The World Today

April & May 2017: Learning from the wisdom of Japan

A greying population finds a silver lining to the economic storm clouds. Joji Sakurai looks at how Japanese society is adapting to changing times

A woman at work in a tofu factory. Jobs to which women return after having children are typically part-time or temporary

Workplace equality is a key step in solving Japan’s problems, writes Frances McCall Rosenbluth

A Russian doll depicting Putin and past leaders on sale in China

While China may pose a bigger risk, it is the US that is Russia’s main concern, says Kirk Bennett

Theresa May can find a better way to carry out the will of the British people, argues Andreas Kraemer

Cool Japan is exporting its taste for sake, writes Nobuyuki Sato

This year, for the first time, GCHQ features in Stonewall’s top 100 employers in their Workplace Equality Index

GCHQ’s Nikesh Mehta on how the intelligence services are diversifying

Japan is often portrayed as teetering on the brink of a demographic abyss. But despite low economic growth, an ageing population and a declining workforce, life continues quite comfortably.

Articles

A still from ‘Grave of the Fireflies’, Isao Takahata’s most famous film set in the dying days of the Second World War

Alex Dudok de Wit pays tribute to Tokyo’s master of the magical moving image

The world will throw up surprises, but forming clear strategies can avert catastrophe say Cat Tully, Alun Rhydderch and Peter Glenday

Displaced Syrian children in a camp in Jarablus, close to the Turkish border

Past failure is no excuse for not trying, writes George Graham

Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s UN envoy, had a warm and witty inner personality

Lana Nusseibeh pays tribute to the late Vitaly Churkin

Whoever takes over from Park Geun-hye faces a daunting challenge, writes James Hannah

Slobodan Milosevic, the President of Serbia, emerges from these pages as the evil genius behind the undoing of old Yugoslavia

Robert Fox looks at an account of the horror that followed Yugoslavia’s collapse

Also in this issue

Catherine Fieschi on how to get elected in a post-shame world

Iraqi women walk past a mural decorating a concrete blast wall in Baghdad

Seeing the Middle East as Sunni v Shia is too simple, writes Alex Spillius

Andrea Howard and Joe Biden at her graduation from the Naval Academy in 2015

We speak to the female submariner, International Relations student and Jimmy Carter fan

Dystopian tales, monk’s musings

A visualisation of how human development is distorting the planet

For Vladimir Putin the priority is establishing a Mediterranean fleet

The former IRA paramilitary, who became a key figure in the Northern Ireland peace process and the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland until his resignation in January 2017, died in March aged 66.