Search - 2023

 
 
The city of Kumamoto has seen a surge in the number of students from Taiwan, following the arrival of chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and related businesses in Kumamoto Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 31, 2024

Kumamoto public schools respond to influx of Taiwanese students

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s arrival in Kumamoto has heightened the need to adapt to the needs of Taiwanese families.
A stack of ¥10,000 bills equivalent to the year-end balance of banknotes in circulation would be 1,240 kilometers high, or about 328 times higher than the 3,776-meter Mount Fuji.
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2024

Japan's year-end banknote balance down for second straight year

The drop resulted from people increasingly opting for cashless payments.
A voter casts a ballot at a polling station in Tokyo on Oct. 27. Last year, incumbents in every major country that held a national election lost that vote, the first time that has happened in almost 120 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2024

The world is ever more angry. That is not good.

Hostility toward existing leadership stems from the belief that lives aren't improving and future generations will have fewer opportunities than previous ones.
An Air Self-Defense Force airman sets up a drone during a bilateral live fire exercise at Draughon Range, near Misawa Air Base, in Aomori Prefecture in July 2023.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jan 5, 2025

Taking a page from Ukraine war, SDF carves out growing role for drones

Whether for use in the air, on land or at sea, the SDF is gradually integrating these increasingly capable and often autonomous systems into their units.
Opium is harvested from poppies in Bang Laem Village, Shan State, Myanmar.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 31, 2024

Drugs, scams and sin: Myanmar’s war has made it the global crime capital

Growing opium poppies is illegal in Myanmar, but small-scale farmers see it is a relatively low-risk cash crop.
Japan's 2024 Word of the Year, "futehodo," is a phrase tied to a Netflix show and highlights the broader decline in the cultural significance of such awards, with recent selections often seen as superficial or promotional.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 31, 2024

Japan’s 2024 word of the year has no rizz

Some critics wondered why the word of the year award was, essentially, functioning as advertising for a TV show that is still available on streaming.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stands for the national anthem during an award ceremony in Kyiv on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 1, 2025

Zelenskyy vows Ukraine will do everything in 2025 to stop Russia

The Ukrainian leader's address caps a difficult year for the war-battered country, which has been fending off a better-resourced Russian army.
Arsenal's Gabriel Jesus (left) scores against Brentford during their Premier League match in London on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Jan 2, 2025

Gabriel Jesus plays starring role as Arsenal closes gap on Liverpool

Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli netted in quick succession soon after halftime to ensure Arsenal moved into second place above Nottingham Forest.
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers attempts a pass against the Rams during the second half of their game in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Dec. 22.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jan 2, 2025

Jets quarterback Rodgers ponders NFL future ahead of season finale

The 41-year-old Rodgers, a four-time NFL MVP, said he would make a decision about whether he'll play in 2025 before free agency in March.
Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks to members of the press shortly after he was sacked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who cited a lack of trust, at the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, Israel, of Nov. 5.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2025

Israel's ex-defense chief Gallant says he’s leaving parliament

His replacement would be more likely to support the ruling coalition, which has struggled at times to muster the votes it needs in parliament.
Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces keep watch during a security operation in Jenin in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Dec. 16.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2025

Anticipating Trump, Palestinian Authority eager to crush militants

Analysts say that the PA is trying to prove it can control the violence and demonstrate that it could bring stability to Gaza once the war is over.
BYD electric vehicles outside one of the company's dealerships in Beijing
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 2, 2025

BYD chalks up new record as it narrows EV sales gap with Tesla

China’s BYD enjoyed a year-end surge to push total sales to 4.25 million passenger cars last year, as the two seek to be the top-selling electric-vehicle maker of 2024.
A birth notification document issued by Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Family registers, which record and certify citizens' familial relationships from birth to death, currently do not include the phonetic readings of names.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 2, 2025

Family registers to incorporate phonetic readings of names from end-May

Citizens who wish to register readings that differ from those listed on certificates of residence must notify municipal governments within a year.
After a dramatic 2024, where Japan saw political upheaval, a record stock market, a major quake and a plane crash and dramatic escape, 2025, with events like major anime sequels, the Osaka World Expo, rising foreign acquisitions, we should expect a transformative year.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 2, 2025

Anime, M&A and the expo: What to watch for in Japan’s 2025

No doubt 2025 has more surprises in store for Japan after an unusually intense 12 months.
Police officers investigate the scene after 15 people were killed by a man driving a truck in an attack during New Year's celebrations, in New Orleans on Thursday.
WORLD
Jan 3, 2025

New Orleans attack shows enduring influence of Islamic State group

Since 2019, when then-U.S. President Donald Trump declared the group’s so-called caliphate had been defeated, Islamic State has "metastasized” elsewhere.
Elon Musk speaks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas, in November.
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2025

