Search - u_times

 
 
Masako Egawa forged a successful career in business and academia in the United States and Japan.
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Sep 1, 2024

A quiet triumph of excellence in the worlds of banking and academia

Masako Egawa navigated a changing business world with her arms open to any opportunities that came along.
Some investors are still betting on more interest rate hikes in Japan in the coming months.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 20, 2024

Big-name investors still betting on further BOJ rate hikes

Major asset managers are doubling down on their short positions in Japanese government bonds based on the prospect of further hikes.
Tourists enjoy the beach in Malaga, Spain, on Aug. 14.
BUSINESS
Aug 20, 2024

Package deals make comeback in Europe among budget-conscious sun seekers

The combination of a cost-of-living crisis and disruption from strikes and glitches has added to the appeal of a fixed-price package without unexpected add-on costs.
The Italian Navy's aircraft carrier ITS Cavour at the Yokosuka naval base on Thursday. The 244-meter, 27,100-ton Italian flagship arrived at the base in Kanagawa Prefecture Thursday morning for a port call.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 22, 2024

Italy-Japan ties enter ‘new era’ amid deepening alignment, top envoy to Tokyo says

Underscoring this rapidly expanding partnership was the 244-meter, 27,100-ton flagship's visit to the Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate for president, at Nassau County State Supreme Court in Mineola, New York, on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Aug 22, 2024

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to end his presidential campaign

Kennedy’s departure from the race would be the end of one of the more bizarre and surprisingly durable third-party presidential bids in modern American history.
Jannik Sinner chases a shot during his match against Frances Tiafoe during the Cincinnati Open final on Monday.
TENNIS
Aug 22, 2024

Jannik Sinner hopes to tune out noise after avoiding doping ban

Sinner tested positive for clostebol at Indian Wells in March with low quantities of the banned substance found in his system again after another test days later.
High school students submit a request to the Saitama Prefecture Board of Education in the city of Saitama on July 23 asking for 12 girls- or boys-only public high schools to remain single-gender.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 23, 2024

Saitama divided over making single-gender high schools coed

A prefectural panel said last year that rejecting girls at boys-only schools is against the United Nations convention on discrimination against women.
Lufthansa Group decided to resume overflying Afghan airspace from early July, as airlines became concerned about the airspace in the Middle East.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2024

Airlines fly over Afghanistan as Middle East becomes the greater risk

Carriers mostly stopped transiting Afghanistan, which lies on major routes between Asia and Europe, when the Taliban took over and air traffic control services stopped.
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris arrives onstage Thursday to speak on the fourth and final day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2024

Kamala Harris charts her vision for the United States

Harris’ speech capped a week featuring the Democratic Party’s brightest stars, showcasing a broad, diverse and inclusive party.
Oceanographic research vessel Mirai is docked at the port of Sekinehama in Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, on Monday before it embarked on an Arctic voyage later in the day.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2024

Japan's Mirai research vessel embarks on Arctic journey

Mirai is tasked with ocean research and weather observations in the Arctic Ocean, in hopes of finding the cause and impact of rapid global warming in the area.
Digital minister Taro Kono speaks during a news conference to announce his candidacy in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 26, 2024

Taro Kono joins contest for LDP presidency

Touting his international credentials, the digital minister put economic reform at the top of his agenda, pledging to cut publicly funded projects that are ineffective.
Giant figures depicting Russian authors Anton Chekhov, Alexander Pushkin, Daniil Kharms and Fyodor Dostoyevsky are paraded through a carnival in central Moscow in September 2015.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2024

When art is all that remains

Looking at the Kremlin today, one wonders, “Do they really now know how this story ends?” Art will always have the last word.
People take shelter in a metro station during a Russian air attack in Kyiv on Monday.
WORLD
Aug 27, 2024

Russia again pounds Ukraine with missiles and drones, Kyiv says

Several Russian military bloggers called the Moscow attacks an "act of retaliation" for Ukraine's surprising incursion into Russia's territory.
A China Coast Guard ship is seen from the Philippine Coast Guard vessel BRP Cabra during a supply mission to Sabina Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Aug 27, 2024

China-Philippine tensions center on new flash point: Sabina Shoal

Clashes between the countries’ vessels have become more frequent and intense as the two sides vie for control over the disputed South China Sea atoll.
Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 28, 2024

Trump adds former Democrats RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to transition team

