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April 15, 2025
 

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FOCUS

Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura speaks during the opening ceremony of the 2025 Osaka Expo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 14, 2025
As Osaka Expo kicks off, Nippon Ishin continues to hold its breath
The Kansai-centered opposition party has a lot to lose if the six-month event being held in its stronghold turns out to be a flop.
The Grand Ring walkway is crowded with visitors amid rain on the opening day of the Osaka Expo on Sunday.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Apr 14, 2025
Crowds, long lines and confusion: Osaka Expo makes turbulent start
India, Nepal and three other countries were unable to open their pavilions on the first day of the Expo, due to construction delays.
U.S. President Donald Trump attends a bilateral meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the Group of 20 leaders summit in Osaka in June 2019.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 14, 2025
How China went from courting Trump to ‘never yield’ tariff defiance
Beijing has put civilian government officials on a "wartime footing” and ordered a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at encouraging other countries to push back.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, greets supporters after speaking at the "Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here" rally at Gloria Molina Grand Park in Los Angeles on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2025
Bernie Sanders fights apathy on American left
The 83-year-old senator is drawing tens of thousands of people to his "fighting oligarchy" rallies around the country.
People walk through an Apple Store in Hong Kong on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2025
Apple was on brink of crisis before tariff concession from Trump
Donald Trump’s 125% tariffs on goods produced in China threatened to upend its supply chain as seriously as the COVID-19 snarls did five years ago.
The Bundeswehr booth at the Hannover Messe 2025 trade fair in Hannover, Germany, on March 31.
WORLD / FOCUS
Apr 12, 2025
Germany wants to be a military powerhouse. Can it pull it off?
Achieving this may be easier said than done. Germany’s defense and national security apparatus is fragmented and encumbered by bureaucracy.
U.S. President Donald Trump wants Apple to begin building iPhones in the United States. But Apple is unlikely to move production to the country in the foreseeable future for a variety of reasons.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Apr 12, 2025
Why Trump’s dream of made-in-the-USA iPhones isn’t going to happen
Apple is unlikely to move production to the U.S. in the foreseeable future for a variety of reasons, including a shortage of facilities and labor.
Cargo is uploaded onto a China-Europe freight train at the China-Kazakhstan (Lianyungang) Logistics Cooperation Base in Lianyungang, China, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 12, 2025
Jolted by Trump, EU woos new partners from Asia to Latin America
The EU has embarked on a charm offensive to diversify its alliances, with summits lined up back-to-back and trade talks launched in all directions.
On the eve of nuclear talks with the United States, Iranians wave the flags of Palestine and Hezbollah as they march in Tehran to denounce the U.S. and Israel on Friday. Iran and the U.S. were set to hold the first round of talks in Oman on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 12, 2025
Years of distrust hang over U.S. and Iran as negotiators head to Oman
The high-level talks on Tehran's advancing nuclear program are seen as a sign of its eagerness for sanctions relief and to avoid a crippling military attack.
Having had two meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is slowly building a personal relationship with him, which matters greatly to the U.S. president and in resolving bilateral issues.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 11, 2025
Can anyone deal with Trump better than Ishiba?
Trump’s shift on Japan tariffs offers relief, but Ishiba’s grip remains shaky amid internal discontent and challenging U.S. demands.
Hon Hai Precision Industry, which does business as Foxconn, wants to make electric vehicles for Japanese carmakers.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Apr 10, 2025
It makes iPhones. Now Hon Hai wants to make cars for Japanese automakers.
The Taiwanese company's seemingly unlikely proposition — given the structure and history of Japan's auto industry — just might work.
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 10, 2025
From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Hundreds of foreign nationals previously protected because they grew up in France now face expulsion under legislation introduced last year.
Economic revitalization minister Ryosei Akazawa, who Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has appointed Japan's tariff negotiator, is one of his closest allies and busiest ministers.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 9, 2025
Who is Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's tariffs negotiator?
