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BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 28, 2024

Pacific League pennant set to be tight race as Buffaloes chase dynasty in 2024

The Buffaloes path to a fourth straight title is fraught with peril as the Hawks gather their forces for a renewed push for the PL crown.
A Palestinian boy walks on the site of an Israeli strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 27.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Apr 2, 2024

How the Israel-Hamas war is changing the international security order

The divide within the international community over the conflict is set to become even more serious.
An installation titled "Ukiyo-e" by Atsushi Kaga is displayed at Art Basel in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 28, 2024

Art Basel Hong Kong’s full-scale return tests city’s events appeal

The art fair will serve as a test of the city’s ability to stage major events, in the wake of several big-name controversies and cancellations.
People exit the platform at a train station along the Yamanote Line in Tokyo in 1986. A time-traveling TV comedy with a bawdy middle-aged hero from the era has become a big hit in Japan, juxtaposing brash 1980s attitudes with the more politically correct present day.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Mar 29, 2024

Satire TV show strikes a generation-spanning chord in Japan

"Extremely Inappropriate" uses a time-traveling protagonist to humorously highlight the gap between attitudes of the 1980s and the 2020s.
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani celebrates with outfielder Teoscar Hernandez after an opening day win against the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Thursday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 29, 2024

'Sho-time' at last as Ohtani delights in Dodgers home debut

The 29-year-old did enough in a 7-1 victory to suggest that the Dodgers' money was well spent.
A real estate sign advertises powered data center land for sale in Johnstown, Ohio, on March 23.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 29, 2024

Amazon bets $150 billion on data centers required for AI boom

In addition to meeting demand for corporate services, they will provide the massive computing power needed for an expected boom in generative AI.
Dried cocoa beans at the Somos Cacao farm and production in Ragonvalia, department of Norte de Santader, Colombia, on March 22, 2024. Cocoa is the best-selling commodity in the world so far in 2024, and futures have doubled in less than three months as poor harvests in West Africa, where most of the world's cocoa is grown, have led buyers to look elsewhere for supplies.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 29, 2024

Cocoa market 'broken' as crop failure drives third year of shortages

here’s a risk poor harvests in West Africa could be long-lasting, with climate change and crop disease ravaging trees.
Daniel Calvert accepted the award for Asia's best eatery on behalf of Sezanne, a French restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 31, 2024

Tokyo's Sezanne reigns supreme as Asia's best restaurant

Against the best restaurants Asia has to offer, Japan captured nine of the top 50 spots.
 “Time” is a mixed-genre performance, conceived by musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and artist Shiro Takatani, that depicts a struggle between man and nature.
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 30, 2024

Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani’s ‘Time’ is a dreamy blur

It’s been one year since the composer’s death, but his creative output carries on in Japan.
Demand for infertility treatment is high in Japan, where the number of live births fell for eight straight years to another record low last year.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 30, 2024

Fertility startups in Japan step in as treatment demand soars

In Japan, shortages of treatment options plague patients as the country grapples with one of the world’s lowest birthrates.
A mural showing Los Angeles Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani is seen on the Miyako Hotel in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday. The mural, by artist Robert Vargas, is 150 feet (46 meters) tall and is titled "LA Rising."
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 30, 2024

Shohei Ohtani is home and focused on baseball. Dodgers fans are relieved.

Los Angeles finally got a close look at baseball’s megastar, as a gambling situation involving his former interpreter took a back seat to opening day.
Danielle Collins during the Miami Open semifinals. The American won the final on Saturday over Elena Rybakina.
TENNIS
Mar 31, 2024

Collins beats Rybakina to win Miami Open

The 30-year-old Collins, No. 53 in the world, is the lowest-ranked woman ever to win the tournament.
Children wash their hands with a new public pump installed as part of a climate resilient water system in Inn Chey in Kratie Province.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Mar 31, 2024

Japan sits at the forefront of climate resilient infrastructure in Southeast Asia

Japanese businesses and government agencies are pouring billions of yen into various programs across Cambodia and Southeast Asia to reduce climate risks.
Self-Defense Force soldiers search for survivors after a landslide swept through a residential area in Asaminami Ward, in the city of Hiroshima, in August 2014. Despite the nation’s numerous natural disasters, the government needs better contingency planning.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 28, 2024

Is Japan ready for the worst-case scenario?

Is the nation ready for massive disasters? Based on my studies of Japan’s crisis management system, I say “no” and unfortunately not.
A woman pays her respects at a makeshift memorial in front of the Crocus City Hall in Moscow on Friday, a week after a deadly attack by gunmen there killed at least 143 people.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2024

Putin's conspiracy theories make Russians less safe

The Kremlin hopes that blaming Kyiv and the West for the attack will turn a difficult domestic political situation to its advantage.
All Blacks forward Ardie Savea wants New Zealand Rugby to reconsider the rule that only allows domestic-based players to be selected for the national team.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Apr 1, 2024

Savea calls for change in All Blacks' eligibility regulations

A number of high-profile New Zealanders have moved away from home, with a handful contracted to Japanese clubs.
Tugboats guide the Maersk Atlanta container ship at the Port of Newark in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday. The bridge collapse Tuesday that shut the Port of Baltimore and closed a major highway will cause weeks or months of transportation disruptions in the Mid-Atlantic region.
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2024

Baltimore ship accident has east coast ports scrambling to absorb cargo

The bridge collapse will accelerate a shift of cargo to the U.S. West Coast in order to avoid potential bottlenecks at trade gateways from Boston to Miami.
An ammonia tank at Jera's Hekinan thermal power station in Aichi Prefecture on March 13
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Apr 1, 2024

Jera starts ammonia co-firing trial at coal power station

The power company said it is the world's first trial using a large amount of the gas at a major commercial plant.
Joseph Schooling of Singapore celebrates after winning the men's 100m Butterfly final at the 2016 Rio Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016.
OLYMPICS
Apr 2, 2024

Singapore's only Olympic champion Schooling retires

The swimmer was mired in controversy in 2022 after confessing to taking cannabis overseas.
Japan will provide ¥590 billion in additional subsidies to chip venture Rapidus.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 2, 2024

Japan approves extra ¥590 billion in aid to chip startup Rapidus

The additional funding will help Rapidus buy chipmaking equipment and also develop advanced back-end chipmaking processes.
A customer walks past a display for Nintendo's Super Mario at an electronics store in Tokyo on Jan. 12. Last year, Nintendo increased salaries, in part to be competitive with other studios.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2024

Japan’s game industry weathers the storm amid layoffs worldwide

The country's studios are actually scrambling to attract and retain talent — a state of affairs that is symptomatic of the nation’s demographic challenges.
Workers prepare processed crickets at Hygente Technology in Shinjo, Yamagata Prefecture, in November.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Apr 8, 2024

Next-gen protein sources explored as meat replacements in Tohoku

While proponents tout the benefits of edible insects and plant-based meat, getting consumers to change their eating habits remains an uphill task.
Chinese President Xi Jinping made the call for the PBOC to gradually increase the buying and selling of government bonds in October but his remarks were publicized recently in a new book and newspaper article, hinting at a policy pivot for a central bank that hasn’t made a significant bond purchase since 2007.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 2, 2024

Xi’s cryptic bond comments hint at PBOC becoming more like Fed

PBOC could pivot toward strategies used by other central banks in heeding the call to "gradually increase the buying and selling of government bonds.”
People wait to collect drinking water on March 14 amid an ongoing water crisis in Bengaluru, which has been hit by drought.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2024

India’s most innovative cities are running out of water

Drought is crippling India's tech hubs of Bengaluru and Hyderabad, casting a dark shadow on these cities' attractiveness in the era of climate change.
Chinese Coast Guard ships fire water cannons at a Philippine boat during a supply mission near Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed South China Sea on March 5. This incident highlights the danger that such confrontations could have for sparking a wider conflict.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2024

Beware the steady creep toward crisis in the South China Sea

The Philippines is pushing back. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has adopted a policy of “assertive transparency” to show the world what China is doing.
Hakuoho (right) shoves out Aoiyama during the Nagoya Basho in July last year. The promising young wrestler is now part of Terunofuji's Isegahama stable after the Miyagino stable was forced to close following a bullying scandal.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Apr 3, 2024

With absorption of Miyagino stable, Isegahama looks to be building sumo super team

Whether it’s Real Madrid’s famous Galacticos or the 2024 Dodgers, few things in sport divides opinion among fans more than the creation of a super team.
Japan's law-abiding pedestrian culture and norms may help explain its economic performance.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2024

The economic consequences of legal behavior

There is a complex relationship between cultural norms, legal systems and economic development.
Recent research suggests that within developed countries, the old positive relationship between status and fertility is re-emerging.
COMMENTARY
Apr 3, 2024

The wealthy are starting to have more babies than the poor again

After a century during which higher income and status meant fewer children, the current trend is potentially a momentous change.
A demonstrator holds flags of Taiwan and the United States in support of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen during an stopover after her visit to Latin America, in Burlingame, California, in January 2017.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 4, 2024

'Staunch friend' of Taiwan to become top U.S. envoy in Taipei: sources

Sources have said that Raymond Greene, currently deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, will take on the role.
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr., RB's Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull's Max Verstappen, Williams' Alexander Albon, Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly during a news conference in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, on Thursday
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Apr 4, 2024

Five drivers to watch this weekend at Suzuka

The battles that take place further down the grid promise plenty of excitement this weekend.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?