ST180: 180 years of covering Japan, from isolationism to Westernisation to war and peace

TOKYO – When I joined The Straits Times in June 2012 as a rookie journalist, I had no aspirations or illusions of becoming a foreign correspondent, let alone in a country I barely knew or felt any special connection to.

I grew up with Sega arcade games, Tamagotchi digital pets, Nintendo Game Boys and Sony Walkman players, and have fond memories of the now-defunct Sogo department store near my childhood home in Tampines.

But I did not understand the Japanese language or fully appreciate the country’s deep cultural influence. Japan seemed like a nation past its prime, its economy overtaken by China, its pop culture eclipsed by South Korea.

Then six months into my job, I visited Japan on a holiday for the first time. I went to Tokyo, where I was enamoured of the sights, sounds and buzz of the world’s most populous region.

I signed up for weekly language classes and, four years later, when I was offered a posting as The Straits Times’ Japan correspondent, I didn’t hesitate.

More than three decades earlier, in May 1982, the paper had launched its Tokyo bureau. Announcing this on Page 1, it described Japan as “the world’s most efficient industrial power”. It was opening an office there to monitor the nation’s growing economic influence and to cover “the controversial question of whether Japan will play a greater role in maintaining the security of Asia”.

This purpose remains relevant today.

Since taking up the role, I’ve reported from disaster zones and diplomatic summits, and interviewed people across the length of the Japanese archipelago, from Shiretoko Peninsula in the north-east of Hokkaido to Yonaguni in the south-west of Okinawa.

The Japanese frame time by imperial eras, and I witnessed the dawn of the Reiwa era in 2019 when Emperor Akihito abdicated the Chrysanthemum Throne and was succeeded by his son Naruhito.

The new era has been marked by a more confident Japan on the global stage, eager to champion a rules-based international order. 

Domestically, Japan is slowly shaking off the deflationary mindset of the Heisei era (1989 to 2019). Social issues like overwork and sexual harassment are now seen as relics of the past, and vices like smoking and binge-drinking are on the decline as the Japanese become more health conscious.

Japan has also become a top global travel destination, hitting a record 36.87 million visitors in 2024. The population continues to age, beset by one of the lowest birth rates in the world, even as immigration rises.

All this has sparked difficult but necessary conversations in a society that still sees itself as largely homogeneous.

Meanwhile, Japan’s entertainment industry is enjoying a renaissance as its dramas, anime and music captivate global audiences via streaming platforms.

Amid all this change, history remains a constant, and I am vividly struck by how my work covering this rich and complex country adds to the living historical record of the world that is The Straits Times.

Foreign correspondence

“For Sale. A few boxes of fresh Japan rice.”

“Japan-ware.”

The first issue of The Straits Times on Tuesday, July 15, 1845, saw two mentions of the country in advertisements on the front page. It is a quaint glimpse into a time when Japan, still under the sakoku isolationist policy of the shogunate, remained a distant and exotic marketplace to much of the world.

Yet even then, the paper recognised the West’s growing commercial interest in Japan. An article in 1846 predicted that it “cannot long be left out of the commercial union of civilised countries”.

The paper’s colonial attitudes were also evident, with reports – either taken from wire dispatches or written by nomadic contributors – describing Japan as a “ruined nation through pride and obstinacy”.

As the country began to open up, the paper chronicled Japan’s rapid transformation during the Meiji Restoration of 1868 as it embraced industrialisation and adopted Western ideas.

The Emperor traded his royal regalia for a suit and tie. Baseball was introduced, and remains Japan’s national sport. Japan quickly adopted Western technology and industrialised practices to build its first railway in 1872, connecting Tokyo’s Shimbashi business district to the port city of Yokohama.

“The Japanese are an active impressionable people, and contact with the outer world, the introduction of railways, and the spread of Western science have worked great changes during the last two decades,” a report said in 1890.

The curiosity extended beyond politics, and column inches were devoted to travel features. A first-person account of a hike up Mount Fuji in 1892 recounted the fatigue but also beauty – “Below were white clouds drifting in a blue sea bathed in golden light”. 

Interest grew in all things Japanese. The deaths of leading kabuki actors Onoe Kikugoro V and Ichikawa Danjuro IX in 1903 were recorded in obituaries.

By the 1910s, features introduced readers to the thriving, rich traditions of sumo wrestling and ama free-divers. Incidentally, I have

written about these topics

, although in the context of the challenges they face in an age of depopulation and dwindling interest.

Many topics about pre-war Japan still resonate today. 

