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Demonstrators protest inside the Rockefeller Center asking for a cease-fire in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as U.S. President Joe Biden attends an interview in midtown Manhattan in New York on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 28, 2024

Among key Democratic Party voters Biden faces rebellion over Gaza war

Officials say the depth of Democratic Party anger over U.S. President Joe Biden’s handling of the Gaza war has caught his campaign off guard.
An earthquake measuring a shindo 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale that hit southern Chiba Prefecture was among several that have shaken the area in recent days.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 3, 2024

Japan warns of more strong quakes as 'slow slip' phenomena hits Chiba

Three earthquakes measuring a shindo 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, as well as four measuring a shindo 3, have occurred since Thursday.
Rescuers clear debris from a multistory building heavily damaged following a Russian drone strike in Odessa on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2024

ICC issues warrants over Russian strikes on Ukraine's power grid

The court has previously targeted Russian President Vladimir Putin with an international arrest warrant over the deportation of Ukrainian children.
New series "Shogun" focuses on power struggles during Japan's samurai era, with warlord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) finding himself in danger of being bested — and perhaps beheaded — by rival Lord Ishido and his allies.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Mar 9, 2024

New ‘Shogun’ series is a cut above the original

From the 1980 original to ‘Last Samurai’ to now, Hollywood is getting better at depicting Japan.
Portugal's Democratic Alliance (AD) leader Luis Montenegro casts his ballot a polling station in Espinho, near Porto, during the legislative elections held on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 11, 2024

Luis Montenegro, the unlikely champion of Portugal's right

Luis Montenegro is a seasoned parliamentarian with no government experience who is perceived as honest and competent despite a lack of flair.
French President Emmanuel Macron on International Women's Day in Paris on March 8
WORLD / Politics
Mar 14, 2024

France faces centrist vacuum as far right builds momentum for presidency

A far-right presidency would be a transformational moment for France, Europe’s second largest economy.
Women attend a protest in 2018 against the rape of three girls, an 8-year-old, an 11-year-old and a teenager, in different parts of India. The country experiences alarming rates of sexual violence against women.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2024

Why is India failing to protect its women?

India is plagued by sexual violence, with many horrific cases in the spotlight over the years. Despite reforms, cultural norms are hindering progress.
Nearly half of married couples in Japan are “sexless,” a recent survey shows.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 18, 2024

Nearly half of Japanese married couples are 'sexless,' survey finds

The most common reasons include “my partner doesn’t respond to my advances" for men, and “it’s too much hassle” for women.
Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka hits a forehand during a match at Indian Wells on March 13.
TENNIS
Mar 20, 2024

Tennis rallies around Sabalenka at Miami Open after boyfriend's death

Sabalenka's partner, Belarusian former NHL ice hockey player Konstantin Koltsov, 42, died earlier this week, police said.
Ichibata Department Store, located in Matsue, capital of Shimane Prefecture, was the last remaining department store in the prefecture but ended its 65-year history on Jan. 14.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 21, 2024

More prefectures losing department stores even amid pandemic recovery

In 17 prefectures there is currently only one department store and there are none in three, set to rise to four in July.
Retired management professor and trekker Jitendra V. Singh completed his goal of collecting all 46 prints in the series “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji” in 2023.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 23, 2024

One collector’s high mountain road to Hokusai

A professor’s 30-year dream of assembling a complete set of “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji,” the pinnacle of the artist’s career, leads to an auction.
Tsuneyasu Miyamoto speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Saturday.
SOCCER
Mar 24, 2024

Ex-Japan captain Miyamoto becomes youngest head of soccer association

Miyamoto, 47, is the youngest JFA president since the end of World War II, and the first JFA head to have played in the World Cup.
People gather near lit candles outside the Crocus City Hall concert venue on Sunday, declared a day of mourning declared following a deadly shooting, in the Moscow Region, Russia.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 25, 2024

Concert hall attack revives terrorism fears for Russians in Moscow

A series of terror attacks that began in the late 1990s spread a climate of fear across the country as Putin was rising to power.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's powerful sister said Monday that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has requested a summit with her brother, hinting that any meeting was unlikely without a policy shift by Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 25, 2024

Japan reaching out to North Korea for Kim-Kishida summit

The sister of leader Kim Jong Un said any summit would hinge on whether Japan was willing to make a "political decision" — likely on the abductee issue.
Kim Yo Jong, who serves as a top adviser to her brother, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Tuesday that Pyongyang had ruled out holding a leaders' summit with Japan.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 26, 2024

North Korea rules out summit with Japan and rejects more talks

The sister of leader Kim Jong Un said that a meeting was not of interest to the North, alluding to Tokyo's unyielding stance on the abductions issue.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (left) and Yuichiro Tamaki (right), leader of the Democratic Party for the People, hold a party leaders' debate in June 2021.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 28, 2024

Is Japan-style 'question time' facing abolition in parliament?

