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While Hayao Miyazaki’s return to filmmaking, “The Boy and the Heron,” did not attain the ¥10 billion milestone that the beloved animator’s movies had once routinely surpassed, it debuted at the top of the North American box office and became the first original anime film to lead the box office in the United States and Canada.
CULTURE / Film / 2023 in Review
Dec 15, 2023

Japan’s auteurs and anime triumphed in 2023

From Hayao Miyazaki's “The Boy and the Heron” to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Monster,” the box-office hits kept coming.
Construction work is conducted in the Henoko coastal area in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2023

Okinawa promotion spending to fall to ¥267.8 billion in fiscal 2024

The outlay would stand below ¥300 billion for the third successive year, according to a government estimate.
A pair of wolves carved from wood exhibited at Mitsumine Shrine’s museum in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / Longform
Dec 15, 2023

In praise of wolves

Premodern Japan's reverence of wolves mirrors its close bond with nature, a state eventually disrupted by the ecological impact of industrialization.
A supporter of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi reacts after presidential election results in Cairo on Dec. 18.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 19, 2023

With few challengers Egypt's el-Sissi secures third term as president

Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called the vote a rejection of the "inhumane war" in neighboring Gaza.
Apple Watch Ultra 2 devices displayed in Los Angeles. Apple said on Dec. 18 it will stop selling some of its smartwatch models in the United States while it fights a patent battle over technology for detecting blood oxygen levels.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 19, 2023

Apple plans rescue for $17 billion watch biz in face of U.S. ban

If the ban holds, Apple is working on a range of legal and technical options.
An office of Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance in Tokyo in 2016.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 19, 2023

FTC inspects nonlife insurers over alleged joint contract cartel

The on-site probes follow reports the firms prearranged premiums for joint insurance contracts with corporate and public entities.
Inspectors analyze saliva collected with test kits at SalivaTech.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Jan 8, 2024

Tohoku startup offers way to detect cancer early using saliva

SalivaTech's SalivaChecker is a test kit that provides high-precision analysis of around 10 types of salivary metabolites.
A drugstore in Tokyo in October
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2023

Fund that got in before Buffett now likes Japan drugstores

A top fund manager says there’s opportunity to profit from consolidation in the sector.
Workers plow a field at the site of an economic land concession outside Praeus K'ak village in Cambodia's Preah Vihear province on Dec. 6.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 24, 2023

'Doom for forests': Fears over new Cambodia land grants

Thousands are affected by economic land concessions (ELCs) — land grants to businesses that experts say have driven deforestation and dispossession.
Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe
SOCCER
Dec 25, 2023

Billionaire Ratcliffe agrees deal to buy 25% of Manchester United

United also said that Ratcliffe's INEOS company would take control of football operations after years of under-achievement under the Glazer family.
Local media in China exposed a secretive surrogacy service that may be helping to deliver more than 300 babies a year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 27, 2023

Chinese media expose prompts probe into illegal baby surrogacy

Despite Beijing’s repeated crackdowns and an outright ban, underground surrogacy services continue to thrive in China.
Reporters gather in front of the Upper House parliamentary building on Thursday in Tokyo. Prosecutors raided LDP lawmaker Yasutada Ono's office, which is located in the building, the same day.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 28, 2023

Second LDP member’s office raided over political funds scandal

Upper House member Yasutada Ono became the second lawmaker to have his offices searched by prosecutors in connection with the scandal.
U.S. President Joe Biden with IBM’s System One quantum computer during a tour of a facility in Poughkeepsie, New York in 2022. Chinese spies are challenging the C.I.A. by deploying artificial intelligence and other advanced technology as the two nations try to pilfer each other’s trade secrets.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 28, 2023

Chinese spy agency rising to challenge the CIA

In recent years, China's Ministry of State Security has sharpened itself through better training, a bigger budget and the use of advanced technologies.
Global Indian International School (GIIS) Tokyo opened in 2006 with 60 students and has now grown to over 1,300, the majority of whom are Japanese.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 28, 2023

How Japan's international school landscape is evolving

With lower tuition than legacy international schools, new affordable facilities are catering to the growing communities of non-Japanese Asian communities.
Smart chemotherapy is in the spotlight again as Big Pharma invests billions in next-generation cancer drugs.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2023

Targeted cancer drugs finally live up to the hype

The newfound understanding of how these cancer drugs work could lead to broader applications in treating various tumors
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark waves to onlookers on Sept. 1, 2023. Europe's longest-serving monarch said on Sunday that she would abdicate on Jan. 14 and pass the baton to her son Crown Prince Frederik.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2024

