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July 12, 2026
 

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PRESS FREEDOM

Media tycoon Jimmy Lai is escorted into a Hong Kong Correctional Services van outside the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong in February 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 15, 2025
Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai found guilty in landmark security case
The city’s High Court convicted Lai on two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces — a crime punishable by life in prison.
People wait outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building in Hong Kong on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 15, 2025
Jimmy Lai’s supporters queue in Hong Kong overnight for verdict
Two counts — of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security — carry prison terms of up to life in prison for Lai, a British citizen.
Jimmy Lai speaks during an interview in Hong Kong in June 2020.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 12, 2025
Verdict in trial of Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai set for Monday
Lai, 78, is charged with foreign collusion under Hong Kong’s national security law, which Beijing imposed following pro-democracy protests in 2019.
The burned Wang Fuk Court housing complex after a deadly fire in the Tai Po area of Hong Kong on Nov. 30
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 7, 2025
China warns foreign media in Hong Kong over fire coverage
The Office for Safeguarding National Security said it had summoned a number of unspecified foreign media outlets, criticizing coverage of the fire.
The New York Times alleges that the Pentagon's new press policy violates the rights to free speech and due process and that, if allowed to stand, will "deprive the public of vital information about the United States military and its leadership."
WORLD
Dec 5, 2025
New York Times sues Pentagon over press access
At least 30 news organizations, including Fox News, the Washington Post and Reuters, chose to give up their press badges rather than sign the Pentagon’s new press policy.
Sebastian Lai (right) and Claire Lai (left), children of jailed Hong Kong publisher and democracy activist Jimmy Lai, in Washington on Tuesday
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 3, 2025
Family voices new alarm for Hong Kong’s jailed Jimmy Lai
The pro-democracy media mogul, who turns 78 next Monday, has been in jail since late 2020 in solitary confinement, his children said.
A person pays their respects at a makeshift memorial for the victims of last week’s deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Hong Kong.  
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2025
How an unfree press stoked the flames of Hong Kong’s deadly blaze
Many of the people who lived in the housing complex knew about problems in the renovation project that saw building towers wrapped in plastic netting and windows filled with foam.
Michael Prescott answered questions from the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, in London on Monday, after his internal memo on what he said were failings in the BBC's coverage of certain topics was leaked, sparking a scandal.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 25, 2025
BBC is not ‘institutionally biased,’ says author of explosive memo
Michael Prescott, a former external editorial adviser, compiled a dossier on issues within BBC News, including failings in its coverage of U.S. President Donald Trump.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's crown prince, during the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Nov 20, 2025
Behind Trump defense of Saudi crown prince, a deeper U.S. shift on human rights
Trump’s remarks threw into stark relief just how far his administration has shifted away from the traditional U.S. support for human rights globally.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an official dinner with the Saudi crown prince at the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD
Nov 19, 2025
‘Piggy.’ ‘Terrible.’ Trump lashes out at female reporters.
The U.S. president ripped into a reporter just days after calling another female journalist “piggy” after she asked a question related to Jeffrey Epstein.
Located near the Imperial Palace, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan prides itself on the accessibility of its events and the support it offers to budding and established journalists. The club is currently headed by Dan Sloan, a former reporter for Reuters.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Nov 17, 2025
Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan celebrates 80 years at the forefront of press freedom
Since its founding in 1945, the club has been an important professional hub and played host to a startling array of political and cultural figures from around the world.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping talk as they leave after a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 30.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 6, 2025
Trump pressed China’s Xi to release jailed Hong Kong media tycoon, sources say
Trump appealed directly to China’s Xi Jinping to free jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai when the two leaders met in South Korea last week.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt takes questions during a briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on Oct. 23.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 1, 2025
White House restricts access for journalists to press secretary’s office
The new memorandum from the National Security Council bans journalists from accessing Room 140, also known as “Upper Press,” without a prior appointment.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi addresses the media at the White House on June 27 as President Trump listens following a Supreme Court ruling that limited federal judges' power to block presidential orders.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2025
Global lessons from a press in peril
A democracy cannot survive without a free press. There has never been a democracy without a media that is free and independent.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addresses senior military officers in Quantico, Virginia, on Sept. 30.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 9, 2025
Press groups condemn U.S. Defense Department rules governing media access
The new policy would constrain the media’s ability to cover the world’s most powerful military.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new Pentagon policy mandating pre-approval for unclassified information threatens to reverse nearly a century of First Amendment protections.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2025
Hegseth tries turning back 94 years of press freedom
The history on his side has been discredited by the Supreme Court for a century.
Workers in protective suits stand outside Leishenshan Hospital, a makeshift medical facility for treating patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in April 2020
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 21, 2025
Chinese COVID-19 whistleblower handed four more years in jail, group says
Zhang Zhan, 42, was sentenced on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” in China.
The Pentagon is mandating that journalists agree to release only pre-approved information about the military or lose their credentials to cover the Pentagon.
WORLD
Sep 21, 2025
Pentagon limits journalists’ access to military information
The new rule — part of an updated press credentialing process presented to news organizations this week — came in a memo by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.
Walt Disney-owned ABC said on Wednesday it is pulling "Jimmy Kimmel Live" off the air, after the comedian weighed in on how U.S. President Donald Trump and his supporters were reacting to the assassination of Republican activist Charlie Kirk
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2025
Kimmel suspension is latest victory in Trump media war
The U.S. leader said the nation’s media regulator has every right to pull the broadcast licenses of stations that run content he doesn’t like.
John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. U.S. President Donald Trump kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown after taking office in January.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 28, 2025
Trump administration moves to tighten duration of visas for students and media
The proposed regulation is part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s broader crackdown on legal immigration.
China’s demand for Soviet-style apartments shows limits to revival
Apartments built during a Soviet Union-inspired construction drive in the 1970s and 1980s tend to suffer from poor insulation and outdated plumbing, but they are seeing a revival in interest due to their attractive locations.
Japanese scientists identify neural mechanism that may explain why we dislike people
The aggressive mouse (left) used in the experiment and a mouse defending itself
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
Lenders seek $700 million after Japanese payments firm’s collapse
The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Japan’s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history
Miwa Yanagi’s “Elevator Girl House” series skewers the superficiality of gender roles through staged images.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

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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