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April 06, 2025
 

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James Pomfret
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 4, 2019
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announces withdrawal of controversial extradition bill
The city's leader Carrie Lam on Wednesday announced the withdrawal of an extradition bill that triggered months of unrest and threw the Chinese-ruled city into its worst crisis in decades.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 2, 2019
Hong Kong leader says she would 'quit' if she could, fears ability to resolve crisis 'very limited'
Embattled Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said she has caused "unforgivable havoc" by igniting the political crisis engulfing the city and would quit if she had a choice, according to an audio recording of remarks she made last week to a group of businesspeople.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 31, 2019
China rejected Hong Kong plan to appease protesters, sources say
Earlier this summer, Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, submitted a report to Beijing that assessed protesters' five key demands and found that withdrawing a contentious extradition bill could help defuse the mounting political crisis in the territory.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Jun 26, 2019
Pro-China groups step up offensive to win over Taiwan
When Taiwanese businessman Jhang Yun-nan wanted to find buyers for his company's new cleaning products in China, he turned to an unconventional channel: a Taiwanese party that advocates the unification of China with the self-ruled democratic island.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Jun 16, 2019
How Hong Kong protests and Beijing pressure forced Carrie Lam to cave on extradition bill
With an escalating U.S. trade war, a faltering economy and tensions in the South China Sea vexing her bosses in Beijing, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam appeared in no mood to compromise on a planned extradition law at recent meetings, according to foreign envoys and business people who met with...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Mar 18, 2019
Activists in Hong Kong and Taiwan feel heat as China fears 'separatist' collusion
As Beijing grows wary of pro-independence groups seeking to forge closer ties in Hong Kong and Taiwan, activists say they are coming under increased surveillance and harassment from pro-China media outlets and unofficial "operatives."
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 18, 2019
As cramped Hong Kong eyes $64 billion island-building plan, critics say developers are hoarding unused land
Hong Kong's government says it needs to build billions of dollars' worth of artificial islands to give the city's glittering skyline room to grow, but critics say developers are hoarding unused land that could solve the problem.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 19, 2018
Before a packed court, three Hong Kong Occupy leaders plead not guilty to public nuisance charges
Three leaders of Hong Kong's 2014 pro-democracy Occupy movement, which paralyzed parts of the Chinese-ruled city for nearly three months, denied public nuisance charges on Monday as international criticism of the erosion of civil liberties grows.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 17, 2018
Hong Kong's freedoms under scrutiny as Occupy democracy leaders face trial
Nine leaders of Hong Kong's 2014 civil disobedience Occupy Central movement go on trial Monday at a time when the Chinese-ruled financial hub's civil liberties are coming under increasing strain.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Sep 21, 2018
China tightens embrace of Hong Kong with bullet train and other giant projects
Hong Kong's first bullet train will glide out of a sleek harbor-front railway station bound for mainland China on Saturday, launching a new era of integration — and raising fears among some for the territory's cherished freedoms.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 21, 2017
Upcoming China-Hong Kong bridge: unifying link, or tentacle of Beijing control?
As a 30-km (19-mile) bridge between Hong Kong and China across the Pearl River estuary nears completion, Chinese officials are hoping it will bring more than economic integration at a time of growing tension between the two sides.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 4, 2017
Hong Kong's restive youth prepare for long struggle with Beijing
With China's preferred candidate selected as Hong Kong's next chief executive, another blow to the morale of the city's democracy activists, their young leaders are taking a page from Beijing's playbook and preparing for a long battle.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 4, 2016
Democracy hopes crushed in Chinese village
Hopes for democracy in the Chinese village of Wukan, where an uprising against corruption five years ago gained global notice and led to direct village elections, have all but evaporated, with protest leaders either in detention, in exile, facing arrest or quitting their posts.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 14, 2015
How smuggled workers power 'Made in China'
On a quiet river bend on the China-Vietnam border, a group of people clambered up a muddy bank. They had just glided across the river from the Vietnamese side in a longboat, guided by men on both banks signaling with flashlights.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 21, 2015
China extends reach into Hong Kong to thwart democrats
Hong Kong's democrats have won their battle to veto a Beijing-backed electoral reform package, but they now face an increasingly organized campaign by pro-Chinese government movements in the longer war over the democratic future of the former British colony.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 15, 2014
How China spies on Hong Kong's democrats
James To was growing uneasy. When the veteran Hong Kong Democratic Party lawmaker looked in his rearview mirror, two silver Mercedes Benz saloons kept appearing behind his gray Volvo sedan.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 13, 2014
China likely to covertly muzzle Hong Kong to prevent new protests
As the dust settles on Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests, China is likely to embark on a sweeping but covert campaign across the territory's judiciary, media and universities to ensure there is no recurrence, activists and politicians say.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 11, 2014
'We'll be back,' Hong Kong protesters chant as main camp site dismantled
Hong Kong police arrested prodemocracy activists and cleared most of the main protest site on Thursday, marking an end to more than two months of street demonstrations in the Chinese-controlled city, but many chanted: "We will be back."
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 2, 2014
Hong Kong warns protesters not to return after clashes close government HQ
Thousands of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists forced the temporary closure of government headquarters on Monday after clashing with police, defying orders to retreat after more than two months of sustained protests in the Chinese-controlled city.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 11, 2014
China asserts paternal rights over Hong Kong in clash over democracy
Just days before China was set to deliver its edict on electoral reform in Hong Kong, Beijing's most senior official in the city held a rare meeting with several local lawmakers whose determined push for full democracy had incensed Beijing's communist leaders.
3D printer used to construct train station building in Japan
A train station building (front) is assembled from parts printed using 3D printer technology, in Arida, Wakayama Prefecture, on Wednesday.
Nissan says it will not take new U.S. orders for Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs
A Nissan manufacturing complex in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Nissan says it will not take new orders from the United States for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs following new auto tariffs levied by the U.S.
Japan digs deep to address 'national crisis' caused by Trump tariffs
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on April 1. He has said that Japan is facing a "national crisis" following the introduction of new tariffs by the United States.
Tokyo’s KK Line to close for decadelong overhaul as public greenway
People enjoy running and yoga on Tokyo Expressway’s KK Line, a 2-kilometer elevated expressway cutting through the capital’s commercial Ginza district, when it was opened as a pedestrian space in May last year.
Japan promises 'bold and speedy' response to Trump’s surprise 24% tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump unveils new U.S. tariffs at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
Tottori takes a bold leap forward in the arts
The city of Kurayoshi in Tottori Prefecture celebrated the opening of its public art museum with festivities such as a parade that drew 1,000 revelers.
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.

Podcast

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

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

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