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PRESS / Events
Apr 9, 2021

2050年ゼロエミッションの実現に向けて

Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 26, 2021

Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021 award ceremony celebrates region’s culinary creativity (and resilience)

Nine restaurants from Japan made the 50 Best list, and another nine placed on the inaugural 51-100 ranking.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 27, 2021

China punishes those who question ‘martyrs.’ A sleuth keeps track.

An online spreadsheet with an anonymous minder tabulates Xi Jinping's crackdown on speech.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Oct 30, 2017

Energy edges out tech, finance in CEO lineup for Trump's upcoming China visit

U.S. energy and commodities firms will make up a major part of a business delegation visiting Beijing at the same time as U.S. President Donald Trump goes to China in November, according to an initial list.
WORLD
Jan 12, 2015

Cuba has reportedly freed all 53 prisoners as agreed in U.S. deal

Cuba has released all 53 prisoners it had promised to free, senior U.S. officials said, a major step toward detente with Washington.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 1, 2014

What to buy, where to go: 40 steps to maximum merriment this Christmas in Japan

From meeting Pikachu in Fukushima to a laughter ritual in Osaka, here are dozens of ways to make sure you make the most of the festive season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 5, 2014

Does it matter how we choose The World's 50 Best Restaurants?

The World's 50 Best Restaurants is a quirky list and no one claims it is definitive. Avant-garde restaurants tend to place higher than traditional establishments whose gastronomy has stood the test of time.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 22, 2012

What to call baby?

While clearing closets at my parents' house in Nara in December following my mother's death the month before, I came across a large square card in a pile of old documents. A snapshot of a baby looking at a birthday cake was glued in the center of the card, and I recognized that it was me at the time...
COMMENTARY
Nov 16, 2011

Who in America gets to judge political truth?

The Stolen Valor Act of 2005, a compound of political pandering and moral exhibitionism, was whooped through the Senate, aka the "world's greatest deliberative body," by unanimous consent; the House, joining the stampede, passed it by a voice vote.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 8, 2011

Byzantine temp rules need permanent fix

Back in the days when I was a corporate drone in Tokyo, I had a wonderful secretary who had the good fortune to get pregnant. Bad news for me, though, since I had to endure a series of temps, some good, some bad, and one who marinated herself in enough perfume to make everyone ill. But what I found most...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 7, 2010

U.S. Navy 'Friendship Festival' draws line at the French

Could it be that the Friendship Day festivals held at the U.S. Navy Negishi Housing Base are not as friendly as the name suggests?
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Oct 21, 2009

Get set for next year's overhaul of official kanji

Kanji aficionados and educators are buzzing over the biggest kanji news in nearly three decades: Next fall, for the first time since 1981, Japan’s government is expected to announce a revision of the joyo (general-use) kanji list. Currently numbering 1,945, these kanji comprise the official list allowed...
EDITORIALS
Jul 15, 2007

The wonder of wonders

The votes, 100 million of them, are all in. The most wondrous human constructions in the history of the world have been determined by an elaborate and multilingual online voting system. The results for these new Seven Wonders of the World, splashed across newspaper headlines worldwide, reveal a great...
SPORTS / E-LIST
Jun 11, 2006

Fun in kitchen with half-baked Central League

The Central League's other shoe finally hit the floor.
SPORTS / E-LIST
May 10, 2006

Interleague play on the horizon

Japanese baseball is getting ready to roll into Interleague play. The novel concept has done a lot for scheduling in Nippon Professional Baseball, as six-team leagues can get pretty tired of each other after a couple months of the usual slate of opponents.
EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2005

Portrait of a year in buzzwords

If it's December, it's time for those list-loving dictionary folks to be announcing their Words of the Year again -- and in the process providing editorial writers with a revealing lens on the past 12 months. This year, their labors yielded a couple of startlingly different scenarios.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Nov 4, 2004

Thinking of naming your baby 'Spiderman'? Think again

Unlike that of many countries, the Japanese government has the legal authority to prevent parents from giving their children certain names -- say the kanji incarnation of "Spiderman."
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 4, 2004

Past and Present

'Ican forgive, but I won't forget," says Jack Simmonds, an 82-year-old Australian, who was detained as a prisoner of war in Japan during World War II.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2003

Group reveals additional 40 suspected abduction victims

An influential citizens' group investigating the abduction of Japanese citizens to North Korea released Friday a list of 40 more cases that it wants the government to look into.
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2002

Strike that word

Are you guilty of having used the phrase "9-11" to refer to the attacks of Sept. 11? Or have you inflicted the word "synergy" on friends or colleagues? Or read about a "surgical strike" or a "faith-based" initiative without wincing?
Animator Hayao Miyazaki is among Time's 100 most influential people of 2024.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2024

Hayao Miyazaki among Time's 100 most influential people

Miyazaki, who won his second Oscar last month, was described as a "one-of-a-kind creator" in the magazine.
The topics nominated for this year’s buzzwords of the year ranged from new banknotes and Olympian quips to political scandals and rice shortages.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 5, 2024

From cat memes to Olympians with too much rizz, these are Japan's 2024 buzzword nominations

The buzzword of the year, along with the top 10 picks, will be decided from the 30 nominated terms on Dec. 2.
The goal of the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, building on years of evolving trade restrictions, is to slow China’s domestic development of advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence systems that may help its military.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 3, 2024

U.S. tightens curbs on China’s access to AI memory and chip tools

The new measures included exemptions for key allies such as Japan and the Netherlands.
The central Hokkaido city of Asahikawa made headlines this year when one of its suburbs was named as the best place to live in Japan — a ranking earned in part due to the community's many outstanding restaurants and cafes.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 28, 2024

How Hokkaido quietly became a culinary treasure trove in 2024

Food trucks, morsels with cutesy cues from nature and more helped Japan’s northernmost island have a stellar year.
A Palestinian woman returns to her destroyed house, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, on Sunday.
WORLD
Jan 19, 2025

Fighting halts in Gaza as ceasefire takes effect after brief delay

Residents and a medical worker in Gaza said they had heard no new fighting or military strikes since about half an hour before the ceasefire was finally implemented.
Posters of Israeli hostages (left to right) Liri Albag, Naama Levy, Karina Ariev and Daniela Gilboa, who have been held in the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants
WORLD
Jan 25, 2025

Hamas names four Israeli female soldier hostages to be freed in second swap

The exchange follows the release on Sunday of three Israeli women and 90 Palestinian prisoners, the first such exchange in more than a year.
Technicians at work in the clean room of a semiconductor manufacturing facility in Ibaraki Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 1, 2025

Japan plans to curb exports of chips and quantum-computing tech

The government is expanding its list of export-controlled items to include advanced chips, lithography equipment and cryocoolers needed for the manufacture of quantum computers.
Then-U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun arrives at a meeting with the media in Bangkok in December 2017.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 18, 2025

U.S. official says South Korea's watchlist status due to mishandling of lab data

The U.S. Department of Energy confirmed this week that it had designated South Korea a "sensitive" country in January, but did not explain why.

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