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Indian Ambassador Sibi George says one of his main tasks in his post is to boost Japanese public and private investments the South Asian powerhouse.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 18, 2024

India’s envoy in Japan calls for boosted supply chain and defense cooperation

The ambassador’s remarks come after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to continue prioritizing ties with Japan.
Cadets at the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kure Recruit Training Center row in unison during a cutter boat drill in Kure Bay, Hiroshima Prefecture, in June.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Jul 29, 2024

MSDF’s Kure base faces recruitment challenges as youngsters shy away

The stressful nature of service and an increasing likelihood of actual combat are causing many to opt for other careers.
Myanmar's military marks the 72nd Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar on March 27, 2017.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 18, 2024

Thai government to meet banks over alleged transactions for Myanmar arms

Thailand's central bank may collaborate with international and local agencies to create a database on companies linked to Myanmar's junta.
Japan's tradition of offering investors gifts is nice. But with the stock market at record highs, such perks are no longer needed.
COMMENTARY
Jul 18, 2024

It’s time Japan's shareholders buy their own wine

The practice by Japanese companies of giving gifts once served as a good way to encourage trading novices to dabble in the stock market.
Akira Saito (second from right), who took office as MSDF chief of staff, and his predecessor Adm. Ryo Sakai (right) attend a ceremony at the Defense Ministry on Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2024

More allowance frauds discovered at Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Forces

The amount of special allowances that divers of the Maritime Self-Defense Force fraudulently received exceeds ¥53 million, not ¥43 million as initially stated.
Recent events in U.S. politics, including an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, a favorable court ruling and his nomination at the Republican National Convention, have strengthened the perception he may be “untouchable,” yet nothing is set in stone.
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 2024

Trump’s wild week and a changing U.S. presidential race

Recent events have reinforced the idea of the “Teflon Don,” an extraordinarily lucky man for whom the laws of politics do not apply.
French maritime police patrol the waters of the River Seine in Paris on Thursday.
OLYMPICS
Jul 21, 2024

Paris Olympics preparations hit the home stretch

Police with sniffer dogs checked the 6-kilometer route along the Seine ahead of the opening ceremony on the river.
Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jul 21, 2024

As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals

Can a 700-year-old dance have an effect on extreme heat or torrential rain? Probably not. When you're feeling powerless, though, any little thing helps.
Secret Service officers surround U.S. former President Donald Trump, the Republican  presidential candidate, as he attends the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 21, 2024

Secret Service says it denied earlier Trump requests for more federal resources

The denied requests for additional resources were not specifically for the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the former president survived an assassination attempt.
South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee and  President Yoon Suk-yeol listen as U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at an official state dinner, during Yoon's visit to Washington at the White House in April last year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 21, 2024

South Korea's first lady grilled over Dior bag and stock manipulation

Kim Keon-hee, has been questioned over allegations of stock manipulation and graft involving a $2,200 luxury handbag, prosecutors said Sunday.
Unfortunately, the Bank of Japan kept monetary policy too tight after the 1985 Plaza Accord, leaving Japan mired in deflation and recession for two decades. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2024

Does the world need a Plaza Accord 2.0?

Unfortunately, the Bank of Japan kept monetary policy too tight after 1985 Plaza Accord and Japan was mired in deflation and recession for two decades.
Workers engage in restoration work on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line in Gamagori, Aichi Prefecture, where two maintenance trains had derailed on Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2024

Accident halts Tokaido Shinkansen services between Hamamatsu and Nagoya

JR Central said the resumption work is expected to continue until the evening and it is not clear when the services will be fully resumed.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden walk through the colonnade on their way to the Oval Office at the White House in Washington in January 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 22, 2024

World leaders praise Biden’s record after U.S. president quits 2024 race

Leaders, including Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, said they would continue to watch the U.S. presidential race closely.
Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar cycles past the Negresco Hotel in Nice, France, on Sunday, during the 21st and final stage of the 111th edition of the Tour de France.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 22, 2024

Pogacar hails 'golden age' after securing third Tour de France title

The victory gave Pogacar the first Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double since Marco Pantani in 1998.
One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jul 22, 2024

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Homeless influencers, fantasy boyfriends and bubble-era bars — Kabukicho seems to have it all.
As of Sunday, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical reported 279 deaths and 2,274 hospital visits due to health issues related to its beni kōji supplements, among which 461 required hospitalization.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 23, 2024

Kobayashi Pharma's president and chairperson resign over health scandal

For the first time in its history, someone outside of the Osaka-based drugmaker's founding family will become its president.
Artificial intelligence is transforming various business sectors and the economy. But concerns about humanoid robots replacing all jobs are unfounded, as human dexterity will remain essential for the foreseeable future.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2024

AI is making robots smarter. They’ll need boundaries.

