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Supporters of TikTok watch a feed of the U.S. House vote as they gather outside the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD
Mar 14, 2024

TikTok devotees say platform unfairly targeted for U.S. ban

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill that would force TikTok to divest from its Chinese owner or be banned nationally.
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra takes a photo with a supporter alongside his daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra (right), in Chiang Mai on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 14, 2024

Former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra makes first appearance after jail release

The controversial billionaire, ousted in a 2006 military coup, prayed at a Bangkok shrine before flying to Chiang Mai to meet family and supporters.
Hiroshige Seko, a former Upper House secretary-general of the LDP, told the Upper House ethics committee in Tokyo on Thursday that he was never directly involved in the handling of the Abe faction’s funds.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 14, 2024

Upper House Abe faction members deny involvement in slush fund scandal

Opposition lawmakers targeted the lack of clarity over the decision to continue a kickback scheme after Abe’s death in 2022.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 15, 2024

Biden’s best shot against Trump lies in ‘blue wall’ states

In Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, his campaign sees signs for optimism.
Paris Saint Germain's Kylian Mbappe celebrates scoring his team's first goal against OGC Nice in Paris on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS
Mar 15, 2024

Mbappe presence at Olympics 'very difficult,' says Deschamps

Deschamps said the Euro 2024 tournament, shortly before the Games, "remains the priority."
Built for two artists, Ishii House is a simple, rectangular timber structure with a double-height window facing the veranda.
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 16, 2024

Architecture of community won Riken Yamamoto the Pritzker Prize

Unlike many other laureates, Yamamoto is not a household name. But his work and approach have long been admired within the Japanese architectural scene.
Investors will be heaping ever more scrutiny on Japanese assets, with negative rates potentially relegated to history.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 15, 2024

BlackRock and Man Group reveal big Japan bets before BOJ decision

Snap up more Japanese stocks and keep buying the yen — these are some of the most popular calls from big-name money managers.
There are growing calls within the LDP to query former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori (left) over his possible involvement in the scandal. While Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said that the party would discuss hearing directly from those involved, he did not offer specific examples of who he had in mind.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 15, 2024

Shimomura to testify amid growing calls to query Mori over funds scandal

The former LDP policy chief's testimony before an ethics committee could pressure the ex-PM to disclose what he knows about the kickback scheme.
Ai Fukuhara at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Friday
JAPAN / Society
Mar 15, 2024

Ai Fukuhara reaches custody settlement after abduction accusation

Although the physical custody of their son as well as their daughter will be with her ex-husband, the couple will continue to have joint custody over them.
Gold beans for sale inside a Luk Fook Holdings International jewelry store in Shanghai on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2024

Gold beans all the rage with China’s Gen Z as deflation bites

Weighing as little as 1 gram, the beans — and other forms of gold jewelry — are increasingly viewed as the safest investment bet for young Chinese.
French President Emmanuel Macron (left), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (center) and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk join hands at a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 16, 2024

France and Germany to build arms plant in Ukraine as stakes rise

The announcement will do little to address Ukraine’s most pressing need: getting Kyiv enough ammunition in the short term.
Call loan brokers at Tokyo Tanshi in Tokyo in November. After decades of setting its benchmark rate near zero, the Bank of Japan is poised to tighten, spurring new opportunities for veteran traders after decades of setting its benchmark rate near zero.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 17, 2024

Japan’s $4 trillion offshore funds will ignore first BOJ hike

Only 40% of 273 respondents said the BOJ's first interest-rate hike since 2007 will prompt investors to sell foreign assets and repatriate the proceeds.
Members of the U.S. Special Operations Command train with their South Korean counterparts during the annual Freedom Shield joint military exercise at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, South Korea, on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 17, 2024

U.S. commandos laud training for the 'unexpected' in North Korea's shadow

The Korean Peninsula joins the South China Sea and Taiwan as military flashpoints with the potential to involve the region and the world.
Shun Otokita is the rarest of Nippon Ishin lawmakers: He was born and bred in Tokyo, where he got his start as a local politician.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 18, 2024

Can Nippon Ishin no Kai make inroads in Tokyo?

The Kansai-based party is aiming to broaden its support across Japan — starting with Tokyo's No. 15 district election next month.
People make their way through the rubble in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in January.
WORLD
Mar 18, 2024

Haiti’s hospitals survived cholera and COVID. Gangs are closing them.

