Search - 2023

 
 
Tsuyoshi Domoto in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on March 28. As an entrepreneur, Domoto experienced plenty of setbacks but maintains a positive attitude and continues to pursue his dreams.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 30, 2025

Tokyo tech failures lean into misfortune, mistakes and missteps

At a Tokyo Fail Club gathering, speakers share candid talks about ventures gone wrong, bankruptcy and depression, touting a message of persistence in the face of adversity.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures during a news conference in 2021.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 31, 2025

Netanyahu offers Hamas leaders Gaza exit but demands group disarm

Hamas has expressed a willingness to relinquish Gaza's administration, but has warned its weapons are a "red line."
Fishermen unload Pacific bluefin tuna off Miyakejima island in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2025

Tokyo aiming to establish brand power of fish caught off its islands

Tuna hauls around the islands of Hachijojima and Miyakejima are on the rise, as catch quotas have been expanded thanks to the growing tuna population in the Pacific Ocean.
Customers browse Amorepacific cosmetics at the store inside the company's headquarters in Seoul.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 31, 2025

Seoul overtakes Paris in beauty boom with dealmakers rushing in

South Korea last year became the top exporter of cosmetics to the United States, overtaking France, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Storage tanks of contaminated water at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2025

Tepco completes treated water discharge in Fukushima for fiscal 2024

Tepco started the treated water discharge in August 2023, releasing about 85,800 tons so far.
Aaron Rodgers threw for 3,897 yards and 28 touchdowns in 2024.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Mar 31, 2025

Steelers keeping QB options open after meeting with Aaron Rodgers

Head coach Mike Tomlin is not ruling out Mason Rudolph as the team's potential starting quarterback.
Prices of over 4,000 food and beverage products, including the Asahi Super Dry beer, will increase in April.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 31, 2025

Prices for 4,225 food and drink products set to rise in Japan

The price increases in April reflect rising wages and logistics costs being increasingly passed on to consumers, research firm Teikoku Databank says.
While AI advisers could improve decision-making by providing useful information, autonomous AI "agents" may erode human agency and exacerbate inequality, potentially leading to more conflict and job displacement.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2025

From advisers to autonomous 'agents,' how AI could reshape society

While AI could serve as a good adviser to humans — providing useful and reliable information — autonomous AI "agents" could become a problem.
Relatives and friends of prominent Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who died after she was injured by a Russian missile strike in the city of Kramatorsk, attend her funeral in Kyiv on July 4, 2023.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2025

Contemplating victory and defeat in Ukraine

Ukrainians and their friends still cling to hope for victory — some are idealistic, others just fueled by anger.
Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD
Apr 1, 2025

Bodies of 15 rescue workers recovered from Gaza grave, U.N. officials say

U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher said on X that the bodies were buried near "wrecked & well-marked vehicles."
Chinese officials have shared articles on social media accusing Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's (center) CK Hutchison Holdings of acting "in concert with U.S. hegemony” over its $22.8 billion sale of 43 ports around the world, including two in the Panama Canal.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 1, 2025

Xi showdown with Li Ka-shing threatens China’s pro-business push

Derailing the deal could give credence to claims that CK Hutchison is ultimately controlled by Beijing — a perception with implications for private Chinese firms worldwide.
Metropolitan Police Department Superintendent-General Yuji Sakoda delivers a speech at the inauguration of a section specializing in the investigaton of lone offender terrorism on Tuesday in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 1, 2025

Tokyo police launch section for lone-offender terrorism

The move followed a series of attacks in recent years, including the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022.
The Japan Institute for Health Security will be responsible for information analysis, research and crisis response related to infectious diseases.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2025

Japanese version of U.S. CDC launched for future pandemics

The institute will be responsible for information analysis, research and crisis response related to infectious diseases.
Pelicans forward Zion Williamson (left) and Timberwolves guard Jaylen Clark attempt to go after a loose ball in the second half at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 19.
BASKETBALL
Apr 1, 2025

Pelicans' Williamson and McCollum out for remainder of NBA season

With seven games left in the regular season the Pelicans are next to last in the Western Conference.
A ship fires missiles at 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 screenshot of a handout video released on March 15.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 1, 2025

