Search - events

 
 
China’s economy is facing an uphill battle filled with challenges, including a deepening housing slump, fears of a deflationary spiral and high levels of youth unemployment.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 25, 2024

China officials told Xi’s belt-tightening rules are here to stay

While President Xi Jinping has long discouraged excess, the renewed calls for austerity come as the world’s second-largest economy faces severe challenges.
Protesters during a nationwide strike near the National Congress in Buenos Aires on Wednesday. Argentina's labor movement is staging a general strike that will test popular support for President Javier Milei's austerity blitz less than two months into his presidency.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 25, 2024

Thousands protest Javier Milei’s reforms months into Argentine presidency

The mass protests in Buenos Aires come as the libertarian economist attempts to slash the size of the state in a bid to tame triple-digit inflation.
Girl group Atarashii Gakko! will be joined by two other Japanese acts, Yoasobi and Hatsune Miku, at this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 25, 2024

Pack your bags, J-pop acts. There's a whole world of fans to meet!

Expect Ado, King Gnu and Lamp to revel in the spotlight abroad with overseas tours, while the sounds of Shibuya-kei look to make a welcome return.
Shitsui Hakoishi, 107, works with researcher Yasumichi Arai (left) while her younger brother, Hidemasa, looks on. Researchers like Arai believe the healthy and active Hakoishi's cells may hold the secret to living a long life.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Jan 27, 2024

Living until 100, if not forever, in good health

Immortality may be out of reach, but can a slew of research projects prolong our natural aging process?
Mitsui & Co. employees hold a meeting at its headquarters in Tokyo. The company introduced a stock-based compensation system in 2020.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 29, 2024

Growing number of Japan firms adopt stock-based worker compensation

The practice underscores the belief that fostering growth can be achieved through effective human capital management.
Singer Taylor Swift walks off the field after the AFC title game in Baltimore, Maryland, on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jan 29, 2024

Taylor Swift may race back to U.S. from Tokyo to watch Travis Kelce in Super Bowl

Taylor Swift has an Eras Tour performance in Tokyo the night before the Super Bowl.
Kamila Valieva of the Russian Olympic Committee competes at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing on Feb. 17, 2022.
OLYMPICS / Figure skating
Jan 30, 2024

Russian skater Valieva suspended for four years over doping

The Kremlin has slammed what it called a "politicized" decision.
Rescue workers look for missing people in collapsed houses in the aftermath of the  earthquake that struck Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, and the surrounding areas on Jan. 1.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 30, 2024

No one left behind: Japan needs to work on its multicultural disaster response

The Noto earthquake has put into relief, once again, the need to cater disaster responses and preparedness to everyone, including foreigners.
Mitsuko Tottori (right), incoming president of Japan Airlines, and Yuji Akasaka, outgoing president, during a news conference in Tokyo on Jan. 17
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024

Japan opens door to more women directors, but managers still rare

Women account for only 13.4% of directors and executive officers at the 1,836 firms listed on the TSE's Prime market, and of these 13% are internal hires.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's core campaign team of a half-dozen aides is unswervingly loyal to their boss and chooses to stay mostly in the background.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 2, 2024

Inside Trump's election A-team: Lean, mean and largely unseen

A handful of distinctive figures have formed a tight, disciplined inner circle around the former U.S. president in his bid for the White House.
While this year will be a year of elections, with voting scheduled in more than 70 countries around the world, all eyes with be on who moves into the White House after November's U.S. presidential election.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Feb 8, 2024

Why the eyes of the world will be on the U.S. presidential election

The future of politics in the U.S., the world’s biggest military and economic power, could cast a giant shadow over international order.
Western strategy in the Middle East has been a failure, leaving the region less stable than ever, exemplified by the conflict in Gaza.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2024

Why 'the rest' are rejecting the West

Western strategy in the Middle East has been a failure, leaving the region less stable than ever.
U.S. singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs onstage in Arlington, Texas, on March 31 last year.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 3, 2024

Taylor Swift will be on time for Super Bowl, Japan Embassy assures anxious public

Anxious fans have been speculating for days over how pop music icon Taylor Swift could perform in Tokyo and attend the Super Bowl to watch her beau play.
The annual snow festival opened in Sapporo on Sunday. The event, set to run through Feb. 11, features a total of 196 snow and ice sculptures at three venues, with food and drink areas set up for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2024

Sapporo Snow Festival opens with food areas coming back

Set to run until Feb. 11, this year's festival features a total of 196 snow and ice sculptures at three venues.
A customer tries his Vision Pro at the launch of the product at a store in Los Angeles on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 4, 2024

Vision Pro headset is Apple's next Mac and TV combined

The $3,500 headset, which blends 3D content with a view of the outside world, landed in the company’s physical U.S. stores on Friday.
MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will host the World Cup final on July 19, 2026.
SOCCER
Feb 5, 2024

