Category: Japan
The Foreign Policy Winners and Losers of 2025
The first year of the second Donald Trump presidential term has been a carnival of outrages and delights. Historians will struggle to make sense of the whirlwind of activity around the Oval Office, but some big events are already clear. The year has had some big winners, including:
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Taking the fentanyl challenge: Whacked-out American junkies now big in Japan
The United States’ fentanyl crisis is being mocked on the other side of the planet.
Videos with millions of views show Japanese content creators mimicking a bizarre and all-too-common sight in cities like San Francisco and New York: half-conscious drug addicts bent over sharply at the waist but somehow still standing.
‘Japanese social media influencers are going viral for mocking America’s fentanyl addicts.’
Typically from the effects of heroin or fentanyl, this telltale folded posture has become known as the “fenty fold.”
“Japanese social media influencers are going viral for mocking America’s fentanyl addicts who are often seen hunched over and flailing on the streets,” one user wrote on X. An attached video that showed a young woman in Okinawa, Japan, hunched over has received more than 2.5 million views.
RELATED: How to win the opioid fight
Know when to fold ’em
On TikTok, similar videos have captions like “Bringing American culture to Japan” and show participants folding over in locations typical of American drug addicts, like a subway station. One such video has garnered over 1.2 million views.
Other videos take place in parking garages, city centers, and public parking lots. Most of the viral content uses a Japanese song labeled “Anime Girl,” although the song is actually a combination of the songs titled “Don’t Forget Me” by Schinya and “Sparkle” by Radwimps.
Cleaning up
Drug seizures have increased under the Trump administration, resulting in a slight increase from FY2024 versus FY2025.
However, if FY2026 continues on trend, there will be a significant jump in the amount of annual drugs seized (measured in pounds), according to CBP statistics.
RELATED: Mexico has cartel armies. Blue America has cartel politics.
Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images
For example, in October 2025, approximately 51,500 pounds of drugs were seized by the federal government. In October 2024, that number was 40,700 and just 37,400 in October 2023 under President Biden.
Overdoses down
Fentanyl, however, represents one of the least confiscated drug types in terms of weight, likely due to its potency. Marijuana, methamphetamines, and cocaine are the most seized by weight, in that order.
At the same time, overdose deaths have significantly dropped in the United States between April 2024 and April 2025. There was a 24.5% decrease during that time period, the CDC reported. The number of overdoses peaked around August 2023 but have since been declining.
Some of the biggest decreases in overdoses have come in states like Louisiana, New Hampshire, New York, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
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As Europe Steps Back, Asia Steps Up
The Trump administration has once again horrified European public opinion. The National Security Strategy was released with little fanfare in the United States but landed like a bomb across the Atlantic. Lines like, “Our broad policy for Europe should prioritize … cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations,” reveal both the impatience a faction in the Trump administration feels toward Europe and its inability to win the internal debate.
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Courage Under Fire
First came the water pouring down the slopes of Japan’s Mount Fuji on October 19, 1979. Then on top of the torrents came the fire that killed 13 U.S. Marines and burned dozens more. Though investigators afterward may not have consulted the Bible, they ended up attributing the unusual mix of elements involved to the same force that, per the Book of Exodus, enveloped ancient Egypt in hail and fire. “It was an act of God,” investigators concluded.
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Japan at the Crossroads
Japan is by nature a rather conservative country and has managed to preserve many of the most cherished aspects of…
Reagan–Thatcher, Trump–Takaichi, and Cold War II
In Japan, she is known as the “iron lady,” a not-so-subtle comparison to Britain’s Margaret Thatcher — the staunch American…
Shohei Ohtani Plays Baseball Differently
Baseball’s most illustrious player, two-way star Shohei Ohtani, is once again in the spotlight — coming off perhaps the most incredible performance in the game’s history. In his Los Angeles Dodgers’ 5–1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 4 of the NLCS, Ohtani struck out ten batters and hit three home runs, leading his
