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The Niigata Prefectural Government holds a seminar in January 2021 for parents of students seeking jobs.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 14, 2024

Japan in urgent need of personnel for local public service

A shortage of civil servants to support the lives of local residents is raising serious concerns.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives at Zurich airport, Switzerland, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 15, 2024

In Ukraine, soldiers and civilians shrug off Zelenskyy's summit

The conference is coming at a perilous moment for exhausted Ukrainians and outgunned soldiers, after more than two years of war.
A Malawian subsistence farmer surveys her maize fields in Dowa near the capital Lilongwe.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 15, 2024

The AI revolution comes for farmers growing a third of our food

In Malawi, subsistence farmers are using an AI app to get tips on how to diagnose crop and farm animal diseases.
Microsoft Japan President Miki Tsusaka
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 17, 2024

Microsoft’s Japan chief sees country accelerating its use of AI

Microsoft Japan President Miki Tsukasa sees AI as an inevitable and revolutionary new part of tech.
Workers clear the oil slick using plastic bags on Sentosa island's Tanjong Beach in Singapore on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 17, 2024

Singapore works to clean up oil spill after tanker accident

Several beaches have been closed after a tidal current carried the oil from the site to an area more than 30 kilometers away, close to the city-state's airport.
Richard Katz argues in his new book that the key to Japan emerging from decades of economic sluggishness depends on stimulating companies with high energy and dynamism, over the lumbering, older firms.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 20, 2024

Hope for Japan, if the elephants get out of the way

Protecting older companies, the jobs they have produced and the political and financial relationships they have nurtured, starves newer, more innovative businesses.
The experiences of our protagonist (Yukino Takahashi, right) and her fellow sex workers lead them to wonder if they still have some spark of humanity left in Shimpei Yamasaki’s “During the Rains.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 20, 2024

‘During the Rains’ captures a blunt, modern glimpse of Japan’s sex industry

Yukino Takahashi’s self-immolating performance makes her character hard to like but also forces the viewer to contend with the reality of her line of work.
Water is sprayed over the stage at a Taylor Swift concert in Rio de Janeiro in November 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 19, 2024

On a warming planet, outdoor concerts need a new safety playbook

Climate change is ushering in more extreme weather worldwide, and with it, greater risks for outdoor events.
GMO Internet Group is making a foray into the artificial intelligence and robot business to spread the use of such tech products and services in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 19, 2024

Japan’s GMO takes aim at labor shortage with AI and robotics company

It will focus on matching robot and drone manufacturers and AI developers with businesses.
Atarashii Gakko! released its third album, “AG! Calling,” on June 7. The group is currently touring Asia with songs from the new release featured in its set
CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2024

Atarashii Gakko! schools crowds overseas on just how bananas J-pop can get

With appearances at major festivals, on U.S. television and new album "AG! Calling," this sailor-suited rapping four-piece is on quite a roll.
Palestinians gather amid power cut near houses destroyed during Israel's military offensive in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Jun 20, 2024

Anarchy hinders Gaza aid efforts, despite daily combat pause

The Israeli military’s decision to pause fighting for hours each day along the aid route has so far produced scant humanitarian benefit.
A person walks among the giant columns supporting the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel in Saitama Prefecture.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jun 20, 2024

Tokyo underground: The city beneath our feet

Join us this week on Deep Dive as we discuss with Alex K.T. Martin the expansive subterranean world of Tokyo’s ever-changing underground.
Dan Martin of Sankaku Nutrition helps busy professionals in the Tokyo area with their meal prep.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jun 21, 2024

Dan Martin: ‘Long-term sustainability is the key factor to any diet’

The “sankaku” (triangle) in Sankaku Nutrition stands for improving gut health, energy balance and sleep hygiene among expats with busy lives.
The Oku knife "hooks or wraps elegantly along the edge of a plate or board," designer Kathleen Reilly says.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 22, 2024

A playfully subversive knife from a rising Scottish design star

The Scottish artist fuses East and West in a new knife design crafted in and inspired by Niigata Prefecture’s Tsubame-Sanjo.
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji temple in Tokyo. This year is expected to bring 33 million travelers to Japan, an unprecedented surge and a 30% increase from last year.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 21, 2024

How an arrival tax could stem the overtourism tide

How can Japan ensure that tourism benefits locals and travelers alike? There's no silver bullet but an arrival tax of around $40 could be a good starting point.
Digital crime in Sweden has doubled since 2021 and become a growing risk for the Nordic economy.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 22, 2024

