Search - 2022

 
 
Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe waves to fans prior to a match in Toulouse in August 2023.
SOCCER
Jun 2, 2024

Mbappe the next prize for Real Madrid, the kings of Europe

The 25-year-old forward has been unable to win the Champions League with Paris Saint-Germain in seven years at the French club.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs after delivering remarks at Trump Tower in New York on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 2, 2024

Biden's big weakness vs Trump: Voters without college degrees

Such results help set the stage for what national opinion polls show is a tied race between Biden and Trump.
Pedestrians holding umbrellas during a downpour in Tokyo in June 2023
JAPAN / Science & Health / OUR PLANET
Jun 2, 2024

The growing link between extreme rain and respiratory health in Japan

Researchers have found a strong association between respiratory mortality and severe downpours of the kind being made worse by climate change.
Bidet toilets are the norm in Japan, where more than 80% of homes have one. But their numbers are growing worldwide.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 2, 2024

Feeling flush: Japan's high-tech toilets go global

Sales are surging abroad and especially in the United States, led by A-list bidet fans such as Drake, the Kardashians and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Yuka Saso hits a tee shot on the first hole during the final round of the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Jun 3, 2024

Yuka Saso wins second U.S. Women's Open golf crown

At 22, Saso is the youngest player to win the U.S. Women's Open twice
People protest in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip at the headquarters of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, on Oct 18, 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 3, 2024

ICJ is collateral damage in dysfunctional global system, experts say

That countries comply with its rulings — or not — based on their own double standards is hamstringing the international court adjudicating disputes between nations.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 3, 2024

KKR weighs entering private credit in Japan to challenge banks

In Japan, most direct lending has been done overseas, and the domestic loan market is dominated by major banks.
Spain's Carlos Alcaraz Garfia plays a backhand return to Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime during their men's singles round of sixteen match at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris on Sunday.
TENNIS
Jun 3, 2024

Alcaraz books Tsitsipas rematch as Swiatek races into quarterfinals

Alcaraz says he feels much more like himself in Paris after an injury-hit buildup saw him sidelined for almost a month.
Employees assemble an electric transformer on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, on March 28.
WORLD
Jun 3, 2024

Modi plans post-election reforms to rival Chinese manufacturing

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans a raft of business-friendly measures if he wins a third term this week, including pushing through regulations making it easier to hire and fire workers, according to two government officials familiar with the matter.
Hyappu Ishikawa (left) attends to children at the "Karafuru" Japanese language school in Nishio, Aichi Prefecture, in April.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2024

How one Japanese city supports foreign students through community education

In the city of Nishio, public and private sectors collaborate with schools to support foreign students in Japanese language education and raise their school enrollment rates.
Artificial chemical scents that come from things like perfume or fabric softener can cause discomfort or even sickness for some individuals.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 7, 2024

Scents and sensitivity: Understanding ‘smell pollution’ in Japan

In the country's crowded urban areas, it is important to be aware of how your deodorant, perfume or fabric softener can affect others.
Support staff dispatched by power firms work to restore electrical equipment in an area hit by the Noto Peninsula earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jun 4, 2024

Major Japan power firms boost cooperation on disaster response

The electric power sector has established a framework to streamline the dispatch of support personnel and facilitate mutual aid to cover restoration expenses.
Nadezhda Sokolova competes against Elizaveta Smirnova in the 50kg women's final at the Russian Pre-Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Championship at the Live Arena venue outside Moscow on May 1.
OLYMPICS
Jun 4, 2024

Russian wrestlers set on competing in Paris Olympics

The Games have been racked by Ukraine-related controversy in the buildup to their July 26 start.
A hydrogen storage tank and loading system at a liquefied hydrogen receiving terminal in Kobe. Japan and the European Union have agreed to work together on policies related to clean hydrogen.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Jun 4, 2024

Japan and EU agree to work on creating hydrogen demand and supply

Tokyo sees hydrogen as a new and cleaner source to gradually substitute liquefied natural gas, part of Japan's path to carbon neutrality by 2050.
Israeli soldiers ready a tank near the border with Gaza on Thursday. The Jewish state's victory in the Gaza conflict will depend on addressing Palestinian despair.
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2024

Israel will always be held to a different standard

Arrest warrants, campus protests and genocide accusations were not inevitable. These were the direct results of Netanyahu’s choices.
A vendor cuts salmon at the Tsukiji outer market in Tokyo. Japan and Russia have agreed on this year's Japanese fishing quotas for salmon and trout.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2024

Japan and Russia agree on salmon and trout fishing after two years

Bilateral fishing negotiations are usually held every year, but such talks were not held in 2022 or 2023 due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks at the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore on Saturday.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2024

Upgrade for U.S. military's command in Japan gains steam

U.S. defense chief Lloyd Austin has said that basing a four-star commander in Japan is something the Pentagon is “looking at very closely.”
Machida Zelvia's Yu Hirakawa (center) is challenged by Albirex Niigata's Yuto Horigome during the two teams' J. League clash at Machida Gion Stadium in Machida, Tokyo, on Saturday.
SOCCER / J. League
Jun 4, 2024

From nonleague to top of the league for upstarts Machida

The team from Tokyo's suburbs tops the table approaching the halfway point of the season.
Ukrainian soldiers patrol a heavily war-damaged area of the town of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine on May 20.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2024

Ukraine and its allies need a new strategy. Here’s a start.

With the war in Ukraine, stop talking about ‘liberal’ democracy and the ‘rules-based international order.’
A 17-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly stealing IDs and passwords of people attempting to buy his fictitious online game account by guiding them to a fake website.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 4, 2024

17-year-old boy arrested for stealing IDs on fake website

The 17-year-old compromised other people's accounts using their IDs and passwords and sent their funds to his own account.
Serbia's Novak Djokovic receives medical treatment during his fourth-round match against Francisco Cerundolo on Monday.
TENNIS
Jun 5, 2024

Djokovic rocks French Open with withdrawal

The Serbian great's withdrawal means that Italian Jannik Sinner will become the new No. 1 next week.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is the world's leading chip contract manufacturer.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 5, 2024

Chinese AI chip firms downgrading designs to secure TSMC production

They submitted the less-powerful designs to TSMC — the world's leading chip contract manufacturer — to comply with U.S. restrictions, sources say.
Thailand is the latest nation to consider competing for a pie of the global casino industry, which IBIS World estimates generated $263.3 billion in revenue last year.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 5, 2024

Thailand plans bill to legalize casinos, spokesman says

Any opening of casinos will be in line with its recent embrace of a more liberal landscape to revive its tourism industry.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit seeking to break up the social networking giant Meta.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 5, 2024

Meta withheld information on Instagram and WhatsApp deals, FTC says

The company formerly known as Facebook bought photo-sharing app Instagram in 2012 and the messaging app WhatsApp in 2014.
The children of some of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies are also listed as participants at the four-day St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), including Roman Rotenberg, whose father was among the Russian president’s childhood judo partners.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 5, 2024

Children of Russia's elite take center stage at Putin’s flagship forum

Once touted as a "window” into Russia, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is increasingly becoming a generational showcase.
People wear Dragon Ball Z costumes, as they attend Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, in July 2023.
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2024

Japan aims to quadruple overseas market for anime, games

Combining anime and game sectors with related industries such as fashion, cosmetics and inbound tourism, Japan is targeting an economic benefit of ¥50 trillion by 2033.
Dunkirk has revamped its seafront to create a modern promenade, new hotels have gone up and public transportation has been made free.
WORLD
Jun 5, 2024

Macron’s charms falter in Le Pen’s industrial heartland

The area around Dunkirk has suffered from the demise of industries such as steel and mining.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin leaves a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 4, 2024

China is winning the communications competition

It's a mistake for the U.S. to take for granted that the world sees it as “the good guy” in its competition with China.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, meet in Tokyo in May 2022 on the sidelines of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. The coalition is now adrift and the reason for the drop-off is simple: The U.S. is preoccupied with Europe and the Middle East.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2024

Is 'the Quad' becoming a Potemkin alliance?

Despite its initial promise, "the Quad" coalition now appears to be losing momentum, posing significant security risks.
Despite the Sino-American trade war, China's export competitiveness has strengthened, with its share of global exports increasing in 2023 and its trade surplus reaching $823 billion.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2024

Why the U.S. can’t win the trade war with China — and shouldn’t try

There is no evidence that China is actively targeting the exchange rate, and even the U.S. does not label China as a currency manipulator.

Longform

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