatic black bears staring back at him from less than 30 metres away. Bear encounters in Japan have surged this year, with more than a hundred people injured and at least seven killed, the highest toll since tracking began in 2006, as...

Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi and Japan Innovation Party leader Hirofumi Yoshimura agreed to form a coalition government on Monday, after the LDP agreed to requests from the JIP on such policies as reducing the number of seats in the Diet.With the agreement, JIP lawmakers are expected to join LDP lawmakers in voting for Takaichi in the prime ministerial election on Tuesday during the extraordinary Diet session to be convened on the same day. This could crown her as Japan’s first-ever female prime minister.“I would like to thank Yoshimura, [JIP co-leader Fumitake] Fujita and other JIP members for engaging...

The newly developed Muscat Shiragai grape offers a sweet, smooth flavor with a subtle Muscat aroma. Credit: Okayama University of Science ============================================================================= A team from Okayama University of Science has developed a new wine grape variety, “Muscat Shiragai.” A team of researchers led by Professor Emeritus Takuji Hoshino at Okayama University of Science (OUS) has developed a new wine grape variety called “Muscat Shiragai.” The grape was produced by crossing the wild Shiraga grape, which naturally grows only along the Takahashi River basin in Okayama Prefecture, with the well-known Muscat of Alexandria. The group has submitted the new variety for...

Since Beijing announced a new visa to attract young science and technology graduates, a backlash has erupted online, forcing the government to respond.When the Chinese government announced a new visa to attract young science and technology talent, it advertised the move as another step toward becoming the leading scientific power, one to which people from around the globe would flock.To many in China, it was a gross mistake.In the days before and since Oct. 1, when the visa was supposed to come into effect, commenters have accused the government of inviting foreigners to steal jobs from Chinese people, at a...

Imagine a world without McDonald’s, Nike, or Kraft Foods. A world where the budget-conscious and time-strapped have nowhere to grab a quick bite, where almost no one drives a car, where television is extinct. Sound pretty bleak? This is the utopian vision of the Adbusters Media Foundation. “We will wreck this world,” Kalle Lasn declares in his book Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge -- and Why We Must. That, quite simply, is the goal of the Vancouver-based organization he founded and runs. A self-described group of “anarchists” and “neo-Luddites,” Adbusters are not merely environmentalists, animal-rights activists,...

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for their development of new molecular structures that can trap vast quantities of gas inside, laying the groundwork to potentially suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere or harvest moisture from desert environments.The chairperson of the committee that made the award compared the structures called metal-organic frameworks to the seemingly bottomless magical handbag carried by Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” series. Another example might be Mary Poppins’ enchanted carpet bag. These containers look small from the outside but are able to hold surprisingly large quantities within.The committee...

Japan is still in many ways a traditionalist – not to say a sexist – society. But the times they are a changing, and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have just chosen Sanae Takaichi as its leader, which means that she will become the country’s first ever female Prime Minister, and it’s most stridently right-wing one. Takaichi, 64, revels in the nickname the “Iron Lady” and is a hardline patriotic right-winger who is an avowed admirer of the original Iron Lady – Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who Takaichi has cited as her role model. She was elected...

Sanae Takaichi, who is likely to become Japan's first female prime minister, is a conservative politician who has hailed former U.K. premier Margaret Thatcher and once worked in the U.S. Congress. On Saturday, Takaichi was elected leader of the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) following a runoff vote. Why It Matters If confirmed by parliament, Takaichi will become Japan's fifth prime minister in five years and the first woman to hold the office in the country's history. Her policies have included a tough stance on immigration, and as the head of government, she would have to navigate domestic and economic...

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Former internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election on Saturday by defeating farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi in a runoff vote, paving the way for her to become Japan's first female prime minister.

The government of Japan this week extended the application of nine laws related to spousal rights and responsibilities to same-sex couples, a significant, if limited, victory in the country’s slow march towards marriage equality. The Japanese constitution currently defines marriage as “mutual consent between both sexes.” It does not recognize same-sex unions. Three of eight of Japan’s regional high courts in the last few years have ruled that the government’s failure to grant legal recognition to same-sex couples is unconstitutional. In its Tuesday announcement, the government said it will consider same-sex couples to be in “de facto marriages” under the...

Japan’s next Prime Minister could shape the region’s future.On October 4, 2025, Japan will choose its fourth prime minister in five years, since Shigeru Ishiba resigned after only a year in office due to internal pressures within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Although leadership changes in a parliamentary system are common, the process comes at a time of economic uncertainty and social transformations in Japanese society, which are paired with increasing geopolitical tensions around the Asia–Pacific region. As a Latin-American who lived in Japan during COVID-19, I find myself pondering on the implications of Shinzo Abe’s assassination, the rise of...

Global debt hit a record high of $337.7 trillion at the end of the second quarter, driven by easing global financial conditions, a softer U.S. dollar and a more accommodative stance from major central banks, a quarterly report showed on Thursday. The Institute of International Finance, a financial services trade group, said that global debt rose over $21 trillion in the first half of the year to $337.7 trillion. China, France, the United States, Germany, Britain, and Japan recorded the largest increases in debt levels in U.S. dollar terms, though some of that was due to a waning dollar, the...

Hertz's partnership with Amazon is another step in the e-commerce giant's slow march into auto sales. The deal could be a boon for the rental car giant, which is trying to sell more of its cars directly to consumers. Some experts say the shift toward direct online sales, especially involving e-commerce giants like Amazon, could spell trouble for dealerships, possibly even large publicly traded companies such as AutoNation, Group1, Sonic Automotive, Penske, and Asbury. Wholesale auction companies such as Manheim and AVC are also liable to be watching the shift, as direct to consumer sales could threaten their inventories. Why...