As Musk gains influence, questions hover over U.S. probes into his empire

Musk’s potential to have extraordinary clout with the new administration raises questions about the fate of federal investigations affecting his business empire.
A brewer stirs the mix for making sake at a brewery in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 3, 2025

Brooklyn brewers take on sake, America's new hip tipple

The ancient Japanese drink, which has been exported to the United States for at least a century, is being increasingly localized.
A United Steelworkers sign is seen outside the Great Lakes Works United States Steel plant in River Rouge, Michigan, in September.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 3, 2025

Biden to block U.S. Steel sale to Nippon Steel, source says

Biden's call to block the deal was taken despite contrary efforts by some senior advisers concerned that it could hurt U.S.- Japan relations.
Poland's Iga Swiatek celebrates after winning her match against Britain's Katie Boulter during the United Cup in Sydney on Thursday.
TENNIS
Jan 3, 2025

Iga Swiatek carries Poland into United Cup semifinals

Iga Swiatek settled the tie after an almighty battle with Katie Boulter.
U.S. President Joe Biden decided Friday to block the proposed $14.9 billion purchase of U.S. Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel, with the firms blasting the decision, calling it a "clear violation of due process" and a political move, and vowing to "take all appropriate action" to protect their legal rights.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 4, 2025

Biden blocks Nippon Steel’s $14.1 billion takeover of U.S. Steel

The two firms blasted the decision, calling it a "clear violation of due process" and a political move, and saying they would "take all appropriate action" in response.
An entrance sign for Nippon Steel's East Nippon Works Kashima Area facility is pictured in Kashima, Ibaraki Prefecture, last month.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Jan 4, 2025

Nippon Steel rejection shows national security means whatever you want

Experts and former officials say the decision signals how sharply the U.S. has turned away from the principles of globalization.
A man pushes a cart along Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles
WORLD / Society
Jan 4, 2025

Ahead of Trump term, U.S. cities grapple with homelessness

The crisis worsened with the end of pandemic-related aid, and are driven by a lack of affordable housing, as well as inflation and low wages.
DOPS Director Dr. Jim Tucker (back row, from left), David Acunzo, Marina Weiler, Philip Cozzolino (front row, from left) Marieta Pehlivanova and Elliot Gish, pose for a photo on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, on July 15. Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the "beyond” possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case.
WORLD / Society
Jan 4, 2025

Do you believe in life after death? These scientists study it.

Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the “beyond” possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case.
Recovering Ukrainian soldiers pray at the Holy Cell of Saints Archangels Falakrou in Mount Athos, Greece
WORLD
Jan 4, 2025

Wounded Ukrainian soldiers find solace in Greek monasteries

They arrived with marks of war — one with a head scar, another with both legs amputated above the knee, and some with invisible mental wounds.
U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock, Pennsylvania, in December 2019. The Biden administration blocked the $14 billion takeover of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel on Friday, citing grounds that the sale posed a threat to national security.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Jan 5, 2025

Biden’s decision on Nippon Steel deal followed divide in his orbit

The split was emblematic of so many shifts in U.S. policy — including of Biden’s pledge to build trust with allies and the race against China.
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on houses, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip, on Saturday.
WORLD
Jan 5, 2025

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza Strip as new ceasefire talks begin

A renewed push is underway to reach a ceasefire and return Israeli hostages before Donald Trump returns to the U.S. Presidency.
An Israeli soldier sits atop a tank as it drives into the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, on Dec. 13.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 5, 2025

U.S. plans $8 billion arms sale to Israel

Some of the munitions deliveries could be furnished through current U.S. stock, while the majority would take up to several years to deliver.
At the new L'Abysse Osaka, Yannick Alleno both pays homage to and casts aside the tradition around Japan's national dish.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 5, 2025

Now in Osaka, Yannick Alleno wants ‘flavors people have never experienced’

Opened in late October, Sushi L'Abysse Osaka is the Michelin-starred chef’s first outpost in Asia.
Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol rally near his official residence in Seoul on Friday morning. Right-wing YouTube​rs helped Yoon win his election. They are now his allies in the wake of his botched imposition of martial law.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 5, 2025

How fear and conspiracy theories fuel South Korea’s political crisis

Right-wing YouTube​rs helped President Yoon Suk Yeol​ win his election. They are now his allies in the wake of his botched imposition of martial law.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
WORLD / Politics
Jan 5, 2025

Italian Prime Minister Meloni meets with Trump at his Florida resort

The Italian leader's trip comes days before she is to meet U.S. President Joe Biden during a visit to Rome from Thursday to Jan. 12.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake