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An anti-seismic reinforced building at the Keiju Medical Center in Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, suffered broken pipes and water leakage following a New Year's Day earthquake.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Mar 4, 2024

Hospitals in Japan slow to adopt seismic isolation in their buildings

Facilities severely hit by the New Year's Day quake have not been able to resume surgeries and other medical services.
A sign erected in Hokkaido’s port of Nemuro calls for the return of the Russian-occupied islands that Japan calls the Northern Territories.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 13, 2024

Geopolitical chess: Unpacking the Northern Territories conundrum

While domestic motivation for Tokyo to resolve the Northern Territories dispute may endure, the opposite is true in Moscow.
Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto votes at a polling station during the general election in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Prabowo on track to win Indonesia’s presidential election

This is Prabowo’s third time to run for the country’s top job, after losing in 2014 and 2019 to incumbent Joko "Jokowo" Widodo.
Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan friar and a professor at the Gregorian, the Harvard of Rome's pontifical universities, in his office at the university in Rome on Jan. 29. Benanti advises the Vatican and the Italian government on navigating the tricky questions — moral and otherwise — raised by artificial intelligence.
WORLD / Society
Feb 14, 2024

The friar who became the Vatican’s go-to guy on AI

Father Paolo Benanti, an ethics professor and self-proclaimed geek, spends his days thinking about the Holy Ghost and the ghosts in the machines.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Biden blasts Trump over NATO remarks, in bid to reassure U.S. allies

Biden’s retort appears to be part of an attempt to reassure not only Kyiv but other allies — including top U.S. partners Japan and South Korea.
People gather as rescuers search for survivors under rubble in the town of Jandaris, Syria, on Feb. 6, 2023, following an earthquake that day.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2024

Japanese students working to help Syrian people hit by 2023 quake

About 30 companies are offering support for the students' efforts.
The 2024 cherry blossom forecast released Thursday
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2024

Cherry blossoms expected to bloom in Tokyo on March 17

The earlier-than-usual blossoming is attributed to higher than average temperatures across the country over the past few months, particularly this month.
A soldier participates in a multinational training exercise in the municipality of Hohenfels in Germany.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 15, 2024

Europe's race against time to rebuild militaries in uncertain world

The continent is a decade away from being able to defend itself unaided, officials say, while Russia could target a NATO member in three to five years.
Sun simulation at the Rail Tec Arsenal facility in Vienna, Austria, on Dec. 15, 2023
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 16, 2024

Climate change threatens EU trains, but resilience is expensive

Europe’s railways, a safe, low-carbon technology that still carries a little glamor, are on the brink of a new era.
Fans of virtual YouTuber Selen Tatsuki and VTubers in general took to social media to express their outrage over major agency Nijisanji terminating Tatsuki’s contract.
LIFE / Digital / Japan Pulse
Feb 16, 2024

High-profile shakeups prompt scrutiny of virtual YouTuber industry

As VTubers enter a new era defined by prestige, Selen Tatsuki and Mikeneko's recent dramas demonstrate how complicated getting famous can be.
Established in December 2021 in the middle of the pandemic-fuelled gaming craze, Sega Sapporo Studio is remarkable for growing amid a recent slump in the industry.
LIFE / Digital
Feb 17, 2024

Sega developers say new Sapporo studios lead to better lives

Aside from quality-of-life benefits that come from living outside a major metropolis, Sapporo also has a history of game development.
A shooting that killed one person and wounded 22 took place near Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 16, 2024

Police say argument led to shooting after Chiefs' Super Bowl parade

Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a popular Kansas City radio personality, was the lone fatality.
Shohei Ohtani is expected make his regular-season debut with the Dodgers in Seoul on March 20.
BASEBALL
Feb 16, 2024

Seoul mayor hopes interest in Shohei Ohtani and MLB brings more games to South Korea

The Seoul Series will be a chance for South Korea and MLB to work together to revive professional baseball’s popularity in the nation.
Men in loincloths scramble for a bag of talismans during the Sominsai festival at Kokuseki Temple in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, on Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2024

Festival with 1,000-year history succumbs to graying population

Kokuseki Temple's Sominsai festival used to take place from the seventh day of Lunar New Year through to the following morning.
Taiwanese Coast Guard crew surround an overturned Chinese speed boat near the Kinmen Islands on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 18, 2024

China to send coast guard ships as tensions rise over Taiwanese islands

Taiwan defended its moves after two people on a Chinese speedboat, which got too close to a front-line Taiwanese island, died when their boat overturned.
Iga Swiatek of Poland celebrates after winning against Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the final of the Qatar Open in Doha on Saturday.
TENNIS
Feb 18, 2024

