Search - 2021

 
 
Participants hold a giant rainbow flag during a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Pride Parade in Hong Kong
WORLD / Society
Oct 25, 2023

How nations allow or restrict legal gender change

A small number of countries have made it easier for transgender people to change their legal gender, while other nations have restricted such changes.
Sections of the forests in Colville, Washington, have already been thinned, allowing trees to grow less densely and reducing the risk for wildfire.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Oct 26, 2023

How to prevent forest fires by building cities with more wood

Not everyone is convinced mass timber will help forest health.
An increasing number of middle-aged men are using currency trading apps to buy and sell the yen to get short-term profits.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 26, 2023

Middle-aged salarymen exploit volatile yen with smartphone trades

Smartphone traders amplify volatility in currency markets by seizing on intraday moves, departing from a previous focus on interest rate differentials.
Nomura's majority-owned joint venture in China has struggled to grow since its launch in 2019.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 26, 2023

Nomura reviews business plan for mainland China as losses rise

The move comes as a further blow to the top Japanese investment bank's global expansion strategy.
U.S. President Joe Biden toasts with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during an official state dinner at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 26, 2023

U.S. and Australia seek military drone cooperation with Japan

The moves comes as the nations aim to maintain an edge in the face of China's growing military might.
It’s hard to talk about space-based solar — that is, transmitting the energy — without conjuring images of a death ray. But the team at the California Institute of Technology says the power density of the beam would be comparable to the power density of sunlight.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Oct 27, 2023

Beam solar energy from space? These scientists say yes

The hurdles that have grounded space-based solar in the past aren’t merely technical, they’re also financial.
An employee operates at a production facility of Zaporizhstal Iron and Steel Works, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, this month.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Oct 27, 2023

Ukraine's once-mighty steel sector choked by export blockade

Until producers can get steel to markets via the Black Sea, where Russia continues to pose a threat to shipping, there is little prospect of recovery.
Great Wall Motor's Ora Good Cat electric vehicles are charged at the company's charging station at Siam Square in Bangkok
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 27, 2023

Thailand bets on EVs to draw trillion baht in investment

The country has set up a "special operation” center to catch what its investment board head calls the "big fish” of the EV industry.
Kioxia and Western Digital have held merger talks since 2021 but the negotiations have often stalled over a series of issues.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 27, 2023

Western Digital and Kioxia call off merger talks, source says

South Korea's SK Hynix — a major Kioxia investor — has said it does not back the deal due to its impact on its investment asset value.
Major supermarket chain Daiei opened a checkout-free, walk-through store in the CeeU Yokohama mall on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 27, 2023

At new Japan supermarket outlet, high tech runs the store

The system replaces cash registers with a network of cameras, weight sensors and a smartphone app.
Takuya Matsunaga (right), who lost his wife and daughter in a 2019 crash in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, attends a news conference on Friday along with his father-in-law, Yoshinori Uehara.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 27, 2023

Ex-Japan bureaucrat ordered to pay damages over fatal 2019 crash

Kozo Iizuka had already been sentenced to five years in prison, after the car he was driving crashed into Mana Matsunaga, 31, and her daughter Riko, 3.
Buffaloes starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto captured a third straight Triple Crown this year.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 27, 2023

Kansai superiority at stake in this year's Japan Series

The Buffaloes and the Tigers meet in Game 1 in Osaka on Saturday night.
Matthew Perry at the premiere of "The Kennedys After Camelot" in Beverly Hills, California, in 2017
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Oct 29, 2023

'Friends' actor Matthew Perry dies at age 54

Law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times that Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home.
Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, with his wife Karen Pence, speaks at an event in Las Vegas on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 29, 2023

Republican Mike Pence drops out of U.S. presidential race

The eventual demise of Mike Pence's bid to be chosen to take on U.S. President Joe Biden next year had only seemed a matter of time.
Astronauts thaw early-stage mouse embryos as part of experiments to grow them on the International Space Station.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 29, 2023

Mouse embryos grown in space for first time, Japan researchers say

The researchers sent frozen mouse embryos on board a rocket to the ISS in August 2021.
Orix Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto (18) walks off the mound after being pulled in the sixth inning of Game 1 of the Japan Series on Saturday at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 29, 2023

After Game 1 loss, is this the end for Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Japan?

