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Riken Yamamoto is the ninth Japanese architect to receive the Pritzker Prize in the award’s 45-year history.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 5, 2024

Riken Yamamoto awarded Pritzker Prize for architecture

Riken Yamamoto is the ninth Japanese architect to receive the honor, making the nation again the country with the most Pritzker laureates.
The pandemic forced Rene Redzepi and Noma to adjust their 2023 pop-up from autumn to spring. Later this year, the restaurant will be returning to Kyoto to execute its preferred fall menu.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 6, 2024

Rene Redzepi is bringing Noma back to Kyoto this fall

One of the world's best chefs just can't seem to stay away from Japan's ancient capital.
Since September 2022, Patagonia has allocated profits amounting to $71 million to environmental initiatives that include stopping a proposed mine in Alaska and conserving land in South America, as well as helping to elect pro-environment U.S. Democrats.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2024

The competitive edge of doing good in business

Are companies that give all profits to charity also doing good for their business? Some examples show they are, and that this model is worth pursuing.
A man (Pierre Taki) who gives sea burials to cremated remains finds himself in hot water after a customer asks him to scatter the ashes of a murderer in “Horizon.”
CULTURE / Film
Mar 7, 2024

‘Horizon’: Ethical dilemma makes for muted drama

Katsuya Kobayashi gives his cast space to wade through murky moral decisions in his directorial debut, “Horizon.”
In “Matched,” a dating app makes a wedding planner’s (Tao Tsuchiya, center) love life all the more difficult when it turns up a string of murders and a stalker.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 7, 2024

‘Matched’: Contrived thriller tries to make dating scarier

Clueless characters and a strained plot are hardly a perfect match in Eiji Uchida’s suspense film about murder and dating apps.
Managing Director of Cornerstone Recruitment Japan Director Matt Nicholls says a good recruiter has tenacity, drive and can handle the ups and downs of the job.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 9, 2024

Matt Nicholls: ‘People like having control over their earning potential’

A seasoned recruiter tells us why he's spent the last decade doing business in Japan and what he's learned from growing and leading multinational firms.
Beyond factors such as the "motherhood penalty," Japanese women struggle to advance in their careers due to the structure of the workforce, including the two-tiered clerical versus managerial track.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 6, 2024

Why is it taking so long to break the glass ceiling?

Japan isn't unique in having a thick glass ceiling, but some factors don't apply to other countries, like the U.S., where many more managers are women.
Hideo Takayama (front) and Nama Yoshimura head down a narrow alley where a small stream used to run.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Mar 9, 2024

Tracing Tokyo’s hidden rivers

Underneath the pavement are remnants of the way the city used to look. Discovering them is a challenge that increasing numbers of locals enjoy.
Both China and Russia may believe there will never be a more opportune moment to overthrow American dominance than now. And should the two combine their forces, they could represent the most serious challenge to the global economic and strategic order since 1945.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2024

The threat to American hegemony is real

Russia and China might be tempted to threaten America's hegemony with a simultaneous and coordinated challenge.
A solar farm owned by the Huaneng Group in Shilin, China on March 2. Beijing is set to further increase its manufacturing and installation of solar panels, as it seeks to master global markets and wean itself from imports.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 9, 2024

China racing ahead on plans to dominate solar energy industry

Beijing is set to further increase its manufacturing and installation of solar panels as it seeks to master global markets and wean itself from imports.
Displaced Palestinians wait to receive United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) aid, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 9, 2024

UNRWA report says Israel coerced some agency employees to falsely admit Hamas links

The assertions are contained in a report by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency dated February 2024.
A Palestinian man transports humanitarian aid at the distribution center of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees UNRWA in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 3.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 10, 2024

Sweden and Canada to restart payments to U.N. agency for Palestinians

Over a dozen countries suspended payments to UNRWA after Israel claimed some of the organization's employees were involved in Hamas-led attacks.
A hiker walks toward Asahidake in Hokkaido. The health and environmental issues around PFAS could be a particular problem for Japan, which boasts a number of globally renowned outdoor brands and related suppliers.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Mar 10, 2024

Japan’s revered outdoor brands face down PFAS challenge

Outdoor apparel consumers are generally more environmentally conscious, but are likely to be using products that have a big environmental footprint.
The upcoming election is set to secure Vladimir Putin's long-term leadership and is raising questions about the direction of Russia's political landscape.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 10, 2024

'Generation Putin' — young Russians reflect on his 24 years in power

Vladimir Putin's legacy through young eyes: Insights from Russia's youth on the only president most have known and their hopes for the future.
Knives displayed for sale at the "Survival & Prepper Show" in Longmont, Colorado, on March 2
WORLD / Society
Mar 11, 2024

