Search - world

 
 
Japan's Yoshitaka Yazaki tries to tackle New Zealand's Mark Tele'a during a match on Saturday in Yokohama.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Oct 27, 2024

After All Blacks loss, Brave Blossoms' new crop of players still needs time to bloom

The 64-19 score was not as bad as it looks on paper, but Saturday's game in Yokohama showed Japan has a long way to go to compete with the best.
Groove Armada’s Andy Cato at his farm in Oxfordshire, U.K.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Oct 28, 2024

How a DJ became an unlikely champion for green farming

Over the past six years, Andy Cato has built a network of more than 100 farmers in the U.K. and France to grow wheat using regenerative farming methods.
Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada won the outstanding lead actress and actor awards in a drama series, respectively, for "Shogun" at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sept. 15.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 30, 2024

'Peak Japan' is now, so seize the moment, Japan

Japan has never been hotter! Japan is the number one country in the world right now, as voted on by everyone else except for the Japanese.
Rene Redzepi unveils his future for Noma as well as the MAD Symposium, an event 'to create a lasting generational foundation and structure that ensures that we stay creative and impactful for a lifetime.'
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 1, 2024

After Kyoto residency, Rene Redzepi says 'Noma will exist as a pop-up'

"You go there to feel something but then you can’t feel it again — it’s gone," Redzepi says. "I’m excited for the restaurant to operate like that.”
Tech entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist Masayoshi Son made his fortune by becoming a bridge between California's technology culture and Japan.
COMMENTARY
Oct 31, 2024

Masayoshi Son may be the oddest of the oddball billionaires

Masayoshi Son made his fortune by becoming a bridge between Californian tech culture and Japan.
Masayoshi Son (front, center) poses with the members of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks after the team won the Pacific League championship at Kyocera Dome Osaka on Sept. 23.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Nov 18, 2024

Masayoshi Son’s aim for SoftBank Hawks remains, 20 years after buyout

This year, the team became Pacific League champions for the first time in four years. But its owner has loftier goals.
An AI robot is cast into a wild environment and forced to adapt to her surroundings in “The Wild Robot.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 8, 2024

TIFF’s animation entries rediscovered the art of the fable at this year's festival

This year’s animated lineup championed nature, connection and simplicity through stories that revel in the beauty of coexistence.
Pedestrians walk in front of the venue for COP29 Summit in Baku on the eve of UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) on Sunday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 11, 2024

Who are the key voices at the COP29 climate summit in Baku?

The U.S., the world's second largest emitter comes to COP29 following an election that will put Donald Trump back in power in 2025.
Donald Trump believes the U.S. should prioritize its own national interests like other countries rather than maintaining its traditional role as a global leader, signaling a dramatic shift in how the United States may engage with the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2024

Who will step up if Trump steps back?

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is indifferent to the global order and may adopt a foreign policy approach that reshapes the global balance of power.
Lindsey Vonn poses with her World Cup trophies after the season finale in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in March 2010.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 15, 2024

Lindsey Vonn coming out of retirement to rejoin U.S. Ski Team at age 40

Vonn, a three-time Olympic medalist and four-time overall World Cup champion, retired in 2019 after a bruising 18-year career during which she suffered several injuries.
Jannik Sinner hits a return against Daniil Medvedev during their match at the ATP Finals in Turin on Thursday.
TENNIS
Nov 15, 2024

Jannik Sinner finishes group stage of ATP Finals with perfect record

World No. 1 Sinner had already qualified for the semifinals thanks to Alex De Minaur winning the opening set in his defeat against Taylor Fritz earlier in the day.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping reviews an honor guard upon his arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Callao, Peru, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 16, 2024

Xi seizes role as global defender of free trade against Trump

China’s leader warned on Friday that the global economy was fracturing as protectionism spreads, leading to "severe challenges.”
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 19, 2024

Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu

“The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” newly translated into English, is an explicit rerun of the author’s older works with an alternate ending.
In developing Asia, where coal dominates and imported liquefied natural gas is expensive, natural gas remains limited in electricity grids.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2024

Gas got America off coal. Now, it's coming for Asia's oil.