Ditching paper money makes Sweden a haven for digital criminals

Digital crime in Sweden has doubled since 2021 and become a growing risk for the Nordic economy.
Tokashiki Beach acts as a sanctuary for sea turtles and offers ideal snorkeling waters. It was also the site of the U.S. Army’s preliminary invasion that led to the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 150,000 people.
LIFE / Travel / Longform
Jun 23, 2024

On Okinawa's Tokashiki Island, life's a beach — one of the best in the world

Many of the island’s residents first came as tourists, attracted to the exquisite Aharen Beach, and simply stayed.
Palestinians carry the wounded outside the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza City on Sunday.
WORLD
Jun 24, 2024

Israeli airstrike kills eight at Gaza aid center, witnesses say

The Israeli military said Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants had used the site.
Emperor Naruhito arrives at a reception hosted by five Japanese-British friendship organizations in London on Monday.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2024

Emperor Naruhito attends reception by Japan-U.K. friendship groups

At the reception, the emperor was welcomed by the Duke of Gloucester, cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II and patron of the Japan Society.
Workers assemble second-generation R1 vehicles at electric carmaker Rivian's manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois, on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 26, 2024

Volkswagen's $5 billion investment in Rivian boosts EV maker's shares

The investment will provide Rivian the funding necessary to develop its less expensive and smaller R2 SUVs, and help it turn cash-flow positive.
U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been accused of espionage, looks out from inside a glass defendants' cage prior to a hearing in Yekaterinburg's Sverdlovsk Regional Court on Wednesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 27, 2024

Russia opens secret trial of U.S. reporter accused of espionage

The Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich, 32, faces up to 20 years in prison on an espionage charge that he, his employer and the U.S. State Department vehemently deny.
Bronny James, seen during the draft combine on May 15, was selected by the Lakers in the second round of the NBA draft on Thursday.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Jun 28, 2024

Lakers draft Bronny James to play alongside LeBron in historic father-son duo

The selection creates the first father-son duo in NBA history.
People look at the election poster board at Kasai Rinkai Park in Tokyo. The board includes posters for each of the candidates running in that specific riding.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 28, 2024

Tokyo's election day is coming. Are you comfortable talking about politics in Japanese?

Even if you don't want to talk about politics, expressing your opinion on a particular topic is always a good skill to have in your daily life.
Yuta Orisaka strips things back on his latest album, “Jumon,” though it still features a few explosive moments.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 28, 2024

Yuta Orisaka's folk style is far more than a throwback

The singer-songwriter wanted to make songs his grandmother could enjoy, but that doesn't mean he'll skimp on the electronic touches.
Ryosuke Kunisawa hopes his "concept brewpub" serves as a focal point to an image change for the salaryman epicenter that is the Shimbashi neighborhood.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2024

Craft beer, craftsmanship and a family of reinvention

On the first two floors of his family’s slender eight-story building, Kunisawa launched the Kunisawa Brewing Company, Shimbashi's first beer brewery, in May 2022.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike speaks during an interview at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Tokyo on June 3.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 28, 2024

Koike’s governorship shaped by slogans and questions over follow-through

The Tokyo gubernatorial election is seen as hers to lose, but how did she become Japan's most famous female politician and what has she actually achieved?
Estonian Prime Minister and newly nomiated EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas addresses a news conference at the end of the European Council summit at EU headquarters in Brussels on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 29, 2024

A lifetime fighting Putin’s aggression drives EU’s next diplomatic chief

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, the bloc's next foreign policy chief, will be charged with shaping its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2024

Japanese business executive detained in Myanmar

The military regime said an Aeon Orange executive and local supermarket officials allegedly sold rice at prices higher than levels set by authorities.
The number of construction workers in Japan stood at 4.83 million in 2023, down by more than 2 million from the peak of 6.85 million in 1997.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 1, 2024

Amid labor shortages, Japanese builders urged to improve conditions

The government is advocating wage increases and the full implementation of a five-day workweek.
"Khaing," a former teacher with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), sits in a restaurant where she works after fleeing from Myanmar to Thailand to avoid conscription by Myanmar's military junta, in Bangkok on June 4.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 2, 2024

'Can't go back': Myanmar conscription exiles struggle in Thailand

Myanmar's junta says it wants to enlist 5,000 people a month aged between 18 and 35, but details are vague.

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