Search - 2023

 
 
Hiroshima Kanon Senior High School in the city of Hiroshima opened a cafeteria serving authentic Italian cuisine in December last year after Hoyu, which had been entrusted with cafeteria operations, went bankrupt in September.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 10, 2024

Business stability screenings urged for school lunch operators

The directive followed the abrupt suspension of meal services at schools across the country by Hoyu, a cooking service company.
Myanmar's junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 10, 2024

Myanmar junta slams U.N.'s 'one-sided' human rights claims

The junta has denounced allegations of a horrific human rights record as "unfounded."
The plaintiff argued that age and other specific restrictions for men for survivors' pensions violates the constitution.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 10, 2024

Lawsuit filed over gender gap in survivor's pension conditions

The plaintiff was rejected for the survivor pension due to being 49 years old at the time of his wife's death.
The U.S. Coast Guard Legend-class maritime security cutter USCGC Bertholf pulls into Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii in June 2012.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 10, 2024

U.S. Coast Guard rebuts China's criticism of South Pacific vessel boardings

Last month six Chinese fishing boats were found to be violating Vanuatu's fisheries law by local police on board a U.S. Coast Guard boat.
Discomfort and life lessons ensue after a 60-something-year-old man (Shofukutei Tsurube, center) marries a much younger woman (Ayami Nakajo, left) while living with his 39-year-old daughter (Noriko Eguchi) in “Amalock.”
CULTURE / Film
Apr 11, 2024

‘Amalock’: Family comedy plays questionable age gap for laughs

Noriko Eguchi delivers a relatable performance as a woman who is disconcerted by her father’s marriage in Kazuhiro Nakamura’s film.
Jimmy Lai leaves a police station in Hong Kong in 2020.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 11, 2024

Hong Kong refuses entry to Reporters Without Borders staffer

Hong Kong is currently ranked 140 out of 180 on the 2023 World Press Freedom Index.
Rafael Nadal, seen during an event in April 2021, is hoping to make his return to tennis at next week's Barcelona Open.
TENNIS
Apr 11, 2024

Rafael Nadal hoping to make return to court at Barcelona Open

The record 14-time French Open winner missed virtually all of the 2023 season through injury and has only played at the Brisbane International this season.
Coverage of Xi Jinping's meeting with former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou in Beijing on Monday
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 11, 2024

China-Taiwan trade data shows realignment as Xi meets ex-Taiwan leader Ma

The island’s shipments to the U.S. rose 65.7% year-on-year in March, while exports to mainland China grew just 6%.
Smoke rising above buildings after an aerial bombardment in Khartoum North, Sudan, in May 2023
WORLD / Politics
Apr 11, 2024

Iranian-made drones may be turning tide to army's favor in Sudan civil war

Residents say newer drones appear to monitor RSF movements, target their positions and pinpoint artillery strikes in a city that forms part of the capital.
Iowa guard Caitlin Clark is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft.
BASKETBALL
Apr 11, 2024

Caitlin Clark's impact seen in WNBA's TV plans for upcoming season

The Fever own the No. 1 overall pick in Monday's 2024 WNBA Draft and are widely expected to select Iowa superstar and media sensation Caitlin Clark.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's headquarters in Osaka
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 11, 2024

Kobayashi Pharma troubles reverberate in Taiwan as firm assists with recall

Taiwan is the only place outside of Japan to have seen reports of people falling ill after consuming the company's beni kōji.
Flights between China and the United States have emerged as a rare area of cooperation between the two countries, but U.S. airlines have expressed concern about the rapid pace of increasing flights.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 12, 2024

Biden administration urged not to approve more China flights

U.S. airlines have expressed concern about the rapid pace of increasing flights.
A soldier resting after returning from a front-line position in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region in November 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 12, 2024

Russian attacks on Ukraine stoke fears army near breaking point

Low on ammunition and manpower, Ukraine may soon run out of options in Russia's invasion.
An evening launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit as seen from Encinitas, California, on April 1.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 12, 2024

Musk's undisclosed Starlink costs undercut profitability claims

Despite Elon Musk's claims of profitability, Starlink is spending more than it earns, those familiar with the company's finances say.
Japan's emissions in fiscal 2023 represents a 23% reduction from 2013 levels, but it’s still a way off from the 46% reduction the government has pledged to make by 2030.
BUSINESS
Apr 12, 2024

Japan’s annual emissions drop as industrial pollution shrinks

Emissions slipped 2.3% in the year ending March 2023 to 1.085 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, the environment ministry said.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the court after a pre-trial hearing in a hush money case in New York on March 25. As Trump faces a slew of trials, his opponents should take the comparison to Hitler's court room dramas seriously.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2024

The Hitler trial’s lessons in the Trump era

As former U.S. President Donald Trump faces a slew of trials, his opponents should take the comparison to Hitler's court room dramas seriously.
Sweden is known for its generous parental leave system, with parents allowed to share 480 days of leave per child and 90% of fathers taking such time off.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 12, 2024

Swedish-style paternity leave could unleash Japan’s potential

In Sweden, most new fathers take paternity leave, with direct benefits for the economy and families — an approach that holds important lessons for Japan.
This video screen grab shows a refinery in Ryazan, Russia, that Ukraine attacked in a drone strike last month.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 12, 2024

Ukraine’s drone attacks light a fuse under global oil supplies

At least 10 refineries have been hit so far. About 13% of Russia’s capacity has been knocked offline, analysts at RBC Capital Markets estimate.
The departure hall at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. Now with inflation at its strongest in decades, Japanese are starting to realize that years of static wages leave many of them budgeting each month before their next pay check.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2024

Japan’s young workers head abroad as huge wage gap persists

The outflow is also a sign that many Japanese aren’t buying into the nation’s economic optimism as it exits from decades of deflation.
By 2050, 10.8 million elderly people will be living alone, making up 20.6% of all households, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research said in a projection that it issues every five years.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 13, 2024

Elderly living alone to make up a fifth of Japanese households by 2025, study finds

The projection came as young Japanese people delay marriage or choose not to have children partly because they cannot afford to do so.
Ukrainian soldiers take cover during fighting in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2022.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2024

Kharkiv's civilians under fire as Ukraine faces 'catastrophic' air defense shortage

The city is so near the border that Russian missiles can reach their target in less than a minute.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing
WORLD / Politics
Apr 13, 2024

U.S. says China is boosting Russia's war machine in Ukraine

The Chinese Embassy in the U.S., however, said it has not provided weaponry to any party.
Construction at Yumeshima island, the venue for the Osaka Expo
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2024

Worries remain one year to go before Osaka Expo

The Osaka Expo will be held for six months from April 13, 2025, on Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka Bay.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on July 10.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 15, 2024

Opposition figurehead decries China's 'alarming' sway in Solomon Islands

The archipelago is the unlikely focal point of a diplomatic scramble pitting a rising China against Western rivals.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., (center) speaks during a meeting at the White House in Washington on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 15, 2024

Marcos questions ‘secret’ Duterte-China deal on sea dispute

Duterte said the verbal agreement involved keeping the status quo.
Scottie Scheffler receives his green jacket after winning the Masters in Augusta, Georgia, on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Apr 15, 2024

Dominant Scottie Scheffler finishes strong to claim second Masters title

Scheffler dominated a back-nine shootout to capture his second green jacket at the Masters.
Canada has become ground zero for Facebook's battle with governments regarding laws that force internet giants to pay media companies for links to news published on their platforms.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 15, 2024

When Facebook blocks news, studies show the political risks that follow

The blocking of news links has led to changes in the way Canadian Facebook users engage with information about politics, two unpublished studies found.
A woman in the Tokai region posts her meals on social media and gives advice to young people suffering from eating disorders.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional voices: Chubu
Apr 22, 2024

Woman with eating disorder looks to help young sufferers via social media

The woman is letting people know that a person’s value is not determined by their body shape.
On average between 1991 and 2020, the highest temperature in Sapporo on April 15 was 11.5 degrees Celsius, but the temperature rose above 25 degrees on Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2024

Japan's Sapporo sees earliest 25C day since records began

A city known for the 1972 Winter Olympics and hosting one of the country's biggest snow festivals saw summer-like temperatures.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses supporters during an election campaign rally in Pushkar, India, on April 6, ahead of the country's upcoming general election starting Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 15, 2024

For Modi, the Indian election is less about winning and more about by how much

For Indian leader Narendra Modi, an upcoming parliamentary election is less about winning and more about by how much.

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