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Hobonichi's 'techō' notebooks come in both set and customizable formats, and a thriving community of enthusiasts means there are even extensive guides on how to make the journal even more unique to your individual approach to journaling.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 10, 2025

American stationery nerds are fueling a Japanese notebook boom

A Japanese-made paper planner from the 1980s has reblossomed in the post-COVID era.
Rescue workers search a flooded area during the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, which caused severe floods at the Chikuma River, in the city of Nagano in October 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Jan 12, 2025

Disaster-hardened Japan faces enormous costs from climate change

The total cost in climate damages for the country through 2050 could amount to ¥952 trillion if more ambitious action isn't taken.
Kei Nishikori hits a return against Brazil's Thiago Monteiro during their first round clash at the Australian Open on Sunday.
TENNIS
Jan 12, 2025

Nishikori rolls back the years in five-set Melbourne epic

The 35-year-old, who reached a career-high No. 4 in the world and was a U.S. Open finalist a decade ago, was on the brink of defeat at John Cain Arena against Thiago Monteiro.
The flight data recorder retrieved from Jeju Air flight 2216, which crashed killing 179 people in December. Black boxes holding the flight data and cockpit voice recorders for the flight stopped recording four minutes before the disaster, South Korea's transport ministry said Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 15, 2025

Crashed Jeju jet’s black box failure shows decadeslong gap in power rules

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board first recommended that cockpit voice recorders be fitted with an independent power source in the late 1990s.
Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
BUSINESS / Companies / Longform
Jan 17, 2025

Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go

The CEO and president of Rapidus says the chip venture in Hokkaido is key to Japan's fortunes.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a letter to the United Nations stating the U.S.'s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 21, 2025

The global treaties that live on without the U.S.

Many international agreements continue to exert strong influence on global policy without the world's most powerful nation.
Yokozuna Terunofuji enters the ring at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo earlier this month during what would be his final tournament.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jan 22, 2025

Terunofuji’s career was unique — and great

Most yokozuna are evaluated based on wins and Emperor's Cup titles. But Terunofuji's great career wasn't quantifiable by numbers alone.
Madison Keys celebrates after winning her Australian Open semifinal over Iga Swiatek on Thursday in Melbourne.
TENNIS
Jan 24, 2025

Only Keys stands between Sabalenka and third straight Australian Open title

Sabalenka will be the overwhelming favorite to defeat Keys and complete the "three-peat" after prevailing in four of their five previous meetings.
A U.S. soldier walks past a razor wire-topped fence at the "Camp X-Ray" detention facility at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2014.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2025

Trump to prepare facility at Guantanamo for 30,000 migrants

U.S. border czar Tom Homan said the facility in Cuba would be used to hold the 'worst of the worst.'
The Caesars Superdome, the site of this year's Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 5, 2025

Trump to make unprecedented Super Bowl visit, says White House

Trump will be the first sitting U.S. president to attend the Super Bowl, by far the biggest annual event on the American sporting calendar.
A vigil is held in central Budapest on Tuesday to commemorate a 43-year-old Japanese woman, whose charred body was found in a burned out apartment the previous week. Counter terrorism forces detained her husband, an Irish citizen, on Monday on suspicion of killing the woman.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 5, 2025

Irish man held over suspicious death of Japanese woman in Hungary

The charred body of the victim — the man's former wife and mother of their two children — was found in a burned-out apartment in central Budapest on Jan. 29.
The International Criminal Court building
WORLD / Crime & Legal / EXPLAINER
Feb 8, 2025

'Existential threat': What next for the ICC after U.S. sanctions?

Experts say the sanctions announced by Trump will have a wide-reaching impact on the court.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem tours a new camp site on Friday where the Trump administration plans to house thousands of undocumented migrants, at the Naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
WORLD
Feb 9, 2025

Tent city rising at Guantanamo Bay

The Trump administration has moved over 30 people described as Venezuelan gang members to Guantanamo Bay, as U.S. forces and homeland security staff set up a tent city for more.
The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold sails in the front of a formation with the Philippine Navy Jose Rizal-class frigate BRP Jose Rizal (center), the Royal Australian Navy Hobart-class air warfare destroyer HMAS Hobart (left) and the Maritime Defense Force Akizuki-class destroyer Akizuki, during a multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity exercise in the South China Sea last Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 10, 2025

Calls grow louder for joint maritime patrols near Philippine hot spots

Some want Manila to consider joint coast guard and naval patrols near Chinese government vessels operating in disputed waters of the South China Sea.
The Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda last month reiterated his long-held position that he needs more time to mull the fate of the ETFs because it’s a complicated issue.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 17, 2025

