Search - 2021

 
 
The planned 2025 Osaka Expo site
JAPAN / Society
Jul 31, 2023

First foreign pavilion application fails to calm Osaka Expo nerves

Officials worry that unless other countries move to set up their pavilions soon, some who have agreed to build them could reverse course.
Former catcher Jonathan Lucroy (left) said getting used to a new pitching staff after a trade was like "speed dating."
BASEBALL
Jul 31, 2023

Building new relationships makes trade deadline complex for catchers

The weeks leading up to Major League Baseball’s trading deadline are always tense. Every team has to evaluate where they are in the standings, what the organization’s long-term outlook is and how much could be changed by acquiring a few veterans.
Former sumo wrestler Daisuke Yanagihara discusses his lawsuit against the Japan Sumo Association during a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on Monday.
SUMO
Aug 1, 2023

Former wrestler sues sumo association for alleged mistreatment

The former fourth-division rikishi said he was told to fight or quit as coronavirus cases rose in Tokyo ahead of the 2021 New Year Basho.
Former U.S. President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump attends one of his campaign rallies in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
WORLD
Aug 1, 2023

Trump's bid to quash Georgia probe rejected by judge

The judge denied Trump's request to disqualify the lead prosecutor, block any potential indictments and throw out a special grand jury report.
Seiji Kihara
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2023

Kishida aide Kihara sidesteps reporters after wife in the spotlight

Weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported that Kihara's wife had been questioned by Tokyo Metro Police on a voluntary basis.
American skateboarder Nyjah Huston, seen at a party in Beverly Hills, California, celebrating the one-year countdown to the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, says he has recovered from an ACL tear he suffered a year ago.
MORE SPORTS / Skateboarding
Aug 1, 2023

American Nyjah Huston ramping up for Olympic redemption in Paris

The 33-year-old said his Tokyo 2020 performance was not too surprising given he had struggled at other fan-free competitions during the pandemic.
The emergency vacuum building sits south of the reactor site at the Darlington Nuclear generating station in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, in April 2016.
WORLD
Aug 1, 2023

Canada turns to nuclear after 30-year pause amid demand surge

There are plans to make a plant the world’s largest and a pledge to add three small modular reactors to a site where another is already being built.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk gets in a Tesla car as he leaves a hotel in Beijing in May.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 1, 2023

Elon Musk’s unmatched power in the stars

The tech billionaire has become the dominant power in satellite internet technology. The ways he is wielding that influence are raising global alarms.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike is highly likely to run for a third term in the capital's gubernatorial election in summer 2024, according to sources familiar with the matter.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 1, 2023

Tokyo's Gov. Koike expected to run for third term in 2024 race

Koike was first elected governor of the capital in 2016, and won a landslide victory in 2020.
A health ministry panel has approved the messenger RNA vaccine Daichirona.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 1, 2023

Japan panel endorses first domestically developed COVID vaccine

The shot is based on the original strain of the coronavirus, making it unlikely that it will be used in Japan or elsewhere.
A new high-rise is erected in Beijing in October 2021. The same year, 41% of the assets in China’s banking system were accounted for by property-related loans and credit.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2023

Is Japan’s economic past China’s future?

China is facing a long period of low growth similar to Japan’s experience since the 1990s.
Foreign entertainers are now permitted to work in event venues with a capacity of more than 100 people — including standing-only establishments — that sell food and drinks.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 1, 2023

Japan loosens requirements for entertainer visas

Entertainers earning more than ¥500,000 or more per day are now able to stay for up to 30 days, an increase from 15 days.
Facebook owner Meta Platforms has started the process of ending news availability in Canada.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 2, 2023

Meta starts blocking news in Canada

Google has said it is considering a similar move amid an ongoing global debate as more governments try to make tech firms pay for news content.
A radiographer prepares a patient to undergo a mammogram to look for early signs of breast cancer in the radiology unit at a hospital in Nairobi.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2023

AI could halve time reading breast cancer scans, study suggests

The interim results of the trial were hailed as promising, but the authors cautioned that more research is needed.
Nomura Holdings Chief Executive Officer Kentaro Okuda
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2023

Nomura shares tumble most in two years after profit miss

The stock dropped as much as 8.5% on Wednesday morning, the biggest daily decline since March 2021.
Jacob Anthony Chansley near the entrance to the Senate after breaching security defenses on Jan. 6, 2021
WORLD
Aug 2, 2023

Who else faced legal consequences after the U.S. Capitol attack?

Numerous people have been convicted at trial or pleaded guilty to crimes after seeking to block Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory in 2020.
Signs hang on a gate as people hike in the Pen y Pass at the foot of Mount Snowdon near Llanberis, Wales, in 2020. For residents of deprived urban areas, going to natural green spaces can be prohibitively expensive.
WORLD
Aug 2, 2023

Isolated from nature, U.K.'s ethnic minorities hit harder by heat

Experts say ethnic minorities will be affected most as they often live in dense, poorly insulated households near fewer parks and less vegetation.
A monitor in Tokyo shows the 225-issue Nikkei stock average dropping more than 700 points on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2023

Japan shares post biggest one-day drop this year

Then benchmark 225-issue Nikkei average closed down 2.30% at 32,707.69 — its sharpest one-day drop since Dec. 20.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, attend a document signing ceremony during the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia, in October 2019.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2023

China’s weaponization of race and history

BRICS nations seek a more equitable global architecture that represents the interests of the Global South as China uses race to challenge the West.
Alpine's Pierre Gasly and his teammate, Esteban Ocon, during the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Aug 3, 2023

Alpine facing more upheaval a year on from Oscar Piastri saga

On track, the team has slumped from fourth last season to a distant sixth and suffered more retirements than any team.
A downgrade by Fitch Ratings is being viewed as a condemnation of partisan U.S. politics, including the recent debt ceiling standoff and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
BUSINESS
Aug 3, 2023

Fitch’s U.S. downgrade stokes the very fight it warned against

Washington’s hostile political factions have quickly taken up the agency's downgrade of U.S. government debt as a new weapon of political combat.
Akira Amari, Japan's chip czar, has said that funding around one-third of the cost of a chip plant is the norm, and the 50% funding for Japan's first TSMC chip plant was unusually high.
BUSINESS
Aug 3, 2023

Chip minister hints Japan to fund one-third of second TSMC plant

The subsidies will be part of Japan’s efforts to revive its domestic chipmaking industry, a sector viewed as crucial for growth and economic security.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, arrives at Reagan National Airport in Washington en route to his arraignment in federal court on Thursday.
WORLD
Aug 4, 2023

Trump pleads not guilty to charges of obstructing election

After the hearing, the former U.S. president briefly addressed reporters at the Washington airport, calling it a "very sad day for America.”
A man makes his way through a flooded road after the rains and floods brought by remnants of Typhoon Doksuri, in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, China, on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 4, 2023

China’s ‘sponge cities’ are not built for extreme flood events

China has invested billions of dollars in recent years to protect against extreme rainfall after a 2012 flood in Beijing killed 79 people.
Maung Saungkha at an undisclosed location in the jungles of southeast Myanmar
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 4, 2023

Myanmar poet turned rebel leader seeks new base to confront junta

The growth of Maung Saungkha's BPLA owes much to his skills in building bridges with other armed groups, according to allies and analysts.
Simone Biles competes on the balance beam during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at Ariake Gymnastics Centre.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 4, 2023

Simone Biles ready for long-awaited return to gymnastics

After confirming her return to competition last month, Biles said she is still undergoing therapy to help her handle the mental side of the sport.
Four Italian Air Force F-35 fighter jets are lined up next to an Air Self-Defense Force F-15 fighter shortly after arriving at Komatsu Air Base in Ishikawa Prefecture on Friday evening in this image posted to the base's official X social media account.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2023

Japan and Italy to elevate ties with first joint fighter drills

The drills highlight how Rome and Tokyo are expanding defense and security ties as their strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific converge.
Imma, a virtual influencer, is the face of Nomura’s new campaign for tax-free investment accounts.
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2023

Nomura hires virtual influencer to coax Japan’s young investors

Boosting individual investments is particularly crucial as the country's baby-boomer generation passes on their assets to a younger generation.
Ater Jimmie Husen
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 6, 2023

On plates, Sweden and Japan are a natural pair

Swedish and Japanese cuisine are not natural allies, but diners in Japan don’t seem to care when they taste this unique fusion for themselves.
Demonstrators hold a rally in Washington on Thursday, the day former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is facing federal charges related to attempts to overturn his 2020 election, appeared in a U.S. district court in the nation's capital.
EDITORIALS
Aug 4, 2023

The United States of America vs. Donald J. Trump

The outcome of the trial against former U.S. President Donald Trump will test the rule of law and U.S. democracy.

Longform

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