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Kobayashi Pharmaceutical President Akihiro Kobayashi (second from left) and other executives apologize for the deaths and other health damage associated with its dietary supplements, in the city of Osaka on Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 29, 2024

Kobayashi Pharma says blue mold compound may be cause of health problems

The beni kо̄ji red yeast rice dietary supplements are now linked to five deaths and 114 hospitalizations.
Arthur Mensch, the chief executive and one of the founders of Mistral, a French artificial-intelligence startup, at the company’s offices in Paris in late March.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 14, 2024

Europe’s AI ‘champion’ sets sights on tech giants in U.S.

As Europe vies for AI leadership, Mistral, under Arthur Mensch, is emerging as a formidable contender against U.S. and Chinese giants.
Lee Hsien Loong might not stray far from politics, having said previously that he will remain at the "new PM’s disposal” after the handover.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 16, 2024

Singapore charts new path after half-century of Lee family rule

Lee Hsien Loong announced that he will step aside next month after 20 years as prime minister and hand the reins over to Lawrence Wong.
China's Olympic gold-medal winning 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay team celebrates on the podium at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on July 29, 2021.  Zhang Yufei (third from left) is among 23 top Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance in the lead up to the Games.
OLYMPICS
Apr 20, 2024

Top Chinese swimmers tested positive for banned drug, then won Olympic gold

The episode sharply divided the anti-doping world, where China’s record has long been a flashpoint.
Protesters outside the U.S. Supreme Court as the justices hear arguments in a legal fight over homelessness and a bid by Grants Pass, Oregon, to enforce local laws against people camping on public property
WORLD / Politics
Apr 23, 2024

U.S. Supreme Court scrutinizes laws used against the homeless

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case about whether a city in Oregon banning camping outside on public streets and parks violates the Constitution.
Chelsea defender Alfie Gilchrist celebrates after scoring the club's sixth goal during their English Premier League football match against Everton on April 15.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2024

Arsenal? Liverpool? Chelsea? Help me pick my 'football' team

This writer’s been in England for six years. It’s time he backed a club.
Researcher Mercury Wong holds a rice plant on April 1.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 30, 2024

Hong Kong team plants seeds to safeguard legacy grains

Scientists and farmers in Hong Kong are tending to local varieties of grain they say could be an important food source in the face of climate change.
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference in Paris on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
May 3, 2024

Macron floats Ukraine troop deployment if front line breached

Macron described Russia under President Vladimir Putin as "a power of regional destabilization" and "a threat to Europeans' security."
A screencap of a performance of Hiroto Nagai's “String Quartet No. 1 ‘Polar Energy Budget’” by the PRT Quartet
CULTURE / Music / OUR PLANET
May 7, 2024

How a Japanese scientist is turning the climate crisis into music

Hiroto Nagai has sonified polar climate data, resulting in a string quartet piece that he thinks can get people to care more about what the data expresses.
Philippine Marines wave to Philippine Navy personnel and the media during a resupply mission at their military outpost, the BRP Sierra Madre, a warship run aground in the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in 1999, in the South China Sea, in March 2014.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
May 8, 2024

Stormy seas ahead as Beijing and Manila trade barbs over secret deal

China has accused the Philippines of reneging on a "gentlemen's agreement" concerning activities in the South China Sea.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan President Kenta Izumi has vowed to resign if his party fails to win at least 150 seats in the next general election.
JAPAN / Politics
May 8, 2024

Pact with JCP a double-edged sword for the CDP

While some of its members wish to further the cooperation, others might prefer to work with opposition parties considered more moderate or right wing.
Justin Reid has helped the Chiefs win the last two Super Bowl titles.
MORE SPORTS / Football
May 13, 2024

Chiefs safety Justin Reid committed to lifting up Kansas City on and off field

The confetti had hardly finished falling on the Kansas City Chiefs' second consecutive Super Bowl title when safety Justin Reid started looking ahead.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks to reporters during a news conference in Washington on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 15, 2024

Japan concerned over U.S. officials' remarks on atomic bombings

The remarks justifying the August 1945 atomic bombings could put a damper on bilateral ties between Tokyo and Washington.
Displaced Palestinian children stand at a school as they wait to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
May 15, 2024

How many of Gaza’s dead are women and children? For 10,000, it’s unclear.