New Jersey selected to host 2026 FIFA World Cup final

The 2026 World Cup final will be held at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, FIFA announced on Sunday.
Singer Taylor Swift celebrates after a touchdown by Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce during a playoff game against the Bills in Orchard Park, New York, on Jan. 21.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 5, 2024

Sportsbooks cashing in on Taylor Swift craze as Super Bowl approaches

Novelty bets around major sporting events are nothing new, but a number of sports betting companies decided to have some fun with the Swift-Kelce craze
Simone Biles runs through a portion of her beam routine during the second day of a two-day media event with the USA Gymnastics team ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Katy, Texas, on Monday.
MORE SPORTS / Gymnastics
Feb 6, 2024

Teammates treasure superstar Biles' 'human qualities'

After a two-year hiatus, Simone Biles is poised to vault into Paris as potentially the biggest headline act of the 2024 Olympics.
Analysts say the sentencing serves as a reminder of how fraught any improvement in relations will prove even after both Canberra and Beijing affirmed the need to bolster ties.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 6, 2024

Harsh sentence for Australian writer tests ties with China

The sentencing serves as a reminder of how fraught any improvement in relations will prove even after both nations affirmed the need to bolster ties.
Opening up to foreign workers may ultimately be Japan’s best hope for stemming a rapid population decline.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 7, 2024

Record 2 million foreign workers are changing the face of Japan

Opening up to job seekers from abroad may ultimately be the country's best hope of stemming a rapid population decline.
Japan is the only country with a law requiring married couples to adopt the same surname. In 95% of cases, it is women who take their husband's name.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 7, 2024

The land where single surnames are the only option

The business lobby recently joined calls for Japan to accept separate surnames after marriage. What, then, is standing in the way of change? Politics.
The hippocampus is a part of the brain that controls memory, learning and emotions. Stressful life events such as disasters and terrorist attacks are known to lead to post-traumatic stress disorder and result in its shrinkage.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 9, 2024

Tokyo teens were less stressed during first COVID emergency: study

Increases in the volume of the hippocampus in their brains suggest reduced stress, according to research conducted by the University of Tokyo.
Around 55,000 fans showed up for Taylor Swift's first show on the Tokyo leg of her world tour.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 8, 2024

Fans share love for Taylor Swift at sold-out Tokyo shows

Swifties from all over the world flew into Japan to see the pop superstar perform at The Eras Tour’s only stops in East Asia.
Tokyo is filled to the brim with anime-related activities and attractions, but the best require a little digging to enjoy to the fullest.
LIFE / Travel
Feb 10, 2024

An anime otaku's blueprint to nerding out in Tokyo — and beyond

The first step to taking anime otaku-dom to the next level is to educate yourself on the history and evolution of the medium.
An image from the Justice Department that was included in a report by Special Counsel Robert Hur shows a damaged box where classified documents were found in U.S. President Joe Biden's garage in Wilmington, Delaware, during a search by the FBI in December 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 9, 2024

Biden will not face criminal charges over classified papers

Special Counsel Robert Hur described the president as a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy takes a video in front of a road sign with the words "Avdiivka this is Ukraine" as he visits in the front-line town of Avdiivka Donets region, Ukraine, on Dec. 29.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 9, 2024

Zelenskyy’s ugly fight with top general exposes split in Ukraine

The Ukrainian president's public fallout with commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi has come at the worst possible time.
Pop superstar Taylor Swift delighted fans at her sold-out Tokyo Dome show on Wednesday by confidently telling the audience, “Eras Tour e yokōso!” (“Welcome to The Eras Tour!”)
CULTURE / Music
Feb 9, 2024

Taylor Swift slays her Tokyo era

Pop's reigning queen gets sold-out crowd singing along to her hits for the Japan leg of the global Eras Tour.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally on Saturday. Many were alarmed by Trump’s comments that he would "encourage” Russia to attack U.S. allies that didn’t pay into NATO, but European leaders were already pondering the prospect of an alliance without the U.S.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 13, 2024

Once-bitten Europe is better prepared for Trump’s NATO tirades

The EU is quietly preparing an impact assessment of the November U.S. election — particularly the scenario in which Trump wins.
Fans gather outside Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas before the start of Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 13, 2024

NFL’s Roger Goodell already wants another Super Bowl in Las Vegas

Sunday's Super Bowl marks an important milestone for a city that’s trying to become one of the world’s sports capitals.
Hisashi Oka, president and CEO
ESG CONSORTIUM
Feb 14, 2024

OAT Agrio grows better farms with green tech, agrochemicals

OAT Agrio Co. Ltd. produces environmentally friendly fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals for the sake of both better food security and nature. In a recent interview with The Japan Times, the company’s president, Hisashi Oka, talked about its hands-on efforts to learn more and continue improving...

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