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The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo. The central bank has yet to step into the real estate investment trusts market this year, after purchases every year since 2010 to help lower risks in the property market.
BUSINESS
Nov 22, 2023

BOJ pulls back from risk asset buying in sign of normalization

The lack of buying comes amid simmering speculation that the Bank of Japan will scrap its negative interest rate and control of government bond yields.
The All England Tennis Club's large-scale expansion plans, which included a new 8,000-seat show court, have been rejected by the London Borough of Wandsworth.
TENNIS
Nov 22, 2023

Wimbledon suffers expansion plan blow after council refuses permission

The plans include 39 new grass courts, including an 8,000-seater show court on the adjacent Wimbledon Park.
Newly elected Yawata Mayor Shoko Kawata (right) receives flowers at city hall on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 22, 2023

LDP and CDP join forces against Nippon Ishin in local elections

While such coordination isn't uncommon, in the past it has generally been aimed at beating candidates from the Japanese Communist Party.
With the 225-issue Nikkei stock average up by 28% this year and trading near its highest level since 1990, foreign investors who have plowed more than $35 billion into Japanese stocks in 2023 after years of shying away are seen as especially demanding.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 22, 2023

‘Tourist investors’ punish Japan’s earnings misses

Traders relatively new to the market with unrealistically high expectations have exited positions due to nervousness.
Palestinian fans cheer during their team's World Cup qualifying match against Australia in Kuwait City on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Nov 22, 2023

Palestinians fly flags in emotional World Cup qualifier in Kuwait

Thousands of Palestinians turned out for the game against Australia, the territory's first in front of fans since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 22, 2023

OpenAI restores Sam Altman as CEO after his tumultuous ouster

In addition to Altman's return, the company agreed to partly reconstitute the board of directors that dismissed him.
Up until very recently, the business of packaging semiconductors — encasing chips in materials that both protect them and connect them to the electronic device they’re part of — was, at best, an afterthought for the industry.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 22, 2023

A new front is opening up in the U.S.-China conflict over chips

The process of packaging semiconductors is increasingly seen as the "secret sauce" — a path toward achieving higher performance.
After losing her eyesight in a car accident, a woman goes to the home of an eye doctor and his son to receive a miracle device to restore her sight in “My Mother’s Eyes.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 23, 2023

‘My Mother’s Eyes’: Psychodrama pushes to mad extremes

Takeshi Kushida’s atmospheric horror film about toxic parent-child relationships unfolds in a fantasy world that strains credulity.
Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto Prefecture hands out "blindfold" stickers that visitors can use to cover up their wishes written on wooden plaques.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 23, 2023

Privacy concerns prompt people to cover up Shinto prayer plaques

The plaques have been used to express wishes for centuries, and now some shrines are allowing them to be covered with stickers for privacy reasons.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, speaks during WSJ Tech Live Conference in Laguna Beach, California on Oct. 17.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 23, 2023

OpenAI researchers spoke of risky discovery before CEO ouster

The previously unreported letter and AI algorithm were key developments before the board's ouster of Sam Altman.
The European Union finds itself at a crossroads of balancing national borders, economic autonomy and liberal values.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2023

The geopolitics of EU enlargement

The European bloc appears to be moving toward radical reinvention.
Core consumer prices in Japan rose 2.9% in October from a year earlier, staying above the Bank of Japan's 2% target for the 19th straight month as products seeing price hikes continued to broaden.
BUSINESS
Nov 24, 2023

Japan inflation quickens, clouding price outlook for BOJ

A weak yen has been a key driver behind high import costs, as it has stayed near a 33-year low against the dollar in recent months.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during the opening session of the Global Food Security Summit in London on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 24, 2023

The economy, stupid? Sunak's 'only' chance of re-election

Several resets have failed to claw back support from a resurgent Labour opposition, meaning his party's fortunes hinge on a British economic recovery.
A survey found that the number of children newly hospitalized for anorexia nervosa in Japan came to 183 in fiscal 2022, up around 60% from fiscal 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 24, 2023

Anorexia in children remained an issue three years into pandemic

Cases in fiscal 2022 were 40% higher than the level in fiscal 2019, before the pandemic.
'Arayes' are a Lebanese dish made from raw meat stuffed into pita pockets and cooked until succulent inside and crispy outside.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Nov 26, 2023

Recipe: Coffee-spiced stuffed pitas

'Arayes' are a Lebanese dish made from raw meat stuffed into pita pockets and cooked until succulent inside and crispy outside.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends a Budget Committee session in the Lower House in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Explainer
Nov 24, 2023

Why is Fumio Kishida called 'the four-eyed tax-hiker'?