Swiatek holds off Rybakina to capture third straight Qatar Open crown

The Pole became the first player to capture a title at an event in three successive years since Serena Williams triumphed in Miami from 2013 to 2015.
A Ukrainian serviceman carries a Leleka reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, on Feb. 15
WORLD / Politics
Feb 19, 2024

Drone warfare and AI risks among talking points at Munich defense forum

The technologies help to partly neutralize a larger military's advantage, as seen in the Ukraine-Russian war, but they are ultimately double-edged swords.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has in recent months repeatedly touted his openness to “unconditional” talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, calling for “a bold step to change the status quo.”
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 19, 2024

North Korea eyes well-worn playbook with Japan summit hints

Pyongyang's offer of repairing ties with Japan may be concealing what may be a more likely motivation — to drive a wedge between Tokyo and its partners.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws live batting practice during spring training in Glendale, Arizona, on Saturday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 19, 2024

Dodgers hurler Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be tough code to crack for MLB hitters

His mix of power, stuff and command have some wondering if the 25-year-old right-hander is already the best pitcher on the planet.
An advertisement for the Nippon Individual Savings Account (NISA) at a Mizuho Bank branch, a unit of Mizuho Financial Group, in Tokyo on Jan. 31.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Feb 19, 2024

Turning the tide? Japan warms up to becoming an asset management hub.

The beefing-up of the NISA program alongside a new policy plan by the government shows its commitment toward getting households to invest.
Coco Gauff of the U.S. in action during her round-of-32 match against Czech Republic's Katerina Siniakova in Doha on Feb. 13.
TENNIS
Feb 20, 2024

Gauff keen for tennis to follow basketball in male vs. female duels

The American said she would love to see Serena Williams and Nick Kyrgios go toe-to-toe in a serve targets contest.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Feb 21, 2024

How to reinvent yourself at 50: An IEA guide

It would be an understatement to say that the energy industry has gone through a lot of change.
A Rapidus factory construction site in Chitose, Hokkaido, in December
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 21, 2024

Japan’s chip spree aims to kick economy into high gear

The government’s chip strategy aims to triple domestic chip sales to around ¥15 trillion by 2030.
Ahead of the Paris Games, authorities are conducting three preliminary investigations into possible favoritism in the awarding of around 20 contracts worth tens of millions of euros, while a fourth is scrutinizing the pay of chief organizer Tony Estanguet.
OLYMPICS
Feb 21, 2024

Paris 2024: A 'new era' of corruption-free Olympics?

Ahead of the Paris Olympics in July and August, French prosecutors are working on four probes into possible wrongdoing.
During a time in which Western acts have seen their place of prominence in the Japanese market drop in favor of K-pop, Swift is a notable exception.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 22, 2024

What makes a Taylor Swift show worth flying in for?

Swifties say the pop star's concerts provide camaraderie and a sense of validation.
A Houthi military helicopter prepares to land on the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea in November.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2024

Why Beijing won’t fight the Houthis

Whether they target Chinese vessels directly or not, attacks on Red Sea shipping by Houthi rebels threaten to undermine China’s economic recovery.
COP28 president Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber is seen on a screen as he speaks during a high-level round table on COP energy and climate commitments organized by the International Energy Agency (IEA) at its headquarters in Paris on Tuesday. The world needs "trillions" of dollars to spur on the green transition and tackle global warming, the head of last year's COP28 climate talks said, warning that political momentum can evaporate without clear action.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 22, 2024

Political momentum on climate could evaporate, warns COP28 president

COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber hailed progress made at U.N. negotiations last year in Dubai but the deal lacked important details, including on funding.
Specimen M831 stored at the National Museum of Nature and Science’s Tsukuba Research Departments in Ibaraki Prefecture
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Feb 22, 2024

How a 13-year-old discovered a possible Japanese wolf specimen

A new paper by Hinako Komori and two academics says a specimen she found could be one of two Japanese wolves kept at Ueno Zoo in the late 19th century.
Sanfrecce will play its first regular-season match against Urawa on Friday at the brand-new Edion Peace Wing Hiroshima.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 22, 2024

The J. League is back with a top flight that's bigger than ever

Hiroshima has eyes on the title as the club raises the curtain at a new stadium, but Urawa will be looking to spoil the party starting Friday.
The sport was created in the town of Kushiro in 1978 by former Olympic ice hockey goalkeeper Katsuji Morishima, who married two things every East Hokkaido resident has — a pair of rubber rain boots and a love of ice hockey.
MORE SPORTS / Ice Hockey
Feb 22, 2024

A pastime in frozen Hokkaido: Rubber boots ice hockey

No skates are needed for Hokkaido's unique brand of ice hockey, which is a popular way to stay active during the north's long winters.

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