Where AI meets the physical world — and creates the potential for conflicts — is in manufacturing and logistics.
Hedwig Schreck is a third-generation Tokyoite whose grandfather first arrived in Japan from Germany in 1920 as a submarine engineer.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jul 24, 2024

Hedwig Schreck: ‘Art has always been part of my life’

A third-generation Tokyoite, the former TV producer has pivoted to teaching others about Japanese culture in her retirement.
A building in the city of Osaka where a syndicate suspected of conducting investment scams on social media operated from.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 24, 2024

90 arrested in Osaka over social media investment scam

Police raided four buildings in the city in the biggest bust of a syndicate involved in this kind of fraud in Japan.
Green products must meet customer needs at competitive prices to succeed. If such technologies gain traction, both the planet and consumers will benefit.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2024

Going green doesn’t have to be a giant money suck

Green products must meet customer needs at competitive prices to succeed. If such technologies gain traction, both the planet and consumers will benefit.
Devices used in a scam center in Manila that has been shut down by police. Scam centers have mushroomed across Southeast Asia, with crime syndicates luring, kidnapping or coercing workers into predatory online activity and raking in billions of dollars.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 25, 2024

Raid on Philippine gambling hub unravels elaborate scheme implicating mayor

The scandal has fueled calls for a ban on the online gambling industry over its links to financial scams, kidnapping, prostitution, human trafficking, torture and murder.
Norwegian and Australian players take part in a practice session ahead of the opening of the Paris Olympics at Eiffel Tower Stadium in Paris on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS
Jul 25, 2024

After joyless silence in Tokyo, Paris is ready to get the Olympic party started

No COVID-19 testing, no bubbles and no more locking out the fans. Paris marks a return to normal for an event that, like many, was brought to its knees by the pandemic.
Rafael Nadal trains at Roland Garros in Paris on Wednesday ahead of the start of the Olympic tennis tournament.
TENNIS
Jul 26, 2024

Nadal and Djokovic fighting time and new generation at Olympics

Nadal has won 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles in Paris but at 38 time is ticking for the Spaniard, who last month suffered his earliest exit from the French Open.
Ismael "El Mayo"  Zambada (left), cofounder of the Sinaloa Cartel and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of the cartel's other co-founder, were arrested in Texas this week in a dramatic achievement for U.S. law enforcement that could usher in a seismic shift to Mexico's criminal landscape.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 27, 2024

Captured alleged Mexican drug kingpin pleads not guilty to U.S. charges

The arrests were seen as a dramatic achievement for U.S. law enforcement that could usher in a seismic shift to Mexico's criminal landscape.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama embraces Vice President Kamala Harris while arriving to speak on the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid in the East Room of the White House in Washington in April  2022.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 27, 2024

Harris to lean on tight team and Obama staff in White House run

Here’s a look at the people in her orbit as she moves to reshape the campaign and form the nucleus of a potential new administration.
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.
This year's rice harvest is also feared to be impacted by the scorching heat, spurring concerns among producers and consumers.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2024

Heat waves impact Japan's rice quality, leading to shortage

Despite 2023's harvest volume being on par with previous years, high temperatures have caused rice grains to develop a cloudy look or break into pieces.
Railway workers and French police officers inspect the scene of an attack on the country's high-speed railway network on Friday.
WORLD
Jul 28, 2024

More trains, but few answers, after railway sabotage in France

While rail workers are claiming success, a key question still remains: Who did this and why?
Local residents of Sado, Niigata Prefecture, celebrate the decision to register the island's now-defunct gold mines as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site on Saturday.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2024

Sado faces tourism challenges after World Heritage listing

Thanks to its new UNESCO status, Sado forecasts an approximate 20% rise in visitors staying on the island.
Terunofuji accepts the Emperor's Cup after winning the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday.
SUMO
Jul 28, 2024

Terunofuji rebounds from stumbles to claim milestone 10th Emperor’s Cup

Thanks to a series of stumbles by the previously imperious yokozuna, the destination of the title was not decided until a playoff in the tournament’s final bout.

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