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The owner of a seafood shop in Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, provides meals on Wednesday for residents affected by the massive earthquake that hit the region on New Year's Day.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2024

Nationwide donation effort for earthquake-hit Ishikawa gains steam

From charities and companies to individuals, efforts to help people in areas devastated by the magnitude 7.6 earthquake are proliferating across the country.
Kotaro Seki, CEO of Ellange, in front of the truck that he uses to collect nets from fisheries
JAPAN / Society / OUR PLANET
Jan 7, 2024

Trash into treasure: Can fishing net waste be the future of fashion?

A pair of Japanese startups are looking to solve a problem for the nation's fisheries: What to do with old fishing nets.
A hamburger using boar meat
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2024

Japanese ministry promotes game meat consumption

The amount of game meat used at restaurants in Japan rose by 1.6-fold to 2,085 tons in fiscal 2022 from six years earlier.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers his Quad Fellowship Announcement as the leaders of the United States, India and Australia look on after meeting in Tokyo in May 2022.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 8, 2024

Dialogue can boost security where military deterrence can’t

Military buildup without dialogue is too risky — civil society actors in East Asia understand this better than their governments.
Masaki Sato, who owns an 85-year-old property in the Akasaki district of Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, walks in the district on Saturday after a major earthquake struck the Noto region on New Year's Day.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 8, 2024

Still standing: Unique houses survive quake in Japanese village

Despite a magnitude 7.6 quake only kilometers away, one small fishing village stood strong thanks to decades-old smart architecture.
Japanese workers' real wages kept shrinking for a 20th month in November, raising fresh alarm for the sustainability of the country's economic recovery as firms enter the period of annual pay negotiations with labor unions.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2024

Japan’s slower wage growth adds to reasons for BOJ to hold

Nominal cash earnings for workers rose 0.2% from the previous year, decelerating sharply from a 1.5% increase in October, the labor ministry said.
A port in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Saturday. The seafloor was uplifted due to the Jan. 1 earthquake.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 10, 2024

Ishikawa quake triggered by faults that were dormant for 4,000 years

Through ground uplift, the total land area of the Noto Peninsula has expanded by 4.4 square kilometers.
In Washington on Monday and Tuesday, Pentagon and Chinese military officials held their first in-person defense policy talks since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 10, 2024

China's military vows no compromise on Taiwan after rare talks with U.S.

The meeting came as China warned Tokyo over remarks by former Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso that Japan would join the fight in a war over the democratic island.
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.
U.S. President Joe Biden gives a thumbs-up as he walks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at Filoli estate on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, in Woodside, California, on Nov. 15. Their meeting attempted to calm the waters and tried to convey a sense that the U.S. and China could effectively manage their differences.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 11, 2024

In 2024, U.S.-China ties likely to get worse before they get better

The trajectory of Washington and Beijing's relationship this year will have profound effects on Japan's own policies going forward.
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.
A member of the Self-Defense Forces leads residents from Fukamimachi, a village isolated by the Jan. 1 earthquake, to safety in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 11, 2024

Ishikawa earthquake response sees growing opposition scrutiny

Criticisms of the number of SDF personnel deployed to the area and level of financial support for evacuees have grown louder among opposition parties.
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.
Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2024

Vice GSDF chief visited Yasukuni Shrine with subordinates

The ministry is investigating the details as the visit may be a violation of an administrative vice minister directive issued in 1974.
Instead of hoping seats are free and scrambling to find luggage space on the shinkansen, what if you could fly charter across Japan on your next trip instead?
LIFE / Travel
Jan 13, 2024

Can charter flights connect rich tourists with rural Japan?