White House says strikes killed Houthi missile expert, but questions linger

The U.S. military has so far declined to confirm the death, and the identity of the Houthi commander in question remains unclear.
Lawyer Akira Takeuchi (center), the head of a third-party panel commissioned by Fuji TV to investigate a series of scandals at the broadcaster, fields questions along with other panel members at a news conference on Monday in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
JAPAN / Media / FOCUS
Apr 1, 2025

What the Fuji TV third-party probe uncovered

The panel concluded that TV personality Masahiro Nakai committed "sexual violence" against a female newscaster and that there is a culture of harassment at the broadcaster.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is launched at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 1, 2025

SpaceX eyes Starlink hub with multiple ground stations in Vietnam, sources say

The move would herald its launch in the country and would help authorities police internet traffic.
Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 9.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2025

Israel says there's plenty of food in Gaza — U.N. says that's ridiculous

No aid has been delivered to the Palestinian enclave since March 2.
A F-18 jet lands on the runway of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier during military exercises in 2024.
WORLD
Apr 2, 2025

Pentagon sends second aircraft carrier to Mideast as Iran tensions rise

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered additional forces to the Middle East, including the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group and aircraft.
Nottingham Forest midfielder Anthony Elanga (right) runs to score the opening goal during an English Premier League match against Manchester United in Nottingham, England, on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Apr 2, 2025

Elanga wonder-goal sinks Man Utd as Forest eye Champions League berth

Forest are within touching distance of reaching the Champions League for the first time since 1980-81.
A 37-year-old son of death-row inmate Masumi Hayashi, who goes by the pseudonym of Koji Hayashi, stands in front of the land of the family's previous house in January.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 2, 2025

Family fights for death-row retrial under Japan's 'snail-paced' system

Japan's current retrial system is often labeled the "unopenable door" because the chances of being granted a legal do-over are so slim.
The Trump administration moved this week to suspend dozens of federal grants to Princeton University, the fourth Ivy League school that has seen its financial support from Washington reduced or explicitly threatened since March.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2025

Princeton's U.S. grants frozen, following Trump's moves against other schools

Princeton's president said government agencies including NASA and the defense and energy departments notified the university of the move.
Rozan Al-Khazendar (second from left), an entrepreneur from the Gaza Strip, speaks to Kiyomi Kitamura (left), her Japanese partner in a T-shirt venture to raise funds for the Palestinian enclave, during a meeting at her office in the outskirts of Cairo, last December.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 2, 2025

Gaza woman launches clothing brand with Japanese partner

Entrepreneur Rozan Al-Khazendar is collaborating with a mail-order business operator out of Shiga Prefecture to launch a website selling T-shirts to fund aid to the region.
A report from Dai-ichi Life Research Institute shows that the cost of typical food items eaten at the gatherings known as hanami has risen 21.4% in the past six years.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 2, 2025

Inflation casts shadow over Japan’s cherry blossom season

A report shows that the cost of typical food items eaten at flower viewing gatherings has risen 21.4% in the past six years.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 2, 2025

A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers

Syndicates are increasingly targeting middle- to upper-class individuals from across the world through something as harmless as online video games.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is reasserting military influence in politics, pushing fiscal policies that challenge long-standing restraints and accelerating democratic backsliding — moves that are causing economic instability and political unease.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2025

Prabowo tries to remake Indonesia, but at what cost?

The economic and political pillars that emerged after the turmoil of 1998 are in peril. Markets are rightly apprehensive. 
Some students avoid using school restrooms altogether because of traditional squat toilets, a survey has found.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2025

For incoming first graders, a major hurdle awaits — Japanese squat toilets

According to one survey by the education ministry, roughly 1 in 4 students said they were unable to use the traditional toilets.
New students of the University of Tokyo attend an entrance ceremony at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo in April 2023.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2025

Half of college students in Japan worry about living costs

Some students have said they refrain from buying things more often than they have previously.
Tokyo police on Thursday sent to public prosecutors papers on six comedians from major Japanese entertainment agency Yoshimoto Kogyo on suspicion of gambling via online casino services.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 3, 2025

Papers on six Japanese comedians sent to prosecutors over online gambling

They are suspected of accessing and gambling on overseas online casino websites between January 2023 and December 2024.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan