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The faction led by former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai is the second group within the party that has allegedly listed kickbacks given to its members after they sold fundraising tickets, informed sources revealed Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 24, 2023

Embattled LDP's Nikai faction also suspected of logging kickbacks

The faction is suspected of not reporting excess fundraiser revenues as income but reporting the kickbacks as expenditures.
While harsh comments from older generations can sometimes be seen as rude, consider instead that they’re often trying to teach us something they hold on to.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 26, 2023

A survival guide for your first Japanese-style at-home New Year’s

Meeting your partner’s Japanese family for the New Year’s holidays? Here are some do’s and don’ts for an ‘oshōgatsu’ success story.
Nancy Mills in a photo that appears to have been taken on Amami Oshima
JAPAN / History
Dec 26, 2023

New Yorker recalls life on Amami island 70 years after reversion

Tracing her early childhood through photographs and letters, 74-year-old Nancy Mills wishes for Amami residents' happiness.
Investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office arrive to search the headquarters of the powerful Abe faction within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Tokyo on Dec. 19.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 26, 2023

Has the funding scandal doomed the Abe faction?

With criminal investigations under way, there is impetus for the younger generation of the Abe faction members to break away and form a rebranded group.
Netanyahu said Israel would not succeed in freeing the remaining hostages held by Hamas without applying military pressure.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 27, 2023

Israel launches more Gaza strikes as Netanyahu says Hamas must be destroyed

Israeli military said its air force carried out a strike against 100 Hamas targets, including tunnel shafts, to assist ground forces in Gazan suburb.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi took office on Dec. 14 after his predecessor quit over a political funds scandal.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 27, 2023

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi vows to tackle distrust

Hayashi, who took office after his predecessor quit over a funding scandal, says revising the relevant law is related to freedom of political activity.
Next year, U.S. President Joe Biden will seek a mandate to govern into his mid-80s. His likely opponent, former President Donald Trump, is only three years younger.
COMMENTARY / The Year Ahead
Dec 27, 2023

Making or breaking democracy

As 2024 approaches, one milestone looms menacingly on the horizon: The U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa attends the 10th trilateral foreign ministers' meeting in Busan, South Korea, on Nov. 26.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 27, 2023

It's time to consider a woman to take Japan's top job

Is a controversial call for Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa to become the LDP's first female prime minister a Hail Mary or a masterstroke?
Public scrutiny is key to defending internet privacy amid growing calls by governments for more surveillance.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2023

Time to curb government internet surveillance

Democracies are often leading the internet surveillance charge, inadvertently paving the way for the world’s autocrats.
Veteran politician Alan Leong in the now-empty headquarters of the Civic Party, once the city's second largest opposition party, in Hong Kong. Six lapel pins bearing the Civic Party's founding date are all Hong Kong veteran politician Alan Leong kept when the once-prominent opposition group cleared its headquarters and shuttered its doors days before the new year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 28, 2023

Hong Kong's former second-largest opposition party shuts down

Since China imposed its security law, the Civic Party has seen members jailed, elected politicians unseated and a former lawmaker listed as a fugitive.
U.S. President Joe Biden answers reporters questions as he departs for Camp David from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington on Dec. 23.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 28, 2023

With vote ahead, Biden trails Trump's pace of judicial appointments

Ahead of the 2024 election, Senate Democrats are pledging to stay focused on confirming Biden's judicial nominees and adding to the 166 already approved.
Vietnam's Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 28, 2023

Vietnam's 'bamboo diplomacy' shifts into higher gear

After a string of deals this year and last, the Southeast Asian country's top partners include the United States, China, India, South Korea and Russia.
A Houthi military helicopter flies over the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea in this photo released on Nov. 20.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 29, 2023

U.S. allies reluctant on Red Sea task force

Italy and Spain have issued statements appearing to distance themselves from Operation Prosperity Guardian.
Daihatsu Motor President Soichiro Okudaira speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Dec. 20. 
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2023

Daihatsu scandal is a warning for Japan Inc.