The prime minister hasn’t actually raised taxes for the public at large since he took office over two years ago — at least, not yet.
Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius leaves a courthouse in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2016.
PARALYMPICS
Nov 24, 2023

Former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius granted parole a decade after killing girlfriend

Pistorius was found guilty of murder and given a 13-year jail sentence in 2017 after a lengthy trial and several appeals.
Heidrun Holzfeind documents urban and rural scenes, such as two policemen on bicycles nonchalantly rolling down a street, in her video piece "The 49th Year." The footage is presented alongside incarcerated New Left group leader Toshihiko Kamata’s writings about Japan’s highly supervised society in the exhibition "News from K."
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 2023

'News From K' captures the oppression of landscape

Letters from prison by New Left group leader Toshihiko Kamata reveal a sense of limbo in Heidrun Holzfeind’s new work.
Terry Gou, Foxconn founder and then-presidential candidate (left), former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou (center), Hou Yu-ih presidential candidate of the main opposition Kuomintang attend a news conference in Taipei on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 25, 2023

Taiwan opposition cracks apart, and invites the cameras in

The split over a proposed joint ticket bolsters the governing party candidate’s chances in the coming presidential election. That won’t please Beijing.
Children and their parents wait at an outpatient area at a children's hospital in Beijing on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health / EXPLAINER
Nov 25, 2023

What we know so far about surging respiratory illnesses in China

While emphasizing that the full situation remains unclear, experts say there is little to suggest the cases were caused by a new virus.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen greets the fans after he put his car on pole for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 26, 2023

Verstappen on pole as Tsunoda qualifies sixth

Red Bull have won 20 of the 21 races so far, another F1 record, and Verstappen has won in Abu Dhabi each of the past three years.
Turkey and other meat at a grocery store in Chicago
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Nov 26, 2023

Eat less meat is message for rich world in food’s net-zero plan

The global food systems’ road map to 1.5 Celsius is expected to be published by the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization next month.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2023

International law, warts and all, is still better than no law

However imperfect, international law makes life for many people less nasty, brutish and short than it would otherwise be
Israel's military operates in the Gaza Strip during a temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in this handout picture released on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 27, 2023

Pressure grows on Israel to prolong cease-fire in war with Hamas

The halt in fighting is "critically needed” for additional aid to get into the territory and for more captives to be freed, U.S. President Joe Biden said.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at a news conference in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Friday. Biden will not attend a major United Nations climate summit that begins Thursday in Dubai.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 27, 2023

Biden to skip U.N. climate summit, White House official says

Climate activists are likely to be angered by the decision, but analysts said it was not typical for a U.S. president to attend every climate summit.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) meets soldiers at undisclosed location in the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 27, 2023

Netanyahu's two-front war against Hamas and politics

The Israeli prime minister is conducting a two-front war, one against Hamas and the other for his own political survival.
A protest is held in Toronto on Sept. 25, a week after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the prospect of New Delhi's involvement in the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2023

India’s denials of Sikh separatist plots ring hollow

Now that the U.S. is also raising concerns about New Delhi-orchestrated plots against Sikh separatists, why are many Indians reacting with a shrug?
A soldier stands near a car destroyed in a strike by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement in Kibbutz Manara in northern Israel near the Lebanon border on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 28, 2023

In Israel's north, troops brace for long standoff with Hezbollah

Until a truce with Hamas went into effect in the Gaza Strip to the south on Friday, the Israel-Lebanon border saw near-daily exchanges of fire.
Christian Sinding, chief executive officer of EQT, in Tokyo in September
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2023

Private equity giant EQT buys stake in Japanese startup HRBrain

The purchase marks a rare attempt by a global private equity giant to boost returns through young enterprises in the Asian country.
As technology and politics increasingly force society to determine truth from fiction, Merriam-Webster's dictionary has selected the word "authentic" as word of the year.
WORLD / Society
Nov 28, 2023

Merriam-Webster crowns 'authentic' as word of the year

The winner beat "deepfake," "rizz" and "coronation" for honors as the word that most often sent people to the dictionary.

Longform

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