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December 04, 2024
 

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James Pomfret
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.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 1, 2014
Hong Kong braces for protests as China rules out full democracy
Prodemocracy activists vowed on Sunday to bring Hong Kong's financial hub to a standstill after China's parliament rejected their demands for the right to freely choose the former British colony's next leader in 2017.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society / FOCUS
Jul 1, 2014
Beijing quietly tightening grip on Hong Kong
Since Britain handed back colonial Hong Kong in 1997, retired primary school teacher and Falun Gong devotee Lau Wai-hing has fully exercised the freedoms China promised this city of 7.2 million.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 19, 2014
Hong Kong democracy 'referendum' set to rile Chinese rulers
Hong Kong holds a controversial "referendum" on democracy on Friday, a prelude to an escalating campaign of dissent that could shut down the former British colony's financial district and further anger China's Communist Party leaders.
Japan’s 2024 buzzword of the year urges a reevaluation of past norms
Sadao Abe, who played the role of a time-traveling Showa Era teacher transported to present day in a popular TV drama, receives the 2024 buzzword of the year award for the word "futehodo," the nickname of the series.
Princess Aiko, only child of emperor, turns 23
Princess Aiko on Nov. 22 ahead of her 23rd birthday on Sunday at the Imperial Palace
Ishiba questioned on political reform, social issues and the economy
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks in the Lower House in Tokyo on Monday.
Nearly 90% in Japan and China have negative views of other
Chinese people's sentiment toward Japan is believed to be impacted by their use of social media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, as well as whether they have visited Japan.
Bear that attacked Akita supermarket employee captured
A brown bear in Hokkaido. In the city of Akita, a bear that attacked a supermarket employee over the weekend was captured in a box trap on Monday morning.
Can Japan's scientific community rebound from a Nobel nosedive?
The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo is a popular place to foster curiosity in the natural sciences.
Europe eyes 'boots on the ground' in Ukraine as possible peace deal option
A serviceman with the Ukrainian Army's 24th mechanized brigade fires a machine gun during an exercise, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the country's Donetsk region on Friday.
Seven strangers and an algorithm: Can this new dinner app help you make friends?
Timeleft uses an algorithm to match its users with five or six strangers in an effort to prompt “human connection” over dinner at a restaurant. It determines the attendees with the help of a simple personality quiz available when you sign up for the service. 
Don’t worry, you can still use your Japan health insurance card — for now
A My Number card reader at a pediatric clinic in Tokyo. While the government will stop issuing new health insurance cards on Monday, most people will remain unaffected by the move in the short term as existing health insurance cards can still be used for another year.
The Geisha bean is the leading lady of Tokyo's coffee scene
Discovered in the 1930s, the Geisha coffee plant came to worldwide fame in the early 2000s and now represents some of the best coffee on the planet — Tokyo's top cafes included.

Podcast

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

Longform

The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo is a popular place to foster curiosity in the natural sciences.
Can Japan's scientific community rebound from a Nobel nosedive?
By Tomoko Otake

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