Disaster 'prepping' finds broad appeal as climate and politics threaten safety

Researchers say the number of Americans getting ready to survive political upheaval and natural catastrophes has doubled in size since 2017.
Anti-capitalist protesters with Occupy San Francisco take part in a demonstration on the streets of the Californian city in October 2011.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2024

The economic future of our overworked grandchildren

While John Maynard Keynes predicted a future of leisure and abundance, the world has seen an increase in wealth disparity and a culture of overwork.
The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima remains an iconic symbol of the destruction of the atomic bomb on that city.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 12, 2024

Hiroshima grapples with 'Oppenheimer' Oscars success

While locals would have liked to see more Japanese representation in the film, they are at least happy that some discussion is taking place.
Left: A man protesting the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games clashes with police on Aug. 8, 2021. Right: An AI-generated version of the photo to the left is included to show the difference between real and fake images in news reporting.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2024

Stranger than fiction: How AI threatens photojournalism

AI images will increasingly replace photos of real events in news reporting, posing an existential threat to photojournalism's accuracy and integrity.
A Zara clothing store in Brussels on November 2022. Inditex is an outlier among big clothing retailers in not publishing details of the factories from which it sources.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 12, 2024

Zara owner Inditex faces pressure from investors on supply chain disclosure

Regulators and investors want transparency from clothing retailers, to prove supply chains are free of forced labor and workers are paid decent wages.
Made by Karimoku, Keiji Ashikawa’s design of the JAL Boeing 777 cabin window stool uses an outer window pane from the plane as a transparent seat set on a base comprising recycled oak off-cuts.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Mar 16, 2024

Recycling old JAL planes and bullet trains into design treasures

This month, On: Design looks at recycled products designed to rev the engines of plane and train enthusiasts.
Modern advances in the production of missiles and drones such as those used by the Houthis have democratized extremely powerful weapons that until recently were available only to the richest states.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2024

The Houthis school the world in asymmetric warfare

Advances in missile and drone production have democratized extremely powerful weapons that until recently were available only to the richest states
A worker in the factory of Optimax Systems, in Ontario, New York on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 18, 2024

Markets frustrated as Fed drops no hints on post-pandemic economy

With investors having to guess how they will respond, households and businesses are finding it harder to plan.
Awang Suang trims weeds from palm trees on his small plantation in Membakut, Malaysia on Feb. 12. He has been cultivating oil palms for more than 50 years after switching from rubber trees. Palms require less labor and produce more frequent harvests — roughly every two weeks, year round — providing a steadier income, he explained.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mar 18, 2024

Can Europe save forests without killing jobs in Malaysia?

A new regulation aims to rid the palm oil supply chain of imports that come from former forestland.
Ryuichi Kihara and Riku Miura compete during the World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal on Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 21, 2024

Canadian pair lead Japan's Miura and Kihara after short program at worlds

In the women's singles competition, Kaori Sakamoto's bid for a third straight title got off to an unsteady start in the short program.
Giant cut-outs of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other party leaders are positioned beside a road in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Feb. 25.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 21, 2024

Hardships and broken promises no hindrance for Modi in India's rural north

If India's prime minister earns a third term in office, it will be in spite of the state of the rural and farming economy — not because of it.
A co-production between Hiroshi Koike Bridge Project and the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, Poland, “N/Kosmos” features performers from Poland and Japan, each of whom mostly uses their native tongue.
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 21, 2024

‘N/Kosmos’ puts on a dazzling display of controlled chaos

Stage director Hiroshi Koike welcomes pandemonium in his latest genre-fluid production in collaboration with Polish electronic musician Waclaw Zimpel.
Dating back to its time as a marginal player in the personal computer market, Apple's business model has long been based on charging users a premium for technology products where the company dictates nearly all of the details of how the device works and can be used.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 22, 2024

Apple accused of monopolizing smartphone markets in U.S. antitrust lawsuit

The suit seeks to free markets from the iPhone maker's "anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct and restoring competition to lower prices for consumers."
High-end tourism is becoming more about the kinds of experiences that Japan's lesser-known places can provide.
LIFE / Travel / Longform
Mar 25, 2024

Can Japan lure the jet-set class off the beaten path?

High-end travelers are looking for sustainability, wellness and adventure when they head abroad. Japan hopes to deliver in places other than Tokyo.
In Hideo Yokoyama’s “The North Light,” an architect sets out to solve a mystery when he finds out the family he built a prizewinning house for has vanished.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 23, 2024

'The North Light': One man's psychological journey subverts the crime genre

Hideo Yokoyama's novel centered on a man confronting the shattered pieces of his life offers a look into post-bubble Japan's architectural world.
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani and his then-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, attend a news conference at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on March 16, ahead of the 2024 MLB Seoul Series baseball game between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 23, 2024

MLB launches investigation into scandal involving Ohtani and ex-interpreter

MLB is expected to request interviews with all parties, including Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara, the slugger's longtime interpreter and close friend.

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