The absence of personal details needed to ascertain their identities leads to their exclusion from the breakdown now being cited by the U.N.
The modernization of Japan's defense strategy is not just about military capabilities, it is also about building consensus and fostering public understanding.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 21, 2024

The winding road to Japan's defense modernization

The government's efforts to engage the public on defense issues are crucial for building consensus and ensuring the sustainability of defense reforms.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with the families of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Tehran on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
May 22, 2024

Raisi death reshapes Iran succession, putting focus on Khamenei son

Following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's, son Mojtaba has emerged as a top contender.
Bank of Italy Gov. Fabio Panetta (left), French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire (center) and Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti pose for a picture at the Group of Seven finance chiefs and central bank governors' meeting in Stresa, Italy, on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 25, 2024

China fear grips G7 with draft raising alarm at ‘harmful’ trade

A draft communique formulated at the Group of Seven meeting in the lakeside resort of Stresa introduces much stronger language than before.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on Thursday
WORLD / Politics
May 25, 2024

Putin wants Ukraine cease-fire on current front lines, sources say

The Russian president is also prepared to fight on if Kyiv and the West do not respond, according to sources.
A peace rally on Constitution Memorial Day in Tokyo on May 3. Japan’s identity as a pacifist nation is shifting as the government strengthens its military, but many don’t agree with the policy.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 27, 2024

Government and society are at odds on national security

Tokyo posits itself as a mutual defense ally of the U.S., but polls show that while the public wants a stronger military, changes should align with the peace Constitution.
Wanxiang America’s Neapco manufacturing plant in Belleville, Michigan
BUSINESS / Companies
May 29, 2024

Once embraced, Chinese companies now shunned in U.S. on security fears

It doesn’t matter if it’s mining or health care, even Chinese furniture could one day be seen as a national security issue, a lawyer who represents Chinese clients said.
President of the French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National-RN) party Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen, parliamentary party leader of the French far-right National Rally, attend a political rally to launch the party's campaign for the European elections, in Marseille, France, on March 3.
WORLD
Jun 4, 2024

A surging hard right stumbles over its own divisions

Immigration is an issue that has laid bare the contradictions for nationalist parties of trying to forge an international alliance.
In a meeting with Nippon Ishin no Kai head Nobuyuki Baba (left) in Tokyo last Friday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had secured a formal endorsement of the Liberal Democratic Party's proposed revisions for the political funding law.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 4, 2024

Fumble with Nippon Ishin over funding vote adds to Kishida's predicament

The calling off of Tuesday's vote on the Liberal Democratic Party's proposed revisions for the political funding law might shake his precarious standing in the party.
Officials from the transport ministry arrive for an inspection at Toyota headquarters in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 5, 2024

Toyota car certification probe prompts calls for rules review

Despite revisions since the standards were enacted in 1951, regulations haven’t kept up with the times, an analyst wrote in a report.
The cast of “Megalopolis” joins director Francis Ford Coppola on the red carpet at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2024

‘Megalopolis’ got the Hollywood treatment. The bad kind.

The real issue is that the American film industry, in its current condition, cannot make heads or tails of a movie like "Megalopolis."
Despite the Sino-American trade war, China's export competitiveness has strengthened, with its share of global exports increasing in 2023 and its trade surplus reaching $823 billion.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2024

Why the U.S. can’t win the trade war with China — and shouldn’t try

There is no evidence that China is actively targeting the exchange rate, and even the U.S. does not label China as a currency manipulator.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida answers questions during a session of the Lower House special committee on political reform at parliament in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 8, 2024

Kishida faces tough time constraints in parliament after bill's delay

The political funds bill only cleared the Lower House on Thursday, two days later than the LDP had expected, due to prolonged negotiations to amend the legislation.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivers a joint press conference with Chile's president after talks at the Chancellery in Berlin on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 11, 2024

Scholz heading for another election rout in eastern Germany

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his allies in government have little choice now but to go into survival mode.
Otowayama stable wrestlers in front of their stable. It may come as a surprise to some, but the use of ring names between wrestlers in the same stable isn’t all that common.­
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jun 12, 2024

Burning questions (and their answers) new fans may have about sumo

The slow month of June is as good a time as any for our columnist to answer some of the fan questions that crop up with regularity.
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.
Perhaps being seen in the company of your own children in the right places — playgrounds, schools, etc. — can make you seem more approachable and allow children to say exactly what’s on their mind.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 24, 2024

‘You’re a spy, then?’ The odd interactions of a non-Japanese father in Japan

Remember to keep your ears open whenever you’re near children and you’re guaranteed to hear something that’ll make you think.

Longform

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