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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2023

What fracking can tell us about the future of fusion

Energy breakthroughs such as with fusion usually come through refinements of existing technologies and processes, not blinding flashes of transformation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2023

Russia and a return to Soviet-style central planning

With Russia's economy crumbling, some of the country's leading economists are advocating for a return to Soviet-style central planning.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jan 15, 2023

Brock Purdy and Trevor Lawrence defy inexperience with composure

The 49ers and Jaguars advanced to the second round of the NFL postseason thanks to inspired second-half performances from their young quarterbacks.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 15, 2023

'Can't keep up': Pandemic cooking boom sharpens knife sales in Japan

Japanese knives are also winning more converts among aspiring and professional chefs, who prize their delicate precision, sleek finish and long lifespan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 15, 2023

Efforts to commercialize carbon capture tech accelerating in Japan

The industry ministry is set to draw up a road map including measures to help promote the use of such tech, believing that it is essential for realizing net-zero emissions by 2050.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 15, 2023

China reports spike in COVID-related deaths after data criticism

Beijing abruptly ended its highly restrictive 'zero-COVID' program in December, and cases have surged since across the nation of 1.4 billion.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2023

Russia-Hokkaido relations another casualty of Ukraine invasion

'If the prefecture continued to promote exchanges with our Russian counterparts now, there would be the risk of a public backlash,' one official said.
A group of individuals that allege sexual abuse by Johnny Kitagawa was first established on June 26.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2023

U.N. experts to probe Johnny Kitagawa's alleged abuse in Japan

The group will gather its findings and present a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in June next year.
According to China's national security ministry, a hacker group called Anonymous 64 has sought to upload and broadcast "content that denigrates the mainland's political system and major policies," since the beginning of this year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 23, 2024

China urges netizens to be vigilant against Taiwanese cyberattacks

The hacking group's X account shared videos comparing Xi Jinping to an emperor and others commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations.
The Meteorological Agency's Shigeki Aoki speaks a news conference on Tuesday morning about the tsunami advisory.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2024

Advisory lifted after 50 cm tsunami reaches Hachijojima

The advisory had been issued for the Izu and Ogasawara islands following a 5.9 magnitude earthquake.
A local resident stands next to a car in front of a residential building heavily damaged in the course of the Russia-Ukraine war, in the settlement of Toshkivka, in the Luhansk province of Russian-controlled Ukraine on March 24.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Aug 1, 2023

Mission impossible: How to get Kyiv and Moscow to talk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's 10-point plan for peace has found some backers, but parts of it have failed to land with everyone.
School children walking on a road submerged by sea water at Timbulsloko village in Demak, Indonesia.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 24, 2023

'Slow disaster': Indonesians in sinking village forced to adapt

More than 200 people remain in one of Indonesia's fastest sinking areas, an alarming symbol of how climate change could upend coastal communities everywhere.
If Shigeru Ishiba, a former secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, announces his candidacy for the party's presidential election, it will be his fifth attempt at the top post.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 18, 2024

Shigeru Ishiba to announce LDP leadership candidacy soon

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last week said that he will not seek reelection as LDP president and will step down after the party picks his successor.
Marina Tsukada got the idea for her anthology “Mitsuki, Sekai” from her acquaintance with the two young lead actors, whom she first met at a video workshop she conducted in Nagano Prefecture.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 20, 2024

Marina Tsukada lets local lives shape her work

The director’s latest, “Mitsuki, Sekai,” is part of an ongoing project that traces the lives of Nagano Prefecture-based children for a decade until they reach adulthood.
TikTok is in a race to dominate e-commerce in Southeast Asia.
BUSINESS
Jul 24, 2023

TikTok steps up Southeast Asia presence amid e-commerce push

As the company intermingles social media and e-commerce, it is betting that this vision of shopping will knock aside rivals in the region.
James Earl Jones in the Broadway revival of "Gore Vidal’s The Best Man” at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater in New York in March 2012. Jones, once a stuttering farm child who became a voice of rolling thunder as one of America’s most versatile actors in a stage, film and television career that plumbed race relations, Shakespeare’s rhapsodic tragedies and the faceless menace of Darth Vader, died on Monday at his home in Dutchess County, New York. He was 93.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2024

