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Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his wife, Mamiko Tanaka, attend a Lakers game in Los Angeles on Dec. 8.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 29, 2024

Shohei Ohtani ends blockbuster year with baby announcement

Ohtani announced on Instagram on Saturday that he and his wife are expecting their first child, capping a huge year for the Dodgers star.
Rohingya refugees Shamshida (left), who had to flee one of the last refuges in Myanmar for the Rohingya Muslim minority, and her sister Manwara in their tent in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on Nov. 5
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 29, 2024

For the Rohingya, tormentors change but not the torment

This violence was not at the hands of the military, though. Instead, it was from a pro-democracy rebel group that was raised to fight the army.
Ground Self-Defense Force members conduct a military drill next to an anti-ship missile unit on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture in April 2022.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Dec 29, 2024

Japan defense spending goals hit by inflation, weak yen and political uncertainty

A slew of obstacles are jeopardizing Tokyo's pursuit of raising defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product by fiscal 2027.
A woman receives a COVID-19 vaccine in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in October.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 29, 2024

Meiji Seika Pharma files suit against lawmaker over 'unfounded' vaccine claims

CDP Lower House lawmaker Kazuhiro Haraguchi has said that the drugmaker's replicon vaccine is "akin to a biological weapon."
People cover themselves with umbrellas during a hot summer day in Tokyo's Ginza district in August. Temperatures shot up in early July, even before the official end of the rainy season, and the high temperatures persisted well into the fall.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Dec 29, 2024

Japan’s weather in 2024: Record temperatures hurt people’s health and wallets

Average temperatures across the nation and surrounding seas exceeded last year’s record-breaking levels "by a significant margin," affecting everything from well-being to farming.
Shohei Ohtani waves toward the fans after a game on Sept. 19 against the Marlins in Miami in which the Dodgers' superstar had a performance for the ages, compiling six hits, including three home runs, and two stolen bases to become the first member of MLB's 50-50 club.
SPORTS
Dec 29, 2024

Sports images of 2024: Olympic drama and Shohei Ohtani's season for the ages

On the global stage of sports, Japan's Olympians and baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani showed the world what they were made of.
A Self-Defense Forces soldier from a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile unit takes part in a drill at Yokota Air Base in Fussa, western Tokyo, in August 2017.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2024

U.S. military coordination unit eyed in central Tokyo

Such a location near the Defense Ministry is expected to allow both sides to smoothly draw up joint operational plans.
Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa (left), greets a member of Qatar's delegation in Damascus on Dec. 23.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 30, 2024

Syria's de facto leader says holding elections could take up to four years

Drafting a new constitution could take up to three years, Ahmed al-Sharaa said, adding that it would take about a year for Syrians to see drastic changes.
Mikheil Kavelashvili, elected by lawmakers as Georgia's new president, takes an oath during his swearing-in ceremony at the parliament in Tbilisi on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 30, 2024

New Georgian president sworn in; predecessor calls him illegitimate leader

The presidential standoff is seen as a watershed moment in Georgia, which had been regarded as among the most pro-Western of the former Soviet states.
Oil tanker Eagle S anchors outside the Port of Kilpilahti on the Gulf of Finland on Saturday.
WORLD
Dec 30, 2024

Finland finds drag marks on Baltic seabed after cable damage

Baltic Sea nations have been on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The start of the 2024 Hakone Ekiden in Tokyo's Otemachi district. Every year on Jan. 2 and 3, Hakone Ekiden brings millions of fans across Japan to a standstill.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 31, 2024

A newcomer’s guide to the Hakone Ekiden experience

Every year on Jan. 2 and 3, Hakone Ekiden brings millions of fans across Japan to a standstill, even people who normally don’t care about running.
Members of the Wajima City Morning Market Association pose for a group photograph on the site where the market once stood.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Dec 30, 2024

In the wake of disaster, the revival of Wajima's market brings hope

Wajima's morning market on the Noto Peninsula was devastated a year ago. Now, led by women vendors and bold ideas, it is rising as a symbol of resilience.
Atsushi Mimura, vice minister of finance for international affairs, speaks during an interview at the ministry on Dec. 20.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 30, 2024

Japan sees G7 role increasing in divided world

"There are not many countries like Japan that can speak with the U.S. on equal terms," said top financial diplomat Atsushi Mimura.
Climate demonstrators protest against investments in fossil fuels during the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington on Oct. 21.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 30, 2024

After a year of hard climate talks, ‘minilateralism’ is an alternative

Global environmental agreements have never been simple, but a variety of factors, such as political polarization, make countries less willing to compromise.
Emperor Naruhito (right) and Empress Masako (center) visit the disaster-hit city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Dec. 17 along with Wajima Mayor Shigeru Sakaguchi.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2024

