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March 24, 2025
 

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Himari Semans
Shizue Takahashi offers flowers and pays tribute to the victims of the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult during a memorial service at Kasumigaseki Station on Thursday. Her husband, Kazumasa, who was working as an assistant stationmaster at Kasumigaseki Station, was killed in the attack.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2025
Tokyo subway sarin gas attack remembered 30 years on
Many survivors of the attack by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult still suffer from physical aftereffects and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waits for a session of the House of Councillors Budget Committee to begin in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Explainer
Mar 19, 2025
What's the fuss over Ishiba's gift vouchers?
The prime minister's standing has worsened following reports that he handed out gift vouchers worth ¥100,000 ($668) each to rookie lawmakers from his party.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba answers questions at a session of the Upper House Budget Committee in Tokyo. Approval ratings for Ishiba's government have dropped sharply, polls showed Monday, as the leader faces a backlash for distributing gift vouchers to rookie lawmakers in his ruling party.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 17, 2025
Approval rates for Ishiba's Cabinet plunge amid gift voucher snafu
Polls conducted by several newspapers over the weekend show public support tumbling to record lows.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends an Upper House Budget Committee session in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 13, 2025
How Upper House pressure led to Ishiba's stunning reversal on medical cost caps
An unprecedented second amendment to Japan's budget shows opposition in the Lower House is not the only external pressure to which the government is exposed.
People observe a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. on Tuesday in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, when the Great East Japan Earthquake hit 14 years ago. Behind them is a pine tree dubbed "the miracle tree" that survived the tsunami.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 11, 2025
Japan marks 14 years since 3/11 earthquake, with over 27,000 still displaced
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he will pass down the lessons of the disaster to future generations.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at an Upper House Budget Committee session in Tokyo on Monday. The opposition's slamming of the Liberal Democratic Party over its position on corporate and group donations, as well as their own divisions over whether to restrict or ban such contributions, cast uncertainty over Ishiba’s hopes of reaching a consensus within the month.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 10, 2025
Opposition parties split on whether to restrict or ban corporate donations
Their division casts uncertainty over Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s hopes of reaching a consensus on the matter within the month ahead of a summer election.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani arrives at the Naval Station Ernesto Ogbinar, previously known as Wallace Air Station, in San Fernando City, La Union province, Philippines, on Feb. 23. Japan and the Philippines have entered into a reciprocal access agreement that is pending approval by the Lower House.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 5, 2025
LDP panels approve implementation bill for defense pacts
The bill will streamline laws associated with such agreements, for instance, when a member of a foreign military deployed to Japan commits a crime.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan head Yoshihiko Noda speaks at the party's convention in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 26, 2025
Is time running out for CDP in budget talks with the ruling coalition?
Concerns have emerged that the main opposition party might have lost its bargaining chip after Nippon Ishin no Kai clinched a deal with the minority government.
Nippon Ishin no Kai co-leader Seiji Maehara speaks at the party's executive meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 25, 2025
Ruling coalition clinches budget deal with Nippon Ishin
The agreement is expected to lead to an increase in government spending on public and private education from April.
Prime Minister Shiger Ishiba waits for the Lower House Budget Committee session to begin in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 20, 2025
Dispute over funds scandal questioning delays budget talks as CDP seeks leverage
Veering off schedule, even for a day, is detrimental to securing passage of the fiscal 2025 budget in the Lower House by March 2 — a priority for the government.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba replies to Nippon Ishin no Kai co-leader Seiji Maehara at a Lower House budget committee session in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 18, 2025
Government makes slow progress on budget concessions
Opposition parties are making known their policy demands, and even seeking legal guarantees, in return for their support in passing the budget for fiscal 2025.
The Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (center) attends a Cabinet meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 7, 2025