Investigations indicate that improprieties at Daihatsu stretch as far back as 1989, indicating a profound problem with the company’s culture.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda gives a news conference after a policy meeting at BOJ headquarters in Tokyo on Dec. 19.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 31, 2023

BOJ likely to finally seek normalization 2024

A turn in Japan's economic tide is in view as the Bank of Japan signals readiness to wind down its aggressive monetary stimulus.
People take shelter in a subway station in Kyiv amid a Russian missile attack on Friday.
WORLD
Dec 30, 2023

Russia pounds Ukrainian cities in one of largest air attacks of war

Russia targeted Ukrainian cities with more than 150 missiles and drones Friday morning, in what Ukrainian officials said was one of the largest air assaults of the war.
An Israeli tank near the border with the Gaza Strip on Saturday. As global outrage and impatience grow over the war’s devastating human toll, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden said late Friday that it was bypassing Congress for a weapons sale to Israel.
WORLD
Dec 31, 2023

Defying U.S. pressure, Israel deepens Gaza assault

The Gaza Health Ministry reported Saturday that 165 people had been killed in Israeli airstrikes and artillery attacks in the previous 24 hours.
Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and Princess Aiko pose for a photo at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Dec. 1.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 1, 2024

Japan emperor hopes for expanded support for needy people

Emperor Naruhito, in a New Year's message on Monday, expressed his wish that support will expand for people facing difficulties.
2024 marks the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, with the year predicted to be a good time for fresh starts.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Jan 2, 2024

Opportunities await the bold in the Year of the Wood Dragon

From February, you can expect a rush of creativity, passion, courage and confidence with the arrival of the Wood Dragon, say astrologers.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida awaits the results of a no-confidence vote against his Cabinet in the country's parliament on Dec. 13.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 2, 2024

Unpacking the LDP's expected leadership race

LDP politicians are already talking about a leadership change, and the polls have shifted to who the public wants to see in the prime minister’s office.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 3, 2024

Netanyahu boxed in by fierce pressure over war, politics and budget

Whether his government will survive 2024 is a renewed topic of debate that will now play out against the backdrop of war.
Indian migrant women in Tokyo often face stifling social expectations. In contrast, they may feel empowered in more egalitarian societies like Berlin.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 3, 2024

How patriarchy perpetuates among Tokyo’s Indian migrants

Indian migrant women in Tokyo struggle to break free from the patriarchal structures they experienced back home. But in Berlin, a different picture emerges.
South Korea's main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung speaks during a news conference in Seoul on April 11.
WORLD
Jan 3, 2024

South Korean opposition leader 'could have been killed': party

Lee Jae-myung, who suffered a wound to his jugular vein, was first taken to a hospital in Busan, then flown to Seoul.
Claudine Gay, former president of Harvard University
WORLD / Politics
Jan 4, 2024

Harvard chief’s abrupt exit exposes decade-spanning rifts

The school’s first Black leader resigned after just six months due to plagiarism allegations and anger over her handling of antisemitism on campus.
Makoto Miyauchi, CEO of B-Lot
ESG CONSORTIUM
Jan 8, 2024

Young B-Lot is on the realty A list for renovations plus innovations

It has been 15 years since the founding of B-Lot Co., a real estate investment, consulting and management company, and nine years since it was publicly listed. It is still a relative youngster in the industry, which is also polarized between giant players serving large enterprises and small ones targeting...
Tsumugi-nen is artificial intelligence talent agency Pictoria's most popular AI Vtuber that has garnered thousands of fans through her content, including streaming for five days straight — something a human can not do.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 5, 2024

Is AI a friend or foe of the Japanese entertainment industry?

While proponents tap the technology's potential, others are worried about the possibility of losing their jobs.
Critics — including a number of reporters in the Pentagon press corps — slammed the decision not to release information that U.S. Secretary of State Lloyd Austin was ill until Friday, five days after he was hospitalized.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 6, 2024

Pentagon keeps defense chief's hospitalization under wraps for days

The news — which was released five days after Lloyd Austin was hospitalized — emerged as Washington faces a growing crisis in the Middle East.
The Gunung Padang pyramid site in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia, on Dec. 22. A study that concluded it may be "the oldest pyramid in the world” is under investigation by its publisher after fueling debate over the age of the partially excavated site and the ethics of archaeology.
WORLD / Society
Jan 7, 2024

‘World’s oldest pyramid’ in Indonesia? A study draws skepticism

Some have suggested that the site may have been built far earlier by an as-yet-undiscovered ancient civilization.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers his Quad Fellowship Announcement as the leaders of the United States, India and Australia look on after meeting in Tokyo in May 2022.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 8, 2024

Dialogue can boost security where military deterrence can’t

Military buildup without dialogue is too risky — civil society actors in East Asia understand this better than their governments.
Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max-9 aircraft grounded at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) on Saturday. Alaska Airlines will ground its entire fleet of Boeing 737 Max-9 aircraft after a fuselage section in the rear part of the brand-new jet blew out shortly after takeoff last Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 8, 2024

Boeing CEO’s comeback plan for 2024 takes a blow five days in

Alaska Airlines incident could hinder the year's manufacturing pace for 737s amid immense pressure on the planemaker to return its factories to 2019 rates.

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