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Elderly people experience taking part in esports in Ono, Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Oct 16, 2023

Fukushima town turns to esports as a health tool for the elderly

Ono and Fukushima Medical University have been holding trial sessions and analyzing the effects of gaming experience on cognitive functions.
Central to China’s global media campaign is the aggressive use of new technologies to target and spread messages, silence critics and create a digital infrastructure that is more easily controlled.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023

Pushing back against China’s media offensive

China is using propaganda, disinformation, censorship and covert tactics to promote its preferred narrative and suppress critical reporting.
Ayuko Kato, minister in charge of child policies, speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 4, 2023

Children's agency chief Ayuko Kato vows to tackle falling birthrate

One of the aims of the agency is to help implement the Children's Future Strategy, a plan that was announced as a way to reverse the declining birthrate.
South Korean tourists shield themselves from the sun in Ronda, Spain, on Aug. 9. Much of the world sweltered through unseasonably warm weather in September, in a year expected to be the hottest in human history.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 5, 2023

September hottest on record by 'extraordinary' margin: EU monitor

The average surface air temperature for the month was around 1.75 C hotter than the September average in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period.
Children jump rope in a park. Young people with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) can have difficulties in jumping rope, throwing a ball or doing other common physical activities.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional voices: Chubu
Oct 16, 2023

Better understanding of developmental coordination disorder needed

DCD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that makes it hard for children to control their bodily movements to perform daily activities.
Steve Kemme's "The Outsider" offers insight into Lafcadio Hearn's prodigious talent with the pen and the development of his style over the course of his career.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 8, 2023

'The Outsider' brings out colorful personality of one of history’s great Japanophiles

A new biography on Lafcadio Hearn charts the course of the writer’s 54-year life and shows how his years in Cincinnati and Japan were formative periods.
Police officers are seen where a vehicle crashed into the the visa office of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco on Monday. The driver was shot dead.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 10, 2023

U.S. police shoot and kill driver in Chinese Consulate incident

A witness told local media that the driver shouted "Where’s the CCP,” using the acronym of the Chinese Communist Party, before he was killed.
Busan International Film Festival host Song Kang-ho presents the Asian Filmmaker of the Year award to veteran Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat at the 2023 edition of the Asian film festival.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 18, 2023

Film fans flock to Busan festival despite scandal

Busan International Film Festival remains a prestige Asian movie event amid internal strife and budget cuts.
Japan’s crime thriller genre owes a lot to Kido Okamoto and Taro Hirai, who is better known by his pen name of Edogawa Ranpo
CULTURE / Books
Oct 22, 2023

Japanese thrillers and crime mysteries to curl up with this fall

As the nights grow colder, pick up a recommended read in crime fiction and dive deep into this unique intersection of art and entertainment.
Valdis Dombrovskis, trade commissioner for the European Union, at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Marrakesh, Morocco, on Oct. 13.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 21, 2023

EU says lack of U.S. clarity on tariffs sank trade announcement

Valdis Dombrovskis, an executive VP at the European Commission, said the U.S. had previously agreed to work toward removing the measures.
JERA's coal-fired power plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, is under construction in 2021.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Oct 22, 2023

Japan sticks with climate solution that critics say is far from clean

The government hopes to use ammonia on a massive scale to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants, but environmentalists remain skeptical.
EF Polymer CEO Narayan Lal Gurjar (right) and COO Kunihiro Shimoji at the company in Onna, Okinawa Prefecture, in August
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Oct 30, 2023

Organic polymer brings water to drought-hit farmlands

The India-born, Okinawa-nurtured product seeks to replace petroleum-derived polymers to promote sustainability.
A fishing boat patrols the sea for poaching off the port of Yomogita, Aomori Prefecture, on the night of Sept. 13.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Oct 30, 2023

Aomori sea cucumber fishermen hit hard by China’s seafood import ban

Twenty-seven cooperatives in the prefecture have suspended operations in October, when the fishing season for sea cucumbers starts in a normal year.
A photo of Henry Li and his husband, Edgar Ng, hangs on a wall in their apartment at Ma On Shan in Hong Kong.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / FOCUS
Oct 25, 2023

Hope and heartbreak after Hong Kong court decision on LGBTQ partnerships

The LGBTQ community has seen incremental legal victories, but same-sex marriage remains out of reach.
Toyota’s gigacast rear component. The company plans to employ the gigacasting technology in making electric vehicles.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 30, 2023