Japan's Cabinet approves legislation on 'active' cybersecurity
The new measures aim to enable the government to infiltrate the sources of cyberattacks in order to neutralize them.
The Lower House Budget Committee vote to summon Jun Matsumoto, a former LDP faction's accountant, in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 30, 2025
Budget Committee votes to summon former LDP faction accountant
The move ends a stalemate between the LDP and opposition parties, the latter of which had conditioned the start of budget deliberations on the inquiry.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers his policy speech at the Lower House of parliament in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 24, 2025
Ishiba stresses regional revitalization in policy speech
The relocation of industrial, state and academic institutions to regions outside of Tokyo will begin with government agencies.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. Tokyo prosecutors on Friday indicted an accountant of the Liberal Democratic Party’s bloc in the assembly for underreporting over ¥60 million ($386,000) of the group’s income and expenditure.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 17, 2025
Accountant for LDP bloc in Tokyo assembly accused of underreporting funds
Hidekatsu Yajima, 72, is alleged to have underreported over ¥60 million ($386,000) of LDP assembly members’ income and expenditure.
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 / Society / FOCUS
Jan 17, 2025
The efforts to bridge the disaster information gap, 30 years on
Disaster information didn't reach many non-Japanese speakers after the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck. Thirty years later, has the situation improved?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (second from right) meets with Nihon Hidankyo co-chair Terumi Tanaka (fourth from left) and other executives of the atomic bomb survivors' group at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 8, 2025
Nihon Hidankyo expresses disappointment over meeting with Ishiba
The group wanted to discuss Japan’s possible participation in a U.N. conference on banning nuclear weapons but did not get the opportunity to raise it.
For the 20 Questions column this year, writers asked their interview subjects about everything from their lives in Japan to their thoughts on news topics.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Dec 28, 2024
There were plenty of hot topics to opine on in 2024
We take a look back at some of the best answers that our interviewees gave for 20 Questions from throughout the year.
Cabinet ministers at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Friday
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 27, 2024
Japan's Cabinet approves ¥115.5 trillion budget
The proposal exceeded ¥110 trillion for the third consecutive year in order to increase spending on defense and social welfare costs.
Political reform bills clear the Upper House plenary session in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2024
Parliament wraps up, showing minority government's lack of control
Several concessions had to be made to the opposition before the ruling coalition could garner the support it needed to get its bills passed.
Trump plans his tariff ‘Liberation Day’ with more targeted push
U.S. President Donald Trump walks toward Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, on Saturday.
OpenAI study finds links between ChatGPT use and loneliness
San Francisco-based OpenAI sees the new studies as a way to get a better sense of how people interact with, and are affected by, its popular chatbot.
Stay at home if Mount Fuji erupts, government panel says
Mount Fuji in November. For the first time, the government has released specific guidelines on how residents should act in the event that Mount Fuji erupts.
China's restaurants race to the bottom in deflation-hit economy
A kitchenware recycling team collects equipment at a closed hotpot restaurant in Beijing last month.
Japan, China and South Korea agree to promote peace and cooperation
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left), Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (center) and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul pose for the cameras during a trilateral meeting in Tokyo on Saturday.
Japanese wages likely to rise more than 5% again this year
Wages are set for another big increase this year as annual negotiations secure generous agreements.
Stay at home if Mount Fuji erupts, government panel says
Mount Fuji in November. For the first time, the government has released specific guidelines on how residents should act in the event that Mount Fuji erupts.
In pictures: Tokyo's weeklong celebration of baseball's best
Shohei Ohtani belts a home run in the fifth inning of the second game of the Tokyo Series between the Dodgers and Cubs.
What's the fuss over Ishiba's gift vouchers?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waits for a session of the House of Councillors Budget Committee to begin in Tokyo on Friday.
At Tokyo Dome, a stage so big that even Shohei Ohtani felt nervous
Shohei Ohtani tips his batting helmet during the opening game of the MLB season between the Dodgers and Cubs on Tuesday at Tokyo Dome

Podcast

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

Longform

The sun shines from behind a waving Philippine flag at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
Eighty years after the Battle of Manila, old foes forge new ties
By Anton L. Delgado

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