Caroline Kennedy stepped down on Wednesday after three years as US ambassador to Japan, where she was welcomed like a celebrity and worked to deepen the US-Japan relationship despite regular flare-ups over American military bases on the southern island of Okinawa [...] Some will also remember the efforts of the first female US ambassador to Japan to promote literacy and women’s and LGBT rights. 

In the eight years of the Obama administration, and especially since it launched its “pivot to Asia” in 2011, the United States has consolidated its ties with some traditional allies in the region and seen others weaken. It has also improved its relations with other countries, including former bitter adversaries. In February, Barack Obama also became the first US president to host a meeting of leaders from the ASEAN. 

When he leaves the Oval Office this month, he will have safeguarded more of the ocean than any other president, and increased the amount of protected waters around the U.S. by 20 times. His administration has also worked to improve American fisheries, clamp down on illegal fishing, and create national policies for protecting the oceans. Such measures are vital at a time when the oceans are imperiled by many threats.

In the last month of President Barack Obama’s two terms, he is focused on the same foreign country when he began his presidency: Japan. [...] Eight years later, Tuesday, President Obama and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stood together at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, to honor the sacrifices of Americans killed during the Japanese attack on U.S. warships 75 years ago. 

U.S. President Barack Obama has approved legislation that would consolidate oversight of U.S. nonmilitary broadcasting in the hands of a single chief executive, an overhaul that supporters laud as a much-needed reform but critics warn could endanger journalistic independence. The legislation [...] restructures the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG)