Search - 2021

 
 
There’s keen interest in the market on whether Japan’s regional banks will pour back into benchmark 10-year notes, whose yields jumped to the highest levels since 2009 in Tokyo trading on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 25, 2025

One of Japan's top regional banks holds JGB buying on bet rates to climb

There’s keen interest in the market on whether Japan’s regional banks will pour back into benchmark 10-year notes.
Hong Kong's policymakers are nearing a crossroads amid dwindling avenues for generating revenue and an economy that’s expected to remain under pressure this year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 25, 2025

Hong Kong to tackle deficit and slower economic growth in budget

There may be limited options for generating the kind of revenue needed to plug an expected shortfall of 100 billion Hong Kong dollars.
A woman fits her wedding dress at a bridal shop in Luliang, northern China's Shanxi province, on Feb. 11.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Feb 25, 2025

China adviser pushes to lower legal marriage age to 18 to boost birthrate

The comments comments come ahead of China’s annual parliamentary meeting, where officials are expected to announce measures to offset the country's declining population.
Amid rising global defense spending, U.S. President Donald Trump's push for 5% of GDP on military budgets poses a challenge for American allies, including Japan, which is already struggling to meet its 2% target.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 25, 2025

U.S. defense spending demands could transform global security

The level of spending the U.S. is demanding could spark an arms race as adversaries try to match NATO and America's Asian allies.
The Chinese embrace of DeepSeek comes as governments from South Korea to Italy remove the artificial intelligence from national app stores, citing privacy concerns.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 25, 2025

DeepSeek rushes to launch new AI model as China goes all in

Deepseek had planned to release R2 in early May but now wants it out as early as possible.
Hidehiro Asada, the director of Woodcore, shows the firm's laminated wood at its plant in the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, in December.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 26, 2025

Osaka Expo centerpiece a ‘symbol of Fukushima's reconstruction’

Materials for the expo's Grand Ring are being supplied by a wood-processing company in the prefecture, which bore the brunt of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
The co-leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, Alice Weidel (left) and Tino Chrupalla (right), deliver a statement after the first parliamentary group meeting of their party on Tuesday, two days after Germany's general elections.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2025

Far right lurks in the shadow of Germany's coalition dilemma

As victor Friedrich Merz tries to build a coalition, Germany could find itself in a vicious cycle where the compromises required to govern deepen the divisions that plague it.
Jose Ando purposefully wrote his Akutagawa Prize-winning novel “Dtopia” to be accessible to an audience beyond Japan and to spark conversations about race, gender and the effects of modern entertainment.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 27, 2025

Jose Ando's rapid rise from first pages to the Akutagawa Prize

Just three years after dedicating himself to writing, the author won Japan's top literary award for his novel "Dtopia," which offers a fresh perspective on identity and diversity.
Japanese nominal wages rose at the fastest pace in nearly three decades according to data out this month, and GDP figures showed Japan’s economy outperformed forecasts.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 27, 2025

Yen traders raise focus on Japanese data as economy shifts gears

The news marks a mindset change since the Bank of Japan ended its negative-rates policy last March.
The Olympic flag flies at Centennial Park in Atlanta on Jan. 19.
OLYMPICS
Feb 27, 2025

World Boxing looks toward Olympics after provisional recognition from IOC

The Olympic body said World Boxing had met several key criteria to merit provisional recognition.
The number of fatal bicycle accidents and those causing serious injury that were attributed to cyclists' mobile phone use totaled 28 in 2024, a record high. Similarly, the number of such accidents involving cars driven by drivers distracted by mobile phones rose to the highest on record, at 136 cases.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2025

Accidents caused by distracted drivers hit record high in 2024

A total of 136 fatal car accidents and those resulting in serious injury due to mobile phone use were recorded last year, the highest since at least 2007.
A former employee of Mizuho Bank's Hiroo branch in Tokyo stole money from the safe deposit boxes of two clients between January 2016 and June 2019, according to the bank.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2025

Mizuho Bank confirms ¥66 million stolen from safe deposit boxes

A former employee stole the money from two clients' safe deposit boxes between January 2016 and June 2019.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar, are stuck in limbo at a compound in Myawaddy, Myanmar, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal / EXPLAINER
Feb 28, 2025

Southeast Asia's latest scam center crackdown

Here's a look at why the crackdown is happening now and the broader implications for relations between China, Thailand and Myanmar.
Keio University in Tokyo's Minato Ward. The university's ethics committee has approved clinical research that would lead to the first uterine transplant procedure in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 28, 2025

Keio University ethics panel OKs uterus transplant clinical trial

The university will consider whether to carry out the research, which would be the first uterine transplant procedure in Japan.
Chef Kentaro Mura’s favorite way of serving snow crab is as shabu-shabu: The legs are lightly blanched in dashi, then the meat is removed and served with a generous scoop of crab tomalley.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Destination Restaurants
Mar 2, 2025

Toyama’s finest seafood underpins Ebitei Bekkan’s return to greatness

This "kaiseki" restaurant has been making up for lost time with a culinary flair that presents Toyama’s seafood tradition in a contemporary guise.
The peloton rides from Florence to Rimini, Italy, during the first stage of the 2024 Tour de France.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 28, 2025

For Tour de France, foreign starts make financial sense

The Barcelona start will be the 27th non-French starting location since the Tour first went on the road internationally in Amsterdam in 1954.
China's recent naval exercises near Australia and New Zealand, though legal, highlight Beijing’s growing reach and willingness to test other nations' responses.
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2025

China pushes the military envelope with power projections

This week, Chinese ships conducted military exercises, including live-fire drills, in waters near Australia and New Zealand. While legal, the moves expose its hypocrisy.
Taiwanese comic artist Rishiazao and interpreter Yun-wen Huang greet an attendee at the 2025 Angouleme International Comics Festival in France.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 1, 2025

Taiwan comics on the rise: Local storytellers, global aspirations

A supportive ecosystem and eager audiences — both domestic and global — are boosting the soft power of illustrated narratives from Taiwan.
Container cranes at the Port of Vancouver in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Friday
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 3, 2025

Trump heads toward tariff barrage on Canada, Mexico and China

The long-promised tariffs scheduled to take effect Tuesday would easily be among the most sweeping of the Trump era, applying to roughly $1.5 trillion in annual imports.
Houston Dash player Yuki Nagasato greets fans after a match against Seattle Reign FC at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston on Sept. 21, 2024.
SOCCER
Mar 4, 2025

Houston Dash forward Yuki Nagasato retires after storied career

The 37-year-old appeared in 134 National Women's Soccer League matches, recording 23 goals and 25 assists.
An event marking World Obesity Day in Brussels on March 6, 2024. Without a serious change, researchers estimate that 3.8 billion adults will be overweight or obese in 15 years — or around 60% of the global adult population in 2050.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 4, 2025

60% of adults will be overweight or obese by 2050, study says

Data from 204 countries paints a grim picture of a major health challenge facing the world.
Nihon Hidankyo Assistant Secretary-General Jiro Hamasumi delivers a speech at the third meeting of signatories to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on Monday at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2025

Nihon Hidankyo executive urges abolition of nuclear weapons at U.N. meeting

"Atomic bombs are the 'devil's weapons' that rob people of their future," said Jiro Hamasumi, assistant secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo.
A herd of sheep move across a solar farm in Haskell, Texas, on Dec. 2, 2024.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 4, 2025

Sheep grazing under solar panels help U.S. farmers to survive crop-price slump

Instead of plowing fields, Raines spent the year ferrying his flock of sheep to solar farms, to munch on the grass that grows around the gleaming panels.
An image of the next-generation E10 bullet train that is expected to be put into commercial service between Tokyo and the Tohoku region in fiscal 2030
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 5, 2025

JR East to develop E10 series shinkansen train

JR East aims to put the next-generation shinkansen series into commercial service in fiscal 2030, with each E10 train having 10 cars.
Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested a former deputy manager at Hana Credit Union’s Yokohama branch on suspicion of stealing ¥619 million in cash from the branch's safe deposit boxes.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 5, 2025

Hana Credit Union employee arrested on suspicion of safe deposit box theft

The suspect admitted to the allegations, telling police he used the stolen money to pay off debts and gamble.
Nippon Steel is trying to build its business globally with U.S. Steel as a key component.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Mar 5, 2025

U.S. Steel seen as key to Nippon Steel's global strategy

To meet its target of raising its annual crude steel production capacity to over 100 million metric tons, the firm needs to forge ahead into promising foreign markets.

Longform

Pedestrians commute through Shibuya Station in central Tokyo, an area that is almost never devoid of people.
As the rest of Japan shrinks, Tokyo grows