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Gold medalist Coco Yoshizawa and silver medalist Liz Akama celebrate after the women's skateboarding street competition at La Concorde in Paris on Sunday.
OLYMPICS / Skateboarding
Jul 28, 2024

Coco Yoshizawa skates to gold for Japan at Paris Olympics

Yoshizawa led after the preliminary round and threw down the highest-scoring trick of the afternoon to rally past teammate Liz Akama and win the gold medal.
Though some in the country rejected their wartime associations, the Japanese government made the Hinomaru flag and "Kimigayo" anthem official 25 years ago.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Aug 1, 2024

Japan Times 1999: Flag, anthem now official

After some controversy, the Hinomaru flag was made official alongside the country's national anthem, "Kimigayo."
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks on Monday at the first meeting of a panel on eradicating discrimination and prejudice against people with disabilities.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 29, 2024

Japan to draw up plan to tackle discrimination against disabled people

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida revealed the government's intention to make the plan at the first meeting of a new panel on the issue.
Joining the revolution brought by the era-defining release of ChatGPT requires a supply of cash that only tech behemoths like Microsoft can provide.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 29, 2024

AI startups swap independence for Big Tech's deep pockets

In the past few months promising companies have seen founders and key executives quietly exit the stage to join the world's dominant tech companies.
Inscriptions on a disaster monument in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture (left), can be seen clearly when illuminated using a smartphone app "Hikari Takuhon" developed by researcher Hideyuki Uesugi.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jul 30, 2024

Number of natural disaster monuments on state map increasing in Japan

Stone monuments inscribed with descriptions of the damage caused by past natural disasters and lessons from forerunners have been erected since ancient times.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is stepping up efforts to position himself as a peacemaker in regards to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 30, 2024

China seizes chance to play peacemaker in Ukraine before U.S. vote

Xi is looking to forge a bigger diplomatic role at a time when Kyiv and the broader European region are bracing for a dramatic shift in foreign policy from the U.S.
Tadanobu Kanno, the vice principal of Shoin Gakuen Fukushima High School in the city of Fukushima, goes through the itinerary of the school's trip to the Kansai region this year.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Aug 5, 2024

Fukushima schools hesitate to resume overseas trips

The yen's weakness and inflation have resulted in the cost of such excursions to surge — in some cases, more than double what it was prepandemic.
China's President Xi Jinping (right) walks with Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for a meeting in Beijing on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 30, 2024

Meloni touts China as a ‘key player’ in the Ukraine peace process

The Italian leader’s charm offensive in China comes just months after her abandonment of China's flagship investment pact threatened to derail bilateral ties.
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.
Hamas' political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, attends a swearing-in ceremony for new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at the parliament in Tehran on Tuesday.
WORLD
Jul 31, 2024

Hamas says political chief Ismail Haniyeh killed in 'Zionist' strike in Tehran

The group said he was killed in a "Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran" after he joined the inauguration of the new Iranian president.
People carry the Venezuelan national flag to protest the election results that awarded Nicolas Maduro with a third term, in Maracaibo, Venezuela, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 31, 2024

'We are not afraid': Venezuelan opposition puts up peaceful resistance

The demonstrators were among millions of Venezuelans who reject the election results.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attend a ceremony to decorate India's leader with the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 9.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 31, 2024

India emerges as player in bid to mediate end to Ukraine war

India has become more vocal in its calls for a negotiated solution, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly considering a visit to Kyiv in August.
The front facade at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture. The stadium, widely regarded as the spiritual home of Japanese baseball, turns 100 on Thursday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 31, 2024

Koshien at 100: 'Sacred' dirt, the Hanshin Tigers and a storied high school tourney

For baseball fans across Japan, Koshien Stadium — which celebrates its 100th anniversary on Thursday — is more than just a ballpark. It's a cathedral.
Jailed Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza stands behind a glass wall of an enclosure for defendants during a court hearing to consider an appeal against his prison sentence, in Moscow, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 1, 2024

Signs of major prisoner exchange between Russia and the West multiply

Many major figures jailed in Russia have suddenly disappeared in a sign they might be being gathered for a swap.
The amount of money stolen in fraud cases linked to social media in the first half of 2024 exceeded that of the whole 2023, the National Police Agency said.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 1, 2024

