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Lamposts and other signs throughout Hirogawa, Wakayama Prefecture, display warnings, evacuation routes and measurements of height above sea level. The town has been hit by eight tsunami in its recorded history.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Jul 21, 2024

Why Japanese researchers are looking to submarine cables for faster tsunami warnings

While Japan boasts one of the world's most sophisticated earthquake and tsunami detection systems, gaps still remain.
Ama female free divers, who fish in the ocean, lead volunteers as they swim with torches during Shirahama Ama festival in Minamiboso, Chiba Prefecture, on Saturday.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2024

Short of ama female free divers, Chiba festival turns to volunteers

Age and disinterest have reduced the number of women willing to make a livelihood out of this type of diving.
A lone tree stands near a water trough on the outskirts of Walgett, in New South Wales, Australia, in 2018. Energy analysts said high construction costs, plus Australia's lack of nuclear expertise and abundant land and sunshine, make nuclear a less logical choice in the country.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 23, 2024

Nuclear wildcard reignites Australia's climate wars

Ahead of expected polls, the country's federal opposition has unveiled plans to slow the roll-out of renewable energy and build a network for nuclear reactors.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 24, 2024

'Dark and sorrowful day': New Zealand PM promises reform after inquiry finds 200,000 abused in care

Nearly one in three children and vulnerable adults in care from 1950 to 2019 experienced some form of abuse, according to a public enquiry.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2024

What the ‘extreme’ Project 2025 says and who wrote it

Recent polling shows there has been a dramatic uptick in awareness and negative views of Project 2025 since late June, when U.S. Democrats began emphasizing it.
A construction worker during a heat wave in Folsom, California.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 25, 2024

What the temperature doesn’t tell you about extreme heat’s hazards

After its nationwide rollout in April, the HeatRisk forecasting tool is getting a real-world test as deadly temperatures stress much of the U.S.
Family members of Gary Gerbes, founder of the Mongrel Mob gang, gather ahead of the release of the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care outside New Zealand's Parliament House in Wellington on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 25, 2024

Survivors recount trauma as New Zealand releases child abuse report

Many survivors suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and resorted to substance abuse and violence as a result of the trauma.
Summer in Japan is now consistently brutal enough to drive you indoors and keep you there until autumn.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jul 27, 2024

When did summer in Japan stop being fun?

Summer in Japan used to be something to enjoy. Now, it’s something to endure.
More tourists than ever are guided around Japan based on the content they consume online, but can those same creators help direct them to less-populated areas of the country?
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Jul 29, 2024

Influencers helped cause overtourism. Can they help fix it?

“I don't want to use filters or put out content just for the sake of views and followers,” one content creator says. “I want to show people what the real Japan is.”
Flames and smoke rise from a burning wildfire, as seen from a highway in Jasper, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 26, 2024

Wildfire roars through a Canadian town popular with tourists

The town is in the heart of Jasper National Park, which is one of Canada’s premier tourist destinations, receiving about 2.5 million visitors each year.
Kiyomitsu Nagai (right), head of Tsukui Yamayuri-en, and others offer a prayer before a memorial monument on Friday, the eighth anniversary of a knife attack at the prefectural care home for people with disabilities in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2024

Memorial ceremony held for 2016 care home attack victims

The memorial ceremony was attended by 89 people, including bereaved families, who offered a moment of silence for the victims and laid out flowers.
TikTok has deployed Washington power brokers and $1,500-an-hour attorneys to fend off a new law barring the app unless its Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, divests.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jul 27, 2024

TikTok’s survival is at stake in all-out fight against U.S. ban

TikTok has deployed Washington power brokers and $1,500-an-hour attorneys to fend off a new law barring the app unless ByteDance divests.
Sora Shirai trains at the Olympic skateboarding venue in Paris on Thursday.
OLYMPICS / Skateboarding
Jul 28, 2024

Will these sensational skateboarding tricks win Japan Olympic gold?

Japanese skateboarders like Yuto Horigome and Sora Shirai are creating some of the most difficult tricks in the history of the sport, and landing them in high style.
The latest research indicates that heat stress is likely to worsen the condition of people with Alzheimer’s disease — which accounts for over half of all dementia cases in Japan — by making them more irritated or exacerbating their cognitive decline.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Boiling Point
Jul 29, 2024

For aging Japan, a troubling link between heat and dementia

The latest research indicates that heat can exacerbate cognitive decline and worsen dementia symptoms.
A man with a whip tries to control a crowd of Sudanese refugees waiting to receive food at an impromptu aid distribution on the outskirts of a refugee camp in Adre, Chad, on July 8. As starvation spreads in Sudan, its military is blocking the United Nations from bringing food into the country via the most straightforward route.
WORLD
Jul 29, 2024

