This desk
How to read the Japan desk
Japanese is the language of the Tokyo press. NHK is the public broadcaster. Kyodo is the wire. Asahi, Mainichi, Yomiuri, and Nikkei are the papers. The Japan Times is the English door most outsiders actually use. English is good here by global standards. It is still a translation of a much larger Japanese conversation.
If you only read the Japan Times and NHK World, you are reading the version prepared for you. The dailies disagree — Asahi is not Yomiuri — and the disagreement is in Japanese. We list both layers.
This desk is the country. It is not a prefecture, and it is not a US military base newsletter. Name collisions are rare. The risk is the opposite: too much English polish, not enough of the actual press.
The names are the links. Open NHK and one paper, not only the Times.