The man tasked with convincing the U.S. drop its tariffs on Japanese goods is one of the prime minister's closest allies and busiest ministers.
Toyota is considering transferring some production in the key Tokai region, which is expected to be hit hard in a Nankai Trough earthquake, to the Tohoku and Kyushu regions.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Apr 8, 2025
Japanese makers rush to mitigate possible Nankai Trough earthquake damage
The government is calling on manufacturers to diversify their production bases and suppliers to mitigate the risks.
A television station broadcasts U.S. President Donald Trump speaking during a Rose Garden event, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Apr 8, 2025
Frustrated world leaders wonder if Trump even wants a deal
U.S. President Donald Trump has set a high bar, telling reporters that any agreements would need to eliminate bilateral trade deficits.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte speaks during a news conference at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels last week.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 7, 2025
With focus on ‘projecting power,’ NATO eyes greater Indo-Pacific role
NATO chief Mark Rutte expects the alliance to ramp up its engagement in the strategically important region as threats become increasingly interconnected.
Soybeans are harvested near Stuttgart, Arkansas in October 2023.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 6, 2025
'Anxious' U.S. farmers see tariffs as threatening earnings
U.S. farmers hoping for a profit this year instead find themselves facing lower crop prices — and the prospect of ceding more ground in foreign markets.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order during a tariff announcement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Wednesday. Trump's tariff policies are the centerpiece of his effort to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. and reshape a world trade system he has long decried as unfair.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 6, 2025
Trump promised a manufacturing boom. Industries are not so sure.
Some question the tariffs' underlying logic, saying that supply chain issues, high costs and other obstacles stand may in the way.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average after the close of trading on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange after the closing bell on Friday.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Apr 5, 2025
Recession trade engulfs Wall Street on tariff fight
Traders are pricing in what increasingly looks like a negative-feedback loop as Trump indicates he’s not going to back down.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Wednesday. The return of scandal-tainted Liberal Democratic Party members could make life tougher for Ishiba within the party.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 3, 2025
Ishiba to face more political headaches with return of scandal-hit LDP members
For an already-unpopular administration, the return of party members implicated in a slush funds scandal will create further political headaches.
A new tour of Tokyo’s most underground attraction
When you stare into the abyss at the bottom of the No. 3 shaft of the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, the abyss stares back.
China halts critical rare earth exports as trade war intensifies
Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, in China's Jiangsu province, in October 2010.
'Chikan' incidents rise as Japan grapples with mental health and cultural challenges
Overcrowded trains and a lack of legal consequences for groping in Japan have led to a rise in "chikan," or groping, which has been linked to a mental condition and compounded by cultural stigmas.
Japan doesn’t plan to use U.S. Treasurys as tariff talk leverage
Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Itsunori Onodera speaks at LDP headquarters in Tokyo last October.
Osaka Expo throws open its doors as mega-event kicks off
People visit the Osaka Expo on the first day it opened to the public, in the city of Osaka on Sunday.
A new tour of Tokyo’s most underground attraction
When you stare into the abyss at the bottom of the No. 3 shaft of the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, the abyss stares back.
Osaka Expo-bound? Take your pick of the city’s new luxury hotels.
The Four Seasons Hotel Osaka opened in 2024, just one of many new luxury accommodations the city boasts ahead of the 2025 World Expo.
Heaven from hells: The sulfuric pleasure of Unzen Onsen
While Unzen Onsen's "hells" can be visually striking, locals describe them and their effects as "a source of emotional healing."
Osaka Expo throws open its doors as mega-event kicks off
People visit the Osaka Expo on the first day it opened to the public, in the city of Osaka on Sunday.
Japan’s NATO envoy targets industrial tie-ups to boost defense supply chains
Japanese Ambassador to NATO Osamu Izawa (left) meets with the alliance's secretary-general, Mark Rutte, at NATO headquarters in Brussels recently.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)
BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)

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