Search - 2023

 
 
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds up a piece of paper with information about tariff rates at the White House on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2025

The U.S. says Japan has a 700% tariff on American rice. Is that the case?

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's accusation describes only a small portion of U.S. rice imported by Japan.
Bookshelves storing disaster-related documents at the Sendai City Archives in Sendai in February
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2025

Local governments struggle to preserve records of March 2011 disaster

Fourteen years later, securing storage space has become a growing obstacle as the volume of records continues to increase.
Masao Adachi’s “Escape” is a fictionalized biopic about fugitive Satoshi Kirishima, played by Rairu Sugita (left) and Kanji Furutachi (right).
CULTURE / Film
Mar 13, 2025

‘Escape’: Masao Adachi’s fugitive biopic salutes a kindred spirit

The 85-year-old director keeps his revolutionary fire burning with a respectful portrait of a wanted terrorist who spent nearly half a century on the run.
An electronic dictionary section at a mass retailer in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in 2005
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 13, 2025

Electronic dictionary market shrinking in Japan

Sales of electric dictionaries are falling in Japan amid declining birthrates and widespread use of smartphone apps.
Blue pipelines to transport seawater, part of the facility operated by Tepco where treated radioactive water is released from the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant into the sea, are seen during a treated water dilution and discharge facility tour for foreign media in the town of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, in August 2023.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2025

Tepco releases treated water from Fukushima plant for last time in fiscal 2024

The operator of the nuclear plant plans to discharge 7,800 tons of treated water containing tritium, a radioactive substance, into the Pacific during the current release.
Iga Swiatek hits a shot as she defeats Karolina Muchova during their fourth-round match at Indian Wells on Wednesday.
TENNIS
Mar 13, 2025

Swiatek and Medvedev book spots in Indian Wells quarters

For Swiatek, victory continued her relentless march through the Californian desert tournament, where the Polish second seed has dropped only six games in her three matches.
Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of the media about the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia University during the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in New York on June 1, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 13, 2025

Judge extends ban on deportation of U.S. student over opposition to war in Gaza

The case that has become a flash point following a pledge by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to deport some pro-Palestinian college activists.
Noor Abdalla, 28, wife of Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement looks at an ultrasound photograph in New York on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 13, 2025

Wife of student arrested in U.S. says she was naive to think he would be secure

Two days before U.S. agents came, her husband asked her if she knew what to do if immigration agents were at their door.
By type of social media, crimes against children in which they were targeted through their use of social media took place most frequently through Instagram for the first time, at 461 victims, followed by X at 398 victims, and TikTok, at 82 victims.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 13, 2025

Children targeted for crime through social media fell 10.8% in 2024

The total was the lowest in the past 10 years and fell for the fifth consecutive year, the National Police Agency said.
Participants perform Kagami Biraki (the opening of the sake barrel) at an event promoting this year's World Exposition held at the Japanese Embassy in Brasilia on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2025

Japan embassy in Brazil holds Osaka Expo promotional event

The tourism promotion event comes as this year marks the 130th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries being established.
Alcohol is shaping up to be a key friction point in the brewing trade war.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 14, 2025

Trump threatens tariffs on European wine and spirits in escalating trade war

The threat came in response to a European Union plan to impose tariffs on American whiskey and other products next month.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and others attend a Cabinet meeting on Friday at the Prime Minister's Office
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 14, 2025

Japan touts benefits of foreign development aid

Japanese aid has helped the country win trust globally, the government said in an annual white paper.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators camp out at an encampment at Columbia University in April last year.
WORLD / Society
Mar 14, 2025

Harvard, Yale, Columbia fall in line after funding threats

U.S. universities are taking a harder line following threats of funding cuts by the White House over their criticized handling of pro-Palestine rallies last year.
Bong Joon-ho’s latest film “Mickey 17” is centered on a man so desperate for work he’s agreed to be endlessly “reprinted” and endlessly killed doing super-risky jobs.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 14, 2025

The sci-fi satire 'Mickey 17' might be a classic — someday

Bong Joon-ho's latest dystopian film offers a brutal metaphor for societal inequality.
Spurs guard De'Aaron Fox looks on during the first quarter of the game against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center on March 7.
BASKETBALL
Mar 14, 2025

Spurs guard De'Aaron Fox set for season-ending surgery

The 27-year-old was cast in San Antonio as the co-star to second-year standout big man Victor Wembanyama.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc during a practice session ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, in Melbourne on Friday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Mar 14, 2025

