Search - 2021

 
 
Apple CEO Tim Cook unveils the iPhone 16 at the Steve Jobs Theater on the company's campus in Cupertino, California, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 10, 2024

iPhone 16 to land in Japan without Apple Intelligence 

The new feature, which uses generative artificial intelligence to analyze text and photos, will only be activated in 2025 in several markets, including Japan.
Panasonic has supported the Olympic Games with its technologies, product and services, such as the Technics turn-tables at the breaking event in Paris last month.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 10, 2024

Panasonic ends 37-year contract as top Olympics sponsor

The Osaka-based company first became an official partner of the Olympic Games in 1987 and expanded its partnership to the Paralympics from 2014.
Crown Princess Kiko (second from left) visits an embroidery exhibition in Tokyo with her daughter Princess Kako (left) on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2024

Crown Princess Kiko turns 58

The Crown Princess has missed some of her engagements this year, after feeling unwell from the end of last year, but says she is getting better.
Tamotsu Shiiki, 58, is accused of sexually assaulting a first-year junior high school girl at a karaoke parlor in Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district on Aug. 20. He has denied the charge.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 11, 2024

Ex-lawmaker held over alleged sexual assault in Tokyo karaoke parlor

Tamotsu Shiiki, a former Lower House lawmaker of Nippon Ishin no Kai, denies sexually assaulting the first-year junior high school girl.
A U.S. F-35B stealth fighter lands on the MSDF's destroyer Izumo off the coast of Japan's Shikoku region in October 2021.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2024

Maritime Self-Defense Force's 'Flattop' to undergo tests with U.S. fighters

The helicopter-carrying destroyer has been undergoing work to become an aircraft carrier for use with F-35B stealth fighters to be adopted by the Air SDF.
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.
From Malaysia to Brazil, free speech is being pitted against social media regulation.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2024

To hold Big Tech accountable, focus on the harms

The Malaysian case underscores the urgent need for effective safeguards against online abuse, while raising concerns about the potential misuse of regulatory power.
Shoppers outside an office building in Beijing in August. China's overall public spending — which includes local governments — is shrinking, not growing. It contracted about 2% in the first seven months of 2024.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 12, 2024

China’s attempt to boost demand is stifled by wall of austerity

While finance chiefs in Beijing are testing new ways to boost the economy by encouraging demand, their counterparts in the provinces are in full belt-tightening mode.
Rory McIlroy has been critical of LIV Golf since it began in 2021.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Sep 12, 2024

Rory McIlroy not trying to send any 'message' with exhibition against LIV Golf stars

McIlroy has expressed his frustration since the creation of LIV Golf, which began in 2021 and has splintered the sport.
A child consultation center in Fukuoka Prefecture. Households frequently relocating within short periods experienced a lack of proper handovers of child abuse cases between local governments.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 12, 2024

Over 40% of fatal child abuse victims under age of 1, survey shows

Excluding cases of murder-suicide, the number of children in Japan who died from abuse stood at 56.
A court sketch shows Saki Sudo in her first hearing for her murder case at the Wakayama District Court on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 12, 2024

Former wife pleads not guilty to murder of 'Don Juan of Kishu'

The outcome of the trial may affect the treatment of inheritance money left by Nozaki, which is said to total more than ¥1.3 billion.
Historical examples show that technological advances often lead to significant but gradual changes, sometimes accompanied by social and economic disruptions.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2024

Will the AI revolution lead to greater prosperity?

Historical examples show that technological advances often lead to significant but gradual changes, sometimes accompanied by social and economic disruptions.
Cristiano Ronaldo scores for Portugal during a Nations League match against Scotland in Lisbon, Portugal, on Sunday.
SOCCER
Sep 12, 2024

Cristiano Ronaldo labels Erik ten Hag's attitude as too negative for United

The Portugal star, who now plays for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, fell out with Ten Hag before his second spell at Old Trafford ended late in 2022.
Belmarsh prison in London. The financial, political and social stresses around prisons — and the potential danger they pose to the U.K.'s fledgling Labour government — were vividly exposed by widespread rioting within weeks of Labour taking power.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 12, 2024

Overcrowded prisons force U.K.’s Starmer to take first big gamble

Apart from Scotland, England and Wales lock up a bigger proportion of their combined population than anywhere else in Western Europe.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un tours a facility for producing weapons-grade nuclear materials at an undisclosed location in North Korea, in this photo released Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 13, 2024

North Korea unveils images of uranium enrichment facility for first time

The pictures could give outside experts a better understanding of how many and what types of nuclear weapons the North has produced.
World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold Banka attends the World Anti-Doping Agency Symposium in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 12, 2024.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 13, 2024

