Search - 2022

 
 
The Rurikoji temple pagoda is currently wrapped in tarps for renovation, which is scheduled to be completed by 2025.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2024

Yamaguchi rushes to prepare for tourists after New York Times pick

Only 9,000 foreign tourists visited Yamaguchi in 2022. Is the city ready to receive an influx of visitors?
Gold badges distributed to Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly members after the April 2023 election. The prices for both types doubled from four years ago.
JAPAN / Politics / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Feb 19, 2024

Gold assembly badges worth millions of yen unreturned in Kyushu

Each elected member receives a new badge for every election and is supposed to return them on losing an election or retiring from politics.
BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda at a news conference in Tokyo on Jan. 23. In it, he delivered a consistent message about the bank's intentions moving forward.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 29, 2024

BOJ's Ueda finds his mojo as rate message cuts through

After some growing pains, BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda finally delivers a clear message on the bank's intentions. He should keep at it.
IBM offices in Foster City, California
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 30, 2024

IBM managers: Move near an office or leave company

Return-to-office mandates are often seen as fueling attrition
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the Italy-Africa summit in Rome on Monday
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2024

Overwhelmed by debt, Italy sells stake in Post Office 'crown jewel'

The government has a long way to go to reduce its debt, which currently amounts to 140.2% of GDP.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed that 8.8 million people in the U.S. in 2022 were living with long COVID.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2024

A promising turn in the quest to treat long COVID

A new study doesn’t explain why the immune response is out of whack, but it is an important new piece to the vexing puzzle that is long COVID.
Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda speaks during a news conference in Nagoya on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 30, 2024

World No. 1 but mired in scandal: Toyota sees mixed start to 2024

Despite the steady performance of its business, the carmaker has been shaken by wrongdoing at group firms, leading to an apology from the chairman.
The severed trunk of a roadside tree in front of a Bigmotor dealership in the city of Saitama, in July. Police authorities have received 51 reports of damage apparently caused by the company's practices of felling and killing with herbicides trees on the streets in front of its stores.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 31, 2024

First Bigmotor employee arrested over alleged removal of roadside trees

Toshiyuki Kamohara, 51, is believed to have instructed staff at the company's Kawasaki outlet to cut down trees near the store.
Given that developing countries’ domestic markets are much smaller than that of the U.S., liberal trade policies play a larger role in driving their economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2024

Developing countries should reject American-style protectionism

America’s current industrial policy poses an existential threat to the multilateral trading system it worked so hard to build
Cars ready to be loaded onto a ship for export at the port in Yantai, in China's eastern Shandong province, on Jan. 2
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2024

China seized Japan's crown for vehicle exports in 2023, data shows

The Chinese auto sector has boomed in recent years largely because of massive investments in electric cars, while Japanese firms have been more cautious.
The thick, supposedly lucky sushi rolls of Setsubun are full of it.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 31, 2024

How a trendy sushi roll usurped the traditions of Setsubun

The lore around “ehōmaki” sounds just whacky enough to make it an old custom, but it turns out to be a fairly recent phenomenon.
Huang Jie, who was elected on Jan. 13, called her win a "positive outcome," and said that her election reflected "certain progress in Taiwan's society."
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 31, 2024

Taiwan's first openly gay lawmaker hopes to inspire

Huang Jie's journey to the legislature was not easy — she has been the target of discriminatory attacks and has faced distrust from voters due to her age.
At the heart of European Union thinking about economic security is fear that economic dependencies will be weaponized.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 30, 2024

EU’s dilemma: balancing national and economic security

At the heart of EU thinking about economic security is fear that economic dependencies will be weaponized.
The most relevant measure to gauge plastic bag use isn’t how many carriers get used, but how much material is consumed and how much pollution is produced in their making.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2024

Plastic bag bans have failed in every way except one

Reusable plastic bags need to be used 52 times before its environmental impact drops below that of a disposable one, according to a 2018 Danish study.
Myanmar's junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who ousted the elected government in a coup, presides over an army parade in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on March 27, 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jan 31, 2024

Arms dealer linked to Myanmar junta acquitted in money laundering case

Authorities had accused Tun Min Latt of engaging in a scheme to launder drug money by using it to buy electricity in Thailand and sending it to Myanmar.
Mario Andretti is "devastated" that his team's bid to join Formula One was rejected on Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Feb 1, 2024