BOJ shifts focus to ETF assets as end of bank stock sales nears

The ETF holdings are the last major piece of Gov. Kazuo Ueda’s policy puzzle.
Gene Hackman during the 60th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, on Jan. 19, 2003
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2025

Actor Gene Hackman and wife found dead alongside dog at home

A statement from the sheriff said deputies had found the 95-year-old actor and Arakawa, 64, deceased on Wednesday afternoon.
Shinsuke Kimura, head of the Recovery Support Center, talks about the group's activities during an interview in Tokyo last week.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2025

Nonprofit supporting victims of 1995 Tokyo sarin attack to disband

The Recovery Support Center was created as many victims complained of problems with their eyes even years after medical examinations began to be offered.
Director Sean Baker (center) poses with the Oscars for best picture, best director, best film editing and best original screenplay for "Anora" as producers Alex Coco and Samantha Quan pose with the Oscar for best picture for "Anora" in the Oscars photo room at the 97th Academy Awards.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2025

Small-budget sex worker romp 'Anora' triumphs at Oscars

Sean Baker's dark comedy scooped up five awards including best picture at this year's Academy Awards, which was a relatively staid affair compared to previous editions.
Houston Dash player Yuki Nagasato greets fans after a match against Seattle Reign FC at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston on Sept. 21, 2024.
SOCCER
Mar 4, 2025

Houston Dash forward Yuki Nagasato retires after storied career

The 37-year-old appeared in 134 National Women's Soccer League matches, recording 23 goals and 25 assists.
Lithuania will become the first country in the EU to leave a multilateral arms regulation agreement when it withdraws on March 6.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 4, 2025

Lithuania to walk out on global disarmament treaty

Lithuania's controversial move comes at a time of heightened tensions in international relations over its neighbor Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Items from Shohei Ohtani's 50-50 season are seen in an exhibition at Tokyo Node on Wednesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 5, 2025

Tokyo fans get the Dodgers on their doorstep

In a big play to grow the team's fanbase, an exhibition connected with the MLB Tokyo Series is offering a taste of the LA experience.
"It is an expanding field. We need more people,” said Kaoru Onishi, head of the global product division at Nissay Asset Management.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 6, 2025

Nissay Asset ramps up hiring as alternative investment booms

Japanese asset managers are trying to boost returns at a time when policymakers are encouraging households to shift their savings to investments.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino unveils Brazil as the winner of the bid to host the 2027 Women's World Cup at the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok on May 17, 2024.
SOCCER / Women's World cup
Mar 6, 2025

Japan shut out of bid process for hosting 2031 World Cup

Japan Football Association President Tsuneyasu Miyamoto said in an interview last year that Japan wanted to host the 2031 event to "raise the value of women's football here."
The Eastern District of New York Court Federal Court House in New York on Feb. 5.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2025

Judges face rise in threats as Musk blasts them over rulings

In recent weeks, Musk, congressional Republicans and other top allies of U.S. President Donald Trump have called for the impeachment of some federal judges.
Japan is grappling with a budget shortfall, and while raising the tax-free threshold has sparked political debate, the country's booming tourism industry presents an untapped revenue source.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 7, 2025

Japan has a revenue hole. Plug it with tourists

More than 35 years after sales tax was first introduced, it remains incredibly unpopular and reducing it is a regular promise of opposition parties.
The Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art is just one of many hidden art and architectural gems across the Kagawa coast.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 15, 2025

‘Resorts for the spirit’: Touring Kagawa’s art and architecture

The seaside cities of Takamatsu and Marugame are home to a heritage of beauty, from the monolithic to the modern.
Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Mar 17, 2025

The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo

Thirty years after Aum Shinrikyo attacked Tokyo’s subways, the nation continues to prepare for the unthinkable.
Yuki Niimi, the widow of Tomomitsu Niimi, who was executed in 2018 along with other former members of the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo for their roles in the 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system, poses with a photo of her husband (front) with cult leader Shoko Asahara, in Osaka in February.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2025

'Until the very end, he gave no apology': Widow of Aum killer speaks out

Tomomitsu Niimi was behind bars when he met Yuki Niimi, and when they married in 2011.
Wataru Endo speaks during a news conference in Paris earlier this month.
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 20, 2025

Endo says Japan won't be satisfied just to reach World Cup

Samurai Blue have been dominant in qualifying and can book their spot at the 2026 finals if they beat Bahrain in Saitama.
AMKK’s latest exhibition, “X-Ray Flowers,” is the culmination of seven years of work aided by CT technologists, who help with the highly specialized imaging techniques.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 21, 2025

Avant-garde botanists AMKK illuminate the inner worlds of flowers

The punk florists' latest exhibition immerses visitors in darkness, bathed only in the glow of X-rays and CT scans of plants and flowers.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan