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A ceremony marking the opening of the carbon credit market at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on Oct. 11
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2023

Why all carbon credits aren’t created equal

Because the carbon credit market is unregulated and completely voluntary, it’s been able to get away with a lack of scrutiny.
U.S., Japanese and South Korean navy destroyers take part in joint missile defense exercises in international waters between South Korea and Japan in April.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 13, 2023

Japan, U.S. South Korea to share missile-warning data

Following talks between the countries' defense chiefs, the three sides said the mechanism is now "in the final stages of testing."
Singapore national flags hang from the facade of a Housing & Development Board public housing estate in the Selegie area of Singapore, in 2021.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 17, 2023

China puts money behind Singapore model in major housing shift

Details are undisclosed, outlined in a classified "Document 14" last month.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 27, 2023

Japan to start trial of over-the-counter sales of morning-after pills

The health ministry will allow 145 stores nationwide to sell morning-after pills until the end of March.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy unexpectedly canceled a scheduled videolink appeal to U.S. senators for more funding.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 6, 2023

U.S. senators face off at Ukraine briefing after Zelenskyy pulls out

Several Republican senators walked out of a classified briefing on Ukraine as it descended into a row over the border crisis.
Senate Republicans voted unanimously to block an emergency spending bill to provide $110.5 billion in funds for Ukraine, Israel and other security needs.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 8, 2023

Prospects dim for new Ukraine aid in U.S. Congress

Senate Republicans voted unanimously to block the emergency spending bill to provide $110.5 billion in funds for Ukraine, Israel and other security needs.
U.S. President Joe Biden with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington on Sept. 21.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 11, 2023

Zelenskyy to meet Biden and Republicans as war funding dries up

The funding row underscores signs that support for Ukraine is fraying just as Kyiv's counteroffensive falters and Putin's forces push for new gains.
An undated file photo shows Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago and site of a major United States military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean, leased from Britain in 1966.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 14, 2023

Indian Ocean could become China's Achilles' heel in war on Taiwan

A struggle to protect energy lifelines even as demands increase could make a protracted war over Taiwan difficult for Beijing to sustain.
Ukrainian refugees who were flown to Japan by the Foreign Ministry arrive at Haneda Airport in Tokyo in April 2022. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 20, 2023

Moving beyond ‘checkbook diplomacy’: Japan’s changing refugee policy

Japan's stance on admitting refugees appears to be changing amid greater global engagement by Tokyo.
The Yas Marina Circuit, home to Formula One's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, will be the scene of a different sort of race in April when driverless race cars take to the track.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Dec 21, 2023

Driverless race cars on track for April debut in Abu Dhabi

The driverless Dallara Super Formula SF23 open-wheel cars have a computer in place of the cockpit and no need for a steering wheel or seat.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2023

Japanese police to restrict online posts on making guns

The National Police Agency plans to penalize malicious online posts regarding the manufacturing and transfer of guns that incite unlawful possession.
A member of the Israeli security forces inspects humanitarian aid trucks arriving from Egypt on the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the southern Gaza Strip on Friday.
WORLD
Dec 24, 2023

Without a truce, U.N. resolution may do little for Gaza, aid groups say

Humanitarian assistance is "impossible" to deploy in an active combat zone, they said.
Yuki Kondo-Shah beside the U.S. Embassy where she works in London on Dec. 22. As U.S.-China tensions rise, national security employees with ties to Asia say U.S. counterintelligence officers wrongly regard them as potential spies and unfairly ban them from jobs.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2024

Asian American officials cite unfair treatment in China tensions

Federal employees say they are being blocked from jobs for security reasons because of their ties to Asia, even distant ones.
Past warnings of a housing-market crash in China have never been borne out. But unless the government takes concerted action, this time may well be different.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2024

Fixing China’s real estate sector

Housing dreams to economic nightmares, the perils of China's real estate boom.
Supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump react as results are announced during his New Hampshire presidential primary election night watch party in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 24, 2024

Trump defeats Haley in New Hampshire, moving closer to nomination

The former president's only remaining rival, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, remained defiant telling supporters at a primary night party: "This race is far from over."
An arm of the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence is tapping companies and colleges to help harness rapidly developing AI technology that could provide an edge against global competitors like China. The challenge is ensuring it doesn’t open a backdoor into the nation’s top secrets or generate fake data.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 27, 2024

U.S. spies want AI as tool against China if tech can be trusted

The challenge is ensuring the rapidly developing tech doesn’t open a backdoor into the nation’s top secrets or generate fake data.
Emperors sought eternal life for centuries, but scientists believe our physical bodies have limits. That's where technologists come in.
BUSINESS / Tech / Longform
Feb 3, 2024

The digital beyond: Is an eternal existence within grasp?

