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A polling station is set up at the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai for the Lower House elections in October 2021. Japanese nationals living abroad have to travel to diplomatic missions that serve as polling stations to cast their votes during elections.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 30, 2024

Internet voting for Japanese abroad remains a distant prospect

Apart from the need to revise an existing law, concerns remain over the integrity of online identity verification and the confidentiality of votes.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako speak to evacuees at a shelter in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in March.
JAPAN
May 1, 2024

Emperor Naruhito marks five years since enthronement

The emperor's first five years on the throne were largely overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
JAPAN / Politics
May 1, 2024

Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip

Widespread use of biomass as car fuel makes Brazil an ideal import partner for Japan.
The root cause of yen weakness lies in the U.S., not Japan, with the currency falling to its weakest since around 1990.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 1, 2024

Japan should leave its currency bazooka at home

The root cause of yen weakness lies in the U.S., not Japan. That makes the latter's options very limited.
People try out the new iPhone 15 Pro in Shanghai in September 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 2, 2024

Apple tapping AI to boost iPhone demand ahead of expected sales decline

Wall Street expects a slight decline in iPhone sales, and analysts estimate quarterly revenue to fall by the most since the winter of 2022.
Optica headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Companies
May 3, 2024

Huawei secretly backs U.S. research, awarding millions in prizes

Huawei Technologies is the sole funder of a research competition that has awarded millions of dollars since its inception in 2022.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen runs during a Diamond League meet in Brussels on Sept. 8, 2023.
OLYMPICS
May 3, 2024

Jakob Ingebrigtsen expects Paris to be 'walk in the park' compared to Tokyo

Jakob Ingebrigtsen believes his 1,500-meter Olympic title defense will be a breeze as long as he avoids illness and injury on the road to Paris.
A salmon farm in Giske, Norway. The country produces more than half of the world’s farmed salmon.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
May 4, 2024

The world’s hunger for salmon is linked to an ecological disaster

High demand for salmon is driving another species to the verge of extinction.
Jordan Bardella, President of the French far-right National Rally party, gestures he attends a political rally during the party's campaign for the European elections in Perpignan, France, on May 1.
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2024

Just how dangerous is Europe’s rising far right?

Anti-immigration parties with fascist roots — and an uncertain commitment to democracy — are now mainstream.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (right) gives an address to the Leaders’ Plenary during the 2024 ASEAN-Australia Special Summit at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Center in Melbourne, on March 6.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 7, 2024

Australian PM Albanese calls Chinese military air incident 'unacceptable'

A Chinese fighter jet dropped flares above and ahead of an Australian helicopter above the Yellow Sea during an operation to enforce North Korea sanctions.
Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs Hotel is set to open in June in the theme park's new section featuring areas based on "Frozen," "Tangled" and "Peter Pan."
BUSINESS
May 7, 2024

Tokyo DisneySea taps ‘Frozen’ and 'Peter Pan' in ¥320 billion expansion

The expansion, which opens to the public June 6, is expected to help boost total annual sales by ¥75 billion.
The Lower House starts discussing a security clearance bill on April 19 in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
May 7, 2024

Unlike 10 years ago, Japan's new security bill sparks little debate

Some point to a shift in the nation’s security stance, while opposition party lawmakers indicate a general apathy among the media to cover the story.
A police officer handles money seized during an operation against 'Ndrangheta in this photo taken at an unknown location in Italy on Sept. 6.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 8, 2024

Italy's mafia forgoes extortion, turns to white-collar crime

With extortion rackets falling out of fashion and murders largely frowned upon by the godfathers, Italy's mafia is venturing into white-collar crime.
Figure skater Shoma Uno announced his retirement in an Instagram post on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
May 9, 2024

Former two-time figure skating world champion Shoma Uno retires

Uno said his years on the ice had been "wonderful."
SoftBank Group is in talks to acquire Graphcore, a struggling British semiconductor startup.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 9, 2024

SoftBank said to be in talks to buy troubled AI chip firm Graphcore

Graphcore reported just $2.7 million in revenue for 2022, a 46% drop from the prior year, according to its latest financial report.
The apartment complex where Toshino Hirasawa was stabbed in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, on Thursday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 10, 2024

Man arrested over fatal stabbing of woman had lent victim ¥18 million

It has emerged that the suspect, Manabu Wakui, was arrested for stalking the victim, Toshino Hirasawa, two years ago.
Andrei Belousov, economic aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin
WORLD / Politics
May 13, 2024

Putin taps economist to run defense in unexpected move

It is vital to ensure military spending aligns with Russia's overall economy, a Kremlin spokesperson said.
Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers participate in a seminar to prevent harassment at the GSDF's Camp Asaka in Tokyo on April 16.
JAPAN / FOCUS
May 13, 2024

Japan's military needs more women. But it's still failing on harassment.

Nine months after the Defense Ministry pledged to take drastic measures, it has no plans to implement a national system for reviewing training standards.
U.S. President Joe Biden touts the economic benefits of semiconductor investment at Intel’s Ocotillo Campus in Chandler, Arizona, on March 20.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 13, 2024

Global chips battle intensifies with $81 billion subsidy surge

The rush of funding has hardened battle lines in the U.S.-China trade war, including in nations like Japan.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu salutes to soldiers as he is driven along Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
May 13, 2024

Russia's Shoigu: Political survivor blamed for Ukraine setbacks

He had a decadeslong political career of unmatched longevity in post-Soviet Russia, his presence in the center of Moscow predating that of Putin himself.
The Tokyo District Court on Monday sentenced a former industry ministry bureaucrat to 10 years in prison for drugging six women with sleeping pills and then raping or groping them in 2022.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 13, 2024

Ex-METI bureaucrat given 10-year sentence for drugging and raping women

Dai Sato gave six women in Tokyo a beverage mixed with sleeping pills so that they wouldn't be able to resist his advances.
Justin Reid has helped the Chiefs win the last two Super Bowl titles.
MORE SPORTS / Football
May 13, 2024

Chiefs safety Justin Reid committed to lifting up Kansas City on and off field

The confetti had hardly finished falling on the Kansas City Chiefs' second consecutive Super Bowl title when safety Justin Reid started looking ahead.
A man uses a sheet of cardboard to shade from the sun during high temperatures in Bangkok on April 28. Thailand has been bracing for hotter-than-normal days due to the El Nino weather pattern that’s forecast to last until June.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 15, 2024

Asia’s killer April heat wave was made much worse by climate change

In countries such as Palestine and Israel, climate change made the heat wave five times more likely than it would have been in pre-industrial times.
North Korea's Ambassador to the United Nations Kim Song speaks during a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York on June 8, 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
May 15, 2024

U.N. experts: North Korea laundered $147.5 million in stolen crypto

The money was stolen from the HTX cryptocurrency exchange before being laundered in March this year, the experts said.
A tofu business summit is held in Nagoya in October.
JAPAN / Society
May 15, 2024

Tofu shops in Japan at crossroads amid rising costs

The number of tofu producers has been declining at an annual rate of 400 to 500 in recent years
A former employee of Bandai Namco Entertainment was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly embezzling ¥54 million by selling company-owned mobile phones and other items meant for game development.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 15, 2024

Ex-employee of Bandai Namco unit arrested over ¥54 million embezzlement

The man, 59, allegedly sold about 500 company-owned smartphones and other items without permission to a Tokyo-based secondhand store.
Tokyo-based artist Jumadiba says he forgoes the label of simply “rap” for his music because the Japanese rap scene isn’t confined to a particular sound.
CULTURE / Music
May 16, 2024

Japanese rap creates its mecca in Pop Yours

The two-day music festival showcases Japan's growing and diversifying hip-hop scene through local acts such as Awich and Jumadiba.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (right) meets with Taro Aso, a former Japanese prime minister, in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 16, 2024

Taipei mayor meets Japanese ruling party officials in Tokyo

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an met with Japanese ruling party officials in Tokyo in his first visit to Japan since assuming office in 2022.
Employees work at a shoe factory in Hanoi in 2020.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 16, 2024

As U.S. hikes China tariffs, imports soar from China-reliant Vietnam

The surge in China-Vietnam-U.S. trade has vastly widened trade imbalances.
Visitors walk along the ground-level pathway at the newly expanded Benjakitti Park in central Bangkok, where trees and wetlands now thrive on the site of a former cigarette factory.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 17, 2024

Big, smoggy Bangkok gets a badly needed breath of fresh air

In the heart of a megacity, an industrial site has been turned into an oasis for residents, as well as birds, bats and mosquito-eating dragonflies.

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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