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Takehiro Masutomo
Takehiro Masutomo
Takehiro Masutomo is a Tokyo-based journalist covering Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. He writes in Japanese, Chinese, English and Bahasa Indonesia. He was previously based in Beijing, Jakarta and Singapore.

Russia has been useful for Japan’s energy security especially after 2011 when it moved away from nuclear power. But where Tokyo once drew a line at weaning itself off Russian fuel, it now faces a reckoning.

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Even as sexual and gender diversity are increasingly becoming normalised Japan, with support for same-sex marriages increasing, a chasm still remains between the public and politicians.

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Facing an ageing, shrinking workforce, Tokyo flirts with breaking a taboo surrounding immigration by preparing to welcome half a million low-skilled foreign workers.

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In the sleepy coastal town of Kaminoseki, population circa 3,000, one of Japan’s most divisive political debates – the future of nuclear power – is being played out in microcosm.

The Land of the Rising Sun has shone on big corporations but start-ups have largely remained in the shadows. Now, the mayor of Japan’s youngest city, Fukuoka, is changing that – starting with an incubator in a old school.

A cronyism row surrounding the Japanese PM threatens the chief cheerleader of the re-named pact. And even if Shinzo Abe scrapes by, Malaysian voters could throw a spanner in the works.