As starvation spreads in Sudan, military blocks aid trucks at border

Distrust and the loss of border control is hindering delivery of food by the United Nations via the most straightforward route.
Nicolas Maduro speaks to members of the media after casting a ballot in Caracas on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 29, 2024

Venezuela opposition rejects Maduro election win

Venezuela’s political opposition has vehemently rejected the electoral authority’s ruling that Nicolas Maduro was reelected as the nation’s president, calling on the military to intervene. The U.S. and some Latin American neighbors also raised concerns about the official result.
Inside TSMC’s plant in Taiwan. Chip plants, with rows of advanced equipment, require massive amounts of electricity.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Aug 5, 2024

TSMC’s Kumamoto plant pledges to use 100% renewables despite high costs

The move is not just an exercise of corporate responsibility but also a response to demands from the chipmaker's large customers.
Technicians assemble a component of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the CERN nuclear research facility in Cessy, France, in March 2007. International cooperation in science is essential for solving global challenges and maintaining innovation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2024

Geopolitics threatens science and societal progress

In this world, the prospect of greater controls or reduced international cooperation can only be damaging.
Rescue workers at the scene of an Israeli airstrike at a residential building in the southern suburbs of Beirut, early on Wednesday.
WORLD
Jul 31, 2024

Israel says Hezbollah senior commander killed in Beirut strike

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the strike killed Fuad Shukr, who was seen as the most important aide to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
Police officers stand near a billboard with an image of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 1, 2024

Venezuela braces for possibility of more opposition arrests

The U.S.-based Carter Center, which observed the vote, said Venezuela's election "cannot be considered democratic."
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida rides on a self-driving bus in Taki, Mie Prefecture, on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2024

Japan to allow driverless cars on 25 public roads by March 2025

Level 4 driverless vehicles will also be seen traveling under specific conditions on some 10 routes after going through a shortened screening process .
Then U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, on June 30, 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 1, 2024

North Korea wants to restart nuclear talks if Trump wins, says ex-diplomat

The former diplomat said North Korea has also set Russia, the U.S. and Japan as its top foreign policy priorities.
A man walks next to an office building of FSD (Fondation Suisse de Déminage), a nongovernmental humanitarian organization, damaged during a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on July 24.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 1, 2024

Russia vs Ukraine: the biggest war of the fake news era

More than three-quarters of the Ukrainian population get their news from social media, far more than any other source of information.
As metal prices rise, so do cases of theft, with more and an increasing number of metal cables being stolen from solar power plants in Japan.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 1, 2024

Japan's solar plants see over 9,000 cases of cable theft since 2023

The survey were the first to be conducted by the National Police Agency on the situation, at a time when metal prices are rising.
Founded in the early 2000s, Ichiro's Malt has since become a third pole in Japan's whisky world dominated by beverage giants.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 4, 2024

In sleepy Chichibu, Japan's whisky landscape is quietly shifting

Ichiro’s signature flavor profile of rich, woodsy flavors complemented by a clear fruitiness owes in large part to the tempermental 'mizunara' Japanese oak.
If you’re looking for a great dog, run — don’t walk — to adopt Jasper before it’s too late.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Aug 5, 2024

Golden boy Jasper won't take long to find his new home

Affectionate, smart and super friendly, Jasper is not expected to stay at ARK long before some scoops him up.
A crowd gathers at the main Green Stage on Saturday to watch headline act Kraftwerk. It looked to be the pioneering electronic band's last performance in Japan, and included a tribute to Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto.
CULTURE / Music / Photo essay
Aug 5, 2024

A weekend in Naeba: What went on offstage at Fuji Rock '24

The summer music festival has both its size and location going for it in building a communal experience off the stages.
People pray at the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima to mark the anniversary of the dropping of the A-bomb in 1945. Over half a century on, the global framework to stop nuclear weapons proliferation needs a serious rethink.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 5, 2024

What stands in the way of a nuclear weapon-free world?

Almost 80 years after the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the world is still far from abolishing nuclear weapons due to a crumbling of the nonproliferation architecture.
Hiroshima citizens place flowers at the Cenotaph, commemorating those lost in the atomic bombing of the city, on Tuesday, the 79th anniversary of the attack.
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2024

Hiroshima marks 79 years since atomic bombing as nuclear war fears rise

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui stressed the need to “not be resigned to pessimism” as conflicts across globe prompt growing focus on nuclear deterrence.
Commuters take a subway home at Sungsu station in Seoul on July 15.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 6, 2024

Declaring ‘crisis,’ South Korean firms tell managers to work more

In South Korea, the five-day workweek is only a generation old, introduced by labor laws in 2004.

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