The tours, which fly to cities in western, central and northern Japan, will be priced from around ¥1.5 million per person for a group of four people staying two nights.
Construction work is underway on Wednesday in Oura Bay in Okinawa Prefecture, the site of the coastal airfield that will replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
EDITORIALS
Jan 12, 2024

Futenma moves forward, but local concerns must be addressed

Originally planned to have been finished by now, the base project is now anticipated to take over nine years to complete.
Snow falls on collapsed buildings in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 7, as the area began to look toward recovery from the massive earthquake that struck on Jan. 1.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jan 17, 2024

'Noto is kind, right down to its soil': A community's long road to recovery

Volunteers are coming together to help each other in the wake of disaster. However, eventually isolated rural villages will need rethinking.
The Financial Services Agency ordered SBI Securities to halt part of its business related to initial public offerings through Jan. 18 as a penalty for having manipulated clients' post-IPO share prices.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 13, 2024

Japan’s biggest online brokerage SBI punished for market rigging

The Financial Services Agency on Friday instructed the nation’s biggest online broker SBI Securities not to solicit trade orders from clients for shares on the day they list.
Real Sociedad's Takefusa Kubo during a Champions League match in San Sebastian, Spain, in September.
SOCCER
Jan 13, 2024

Ex-Barcelona junior Kubo set for lift-off with Japan at Asian Cup

The 22-year-old has found his feet at Real Sociedad this season, scoring six goals and helping the club top its Champions League group.
An old growth forest near Fort St. James, British Columbia, Canada, in an area where pellet producer Drax is permitted to cut.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Jan 14, 2024

Japan's thirst for biomass is having a harmful impact on Canada's forests

Experts and activists say biomass is not the climate solution it might appear to be on the surface and is far from being sustainable.
Japan midfielder Takumi Minamino (8) celebrates after scoring his team's first goal during the team's win over Vietnam on Sunday at the Asian Cup in Doha.
SOCCER
Jan 14, 2024

Japan survives Vietnam scare to start Asian Cup title bid

Vietnam, which is coached by Japan's 2000 Asian Cup-winning boss Philippe Troussier, gave the Samurai Blue everything they could handle on Sunday.
An intermediate-range ballistic missile, said to be solid-fueled, is launched during a test at an unspecified location in North Korea in this picture released Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 15, 2024

Test of latest North Korean weapon adds to threat facing Japan

Pyongyang said the missile was “loaded with a hypersonic maneuverable controlled warhead" that experts say is capable of evading defenses.
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.
Takayasu Nikaido talks about the January 1995 earthquake that hit the Kobe area while showing videos he took in the aftermath of the quake.
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2024

Efforts underway to digitize videotapes of 1995 Kobe quake

Japanese manufacturers ended production of videotape players by 2016, and videotapes are said to have a lifespan of about 30 years
Resonac CEO Hidehito Takahashi says the company may buy a stake in chip materials maker JSR.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 15, 2024

CEO who drove $7 billion deal is eyeing Japan chip linchpin JSR

Resonac's Hidehito Takahashi believes Japan's chip materials sector needs to consolidate to stay competitive against overseas rivals.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa (right) met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on her visit to Kyiv on Jan. 7.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 15, 2024

Kamikawa’s surprise visit to Ukraine sent an important signal

As international support for Ukraine's war effort wavers, Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa's visit to Kyiv last week showed that Japan remains a key Kyiv ally.
The Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance headquarters in Tokyo. The insurer isn't interested in buying Japan’s superlong sovereign bonds until yields start rising.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 16, 2024

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance to avoid Japan sovereign bonds for now

Japanese life insurers are the main buyer of bonds due in more than 10 years and typically increase purchases toward the end of the fiscal year.
A worker carries a tray containing steamed kamaboko at a factory in Ise, Mie Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Jan 22, 2024

As costs rise, kamaboko producers struggle to stay afloat

Many have little choice but to raise the prices of their own products after having exhausted other measures.
Japan's input inflation was flat in December, the weakest showing in almost three years.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 16, 2024

Japan’s input inflation flatlines for weakest result since 2021

Input prices were unchanged last month from a year earlier, the weakest showing in almost three years as the yen’s recent gains helped cap import costs.
A volunteer places a box containing medicines into a drone on Jan. 8 in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 16, 2024

Drones' potential put to test in Ishikawa quake relief

As relief efforts continue, some hope to see a boost in the role of drones in responding to disasters in the future.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat