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Gold medal-winning judoka Teddy Riner of France celebrates his victory at the Paris Olympics in the French capital on Friday.
OLYMPICS / Judo
Aug 3, 2024

France's Teddy Riner reigns supreme with record fourth gold

The judoka now has three individual titles — a record shared with Japan's Tadahiro Nomura, who won three consecutive titles in the -60kg category in 1996, 2000 and 2004.
The Great War of Africa between 1998 and 2003 was the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II. Now, hostilities between Congo, Rwanda and Uganda are reigniting.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2024

Africa is heading toward another deadly war

Armed clashes between Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and others could see a repeat of the world’s deadliest conflict since WWII, unless an escalation can be averted.
The turmoil affecting global markets came on the heels of Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda’s decision to raise rates, but you can't fault him given the volatile worldwide economic conditions.
COMMENTARY
Aug 6, 2024

Tokyo market rout — oops, the BOJ did it again

Japan’s central bank isn’t responsible for the bloodbath. But it’s reliving a terrible habit of hiking rates at the worst possible time.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin attend the Japan-U.S. Extended Deterrence Dialogue in Tokyo on July 28.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 7, 2024

Japan-U.S. alliance transforms with concrete 'two-plus-two' talks

Despite the long and challenging history of Japan-U.S. two-plus-two meetings, this year's Tokyo meeting was truly groundbreaking.
Vinesh Phogat of India (in red) wrestles Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba in the women's 50-kg semifinals on Tuesday at the Paris Olympics. Phogat was later disqualified for being 100 grams over the weight limit.
OLYMPICS
Aug 8, 2024

Disqualification costs India a medal, but its Olympic future still looks bright

Vinesh Phogat had a chance to win a first Olympic gold for Indian women. But even after he disqualification, the country's female athletes have a promising future.
France's Victor Wembanyama celebrates after Les Bleus won their semifinal match over Germany at the Paris Olympics on Thursday.
OLYMPICS / Basketball
Aug 9, 2024

Wembanyama says Olympic final 'once-in-a-lifetime' chance

The hosts returned to the final for the second straight Olympics after defeating Germany 73-69 on Thursday, and will take on the United States for the title.
A ward for heatstroke patients at a hospital in Chennai, India, in May. The country experienced a severe heat wave over the spring and summer, raising concerns about the long-term impact of climate change-induced extreme heat on human health.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2024

Climate change: A health emergency in the making

Global warming's impact on health is an increasingly urgent issue — just look at excess deaths caused by extreme heat. But are health care systems well-equipped enough?
Children practice tennis at a club in Beijing on Wednesday. Zheng Qinwen's historic tennis gold at the Paris Olympics this month followed a decadeslong surge in the sport's popularity among China's burgeoning middle class.
OLYMPICS
Aug 16, 2024

China's Olympic tennis glory tracks booming middle classes

Zheng Qinwen's tennis gold at the Paris Olympics followed a decadeslong surge in the sport's popularity among China's burgeoning middle class.
If there is one person who can tell you all about the building that used to be the Bank of Japan's Hiroshima branch, which survived the atomic bombing, it's Yasuhiro Nanba.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Aug 19, 2024

A building that survived the A-bomb, and the man who tells its story

A security guard's fascination with the Bank of Japan's Hiroshima branch led him to compile personal accounts of people who were there when the bomb was dropped.
Masako Egawa forged a successful career in business and academia in the United States and Japan.
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Sep 1, 2024

A quiet triumph of excellence in the worlds of banking and academia

Masako Egawa navigated a changing business world with her arms open to any opportunities that came along.
Okayama and Tottori prefectures are some of the least-visited regions in Japan among foreign tourists — which is why they offer such a welcome break from crowd-clogged cities like Tokyo and Kyoto.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 23, 2024

In Japan’s flyover country, 72 hours of hidden gems

Some of Japan’s least-visited prefectures among foreign tourists host opportunities for peace, quiet and rural beauty.
Police escort a 26-year-old Syrian man who is a suspect in a stabbing rampage in the western German city of Solingen, in which several individuals were killed, as he leaves the Federal Public Prosecutor in Karlsruhe, Germany, on Sunday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 26, 2024

Suspect in German stabbing rampage is Syrian man who confessed

After the stabbing, some German politicians have urged enhanced security, stiffer punishment for violent crimes and limits to immigration.
England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson at a news conference in London in September 2002. Eriksson died on Monday at the age of 76.
SOCCER
Aug 27, 2024

Soccer world pays tribute as 'true gentleman' Eriksson dies age 76

The former England manager died surrounded by his family after revealing in January he had "at best" a year to live.
People take shelter in a metro station during a Russian air attack in Kyiv on Monday.
WORLD
Aug 27, 2024

Russia again pounds Ukraine with missiles and drones, Kyiv says

Several Russian military bloggers called the Moscow attacks an "act of retaliation" for Ukraine's surprising incursion into Russia's territory.
A building emblazoned with a Great Wall graphic in Kitwe, Zambia
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 3, 2024