The big question after Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s loss in Game 1 of the Japan Series: Is this the end of his NPB career?
An Albanian communist hangs a banner with Enver Hoxha's image in a public cemetery in Tirana in April 2012 to mark the anniversary of the hard-line Stalinist dictator's death.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2023

When freedom does not bring about justice

From communism to capitalism, Lea Ypi's book,"Free: Coming of Age at the End of History" reflects on Albania's transition to freedom.
The Bank of Japan is holding a two-day policy meeting through Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 30, 2023

Ueda faces market fallout risk as BOJ mulls yields, prices and yen

In a sign of just how fraught the discussions on policy may be, BOJ officials are likely to monitor yield movements until the very last minute.
Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell discussed a regional trade pact with Japan's economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura during their meeting in Osaka on Sunday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 30, 2023

Australia reassures Japan on CPTPP and strength of relationship

Australian Trade Minister discussed a regional trade pact with Japan's economy minister during their meeting in Osaka.
Buffaloes infielder Marwin Gonzalez fields the ball as the Tigers' Takumu Nakano attempts to steal second during Game 1 of the Japan Series at Kyocera Dome Osaka on Saturday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 30, 2023

Orix's Gonzalez eager for more jewelry with win in Japan Series

The Buffaloes infielder, who is in his first season in Japan, is fine tuning his approach as he goes along.
Utilities are increasingly controlling power output from renewable energy sources as the share of renewables expands.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 30, 2023

Renewable energy cuts from output controls surge sixfold in Japan

With renewables such as solar power in wider use, output controls aimed at balancing power supply and demand have been used more frequently.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida answers questions at a Lower House Budget Committee session on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 30, 2023

Kishida says tax hike and tax cut policies ‘don’t contradict’

“An (income tax cut) is a temporary measure until wages increase to a level that can cover rising prices," the prime minister said.
Inter Miami's Lionel Messi receives his 8th Ballon d'Or award during the 2023 Ballon d'Or France Football award ceremony in Paris on Monday.
SOCCER
Oct 31, 2023

Messi wins record eighth Ballon d'Or for best player in the world

Inter Miami's Messi, who last won the award in 2021, played a pivotal role in guiding Argentina to its first World Cup title in 36 years last year.
Kwok Wai-shing (center) canvasses for votes to compete for a seat in the Sham Shui Po East constituency in Hong Kong's coming district council poll. Candidates from Hong Kong's main pro-democracy party were shut out of upcoming local elections after the nomination period ended on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 31, 2023

Hong Kong election reforms exclude pro-democracy candidates

Directly elected seats in the district council were slashed from 452 to 88 after pro-democracy parties won a landslide victory in 2019.
A missile is fired from a Myanmar military base in Lashio township, northern Shan State, on Saturday. Heavy fighting between rebels and the Myanmar military stretched into a second day near the country's northern border with China.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 31, 2023

Thousands feared displaced in new Myanmar clashes: U.N.

On Friday, three powerful ethnic armed organizations attacked junta troops across a swathe of northern Shan state.
A woman cleans a portrait displayed on a tree to mark the Day of Victims of Political Repressions, who were buried during the Stalin era in the woods on the outskirts of St. Petersburg on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 31, 2023

Russians struggle to keep alive memory of Stalin's victims

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to suppress attempts to evaluate Josef Stalin critically.
Tsuneo Suzuki (center), the suspect arrested after a police raid of a post office in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, on Tuesday, is taken to a police station in the prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 31, 2023

Shooting suspect arrested after police raid Saitama post office

Two men were injured in the shooting at a hospital, while two female staff members of the post office were said to be unharmed.
Tomochika Uyama, a senior official of the World Trade Organization, during an interview in Osaka on Sunday
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 31, 2023

WTO's Tomochika Uyama eager to restore dispute settlement system

The senior adviser to the body's director-general cited momentum following a two-day meeting of Group of Seven trade ministers in Osaka.
Maritime Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff Ryo Sakai speaks during a news conference Tuesday at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 31, 2023

Defense chief condemns ‘outrageous’ response in SDF harassment case

A male perpetrator of sexual assault was forced to apologize directly to the female victim despite her wishes not to see him.
The front entrance gate leading to the former Ashigakubo Elementary School in Yokose, Saitama Prefecture. The school, which was more than a century old, was forced to close in 2009.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 5, 2023

School's out forever in aging Japan

As the number of children in Japan decreases, public money has been made available to help municipalities repurpose old schools.

Longform

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