Formula One rejects Andretti's bid to join circuit

Racing legend Mario Andretti said he was devastated after learning his team's bid to join Formula One was rejected.
A Ukrainian serviceman prepares shells to fire a L119 howitzer toward Russian troops from a position near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Jan. 25.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 1, 2024

EU grapples with future of military aid for Ukraine

Most EU countries are ready to inject €5 billion into the military aid fund to help Kyiv but Germany wants changes to the fund first.
A soldier stands in front of the grave sites of fallen soldiers in Kinmen, Taiwan, on Aug. 23, 2023. Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered his military to be ready to take Taiwan by 2027, though many analysts see that as an attempt to galvanize his military rather than a timeline for invasion.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 1, 2024

How Washington is preparing for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan

It is looking at a key vulnerability — military logistics — and is setting up hubs in the Indo-Pacific region to ensure supplies are readily available.
Fujitsu apologized for its role in the wrongful conviction of more than 900 subpostmasters in the U.K. who used its accounting software.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024

Fujitsu promises better quality control after U.K. scandal

The Tokyo-based technology company is the subject of an inquiry into a glitch in its Horizon accounting software used by the U.K. Post Office.
Nomura Holdings plans a buyback of up to ¥100 billion.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024

Nomura’s trading overhaul advances as CEO plans buyback

Nomura Holdings plans a buyback of up to ¥100 billion.
Recruits in the Spartan storm brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard practice at the unit's base in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 20, 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 1, 2024

Ukraine to tighten army mobilization rules as early conscripts tire

Last month the military proposed mobilizing 450,000 to 500,000 more people, taking into account the military's plans and projections of possible losses.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers his keynote address at the f8 Developers Conference in San Francisco in 2011.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024

Facebook, the social network old-timer, turns 20

"Facebook, when it launched, was revolutionary"
Rory McIlroy does not think LIV Golf players who return to the PGA Tour should be punished.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 1, 2024

Rory McIlroy changes tune on punishment for LIV players returning to PGA

Rory McIlroy concedes he has "changed his tune" on the issue of LIV golfers returning to play on the PGA Tour.
General elections are scheduled in Pakistan for Feb. 8, with some accusing the military of trying to steer the results.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2024

Can Pakistan keep it together as an election looms?

Next week's elections in Pakistan could further ignite political and ethnic tensions, already running high. Will the army ever agree to share power?
Ryu Shionoya, who headed the faction’s leadership committee but was never formally appointed chairman after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated in July 2022, announced that the faction was done on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 1, 2024

Curtain falls on Abe faction's 45-year history but scrutiny to continue

Unanswered questions over members' involvement in the LDP's political funds scandal mean the dissolution may not be the end of the story.
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, seen after a third-place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix in March 2022, will make a blockbuster move to Ferrari after the 2024 season.
SPORTS / Auto Racing
Feb 2, 2024

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton to make blockbuster move to Ferrari in 2025

Hamilton will exercise an option in his contract that will allow him to end his two-year deal with Mercedes after one year.
Curbs on Boeing production in the wake of a mid-air blowout is adding to pressures forcing airlines to fly older planes for longer.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Feb 2, 2024

Boeing 737 Max crisis adds to high demand for older planes

Curbs on Boeing production in the wake of a mid-air blowout are adding to pressures forcing firms to fly older planes for longer.
Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Ukraine's top general refused to step down Monday at a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is seeking to reinvigorate his military after Ukraine’s counteroffensive fizzled in the fall, according to people familiar with the discussions.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 2, 2024

After failed counteroffensive, Ukraine’s top general feuds with Zelenskyy

Valeriy Zaluzhnyi refused to step down Monday at a meeting with the Ukrainian president, leaving the pair at odds with U.S. military support in question.
Japanese regulations determine which hunters can handle certain firearms based on the individual's experience and the level of rifling in a long gun's barrel.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 3, 2024

Hokkaido hunters say more firepower means more humane kills

A revision to Japan’s firearms laws would mean new hunters would be temporarily limited to less potent shotguns.
Ground Self-Defense Force members land using an amphibious vehicle on the shore of Tokunoshima island in Kagoshima Prefecture as part of large-scale joint drills with the U.S. Marine Corps in March 2023.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Feb 2, 2024

Japan starts 2024 with flurry of security deals

In January alone, Tokyo signed cooperation deals with at least four countries, strengthening and expanding its network of like-minded partners.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?