Many hospitals in Haiti’s capital have been looted by gangs or abandoned by their staffs amid the violence.
Mercian's vineyard in Koshu, Yamanashi Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Mar 18, 2024

Major Japanese beverage groups focusing more on sustainability

Initiatives have diversified to include water source preservation as well as winery tours under the theme of the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals.
Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Hakubun Shimomura attends a Lower House ethics committee meeting in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 18, 2024

Shimomura testimony fails to shed light on LDP funds scandal

Former Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Hakubun Shimomura had hinted that he would finally provide some answers to key questions.
Prime Minister and Liberal Democratic Party President Fumio Kishida delivers a speech during the LDP's 91st party convention in Tokyo on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 18, 2024

What is being missed about the funding scandal

In discussions about the LDP funding scandal, certain considerations are missing. Beyond lambasting the party, these must be addressed for a clear vision.
The outdoor version of an "instant house," developed and set up by architect Keisuke Kitagawa in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2024

'Instant Houses' used widely in Noto quake-hit areas

The structure, which can be erected in an hour, is 4 meters tall with a floor area of 20 square meters.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda attends a news conference after a policy meeting at the bank's headquarters in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2024

BOJ introduces first rate hike in 17 years following pay gains

The negative rates policy, the last one in the world, had been a symbol of the Bank of Japan's ultraloose monetary stimulus lasting over a decade.
People look at the screens showing views from polling stations across Russia, at the headquarters of Russia's Central Election Commission on the final day of the presidential election in Moscow on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 19, 2024

What Putin’s election win tells us about Russia today

Putin won 87.3%, or 76 million votes, by far the biggest landslide in post-Soviet Russian history.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Philippines' president, speaks during an interview in Manila on Tuesday. Marcos said the threat to his nation from China's sweeping claims in the South China Sea is growing but argued that his government's efforts to assert sovereignty over disputed areas aren't meant to start a conflict by "poking the bear." 
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 20, 2024

Marcos warns on China threat, says he’s not ‘poking the bear’

But since the threat has grown, Manila "must do more" to defend its territory, the Philippine president says.
Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies, as the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 5.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 20, 2024

In Gaza, starving children fill hospital wards as famine looms

Hundreds if not thousands more children could die of hunger unless fighting stops and aid agencies have full access throughout Gaza, UNICEF says.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to vote in Florida's primary election at a polling station at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 20, 2024

Trump again conditions U.S. help to NATO allies on paying their 'fair share'

The Republican presidential candidate reiterated his stance, saying that his harsh words are "a form of negotiation."
As two friends deal with normal problems teenagers face, their lives are complicated by the looming specter of an alien takeover in “Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction Part 1.”
CULTURE / Film
Mar 21, 2024

‘Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction: Part 1’: A prophetic vision of pandemic life

Tomoyuki Kurokawa’s adaptation of Inio Asano’s manga of the same name pokes fun at modern society and politics amid a crisis.
 A cow is prepared for slaughter at a facility in Corbas, France.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2024

Does religious freedom trump animal welfare?

The European Court of Human Rights found that protecting the welfare of animals is part of the legitimate government objective of protecting public morals.
The resignation of Vietnam President Vo Van Thuong on Wednesday is "not really a good sign for a country often boasted for having very strong political stability.”
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 21, 2024

‘Political earthquake’ shakes up succession battle in Vietnam

The ouster of a second president in just over a year leaves a leadership vacuum in one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies.
Ryuichi Kihara and Riku Miura compete during the World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal on Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 21, 2024

Canadian pair lead Japan's Miura and Kihara after short program at worlds

In the women's singles competition, Kaori Sakamoto's bid for a third straight title got off to an unsteady start in the short program.
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.
Afghan schoolgirls in 2022. Boys and men will return to classes when the Afghan new year starts in late March, but girls and women will be left behind again by a Taliban government education blockade that is part of a raft of restrictions the United Nations has labelled "gender apartheid."
WORLD / Society
Mar 21, 2024

Afghan girls and women cling to glitchy, lonesome online learning

Schools in Afghanistan have opened for the new academic year, but girls have been banned from joining classes for the third year in a row.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat