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Ryoyu Kobayashi on Saturday in Bischofshofen, Austria, added the 2024 Four Hills title to triumphs in 2019 and 2022.
MORE SPORTS / Ski jumping
Jan 7, 2024

Japan's Kobayashi clinches third Four Hills ski jump crown

Kobayashi added the 2024 title to triumphs in 2019 and 2022 after finishing in second place in the last of the four events at Bischofshofen in Austria.
Consumer price gains in Tokyo slowed for a second month in December.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 9, 2024

Tokyo inflation slows as thrifty consumers curb some outlays

Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 2.1% in the capital, decelerating from 2.3% in November.
Animal rights activists hold placards reading "Good bye dog meat!" during a rally welcoming a bill banning the dog meat trade, at the National Assembly in Seoul on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 9, 2024

South Korea parliament passes bill banning dog meat trade

Lawmakers voted 208-0, and the legislation will come into effect after a three-year grace period and final approval from President Yoon Suk-yeol.
Fire hoses remain intact on Sunday in front of a collapsed structure near the site of a massive blaze in a central market in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2024

Photo essay: Inside the Ishikawa earthquake disaster zone

Over the three-day weekend, a team from The Japan Times reported from the hard-hit Noto Peninsula, witnessing a massive relief effort and speaking to evacuees.
A Joshua Tree is seen as the York fire burns in the distance in the Mojave National Preserve on July 30, 2023. The year of 2023 was the hottest on record, with the increase in Earth's surface temperature nearly crossing the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
WORLD
Jan 10, 2024

2023 declared hottest recorded year as Earth nears key limit

Climate change intensified heatwaves, droughts and wildfires across the planet, and pushed the global thermometer 1.48 C above the preindustrial benchmark.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, with other leaders in June 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 10, 2024

Xi eyes Global South as China elevates ties with record number of nations

Beijing elevated the way it described ties with 17 countries and territories, most of them from the developing world.
Japanese workers' real wages kept shrinking for a 20th month in November, raising fresh alarm for the sustainability of the country's economic recovery as firms enter the period of annual pay negotiations with labor unions.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2024

Japan’s slower wage growth adds to reasons for BOJ to hold

Nominal cash earnings for workers rose 0.2% from the previous year, decelerating sharply from a 1.5% increase in October, the labor ministry said.
A triathlon Olympic test event in the River Seine in August of last year. Local authorities still have thousands of new sewer connections and key storm-water infrastructure to finish in the next few months ahead of the Games.
OLYMPICS
Jan 11, 2024

Paris Olympics chief insists River Seine will host opening ceremony

French security services have consistently raised doubts about having the opening team parade on the river in the heart of the City of Light.
U.S. President Joe Biden gives a thumbs-up as he walks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at Filoli estate on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, in Woodside, California, on Nov. 15. Their meeting attempted to calm the waters and tried to convey a sense that the U.S. and China could effectively manage their differences.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 11, 2024

In 2024, U.S.-China ties likely to get worse before they get better

The trajectory of Washington and Beijing's relationship this year will have profound effects on Japan's own policies going forward.
A Tokyo Gas Co. storage tank at the company's Setagaya facility in Tokyo
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 12, 2024

World trying to quit fossil fuels gets flood of gas instead

Formerly a sluggish sector, global events spurred LNG's expansion
Final Fantasy VII Rebith, the second installment in the modern remastering of the 1997 classic scheduled for a Feb. 29 release, leads the slate of Japan-made games this year.
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON: GAMES
Jan 13, 2024

Final Fantasy and Tekken kick-start exciting year for gamers

Many upcoming titles are legacy franchises with recognizable faces that have withstood the ebb and flow of gaming popularity.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a livestream event with Iowa’s attorney general, Brenna Bird in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 14, 2024

U.S. presidential election heats up as frigid Iowa tests Trump

With a commanding lead in polls, the ex-president is expected easily to win the Midwestern state's first-in-the-nation vote.
Tanaka takes part in a signing ceremony for the Japan-Uruguay Investment Agreement with Uruguay's Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Porto in 2015.
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Jan 23, 2024

Why positivity is an asset in a career of PR and diplomacy

Keiko Tanaka went from an office at Nissan to the ambassador's residence in Uruguay.
A vehicle carrying Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang arrives during an official visit in Kehrsatz, near Bern, in Switzerland, on Monday. Li is visiting Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 16, 2024

China set to woo global elites with large delegation at Davos forum

Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang will make a special address on Tuesday, and will be the most senior Chinese official to attend Davos since President Xi Jinping in 2017.
Mitsuko Tottori (right), incoming president of Japan Airlines, speaks alongside Yuji Akasaka, the outgoing president, during a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 17, 2024

