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January 20, 2025
The Independent Voice in Asia
January 20, 2025
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Then-U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo in May 2019.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
As Trump returns, will Japan be able to weather the storm?
By Jesse Johnson
Tokyo may be surprisingly more suited to work with Trump — and beat back any exorbitant demands — than it was during his first stint.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo in May 2019.
A Palestinian woman returns to her destroyed house, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, on Sunday.
WORLD
Fighting halts in Gaza as ceasefire takes effect after brief delay
Residents and a medical worker in Gaza said they had heard no new fighting or military strikes since about half an hour before the ceasefire was finally implemented.
A motorcade believed to be carrying impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeo arrives at the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, South Korea, late Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Protesters storm South Korea court after it extends Yoon's detention
The disgraced leader will now remain in custody, with a new warrant allowing investigators to keep him for up to 20 days.
After months of legal tussles, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law that would ban TikTok in the name of national security.
BUSINESS / Tech
TikTok shuts down U.S. access as Trump seeks app's reinstatement
Only months after overwhelmingly backing the law, lawmakers are now fretting about the ban, with all eyes on whether Trump can swoop in and find a way to save the app.
Wawira Njiru, the founder of Food4Education, serves food during the opening of a new kitchen in Mombasa County, Kenya, in 2022. The organization started in 2012 by feeding 25 children out of a single kitchen. Now it feeds nearly half a million every day.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Amid rising world hunger, a Japan-inspired group in Kenya is making a big impact
By Joel Tansey
Food4Education is helping feed half a million students through a program that drew inspiration from Japan's renowned school lunch programs.
Wawira Njiru, the founder of Food4Education, serves food during the opening of a new kitchen in Mombasa County, Kenya, in 2022. The organization started in 2012 by feeding 25 children out of a single kitchen. Now it feeds nearly half a million every day.

JAPAN

Yanaha Island in Okinawa Prefecture as seen from a ferry.
Chinese buyer of Okinawa Island to make visit in summer
The woman is reportedly preparing a trip to the island for employees of a company she runs in July or August.
Makeshift housing units are built on Tanegashima island, Kagoshima Prefesture, for workers involved in construction of an Air Self-Defense Force base on nearby Mageshima island.
ASDF base construction on Mageshima to be delayed by three years
The completion is expected for the end of March 2030 due to bad weather and a labor shortage.
More avian flu cases found in Japan; 1.44 million birds to be culled
Fuji TV loses more advertisers amid inquiry into host’s behavior
By Issei Hazama and Nao Sano
Nippon Ishin puts emphasis on corporate donation ban
Ishiba visits Osaka to inspect expo venue

BUSINESS

An employee at an auto parts maker in Ota, Gunma Prefecture. The automotive industries, which give fewer days off than other sectors do, are falling behind in the recruitment of new workers.
Japan auto unions aiming to get five more days off in 2025
The number of nonworking days in the automotive industries has not increased in recent years and lags behind other sectors.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington on Friday.
Democrats search for economic policy lessons as Trump takes office
Scarred by the 2007-09 recession, the Biden administration bet big on the labor market. The bet worked but not exactly as they hoped.
Mizuho stops accepting new safe deposit box applications
Japan likely to see 'healthy growth' through 2026: World Bank exec
By Adriana Reinecke
AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo win U.S. approval for breast cancer drug
TikTok’s fate rests on Trump after U.S. Supreme Court upholds law
By Alexandra S. Levine and Kurt Wagner

WORLD

The frame of a building amid the rubble of burned-out homes by the Palisades Fire along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, on Friday
Milder winds help Los Angeles firefighters as Trump vows to visit
The reprieve may be short-lived, as there is "virtually zero chance of rain" over the next week, which is also expected to see a return of the notoriously powerful Santa Ana winds.
Reporters listen as President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Jan. 7
Once an interloper, Trump returns to White House more powerful than before
By Andy Sullivan
The former real-estate developer now plausibly stands as the defining political figure of the early 21st century.
Wuhan keen to shake off pandemic label five years on
By Jing Xuan TENG
Slew of satellite projects aims to head off future wildfires
Malaysia takes on ASEAN mantle but tempers expectations on Myanmar and South China Sea
German ambassador warns of Trump plan to redefine constitutional order, document shows
By Sabine Siebold and Friederike Heine

Sports

Japan Sumo Association Chairman Hakkaku (right) alongside David Rothschild, the promoter of an upcoming tournament in Paris, on Sunday in Tokyo
Top sumo pros to enter the ring in Paris in June 2026
It will be the third such event in the French capital and the first since 1995.
Alcaraz through to quarterfinals after Draper retires
Commanders outscore Lions for berth in NFC title game
Gauff turns up heat on Bencic to reach Australian Open quarters
Kelce and Mahomes combination leads Chiefs past Texans in NFL playoffs

Opinion

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump and other Asian leaders pose for a family photo during a the ASEAN-U.S. 40th Anniversary Summit in Manila in November 2017. The U.S. president-elect’s Cabinet secretary level and other picks for his second term point to a tougher China policy.
What Trump’s appointments tell us about his Asia policy
Joshua Kurlantzick
Donald Trump’s second term as president appears set to intensify efforts to curb China’s influence while maintaining crucial alliances in Asia.
Why would Trump buy Greenland when he can rent it?
By Liam Denning
A moment of opportunity for Japan-China relations
Japan has nothing to fear from Trump — except in maybe one area
By Edo Naito
Gaza ceasefire deal is a win for Trump
By Marc Champion