Both ruling and opposition parties have shown a lack of enthusiasm for holding such events, with some forces even advocating for its abolition.
China coach Li Tie reacts during a soccer match between China and Australia in Qatar in September 2021.
SOCCER
Mar 29, 2024

Former China coach pleads guilty to taking millions in bribes

"Li Tie made his final statement, pleaded guilty and expressed remorse," a court said.
Supporters of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, mayoral candidate of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), celebrate following early results in front of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in Istanbul on April 1.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 1, 2024

Inflation delivers shock defeat for Erdogan in Turkey’s municipal vote

Higher lending costs have dented consumer sentiment but have yet to reverse the trajectory of price increases running at an annual rate of just under 70%.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told dismayed supporters overnight that they "must not waste" the four years remaining before the next presidential vote.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2024

Opposition defeat of Erdogan redraws Turkey's political map

Opposition candidates and voters celebrated inflicting a stinging defeat on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party in municipal elections.
People hold candles as they attend a night vigil and prayer at the Amahoro Stadium as part of the 25th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide, in Kigali, Rwanda, on April 7, 2019. Rwanda will soon commemorate the 30th anniversary this year.
WORLD
Apr 3, 2024

Rwanda marks 30 years since genocide

During the 1994 genocide, Hutu extremists targeting the Tutsi minority slaughtered around 800,000 people in a massacre lasting 100 days.
Japan's law-abiding pedestrian culture and norms may help explain its economic performance.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2024

The economic consequences of legal behavior

There is a complex relationship between cultural norms, legal systems and economic development.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets supporters during his roadshow ahead of the general elections, in Ghaziabad, India, on April 6.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 11, 2024

He once sold tea, but now India's Modi seeks his own 'tryst with destiny'

Modi has lofty ambitions for what could be his third and final term in office.
Yoasobi member Ayase (far left) joins U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in a toast during a state dinner at the White House on Wednesday.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 12, 2024

A brief history of J-pop stars meeting U.S. presidents

Yoasobi's presence at the White House state dinner catapults the duo to a new strata. It also says a lot about what sound currently rules Japanese music.
Residents of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, collect supplies in the aftermath of the Jan. 1 earthquake. When it comes to preparing for and responding to disasters in Japan, the specific needs of women are still not being sufficiently met. One way to fix this would be to increase the number of women involved in the area of disaster prevention.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 15, 2024

Women’s needs in disasters are still not accounted for

In Japan, women's needs in disaster situations are not being sufficiently met, as the Ishikawa earthquake shows, partly due to poor female representation.
An aircraft from the Thai Department of Royal Rainmaking deposits a sodium chloride-based material in an effort to produce rain.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Apr 18, 2024

How cloud seeding boosts rainfall — and why that’s controversial

Developed in the 1940s, cloud seeding can boost rain and snowfall, but the World Meteorological Organization warns we don't know enough about it yet.
Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
CULTURE / Books / Longform
Apr 22, 2024

The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores

Shops without staff, shelves for rent, cafes and meetups are some of the ways the country's dwindling bookstores are trying to survive.
Japanese project Serani Poji, founded and operated by musician Tomoko Sasaki, was a relatively under-the-radar group during the early 2000s. Thanks to short-form video platforms such as TikTok and YouTube Shorts, however, it has suddenly become one of the most successful Shibuya-kei groups in terms of streaming numbers.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 25, 2024

Serani Poji’s retro Shibuya-kei sounds find viral fame

The video game-related pop project gets a second life after online listeners rediscover chipper cuts from a 2002 album.
Palestinians cover a body that was buried in a mass grave in the northern Gaza Strip.
WORLD / EXPLAINER
Apr 27, 2024

Mass graves in Gaza: what do we know?

The discovery of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals have triggered calls by the U.N. rights chief and others for an international investigation.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a joint ministerial meeting of the GCC-U.S. Strategic Partnership in Riyadh to discuss the humanitarian crises in the Gaza, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 30, 2024

U.S. warns ICC action on Israel would hurt cease-fire chances

The U.S. and its allies are concerned that the International Criminal Court may issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials just as the country is getting closer to a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, potentially jeopardizing a deal, people familiar with the matter said.
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / EXPLAINER
Apr 30, 2024

Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change

Yellow sand gets carried by the wind from the deserts of China and Mongolia to Japan along with man-made pollutants, causing a host of symptoms.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?