¥66 billion stolen in Japan via online scams in first half of 2024

Of the investment fraud cases reported, 51.6% involved advertisements on social media platforms.
An event that was part of a regional sumo tour in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, in April 2019.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Aug 1, 2024

Summer sumo tour may be tough for wrestlers, but it's a boon for fans

Grueling tours can be quite taxing for top pros, but they offer fans in small cities a rare chance of seeing their heroes up close.
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.
Canadian teen Summer McIntosh swims to Olympic gold in the women's 200-meter butterfly event on Thursday in Paris.
OLYMPICS / Swimming
Aug 2, 2024

Summer storm hits Paris as McIntosh claims second swimming gold

Three days after a dominant win in the 400-meter individual medley, the 17-year-old delivered another clinical swim that oozed with teenage exuberance.
Photographer Gaku Lange says Japan's film photography scene is growing, but it still lags behind overseas communities.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 5, 2024

Looking at Japan’s ‘tribal’ photography scene through a new lens

More young people in Tokyo are ditching smartphones for film cameras, but the old guard isn't necessarily pleased about it.
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.
Members of the Romanian Olympic women's gymnastics team check their smartphones during a training session early last month.
OLYMPICS
Aug 2, 2024

Social media trolls beware: Olympic athletes have had enough

Online abuse has become such an issue that the Japanese Olympic Committee released a statement asking fans to mind their manners on the internet.
Simone Biles alongside teammate Sunisa Lee after they finished with gold and bronze, respectively, in the women's all-around competition at the Olympics.
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Aug 4, 2024

Simone Biles proves to be unifying figure for sports fans in Paris

Stars from other sports and rabid fans from the U.S. and other countries have turned out in droves to watch Biles, proving her position as a unifying figure.
Palestinians work to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on a tent camp for displaced people in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday.
WORLD
Aug 5, 2024

Israeli strikes Gaza schools and hospital compound after talks fail

Israel says Hamas regularly embeds in civilian institutions, using Gaza's population as human shields, which Hamas denies.
Hundreds gathered near Beirut's port on Sunday to mark four years since a catastrophic blast (pictured), one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions, killed more than 220 people, injured at least 6,500 and devastated swaths of Lebanon's capital.
WORLD
Aug 5, 2024

Four years and no justice: Lebanon marks port blast anniversary

Nobody has been held responsible for the August 4, 2020 blast — one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions.
Students inside a clean room of a college of technology in Kumamoto Prefecture. The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association started holding special classes at colleges of technology to attract more people to the semiconductor industry.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 5, 2024

Japan chip industry talent race heats up

Job opportunities have expanded notably in Kyushu and Hokkaido.
Japan's Shinnosuke Oka poses with his gold medal during the podium ceremony for the artistic gymnastics men's horizontal bar event of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena in Paris on Monday.
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Aug 5, 2024

Japan's Shinnosuke Oka wins third gold at Olympics on horizontal bar

The 20-year-old scored the same 14.533 score as Colombia's Angel Barajas, but took gold due to his higher execution mark.
Sheikh Hasina, then the prime minister of Bangladesh, in her office in Dhaka on June 11, 2023
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 6, 2024

Swift downfall of iron-fisted Sheikh Hasina marks new era in Bangladesh

Hasina saw her 15-year rule as Bangladesh’s prime minister unravel over the course of a bloody weekend that left scores of people dead.
Kauli Vaast of France competes in the Olympic men's gold-medal match in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, on Monday.
OLYMPICS / Surfing
Aug 6, 2024

Vaast takes men's surfing gold for France and Tahiti

Caroline Marks of the United States added Olympic gold to her 2023 world title with a tight victory over Brazil's Tatiana Weston-Webb in the women's final.
Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, speaks during an event at Earth Rider Brewery in Superior, Wisconsin, on Jan. 25.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 7, 2024

How Tim Walz pushed Minnesota toward aggressive climate policies

Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor tapped to become the Democratic vice presidential nominee, has accelerated his state’s embrace of clean energy and electric vehicles.
The Cenotaph for the A-Bomb Victims, designed by Kenzo Tange, is built on the north-south axis of peace, which includes the Atomic Bomb Dome, in the city of Hiroshima.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 7, 2024

'Axis of Peace' continues to shape Hiroshima's distinctive urban development

The city's reconstruction plan, drawn up in 1946, included a plan to build the park and other facilities, and Tange's design proposal was picked from 145 proposals.

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