It can work in concert with carbon-free energy to break the hold of the dirtiest sources of power.
Global beef consumption has slowed and the carbon footprint of the global cattle herd may already be declining.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2024

Peak beef could already be here

Global beef consumption has slowed and the carbon footprint of the global cattle herd may already be declining.
Emissions rise from the Royal Dutch Shell Plc Norco Refinery in Norco, Louisiana, on June 12, 2020.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Nov 27, 2024

How AI and cloud computing may delay the transition to clean energy

The pace of clean-energy deployments is moving too slowly to keep up with the new technology's demands.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin at a ceremony in Pyongyang in June. If North Korean troops sent to the war in Ukraine under an agreement between the two nations are used for anything other than cannon fodder, they may gain experience that could improve the communist nation's military.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2024

Autocrats challenge traditional geopolitics and strategic boundaries

Emerging "common market of autocracies" are enabling regimes like Russia and North Korea to evade Western sanctions through unconventional networks and barter systems.
Iga Swiatek hits a shot against Aryna Sabalenka during their match at the Cincinnati Open on Aug. 18.
TENNIS
Nov 29, 2024

Iga Swiatek accepts one-month suspension after failing doping test

Swiatek is not the first world No. 1 to fail a doping test this year.
While Donald Trump’s legacy and the future ideological direction of the country remains uncertain, the U.S. still retains a democratic future and a dynamic character.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2024

The post-cold war era is finished. Liberalism and democracy will go on.

For now, the weirder, stranger future the U.S. is entering still looks like a democratic future.
The challenge for African governments and communities is how to harness this wave of youthful talent — with all their innovation, resilience and determination — rather than lose them to developed economies.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2024

Africa must act to stem its youth brain drain

African governments must harness youthful talent or risk losing it to developed economies.
Japanese creatives, athletes and activists saw their efforts recognized on the world stage in various ways this year. At the Oscars (left) Takashi Yamazaki and his team took a prize for “Godzilla Minus One,” while later in the year Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada (center) took Emmys for their work in “Shogun.” Shohei Ohtani (right) was arguably the biggest Japanese star of the year.
CULTURE / 2024 in Review
Dec 4, 2024

Japan's soft power soared to new heights in 2024

From Oscars and Emmys to a Nobel Peace Prize, it was a year of awards and triumphs in key cultural fields.
On Dec. 11, Universal Studios Japan officially unveiled its new Donkey Kong Country area, putting the iconic character in the spotlight for the first time in a while.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 12, 2024

USJ’s new Donkey Kong Country is a barrel of fun

Mine Cart Madness is the area’s only ride, but there are shops and snacking options as well as chances to meet costumed characters from the iconic series.
 Lindsey Vonn after racing as a forerunner prior to a World Cup downhill in Beaver Creek, Colorado, on Saturday
MORE SPORTS / Alpine skiing
Dec 15, 2024

Lindsey Vonn hopes comeback gets her to 2026 Olympics

The 40-year-old American had retired in February 2019 citing the physical toll the sport had taken on her body but announced last month she was making a comeback.
A thermal power plant at an undisclosed location in Ukraine that was damaged during a missile attack amid Russia's invasion
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 27, 2024

When Russia fights the wrong enemy

The longer the war in Ukraine continues, the weaker Russia will become, leading many to wonder when it will decide to staunch its losses.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Jan 5, 2025

'Guernica' is always with us

How do we account for the past year, almost nine decades after "Guernica," when all the boundaries of horror have been pulverized?
National team great Michael Leitch participates in the Japan Rugby League One season-opening news conference on Dec. 9.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Dec 20, 2024

Japan Rugby League One plays leading role through tough days in Japanese rugby

At the JRLO’s official 2024-25 season kickoff press conference in Tokyo on Dec. 9, the mood could only be described as festive and upbeat.
A woman who was displaced by a flood shells cowpeas as she sits outside her shelter in Banki, in Maiduguri, Nigeria, in October.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Jan 6, 2025

The uphill battle against poverty

After the pandemic years, when tens of millions of people were pushed into poverty, the need for a renewed effort is obvious.
Italy's Jannik Sinner in action during the Davis Cup Finals on Nov. 24. Sinner was cleared of wrongdoing in a doping case this year, but an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency means a potential ban of up to two years is still hanging over his head.
TENNIS
Dec 24, 2024

Players on edge after Sinner and Swiatek doping cases

Time out of the game to serve or fight a doping ban means a loss of income for players.
Hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts' uptempo “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” quickly became a TikTok favorite after its release days into 2024, which helped turn the song into a Billboard Japan Hot 100 topper for 19 weeks before rising up viral streaming charts around the world.
CULTURE / Music / 2024 in Review
Dec 27, 2024

Bling-Bang, baby: The J-pop soundtrack of 2024

Japanese music made waves globally, fueled by Coachella debuts, TikTok virality and unexpected hits like Creepy Nuts' "Bling-Bang-Bang-Born."
New Nadeshiko Japan coach Nils Nielsen (center) poses for photos with JFA President Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (left) and Norio Sasaki, the JFA’s women’s soccer chair, during a news conference on Dec. 18.
SOCCER
Dec 26, 2024

JFA hopes Nils Nielsen's international focus leads Nadeshiko Japan back to glory

Nils Nielsen was officially unveiled as the new Nadeshiko boss at a packed news conference in Tokyo on Dec. 18. 

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?