Leclerc fastest in second Australian GP practice as Hamilton slots fifth

Yuki Tsunoda has a good session in his RB and finished with the fourth-fastest time.
According to the Nippon Bonsai Growers Cooperative, there were about 30 cases of bonsai theft last year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 14, 2025

Bonsai thefts sweep Japan as miniature trees grow more popular

About 30 cases of such theft occurred last year, according to the Nippon Bonsai Growers Cooperative.
Urbanization is amplifying pollen-related allergies as grasslands and soft soil give way to concrete and asphalt.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 14, 2025

As pollen season peaks, Japan's allergy struggle emerges from hibernation

In Tokyo and Sendai, high cedar pollen levels will persist into late March, followed by cypress pollen peaking from late March to early April.
The Nikkei stock average on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Tuesday. Many firms on the TSE have price-to-book ratios of less than 1, lowering the perceived quality of the exchange, which should consider taking steps to increase valuations and trading volume.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 14, 2025

Tokyo Stock Exchange must weed out underperforming firms

Tokyo wants to become Asia's top financial hub, but faces big obstacles. Among them, the presence of too many companies with low profitability and growth prospects.
President Donald Trump’s order making English the official language of the country is unnecessary, as nearly 80% of people in the U.S. already speak it at home.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 14, 2025

America doesn’t need an official language

After all, what is our shared culture if not the mix of cultures — including languages — that make and remake America every day?
Dentsu's headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2025

Watchdog finds Dentsu and other Japanese firms reluctant to accept price hikes

Dentsu, Nippon Express and Kohnan Shoji have kept their transaction prices with their partners unchanged without consultation despite rising raw materials costs.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on March 3.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 15, 2025

Trump administration weighs travel ban on dozens of countries, memo says

The move harkens back to Trump's first term ban on travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations.
Then-U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol attend an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework event at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 15, 2025

U.S. designated South Korea a 'sensitive' country amid talk of nuclear weapons

The move after the South Korean president briefly imposed martial law and amid talk of Seoul potentially developing nuclear weapons.
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Bangkok in August 2023. Thaksin has vowed cheaper power in Thailand to allow the country to emerge as a data center hub.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 15, 2025

Thaksin vows cheaper power to turn Thailand into data center hub

Thailand aims to slash electricity costs by more than 25% by next year to emerge as a hub for data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
France's scrumhalf Nolann Le Garrec holds the trophy as France's players celebrate winning the Six Nations tournament on Saturday at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, near Paris.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Mar 16, 2025

Record-breaking France clinches Six Nations title with Scotland win

Les Bleus matched England's number of titles since Italy joined the championship in 2000 and did so in style, scoring 30 tries in a pulsating campaign.
Hanshin pitcher Hiroto Saiki threw five scoreless innings as the Tigers topped the Dodgers in an exhibition game on Sunday in Tokyo.
BASEBALL
Mar 16, 2025

Tigers shut down Ohtani to take exhibition game over Dodgers

After giving up a home run to the Dodgers star two years ago, Hiroto Saiki got the best of Shohei Ohtani on Sunday as the Tigers completed a weekend sweep of MLB clubs.
A ship fires missiles toward an undisclosed location, after U.S. President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video released on Saturday.
WORLD
Mar 17, 2025

U.S. vows to keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop

The Houthi-run health ministry said U.S. airstrikes on Saturday killed at least 53 people.
Mirra Andreeva with the championship trophy after defeating Aryna Sabalenka in three sets in the women’s final of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Sunday.
TENNIS
Mar 17, 2025

Russian teen Andreeva beats top seed Sabalenka in Indian Wells final

The 17-year-old Andreeva is the youngest women's champion at the tournament since Serena Williams in 1999.
People wave flags next to an Iranian missile on display during the 46th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran on Feb. 10.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 17, 2025

Iran's rulers caught between Trump's crackdown and a fragile economy

Tehran is increasingly concerned that mounting public anger over economic hardships could erupt into mass protests, officials say.
Newcastle defender Dan Burn (center) celebrates with teammates after scoring the opening goal of the English League Cup final between Liverpool and Newcastle United at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.
SOCCER
Mar 17, 2025

Newcastle stuns Liverpool to end 56-year trophy drought

Eddie Howe's side made history at Wembley with a superb display that left the runaway Premier League leaders shell-shocked.

Longform

Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo