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A young man (Yuki Kura, left) who isn’t well-versed in wooing attempts to strike up a relationship with a convenience store clerk (Haruka Imou) he has a crush on in “How to Find a Lover.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2023

‘How to Find a Lover’: Quirky rom-com is deeper than it seems

Koji Maeda keeps the film’s tone fun and offbeat while not shying away from the emotional wounds of its lead characters.
Tourists enjoy the sunset at Bali's Canggu beach in 2021.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Oct 19, 2023

In Bali, 'sea-sun-sand' tourists threaten ancient rainforest

The island seeks to limit visitors without scaring off too many job-creating visitors with exorbitant taxes.
Labyrinth organizer Russell Moench sparked controversy with transphobic tweets, leading booked artists to pull out of the highly regarded electronic music festival’s 2023 edition.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 20, 2023

Art and politics clash at Labyrinth 2023

A controversy surrounding the prestige electronic music festival sparks an old debate over separating art and the artist.
A growing number of local governments in Japan have adopted digital technology for over-the-counter services to allow residents to carry out procedures without having to fill out application forms.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2023

More local governments in Japan go digital for counter services

The measure has helped reducing waiting times and burden on visitors.
A fishing boat patrols the sea for poaching off the port of Yomogita, Aomori Prefecture, on the night of Sept. 13.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Oct 30, 2023

Aomori sea cucumber fishermen hit hard by China’s seafood import ban

Twenty-seven cooperatives in the prefecture have suspended operations in October, when the fishing season for sea cucumbers starts in a normal year.
U.S. President Joe Biden addresses the nation about the war in Israel and Ukraine from the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2023

New mantra for U.S. diplomacy: First, do no harm

U.S. power has diminished and the overweening advantage it enjoyed after World War II, even at the end of the Cold War, has dissipated.
Victor Wembanyama speaks to members of the media a day before his NBA debut on Tuesday in San Antonio, Texas.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Oct 25, 2023

'Butterflies' for Victor Wembanyama ahead of NBA debut

The gifted No. 1 draft pick will be the center of attention across the league on Wednesday when he takes to the court in San Antonio's home opener.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee delivers his annual policy address at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong on Wednesday
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 25, 2023

Hong Kong's leader says to create new national security law in 2024

Pro-democracy protests rocked the finance hub in 2019, bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the streets to call for more autonomy from China.
Asteroid mining only works in a science-fiction world where metals are thousands of times more expensive than they are today.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 25, 2023

Commercial asteroid mining has a astronomical cost issue

Asteroid mining only works in a science-fiction world where metals are thousands of times more expensive than they are today.
Members of the United Auto Workers outside Ford's Michigan Parts Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, on Sept. 26. The U.S. auto workers union announced a tentative agreement with the firm late on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 26, 2023

Ford and UAW reach tentative deal to end strike by auto workers

Including compounding and cost of living, worker pay will rise about 33% to over $40 an hour over the life of the contract.
Street stalls damaged by Hurricane Otis near the entrance to Acapulco, Mexico, on Wednesday
WORLD
Oct 26, 2023

Hurricane Otis pummels Mexico's Acapulco, cutting off beach resort

Footage on social media showed hotels wrecked by Otis, ceilings and walls ripped open, windows shattered and cars partly submerged in floodwaters.
A banner at the entrance to Shibuya’s Center Street makes it clear this is no place for a party.
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 26, 2023

The specter of Itaewon has Shibuya spooked

One year on, Elizabeth Beattie joins us to discuss where Itaewon stands after its Halloween disaster, and what its legacy means for celebrations in Japan.
Medical staff administer a COVID-19 vaccination in Tokyo's Minato Ward in October last year.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 27, 2023

Tokyo promotes awareness of children's COVID-19 aftereffects

The leaflet shows a wide range of aftereffects seen among elementary and junior and senior high school students.
A woman walks past newly unveiled lettering that references the Oct. 29 Itaewon crush in Seoul. A more fully developed memorial was later built to commemorate the event and the more than 150 people who lost their lives.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / Longform
Oct 27, 2023

One year on, Itaewon's scars remain

A year on from the Itaewon crush, foot traffic in the Seoul neighborhood is picking back up. But what the future of the area is still in doubt.
A community health worker speaks during a meeting with pregnant teenagers, teen mothers and their partners, in Navotas, Metro Manila, in 2016.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 28, 2023

Can new law help tackle Philippines' teen pregnancy emergency?

The costs of teen pregnancies in the country are high, with around 30% of the population now under 15 years old.
Robert Card, who gunned down 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, is seen in this image released on Wednesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 29, 2023

Deceased Maine shooter had mental health problems, police say

The shooter, Robert Card, a 40-year-old army reservist, was able to buy weapons legally because he had never been forcibly committed to treatment.
People attend a vigil on Sunday in Seoul to mark the first anniversary of the tragic crowd crush that killed 159 people during Halloween celebrations in the city's popular Itaewon nightlife area a year ago.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 29, 2023

Families hold mass commemoration for Seoul 2022 crush victims

A year on, victims' families say they are still seeking answers to what went wrong and who was responsible for the deadly crush.
Jesse Ehrenfeld, the board chairman of the American Medical Association, in Chicago in 2019. The F.D.A. has approved many new programs that use artificial intelligence, but doctors are skeptical that the tools really improve care or are backed by solid research.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 1, 2023

Doctors wrestle with AI in patient care, citing lax oversight

Are AI programs likely to identify something a doctor would miss?
Afghan refugees arrive at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border on Monday. Islamabad has issued an order to 1.7 million Afghans it says are living in the country illegally to leave by November 1, or be deported.
WORLD
Nov 1, 2023

Mass exodus of Afghans as deadline to leave Pakistan arrives

Islamabad gave 1.7 million Afghans it says are living illegally in the country until November 1 to leave or be forcibly removed.
Venezuela's Leonel Martinez poses on the podium with his silver medal after the men's trap final shooting event at the Pan American Games in Santiago on Oct. 27.
OLYMPICS / Shooting
Nov 4, 2023

After a 40-year wait, a trap shooter returns to the Olympics

Leonel Martínez, now 60, qualified by finishing second in men’s trap shooting at the Pan American Games in Santiago.
A woman visits the grave of a soldier on the anniversary of his death at a cemetery in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 21.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 5, 2023

‘I am dreaming it will stop’: A deadlocked war tests Ukrainian morale

Morale is faltering as Ukraine’s army remains tied-up and amid fears that allied weaponry supplies will begin to dwindle, polls and interviews show.
Yogendra Puranik, the first person from India to win elected office in Japan, at the Indian cultural center he manages in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward in October 2022.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 6, 2023

Japan needs Indian migrants. How can it attract them?

India can help fill the domestic labor gap, but for migrants to succeed, Japan must embrace a genuinely intercultural approach.
Displaced residents of the city of Gaza walk to the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 9, 2023

Tens of thousands flee as Israel tightens 'stranglehold' on Gaza

U.N. rights chief Volker Turk described Israel's collective punishment of Palestinian civilians and their forcible evacuation as war crimes.
An assembly line at Honda Motor's  Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio, in November 2016
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 11, 2023

Honda will give autoworkers 11% raise after UAW’s big wins

While nonunion automakers race to boost pay and keep the union out of its gates, the UAW is trying to organize foreign-owned factories in the U.S.
Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida take part in a news conference in September 2021 in the lead-up to the Liberal Democratic Party presidential race.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 15, 2023

Takaichi makes another play to become the next PM

With the creation of a new study group, Cabinet minister Sanae Takaichi aims to build support for her bid for the top political job.
Iran has conducted numerous proxy attacks against the Israelis, as well as U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, seeking to determine what a response might look like.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 6, 2023

What the U.S. should do about Iran

Iran has conducting attacks against against Israeli and U.S. forces, seeking to determine what a response will look like.
A Self-Defense Forces officer talks to participants in an information session at Camp Nerima in Tokyo on Aug. 7. The SDF raised the maximum age for new recruits to 32 from 26 in 2018 but has still struggled to attract them.
WORLD
Nov 23, 2023

Asia’s aging soldiers force U.S. allies to widen recruitment drive

In some branches of Japan's Self-Defense Forces, more positions are now being opened up to retirees.
Kyrgyz male labor migrants wait to depart for work in Russia at the office of a company organizing passenger transportation on Oct. 17.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 16, 2023

Pressured amid war effort, Central Asia migrants leave Russia

Moscow is offering incentives for migrants to work in places like Mariupol, while enlistment offices seek to entice them into the Russian army.
Bears doing yoga? If you’re in the city, why not?
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 16, 2023

Bear goes the neighborhood? Japanese wildlife is on the move.

This week, Alex K.T. Martin joins us to discuss why people are encountering bears, boars and other wildlife in the most unlikely of places.
Ichikawa Ennosuke IV bows in front of media after being released on bail in July.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 17, 2023

Ichikawa Ennosuke IV given suspended three-year prison term

The 47-year-old, whose real name is Takahiko Kinoshi, had been on trial over his role in a family suicide pact.

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