Trump's move risks reinforcing criticism that he is embracing figures espousing fringe or extreme views in his bid to return to power.
Founder and CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov delivers a keynote speech during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, in 2016.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 29, 2024

Telegram founder Durov charged and banned from leaving France

Pavel Durov was charged on several counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal content on Telegram, a popular messaging app.
Shohei Ohtani walks through the dugout with his dog Decoy before the Dodgers' game against the Orioles at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 29, 2024

Shohei Ohtani signs exclusive trading card deal with Topps

Ohtani has had a nonexclusive relationship with Topps since 2018.
Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at Enmarket Arena during a two-day campaign bus tour in Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 30, 2024

Seven takeaways from Harris’ first major interview

The vice president answered questions in the CNN interview without causing herself political harm or providing herself a significant boost.
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on Zibqin, in southern Lebanon, on Sunday. AFP-JIJI
EDITORIALS
Aug 30, 2024

The Middle East remains on a precipice

Israel's retaliations in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran have not led to a wider conflict. But neither Iran nor its proxies seem eager to expand the fighting either.
U.S. Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris waves as she arrives to speak on the fourth and last day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago on Aug. 22.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 31, 2024

Harris isn’t looking to pick new fights with China, unlike Trump

The U.S. vice president is betting that Americans don’t want an all-out confrontation when they tell pollsters they’d like their leaders to get even tougher on China.
Local miners collect small rocks as they mine for gold in Benguet province in the northern Philippines.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 1, 2024

Toxic, deadly, cheap: Life for women gold miners in the Philippines

One in three of the illegal mining workforce is female — and women are 90 times more at risk of dying on the job than men.
A screenshot taken from video footage shows a China Coast Guard ship colliding with the Philippine Coast Guard's BRP Teresa Magbanua near the Sabina Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 1, 2024

China comes under fire in latest South China Sea clash with Philippines

Japan and the U.S. have criticized China after a coast guard vessel repeatedly struck a Japanese-made Philippine Coast Guard ship in the waterway over the weekend.
A protester against the arrest of Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, near the French Embassy in Moscow on Aug. 25
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2024

Telegram’s hands-off approach to content faces a reckoning

The policies of Telegram, a popular social media platform, have allowed abuses to proliferate.
Rory McIlroy plays his shot from the ninth tee box during the third round of the Tour Championship golf tournament in Atlanta on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Sep 3, 2024

Rory McIlroy aims to cut as many as nine events in 2025

"I felt like I hit a bit of a wall sort of post-U.S. Open, and still feel a little bit of that hangover," the golfer said.
A washed-up boat on the shore of the city of Ibusuki, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Friday
JAPAN / Society
Sep 3, 2024

Typhoon-chaser's firsthand account of his pursuit of Shanshan

James Reynolds, who has built a career of venturing into the eye of nature's most ferocious storms, braved the elements as the cyclone bore down on Japan.
Vladimir Putin meets with schoolchildren in Kyzyl, Russia, on Monday, in a photo released by Russian state media.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 4, 2024

Putin is spending big to shape Russia’s youth in his own image

At some universities in Russia, students attend compulsory courses in the "fundamentals of Russian statehood” that were introduced last year to promote patriotism.
Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume speaks at a Volkswagen media event in Beijing on April 24.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 4, 2024

From peace-maker to taboo-breaker, VW boss Blume takes on the unions

Volkswagen disclosed it was not only planning to scrap a 30-year old job security plan, but weighing the closure of plants in Germany.
Alimentation Couche-Tard’s takeover bid for Seven & I already faces a potential funding problem, but the yen's recent rise puts another hurdle.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 5, 2024

Strong yen adds to challenge for Couche-Tard’s Seven & I bid

The buyout already faces questions in terms of potential funding and the target’s efforts to seek government protection.
Sumitomo Chemical President Keiichi Iwata
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 6, 2024

Sumitomo Chemical sells hybrid bond at widest spread this year

Sumitomo Chemical priced ¥100 billion of hybrid debt at 280 basis points over Japanese government bonds.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife, Yuko, are welcomed upon their arrival at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, South Korea, on Friday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 6, 2024

Never take Japan-South Korea relations for granted

The two leader’s final meeting is both an opportunity to review recent achievements and to underscore the centrality of the Japan-South Korean partnership.

Longform

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