Immortality has been a dream for centuries, but scientists doubt its possibility. Can technologists and coders find a virtual path instead?
Ground Self-Defense Force troops participate in a joint military drill and demonstration with the U.S., British, Canadian, German and other countries' militaries in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, on Jan. 7.
COMMENTARY / Japan / EXPLAINER
Feb 5, 2024

The Rosetta Stone to decipher Japan's new security deals

Japan has already signed several agreements this year that, together with previous ones, form a dense web of security pacts — one worth untangling.
Since 2006, North Korea has been subject to sanctions, which the U.N. Security Council has repeatedly strengthened to try and cut off funding for its weapons of mass destruction development.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 8, 2024

U.N. experts investigate cyberattacks worth $3 billion by North Korea

Monitors wrote that the funds reportedly help the country's development of weapons of mass destruction.
Copies of the Apple Daily newspaper, published by Next Digital Ltd., at the company's printing facility in Hong Kong on Nov. 5, 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 12, 2024

In Trump-Biden rematch, the only sure loser is China

Trump’s rhetoric may pressure Biden to take harsher measures in the run-up to election day — bad news for China’s economy and slumping stock market.
U.S. President Joe Biden has presided over a growing economy and some foreign leaders have said after meeting him that he is sharp and focused in private meetings, but his age is still an issue that is posing a drag on his poll numbers.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Democrats bungle Joe Biden age concerns, some critics say

Their strategy so far has not quelled criticism or concerns about the U.S. president's fitness for the Oval Office.
A demonstration against racism and far-right groups, including the Alternative for Germany party, is held in Berlin on Jan. 21.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2024

The case for banning anti-democratic candidates

Barring anti-democratic candidates from elections may be like fighting fire with fire, but it could work in extreme cases, such as in the U.S. and Germany.
The Cabinet has agreed to new national security legislation on sensitive government- and private-sector information that lawmakers should pass.
EDITORIALS
Mar 1, 2024

Protecting information is the key to national security

In recent years, however, that landscape has shifted and new fields are now considered essential to a country’s security and prosperity.
Migrant workers harvest and package vegetables in a greenhouse in Gasan-myeon, South Korea, in December.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Mar 3, 2024

South Korea needs foreign workers, but often fails to protect them

Though a shrinking population makes imported labor vital, migrant workers routinely face predatory employers, inhumane conditions and other abuse.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak deliver remarks on the AUKUS security partnership after a trilateral meeting, at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego in March last year.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 3, 2024

AUKUS eyes defense tech collaboration with Japan, report says

Japan’s involvement in the partnership would be limited to specific projects and would exclude nuclear-powered submarines.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump during a Super Tuesday election night watch party at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2024

Trump-Biden rematch likely as the two dominate Super Tuesday contests

Nikki Haley has decided to end her campaign in light of the results, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
The Hong Kong flag and surveillance cameras outside the Central Government Offices in Hong Kong
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 8, 2024

Hong Kong government issues draft of new national security law

It includes sentences of up to life imprisonment for treason, 20 years for espionage and 10 years for state secrets offenses.
Since the Ukraine war, South Korea has had a special travel advisory urging its citizens not to travel to Russia.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 12, 2024

South Korean held in Russia for spying was missionary, reports say

The incident marks the first time a South Korean has been detained in Russia for alleged espionage, according to Russian news agencies.
While Donald Trump and Joe Biden are both highly unpopular, key economic indicators and recent polls suggest that Biden should be worried about the coming election.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2024

The anatomy of the Biden-Trump rematch

Trump has an energetic base whereas Biden’s re-election bid generates almost no enthusiasm. Still, many Americans strongly oppose a second Trump term.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump hosts a campaign rally in Rome, Georgia, on March 9.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 15, 2024

Trump launched CIA covert influence operation against China

A team promoted allegations that Communist Party members were hiding ill-gotten money overseas, sources said.

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