Report clears WADA in doping case involving Chinese swimmers

The report's author, Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier, said he found "WADA has done its work autonomously, independently and professionally."
Canelo Alvarez celebrates after defeating John Ryder in Guadalajara, Mexico, on May 7, 2023.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Sep 13, 2024

Canelo Alvarez will try to score knockout blow against Edgar Berlanga in title defense

Alvarez, 34, brings a record of 61-2-2 with 39 knockouts into what promises to be an explosive confrontation at T-Mobile Arena.
Aeon is selling an assortment of 'osechi' (traditional New Year's cuisine) curated with the support of artificial intelligence.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 13, 2024

AI fried chicken, retro chic collabs: Retailers rebrand Japan's New Year's cuisine

Major department stores and supermarkets are trying unorthodox methods to entice younger generations to buy traditional New Year's dishes in Japan.
Takanori Takebe (behind the lectern) speaks after his team of researchers and he were awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in physiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 13, 2024

Scientists win Ig Nobel for discovering anal breathing in mammals

The research team of Japanese and American scientists hope the discovery will help treat people with COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.
Elderly people rest at a park in Fuyang in eastern China's Anhui province on Friday.  China said the same day that it would gradually raise its statutory retirement age, as the country grapples with a looming demographic crisis and an older population.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 14, 2024

China’s first retirement age hike since 1978 triggers discontent

The move could stem a decline in the labor force but risks angering workers already wrestling with a slowing economy.
Naomi Osaka and coach Wim Fissette attend a training session ahead of the Brisbane International tennis tournament at Pat Rafter Arena in Brisbane, Australia, last December.
TENNIS
Sep 14, 2024

Former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka announces split with coach

The four-time Grand Slam champion has struggled to put together victories since she returned to the WTA Tour at Brisbane in January.
The construction site of the Rapidus chip factory in Chitose, in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido. The Rapidus chip factory in Chitose is a collaboration with IBM and backed by billions of dollars in government funding.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 14, 2024

Japan tries to reclaim its clout as a global tech leader

To do this, Japan is working with foreign tech leaders — an outward-looking, collaborative approach that decades earlier would have been unthinkable.
An undated image shows the tail of Japanese eel escaping via the gill of a dark sleeper after being eaten by the river-dwelling fish.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 14, 2024

The terrifying way that eels escape a hungry fish’s stomach

Scientists at Nagasaki University used X-ray video to show juvenile Japanese eels staging Houdiniesque feats of escape.
"Nightbitch," which premiered at the Toronto film festival on Sept. 7, stars Amy Adams (center) as Mother, an artist who becomes a harried stay-at-home mom caring for a boisterous toddler.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 14, 2024

Amy Adams gets real about motherhood in 'Nightbitch'

The film explores various facets of motherhood — the wonder and joy, but also the darkness and exhaustion — using equal doses of comedy, drama and magical realism.
Urawa celebrates after winning the Asian Champions League final at Saitama Stadium on May 6, 2023.
SOCCER
Sep 15, 2024

New Asian Champions League format highlights quality over quantity

The tournament features a new format, trophy and logo as well as three times more cash for the new champion.
The four candidates running in the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan's leadership race (left to right), Yukio Edano, Yoshihiko Noda, Harumi Yoshida and Kenta Izumi, hold a public debate in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 15, 2024

CDP leadership race a battle between old and new

On Sept. 23, two veterans face off against two younger challengers, including the incumbent and a lawmaker in her first term.
Flood-affected residents at the Yado displacement camp in Than Dung Gyi, eastern Karen state, Myanmar, on Saturday
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 16, 2024

Volunteers rush to help as Myanmar flood toll surges

Floods and landslides have killed more than 400 people in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in the wake of Typhoon Yagi.
Solar panels and wind turbines at a power plant in Hami in China's Xinjiang region. The U.S. and other countries have described China’s actions against Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, a key cog in the cleantech supply chain, as a genocidal campaign aimed at erasing an entire culture.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Sep 16, 2024

How China’s dominance of solar and batteries is impacting Japan’s energy transition

China has thrown its industrial might behind cleantech, putting Japan in a tough spot as it weighs human rights concerns against its climate targets.
Shop manager Komura poses with a signed Metal Gear Solid box at Super Potato, a shop selling vintage video games and memorabilia in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, on June 18.
LIFE / Digital
Sep 22, 2024

Japan is next level for retro game collectors

Game Boy cartridges, Sega Dreamcast consoles and antiquated arcade machines await tourists in some of Tokyo's stores.
Students sit under a misting system during recess at Hikarigaoka Haru no Kaze Elementary School in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, on Sept. 6.
JAPAN / Society / Boiling Point
Sep 16, 2024

Japan’s schools battle to keep kids cool, with or without AC

With extreme heat affecting both health and study, schools are racing to plug AC gaps while experimenting with creative, cheaper solutions.

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