Emperor and empress eye regional visits to mark 80th war anniversary

The emperor and empress may travel to Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Okinawa prefectures to meet with people involved in preserving the memory of the war.
Oleksandr, a 45-year-old Ukrainian soldier of the 1st Separate Assault Battalion Da Vinci, who left his unit without permission and later returned to the army, poses for a portrait in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on Dec. 12.
WORLD / Society
Dec 30, 2024

Desertions spark panic, and pardons, in Ukraine's army

More than 90,000 cases have been opened into instances of soldiers in Ukraine going absent without leave or deserting since Russia invaded in 2022.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (center) waves after meeting with authorities in Port-au-Prince about the upcoming elections in Haiti in 1990.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 30, 2024

'Democracy and freedom': Jimmy Carter's human rights work in Latin America

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter defied the furor of U.S. conservatives to negotiate the handover of the Panama Canal to Panamanian control.
At 60, the shinkansen has been mostly stuck in Japan, with only one system ever sold overseas.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 1, 2025

Japan’s go-slow approach to selling high-speed rail globally

The shinkansen has been mostly stuck in Japan as competitors from Europe and China sell their own high-speed trains in an increasing number of countries.
An advertisement in Tokyo's Kabukicho, Japan's largest red-light district. The country is home to a thriving adult entertainment industry and has recently seen a boom in sex tourism fueled by the weak yen and availability of red-light services.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 30, 2024

From geisha to oshikatsu, toxic tropes fuel sex industry

It isn't only the foreign gaze that produces stereotypes of Japanese women as submissive and promiscuous. Local laws and cultural norms play just as important a role.
Kozo Naka (right) cries as his wife Sueko looks down during an interview at their temporary housing unit in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Dec. 10.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2024

A fearful New Year's on Noto Peninsula nearly one year after earthquake

More than 200 people still live in shared emergency shelters, while thousands of others are in accommodation units meant as a stop-gap solution.
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah (center) in action against West Ham United's Jean-Clair Todibo (right) in the two sides' Premier League clash in London on Sunday.
SOCCER
Dec 30, 2024

Five-star Liverpool pull eight points clear with West Ham rout

Arne Slot has stressed nothing can be won yet with Liverpool still one game shy of the halfway mark in the Premier League.
U.S. President Joe Biden
WORLD
Dec 30, 2024

Biden announces $2.5 billion in fresh military aid to Ukraine

Biden's announcement includes $1.25 billion in military aid drawn from U.S. stockpiles and a $1.22 billion Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative package.
South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok pays his respects at a memorial for the victims of Jeju Air Flight 2216 in Muan County, South Korea, on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 31, 2024

Plane crash prompts South Korea leaders to pause political fight

The tragedy has compounded the challenges facing South Korea, which is already going through one of its most turbulent periods in years.
U.S. President Joe Biden (right) meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in Washington on Sept. 26.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 31, 2024

Biden announces $5.9 billion for Ukraine amid final aid push

The military aid includes $1.25 billion in so-called Presidential Drawdown Authority, which pulls weapons and ammunition from U.S. stockpiles.
A woman walks past a store of Ukraine's telecommunications company Kyivstar in Kyiv on Dec.12, 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 31, 2024

Starlink to roll out direct-to-cell services in Ukraine

Ukraine will be one of the first countries in the world with direct-to-cell connectivity and the first conflict zone where Starlink will roll out this technology.
The tail of Jeju Air Flight 2216 is seen at Muan International Airport in Muan County, South Korea, on Sunday after the aircraft careered down the runway with no landing gear deployed and smashed into a concrete wall, killing all but two of the 181 people on board.
WORLD
Dec 31, 2024

Two plane crashes lead to deadliest year in skies since 2018

The Jeju Air disaster in South Korea and last week’s downing of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane took the number of fatalities aboard passenger aircraft in 2024 to 318.
Britain's Emma Raducanu celebrates after defeating Canada's Rebecca Marino in Malaga, Spain, on Nov. 17.
TENNIS
Dec 31, 2024

Raducanu pulls out of Australian Open warmup with back injury

Raducanu, who was seeded sixth in Auckland, will fly to Melbourne to begin rehabilitation.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks at a news conference after a policy meeting in Tokyo on Dec. 19.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 1, 2025

After historic year, the Bank of Japan ambles into 2025

Two or three rate hikes expected this year could take the central bank's benchmark to 1% for the first time in three decades.
Students perform a play they produced during a Liberal Arts Japanese class at Aichi Prefectural Kariyahigashi High School, as teacher Tomohiko Hyodo (left) watches.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Jan 13, 2025

Aichi school uses theater to foster communication skills

Liberal Arts Japanese, designed to supplement conventional Japanese language studies, emphasizes practical skills in listening and speaking, the school says.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stands for the national anthem during an award ceremony in Kyiv on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 1, 2025

Zelenskyy vows Ukraine will do everything in 2025 to stop Russia

The Ukrainian leader's address caps a difficult year for the war-battered country, which has been fending off a better-resourced Russian army.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go