Tesla’s latest disruption in carmaking draws followers in Japan

Carmakers in Japan are starting to embrace gigacasting as they seek to make up for lost ground in the shift to EVs.
Ryo and Kaho Nagata greet a regular customer from the second floor of their cafe in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Nov 6, 2023

Young migrants bring vitality to rural Hiroshima

Some new residents found a place where they could try something new, as well as having cheaper rents for stores and homes compared to Tokyo.
Single-use bathing wear that comes in the form of a blouse or a dress
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Nov 6, 2023

Breast cancer survivors face tough time at public baths

It is customary in Japan not to take clothing or towels into the water at public baths, and some facilities make it a rule for hygienic reasons.
Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla, discusses artificial intelligence in London on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 7, 2023

Elon Musk's X curtails disinformation research, spurring legal fears

Restrictions on critical methods of gathering data on the platform have suppressed the ability to untangle the origin and spread of false information.
Coffee is served from a Toyota-developed fuel cell food truck at an event in Hita, Oita Prefecture, in October.
BUSINESS / Tech / Regional voices: Chubu
Nov 13, 2023

Toyota's fuel cell vehicles include food trucks and mobile offices

The carmaker is offering a variety of ways to utilize FCVs by taking advantage of their lack of tailpipe emissions and ability to generate electricity.
People from Hawaii pray for the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake, on a beach in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, in 2014.
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Nov 13, 2023

Fukushima celebrates a century of special ties with Hawaii

Residents emigrated to Hawaii and other places to cultivate undeveloped land, and made a living by working in the sugar industry.
Charles Q. Brown Jr.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 11, 2023

Top U.S. general doubts China's Xi planning to take Taiwan by force

Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Chinese leader would "try to use other ways to do this.”
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Bangkok in November last year.
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Nov 14, 2023

How an executive's arrest struck a blow to Japan-China business

The arrest of a Japanese company executive in China has had what some Tokyo officials described as a considerable chilling effect on business.
Students engage in group work during a class at Ogawara Elementary School in Ogawara, Miyagi Prefecture, in September.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Nov 20, 2023

Small Miyagi town excels in national test amid education reforms

This year the average percentage of correct answers by Ogawara's sixth graders in the National Achievement Test was one of the highest.
Communicating over the phone, a necessity for businesspeople, is a headache for many young people.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Nov 27, 2023

Many young people in Japan scared of telephone calls

For some, their heart skips a beat when they hear phones ringing and they hesitate to make calls, fearing they might be considered a nuisance.
Cabs not in operation are parked at a taxi company in Naha in October. Finding a taxi in parts of Okinawa Prefecture is becoming increasingly difficult because of a shortage of drivers.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Nov 27, 2023

Getting a taxi in Okinawa harder than ever amid driver shortage

The number of cab drivers working in the prefecture peaked at 10,041 in 2009 and declined to 5,246 in 2021.
For some brides to be, all it takes is one online search for wedding dresses or bouquets to trigger a flood of targeted wedding ads to their accounts.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 25, 2023

For brides on social media, diet ads are becoming unavoidable

Whether it's searching for bridesmaid dresses or posting pictures of their engagement rings, brides' innocuous online activity leads to targeted ads.
Protests in Shinjuku, Tokyo, last November, echoed demonstrations in several major Chinese cities that called for an end to Chinese President Xi Jinping's draconian “zero-COVID” policy.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 28, 2023

Chinese intellectuals increasingly attracted to Tokyo

An increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in the U.S. following the COVID-19 pandemic has driven some graduates to Japan.
Filmmaker and teacher Karl Neubert says he enjoys working with vintage lenses because they can capture a more cinematic look.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Nov 25, 2023

Karl Neubert: 'The joy a student finds in their debut film is a constant source of pride'

Filmmaker and teacher Karl Neubert discusses his role as an educator to the next generation of artists and how 30 years in Japan has shaped his work.
Yoshiko Koide sits in a classroom at Nagoya College where she teaches a Japanese-language observation seminar.
LIFE / Language / Longform
Nov 27, 2023

How a dictionary came to spark outrage among the web’s otaku

A project to create a reference book categorizing subcultures didn't seem to cause offense until it was packaged and sold as a dictionary.
A man sings for customers touring the Erhai lake on a sightseeing bus in Dali, in China's Yunnan province.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 27, 2023

Chasing a different dream, China's tech nomads head for the hills

In the mountain town of Dali, former city-dwellers in search of a space for open discussion and exchange of ideas in authoritarian China find refuge.

Longform

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