James Earl Jones, actor whose voice could menace or melt, dies at 93

He gave life to characters like Darth Vader in “Star Wars” and Mufasa in “The Lion King,” and went on to collect Tonys, Golden Globes, Emmys and an honorary Oscar.
Carp manager Takahiro Arai (center) has the team pointed in the right direction in his first season in the dugout.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 24, 2023

Takahiro Arai helps Carp surge back into pennant race in first season in dugout

The return of former star player Takahiro Arai as manager as energized the Carp.
Yuna Kato says relatives have tried to steer her away from careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 30, 2023

Japan on a mission to attract more women into STEM fields

In the IT field alone, the country is looking at a shortfall of 790,000 workers by 2030, largely due to a severe underrepresentation of women.
The Federal Reserve building in Washington. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last week he felt that the pre-pandemic years during which the Fed's rate hovered near zero for years and Europe delved into the exotic world of negative rates are gone for good.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 27, 2024

A global hunt for neutral rates to shape world finance costs

Policymakers are exploring whether the rates required to keep inflation in check and economies growing are higher now than the ultra-low ones before the pandemic.
Masami Nagasawa looks fabulous in a range of outfits as the eponymous protagonist of “All About Suomi.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2024

‘All About Suomi’: The leading lady shines, but the film lacks sparkle

Masami Nagasawa’s performance as a woman whose true self is hard to pin down elevates an otherwise middling Koki Mitani comedy.
Foreign workers take notes during a meeting at a nursing care facility operator in Nagoya.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 24, 2023

Ministry panel starts talks to ease foreign care worker rules

The panel of experts will examine whether to allow foreign workers to engage in home-visit care services, currently not permitted partly due to concerns about language barriers.
Yoko Ogawa’s latest novel to be translated into English, “Mina’s Matchbox,” is like a playground for the author’s interest in particular details: the subtleties of striking matches, playing volleyball and searching for typos, to name a few.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 1, 2024

Yoko Ogawa's 'Mina’s Matchbox' sparkles with quiet intimacy

The latest novel in translation from one of Japan's most eclectic writers leans toward magical realism while reveling in the minutiae of an affluent family's life.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno (right) inspects a port in Yonaguni, Okinawa Prefecture, on Sunday.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 24, 2023

Japan prepares for an evacuation scenario involving residents on remote islands

Commercial airplanes and ships are supposed to be used for an evacuation, but weather and other conditions could make it difficult.
While the U.S. referenced China 20 times in its October announcement of semiconductor export controls targeting Chinese companies, Japan has chosen broad equipment controls not specifically aimed at its bigger neighbor.
BUSINESS
Jul 24, 2023

As Japan aligns with U.S. chip curbs on China, some in Tokyo feel uneasy

Tokyo remains worried that targeting China will provoke damaging retaliation, such as a ban on Japanese electric cars.
Traders betting on further recovery in Japanese equities are looking to any steer from the Bank of Japan that may cap the yen’s gains and support exporters.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 25, 2024

Japan's corporate service inflation steady, BOJ focusing on Oct data

The BOJ is closely monitoring service-sector inflation to see if demand-driven price increases are broadening enough to warrant further interest rate hikes.
The design for the Japan Pavilion at the 2025 Osaka Expo.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2023

Pessimism over Osaka Expo opening grows after construction head criticizes organizers

There is growing pessimism about the fate of the expo, with speculation that postponing the starting date might now be necessary in order to get everything completed.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan President Yoshihiko Noda (right) and Nippon Ishin no Kai leader Nobuyuki Baba in Tokyo on Tuesday
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 26, 2024

CDP's Noda wants to court Nippon Ishin and DPP, but will he succeed?

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan's new leader faces an uphill task of bridging the differences of its peers in the opposition ahead of a general election.

Longform

A woman passes an "akichi" (vacant lot) in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo. The capital is littered with such small lots in part because of Japan's aging and shrinking population.
Dealing with rising land vacancies as Japan shrinks