Xi wants bigger returns and fewer headaches from African debt deals

From Angola to Djibouti, for over a decade, China poured more than $120 billion of government-backed loans through its Belt and Road Initiative.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa attends a new conference for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) Ministerial Meeting in Tokyo on Aug. 25.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 3, 2024

Africa's rising importance for Japan’s Indo-Pacific goals

Africa is becoming an increasingly important element of Japanese FOIP strategy. It is a work in progress, but it is proceeding.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan greet the press before welcoming leaders from African countries in Beijing on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 5, 2024

Debt woes and funding needs in focus as China hosts African leaders

Africa and its ample mineral and oil resources have become the focus of intense geopolitical competition in recent years.
Michie Hino, 77, works at an elderly care home in Chiba Prefecture. She is one of a growing number of senior Japanese citizens working into their 70s.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Sep 5, 2024

Working till your 70s — Japan's prospective gift to the world

A struggling pension system and the highest inflation in decades have led more Japanese people to delay retirement until their 70s or later to make ends meet.
Sergei Kiriyenko, who is the first deputy head in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration, oversaw a yearslong Kremlin operation to meddle in U.S. elections and use disinformation to promote pro-Russian narratives online, according to a 277-page affidavit that U.S. officials unsealed Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 7, 2024

The evolution of Putin’s aide accused of gaming the U.S. election

The head of a Russian propaganda campaign that allegedly aimed to influence the upcoming U.S. elections began as a liberal politician.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa announces her candidacy in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 11, 2024

Yoko Kamikawa banks on overseas experience in LDP leadership race

Her candidacy could increase attention on foreign policy questions in a race so far dominated by party reform and domestic economic issues.
A model displays a creation by Japanese designer Norio Surikabe during a runway show on Sept. 6 for the latest edition of Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo.
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 14, 2024

Tokyo’s top fashion showcase pushes rising stars to the world stage

Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo celebrated industry veterans while shining a spotlight on emerging talent.
Intel in 2022 lost out on a contract to design and fabricate the chip for Sony’s next-generation PlayStation 6.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 17, 2024

How Intel lost the Sony PlayStation business

A dispute over how much profit Intel stood to take from each chip sold to the electronics giant for the PlayStation 6 gave a leg-up to AMD, which clinched the deal.
The Osaka Expo site under construction. One of the key items to be showcased at the expo will be a rock from Mars collected by a Japanese Antarctic research expedition.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2024

Mars rock to go on display at 2025 Osaka Expo

The rock, the largest Martian meteorite ever found, is significant because it suggests water once existed on Mars.
A game between the Indiana Fever and the Minnesota Lynx in Indianapolis earlier this month.
BASKETBALL
Sep 19, 2024

WNBA awards Portland expansion team that will start play in 2026

Portland will be the third expansion franchise the WNBA adds over the next two years with Golden State and Toronto having previously been awarded teams.
A drone view shows a burned area following a recent wildfire on Mount Penteli, near Athens in August.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 20, 2024

As wildfires wipe out forests, Greeks debate: To replant, or not?

Tree loss raises the risk of flash floods from rains on denuded grounds no longer protected by tree canopies and root systems, as well as higher air temperatures.
The Fair Trade Commission says rules preventing pro baseball players from freely choosing their agents for contract negotiations could violate the antimonopoly law.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 20, 2024

Japan FTC warns pro baseball body over agent rules

The body's rules have limited agents for players to lawyers and prohibited players from choosing lawyers who had already been picked by other players.
Having grown up in North Carolina, where people are chatty and friendly, Duane Levi says Kansai and Osaka in particular had a similar vibe.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Sep 27, 2024

Duane Levi: 'Once you are able to create something that has sustainability … you’re going to get help and support.'

Unable to get a job in PA and recording, Duane Levi forged his own path in the Japanese music scene and has introduced many artists to the market here.
A supporter holds a portrait of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah during an event in a southern suburb of Beirut on Jan. 3.
WORLD
Sep 28, 2024

Hassan Nasrallah, Iran’s man atop Hezbollah, dead at 64

Nasrallah was idolized by many for leading the armed resistance to Israel’s 1982 invasion of southern Lebanon but later became a divisive figure in the Middle East.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to sign a memorandum on intellectual property tariffs on high-tech Chinese goods at the White House in March 2018.
COMMENTARY
Sep 30, 2024

Trumpism, Stalinism and the tariff debate

Trump loyalists — which these days means almost the entire Republican Party — insist as a group that foreigners, not American consumers, pay taxes on imports.
JR Tokai officials send off the Nozomi No. 1 bullet train bound for Hakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, at Tokyo Station on Tuesday as the Tokaido Shinkansen marked the 60th anniversary of its services the same day.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2024

Tokaido Shinkansen marks 60th anniversary

A commemorative ceremony was held by Central Japan Railway at Tokyo Station to send off the first train of the day.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.