ENVIRONMENT

Rescue workers search a flooded area during the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, which caused severe floods at the Chikuma River, in the city of Nagano in October 2019.
Disaster-hardened Japan faces enormous costs from climate change
By Anton L. Delgado
The total cost in climate damages for the country through 2050 could amount to ¥952 trillion if more ambitious action isn't taken.
Europe threatens to trigger a global scramble for natural gas
By Anna Shiryaevskaya, Priscila Azevedo Rocha, Stephen Stapczynski and Ruth Liao
In Brazil, an Amazon reforestation project seeks to redeem carbon markets
By Anna PELEGRI
The 'climate archive': How scientists study the ancient past
By Benjamin Legendre
Study documents extinction threats to world's freshwater species
By Will Dunham

CULTURE

Eugene Kangawa's Atelier iii is a space where visitors are invited to engage directly with the artist’s evolving practice.
Eugene Kangawa’s art space embraces impermanence
By Erik Augustin Palm
The artist’s Atelier iii studio resists spectacle and asks visitors to slow down and commit to being present.
David Lynch, maker of florid and unnerving films, dies at 78
By J. Hoberman
‘Muromachi Outsiders’: Yo Oizumi commands attention in rebellion tale
By James Hadfield
Japan's most prestigious literary awards go to a trio of contemporary voices
By Alyssa I. Smith
The unnervingly timed return of ‘Squid Game’
By Erik Augustin Palm

LIFE

It's taken Takuma Watanabe little time to establish himself as one of New York's hottest bartenders.
From Tokyo to Manhattan, Takuma Watanabe stirs up a stiff drink
By Mike Fu
Tokyo native Takuma Watanabe offers a formidable addition to New York’s pantheon of cocktail bars.
For kids, Japanese food ‘is a doorway to exploration’
By Simon Daly
Let’s make some predictions about what will happen in the year ahead
By Yuko Tamura
Nintendo announces Switch 2, its first new console in eight years
By Sam Byford
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?
By Tomoko Otake

COMMUNITY

Lantoko, a company operated by Taiwan native Ping-Fang Lan, offers drift ice walking tours and other exhilarating experiences in and around Shiretoko National Park.
Due north: Foreign-born guides introduce Hokkaido’s unique charms
By Justin Randall
With adventure tourism on the rise in Hokkaido, a new generation of foreign-born guides is eager to greet travelers.
Kaz Shiomi: ‘I want to show people … how to color outside the lines’
By Laura Pollacco
There were plenty of hot topics to opine on in 2024
By Gendel Gento, Kimberly Hughes, Ora Margolis, David McElhinney, Zoria Petkoska, Justin Randall, Himari Semans, Patrick St. Michel and Ansel Swindells
A holiday season built on creativity and care
By Baye McNeil
From the stage to the streets, make a difference this holiday season
By Kimberly Hughes

Editors' Picks

LIFE
For tourists in search of seasonal sights, Yamagata makes its case
By Johan Brooks
For some time away from Tokyo's suffocating urban sameness, Yamagata Prefecture is home to a soothing array of natural abundance.
CULTURE
A slow dive into ‘a moment and an eternity’ with Ryuichi Sakamoto
By James Hadfield
From the mid-2000s onward, Ryuichi Sakamoto created a number of installation works, often in collaboration with Shiro Takatani, of multimedia art collective Dumb Type.
JAPAN
The efforts to bridge the disaster information gap, 30 years on
By Himari Semans
Roxana Oshiro and her husband gather their belongings in front of their house in Furukawacho, in Kobe's Suma Ward, after the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995.
JAPAN
Japan looks to up the ante with more money and partners in military aid program
By Gabriel Dominguez
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo hold a joint news conference in Taguig City, Metro Manila, the Philippines, on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Possibility of Nankai Trough megaquake now 80%, government panel reports
By Yukana Inoue
A map of the hypocentral region of an anticipated Nankai Trough earthquake

Podcast

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

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go
By Kazuaki Nagata and Richard Meyer

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WHAT’S TRENDING

JAPAN
Chinese buyer of Okinawa Island to make visit in summer
Yanaha Island in Okinawa Prefecture as seen from a ferry.
ASIA PACIFIC
Crashed Jeju jet’s black box failure shows decadeslong gap in power rules
By Allyson Versprille, Heejin Kim and Siddharth Philip
The flight data recorder retrieved from Jeju Air flight 2216, which crashed killing 179 people in December. Black boxes holding the flight data and cockpit voice recorders for the flight stopped recording four minutes before the disaster, South Korea's transport ministry said Saturday.
BUSINESS
TikTok’s fate rests on Trump after U.S. Supreme Court upholds law
By Alexandra S. Levine and Kurt Wagner
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s potential role in any plan to save TikTok remains both intriguing and complicated. The ban is set to take effect just one day before his inauguration, and while it has been reported that President Joe Biden won’t enforce the ban on day one, the decision on what to do long-term will become Trump’s problem almost immediately.
BASEBALL
Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki signs with Dodgers
By Jason Coskrey
Roki Sasaki pitches for Japan during the World Baseball Classic at Tokyo Dome on March 11, 2023.
BUSINESS
Major Japanese firms pay record winter bonuses
The average figure of winter bonuses agreed on by labor unions and employers stood 4.93% higher than a year earlier.