Philip Patrick

Japan is running out of time to save itself from Trump’s tariffs

8 July 2025 8:58 pm

‘This is a serious situation for Japan’. That was the verdict of the business editor on NHK’s morning news programme…

In defence of Wimbledon’s AI line judge

7 July 2025 10:04 pm

Does anything work in Broken Britain? You’d be forgiven for wondering when even during our most prestigious sporting tournaments the…

Nissan’s future looks bleak

2 July 2025 3:38 pm

Nissan has announced that hundreds of jobs will be cut at its Sunderland plant. The Japanese auto-maker said the lay-offs…

Where have all the Japanese tourists gone?

31 May 2025 4:00 pm

Is the Japanese tourist, for so long in good numbers a welcome and reliable fixture at our most famous tourist…

Why the Japanese don’t believe Fukushima is safe

30 May 2025 4:00 pm

Soil samples from Fukushima, the prefecture where Japan’s Dai-Ichi Nuclear reactor exploded in 2011 sending plumes of radioactive material into…

Great football writers are different

24 May 2025 3:00 pm

Brian Glanville, who died this week at the age of 93, was a unique voice in the crowded and often hysterical field of football…

What the Europa League losers’ final reveals about English football

20 May 2025 3:35 pm

Two of world football’s biggest but worst performing clubs Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur face off in Bilbao on Wednesday in the…

‘It is sad that we are sometimes seen as just killers’: an interview with Japan’s last ninja

3 May 2025 9:00 am

Getting an interview with Jinichi Kawakami, the man known in Japan as ‘the Last Ninja’, was no easy task –…

Trump’s tariff pause has given Japan time to plan its next move

10 April 2025 9:05 pm

Asian markets are rebounding after President Trump announced a 90-day ‘pause’ in the implementation of the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs that…

Trump is bending Japan to his will

8 April 2025 12:28 am

‘National crisis’ was how Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba described the fallout from President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs in a…

They think it’s all over for President Yoon – it is now

4 April 2025 11:08 pm

Yoon Suk Yeol, elected South Korea’s president in 2022, has been removed from office. The Constitutional Court in Seoul has…

Japan has been stunned by the Trump tariffs

3 April 2025 10:41 pm

Virtually the whole world is waking up to the reality, not threat now, of President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs, but…

Does Japan want its own nuclear weapons?

22 March 2025 5:00 pm

Japan is planning to strengthen its ‘counterstrike capabilities’ by deploying long-range missiles on the southern island of Kyushu. The missiles…

Is Trump going to rip up the US security alliance with Japan?

9 March 2025 10:23 pm

Another day, another Trumpian bombshell, this one aimed at the country he says he loves: Japan. Trump told reporters this…

Japan and Britain are too weak to help each other

7 March 2025 6:46 pm

Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Business Secretary Jonathon Reynolds are in Tokyo for ‘2+2’ (two ministers for the price of…

Japan’s smoking ban is a sham

31 January 2025 4:14 pm

The Japanese city of Osaka has banned smoking on the streets in an apparent effort to smarten up the city…

The real reason female footballers aren’t on birthday cards

23 January 2025 2:20 am

Oh dear… it appears that birthday and greetings cards are sexist. This is, at least, the claim of a group…

The arrest of South Korea’s president won’t end this saga

15 January 2025 9:16 pm

South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol has been arrested after police officers scaled fences and cut through barbed wire to detain…

The ‘MAGA’ South Koreans still supporting President Yoon

9 January 2025 5:00 pm

In extraordinary scenes more reminiscent of a South American coup than a supposedly stable first world democracy, fights broke out…

Are Premier League fans right to protest ticket hikes?

6 January 2025 12:50 am

It takes quite a lot to unite the fans of Manchester United and Liverpool, but it will happen today at…

Why did South Korea’s President Yoon declare martial law?

12 December 2024 7:20 pm

The aftershocks of last Tuesday’s declaration, and then cancellation, of martial law by President Yoon Suk Yeol continue to be…

South Korea’s President Yoon will be lucky to escape jail

4 December 2024 9:59 pm

Six hours. That was the duration of the profoundly disturbing and simultaneously farcical version of martial law invoked by South…

Why has South Korea’s president declared martial law?

4 December 2024 3:06 am

In a dramatic and unnanounced move, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday in a live…

Jeremy Clarkson’s time has come

20 November 2024 11:43 pm

It’s a reasonable bet that if Jeremy Clarkson stood for prime minister tomorrow, he’d win by a country mile. Some…

Gary Lineker’s opinions were never welcome at the BBC

12 November 2024 5:36 pm

Having thought it was all over, several times, it is now – for Gary Linker as presenter of Match of the…