Japan Airlines names former flight attendant as first female president

Mitsuko Tottori, a senior managing executive officer who joined JAL in 1985, will become president from April 1, the firm said in a statement.
After two meetings of an ad-hoc panel established by party leader and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida earlier this month, fissures between lawmakers have emerged, and at the moment the outcome of the debate remains hard to predict.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 17, 2024

Dissolving factions becomes focus of LDP funding scandal task force

The discussions have led to divisions between lawmakers, and at the moment the outcome of the debate remains hard to predict.
The caucus system is increasingly out of step with how modern America lives and picks its presidential candidates and how modern campaigns roll.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2024

It’s time to scrap the Iowa caucus

The concept behind the Iowa Caucus was both noble and novel when it debuted in 1972. Now many people think it has no place in modern politics.
The Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo. In the wake of a political funding scandal, some are calling for the dissolution of the LDP's factions.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 16, 2024

Eliminating factions isn’t the answer to the funding scandal

In the wake of a political funding scandal that has embroiled the LDP, some are calling for the dissolution of the party's factions. That would be a mistake.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin announced his resignation after eight years in office on New Year’s Eve, 1999. His chosen successor was then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who succeeded him.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2024

Putin’s search for a usable past

Money was the one thing that would animate his reign. It was clear from the start that the businessman took precedence over the politician in Putin’s personality.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference on Dec. 13.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 18, 2024

Kishida aims to disband his faction amid political funds scandals

The move would mark a bid to restore public trust toward politics amid a series of political funds scandals.
The Tsukuba Geo Museum is a hands-on exhibition facility.
ESG CONSORTIUM
Jan 22, 2024

New geopark museum, cycle park showcase Tsukuba’s attractions

The Ibaraki city of Tsukuba in November launched a new facility, Mt. Tsukuba Gate Park, that focuses on promoting the charms of the Mt. Tsukuba Area Geopark and supporting Japan’s cycling culture. City officials stationed there explained what the facility offers and how they aim to nurture the civic...
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meets with local residents during a walkabout with Conservative MPs in Winchester, England, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 20, 2024

Why Sunak’s Conservatives are talking about the 1993 Canadian election

A week of Tory rebellions and cataclysmic polls has left members of Sunak’s governing party plumbing new depths of despair over their prospects of staying in power.
A replica of the Statue of Liberty in Taipei. There are markers all over Taiwan of its courtship of the United States.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 21, 2024

Taiwan’s doubts about America are growing. That could be dangerous.

Will deepening skepticism about the United States as a trustworthy nation diminish Taiwan’s belief that it could fend off China?
Solar installations in the village of Hjolderup in Denmark
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 21, 2024

Europe’s climate push fails to stem crisis in solar industry

Despite insistence to push for more homegrown energy infrastructure, governments have been slow to prop up the ailing industry.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a rally in advance of the New Hampshire presidential primary election in Rochester, New Hampshire, on Sunday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 22, 2024

Trump’s 2016 win shook markets. Traders won’t get fooled again.

Wall Street is already starting to game out the impact of Trump’s possible return to the White House.
As the political upheaval continues, the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is readying itself for the release of a party political reform panel’s report on the slush funds scandal and its recommendations for ensuring it doesn’t happen again.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 22, 2024

Kishida's LDP factions gamble fails to improve his popularity

A Yomiuri Shimbun poll conducted over the weekend found the Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating was 24%, the lowest since the LDP returned to power in 2012.
Ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, resentment lingers over the handling of ticket sales last year that saw many locals priced out.
OLYMPICS
Jan 23, 2024

French gloom clouds Paris Olympics, six months from start

Several recent announcements have led to a spike in negative publicity for the sporting mega-event, which will start in just six months.
A crane moves containers in Montreal on Jan. 17.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 23, 2024

Chaos in the Red Sea is starting to bite into companies’ profits

With the Red Sea crisis roiling shipments, it’s only a matter of time before soaring costs and supply-chain strains show up in companies’ earnings reports.
Kochikai, formerly led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, meets in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 23, 2024

LDP agrees to reshape factions and toughen rules on political funding

It remains unclear, however, whether this move will lead to a substantial reform of the party's faction-oriented politics.
An aspiring pianist who was blinded in a traffic accident (Minami Hamabe, right) finds a devoted protector in a mute custodian (Ryosuke Yamada) at her music college in “Silent Love.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 25, 2024

‘Silent Love’: Formulaic romance strains credulity

Unlike “Midnight Swan,” Eiji Uchida’s previous film that raked in awards, the director’s new melodramatic romance lacks depth and nuance.

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