Take a 1900 report about the abuse of authority (now dubbed “power harassment”) that led to the suicide of a soldier. Or a 1906 story that cited tourism mismanagement (now dubbed “overtourism”), or a 1907 piece that blamed a crime wave on rising costs of living (now manifesting in shady part-time jobs, or yamibaito). And a 1918 piece about the rice riots, an event that I referenced in a June 2025 opinion piece on Japan’s soaring rice prices today.

Another 1906 report that contemplated the role of women in politics is anachronistic today – “the association of women with politics, it is felt, will tend to cultivate unwomanly habits” – but belies the hard truths that Japan continues to struggle with regarding gender equality both in politics and corporate boardrooms.

Japanese resilience, too, is a timeless trait, evident in a 1923 story after the Great Kanto earthquake, which levelled Tokyo and killed more than 100,000 people. The author says: “They will raise again the cities that have fallen, and they will not do it as if they feared tomorrow but in the spirit of hope and of courage.”

War and peace

On Feb 15, 1942, Singapore fell to Japanese forces during World War II after a week of fierce fighting.

This marked one of the most significant defeats for the British Empire, even as that same morning, before the surrender, the paper’s Page 1 headline struck a note of defiance: “Singapore must stand; it SHALL stand”.

The Straits Times was shut, but resumed publication on Feb 20, 1942, under a new name: The Syonan Times, later renamed The Syonan Shimbun, reflecting Singapore’s new name under occupation – Syonan-to, or “Brilliant Southern Island”.

The newspaper became a mouthpiece for Japanese propaganda, with content strictly censored and controlled by the Japanese military administration.

The Syonan Shimbun printed its last issue on Sept 4, 1945, two days after Japan signed surrender documents aboard an American battleship.

The Straits Times resumed publication under its original name on Sept 7, 1945, with the triumphant front-page headline: “Singapore is British again!”.

In the aftermath of World War II, stories in The Straits Times reflected Singapore’s complex sentiments towards Japan. There was deep resentment over wartime atrocities, like those recounted by survivors of the Changi massacre, but also a degree of sympathy for the immense suffering Japan endured in the atomic bombings.

A 1946 report said the devastation in Hiroshima was “something out of an Edgar Allan Poe horror story. Except that Poe’s imagination could never have conceived anything like Hiroshima”.

Another editorial described the atomic bomb as “the greatest triumph, or the greatest atrocity, or perhaps both at the same time, of WWII”, but said that Singapore should not be quick to pass judgment as “most of us owe our lives” to a weapon that forced Japan’s surrender.

As Japan shifted from wartime aggressor to a nation focused on rebuilding, the paper documented its post-war recovery. It reported on Japan’s settlement of war reparations, the roll-out of foreign aid through development programmes, and efforts to re-establish goodwill through cultural and humanitarian exchanges.

Despite growing diplomatic ties, wartime memories endured. In 1967, during a visit by Japan’s then Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, Singapore’s then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said that the war was a “chapter closed but not forgotten”.

He added: “It has left Asians with no illusions as to the nature of hegemony. The nearness of colour and affinity of ethnic origins do not make hegemony any the better.”

The paper chronicled post-war Japan’s economic and diplomatic rise, but also highlighted regional discomfort as Japan sought access to South-east Asia’s raw materials and markets. This perception of exploitation led to boycotts and protests across cities like Bangkok and Jakarta.

It also reported Mr Lee’s advice to Japan to proactively export skills and machines to South-east Asia, which should be treated “more as a partner and less as a hewer of wood and drawer of water”.

As Japan’s influence expanded, so did unease over its military potential. A 1979 report described the country’s Self-Defence Forces as a “euphemism”, warning of its capacity to become a formidable force in Asia. While modern Japan now views South-east Asia as equal partners, its evolving security role continues to invite close regional scrutiny.

Today, as The Straits Times’ fourth Japan correspondent, I have had the honour of following in the footsteps of my distinguished predecessors.

The first was Peter Hazelhurst, a veteran of The Times of London who joined the newspaper in 1982 and left a lasting legacy in Tokyo. The impact of his journalistic career was so profound that upon his death in 2021 at the age of 84 – having relocated to South Africa after his retirement in 1989 – the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan devoted five pages to remembering him in its in-house magazine.

He was succeeded in 1989 by Kwan Weng Kin, a former Singapore diplomat who reported from Japan for 26 years until his retirement in 2015, and who was a respected voice on Japan in the paper. Hau Boon Lai did two stints in the bureau, from 1999 to 2003 and again from 2013 to 2014, and continues to serve as a copy-editor in the newsroom.

Today, the digital era has expanded The Straits Times’ reach beyond Singapore, allowing its unique geopolitical insights to resonate globally. Japan remains a compelling, evolving story, and I’m privileged to help tell it as the next chapter unfolds.