From Edward VIII to Emperor Akihito: Famous abdications

From love to failing health, people have relinquished the throne for a variety of reasons.
The single biggest factor that will make satellites more accessible is the advent of private launch providers led by SpaceX.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 5, 2024

You too may one day have your own satellite

Demand for personal satellites will rise as their uses range from monitoring crops to watching over the family dog.
U.S. golfer Tiger Woods reacts on the 9th green on day 2 of the British Open Golf Championship in 2022.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 9, 2024

Tiger Woods and Nike end partnership after 27 years

Despite rumors, Nike maintains that it’s still committed to golf.
Self-Defense Force personnel taking part in the earthquake-relief efforts help residents in an isolated village in Ishikawa Prefecture on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 9, 2024

The U.S. role in Japan's domestic disaster relief

The U.S. pledge for support offers another example of how the U.S.-Japan alliance contributes to Japan's domestic disaster relief.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks during a news conference at the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo on Dec. 19.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 11, 2024

OECD urges Bank of Japan to gradually raise interest rates

The central bank should thus continue efforts to make the yield curve control more flexible, the organization said.
Fiction such as Asako Yuzuki’s “Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder” and nonfiction like Robert Whiting’s "Gamblers, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies: The Outsiders who Shaped Modern Japan” are just a taste of 2024's exciting releases.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 11, 2024

Anticipated translations and books about Japan to brighten your 2024

From debut novels to classic crime thrillers, the year ahead promises a wealth of must-read titles to add to your reading list.
The yen's exchange rate against the dollar on Wednesday. The yen declined from ¥103 against the dollar in 2020 to as little as ¥151 in late 2023.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 11, 2024

Is a weak yen good for Japan’s economy?

The yen's fast depreciation is boosting overseas investment and sectors like tourism, but could also trigger inflation. In response, the BOJ should raise interest rates.
Bill Belichick on the sideline during his final game as Patriots head coach on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jan 12, 2024

How Belichick helped the Patriots go from laughingstock to economic powerhouse

The Patriots' dynasty truly came to a close on Thursday when the team parted ways with Belichick, 71, the second-winningest coach in modern NFL history.
Tanaka takes part in a signing ceremony for the Japan-Uruguay Investment Agreement with Uruguay's Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Porto in 2015.
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Jan 23, 2024

Why positivity is an asset in a career of PR and diplomacy

Keiko Tanaka went from an office at Nissan to the ambassador's residence in Uruguay.
Corporate bankruptcies with liabilities of at least ¥10 million increased 35.2% in 2023 from the previous year.
BUSINESS
Jan 15, 2024

Business failures in Japan hit eight-year high in 2023

Failures rose in all 10 surveyed sectors for the first time in 31 years, due to rising prices, deepening labor shortages and the start of repayments of COVID relief loans.
Cars drive past a damaged road, in the aftermath of an earthquake, in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jan 18, 2024

Japan rings in 2024 with an unwelcome disaster

Join us for the first episode of 2024 as we recap the massive New Year’s Day earthquake and its impact on the people of Ishikawa Prefecture.
Locals in the Cook Islands are cynical about the growing attention fixed on their small country, with many saying they don't necessarily trust either superpower to do the right thing by them.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 19, 2024

U.S.-China fight for one Pacific nation mirrors a regional battle

The success of Beijing’s strategy in the Pacific was reinforced just this week when Nauru became the latest island nation to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Newly appointed Australia head coach Joe Schmidt outside Rugby Australia's head office in Sydney on Friday.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Jan 19, 2024

New Zealander Schmidt confirmed as new Wallabies coach

Schmidt takes over for Eddie Jones, who acrimoniously quit in October after the team's calamitous World Cup campaign and was quickly hired to coach Japan.
TV screens in Osaka show news of a large earthquake hitting a wide area of the Sea of Japan coast in central Japan and subsequent tsunami warnings in the affected regions on Jan. 1.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 19, 2024

How Japan’s quake information apparatus springs into action

Lessons from 3/11 led to greater urgency in communications and centralization of information, while tech continues to shape the approach.
Left-wing activists take part in a rally in Dhaka on Jan. 3 to demand a new election under Bangladesh's caretaker government.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 18, 2024

Weeks into 2024 and the world seems on edge

The global system that emerged after World War II is giving way to a world without order.

Longform

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