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About $105 trillion is projected to be passed down from older generations over the next quarter century, according to research firm Cerulli Associates, an amount roughly equal to global gross domestic product in 2023.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 6, 2024

A $105 trillion inheritance windfall is on the way for U.S. heirs

The latest inheritance projection by Cerulli is 45% higher than the 25-year forecast the firm made only three years ago.
The Eiffel Tower and the Olympics Rings are illuminated during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26.
OLYMPICS
Dec 6, 2024

Paris Olympics were the most followed ever, IOC says

In the home market of France, 95% of the potential audience watched an average of 24 hours of coverage of the Olympics.
People walk around an outlet mall in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture. At stores across Japan, clerks use a form of polite language called "manyuaru keigo," literally, “manual honorifics,” named for the service manuals they study it from.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 6, 2024

Japan's honorific language can be challenging for native speakers, too

According to surveys, more than half of those in their teens, 20s and 30s, believe they cannot use "keigo," or honorific language, appropriately.
Choi Sang-mok, South Korea's finance minister, during an interview in Seoul on Thursday
BUSINESS / Markets / ANALYSIS
Dec 6, 2024

In South Korea's crisis playbook, currency stability is paramount

In the four decades since South Korea was last under martial law, the nation has significantly evolved its systems to focus on ensuring economic stability.
A Metropolitan Police Department flyer on high-paying illegal work advertised on social media, known as yami baito
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 6, 2024

Police may be able to use fake IDs to investigate yami baito

The new measures would allow investigators to sign up for shady jobs with disguised identities and make contact with individuals behind the recruitment.
Yuta Takahashi (back center) with Sunao Tsuboi, former co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo (front, center), in December 2017
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2024

Japanese youth carries on message of prominent atomic bomb survivor

In giving Nihon Hidankyo the Nobel Peace Prize, the committee noted that "new generations in Japan are carrying forward the experience and the message of the witnesses."
Protesters condemn South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law declaration and call for his resignation during a rally in Seoul on Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 6, 2024

Yoon’s incoherent, incompetent coup defies logic and reason

Yoon’s lack of political acumen must not be allowed to tar all his policies.
South Korea's Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung (center) takes part in a joint news conference with other opposition parties and activists on Friday in Seoul to urge the passage of an impeachment motion against President Yoon Suk Yeol after his aborted attempt to impose martial law.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 6, 2024

South Korea's impeachment battle is democracy in action

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faces an impeachment motion filed by the opposition Democratic Party, which accuses him of insurrectionary behavior.
Yoshiki Taniguchi (right), mayor of Aioi, Hyogo Prefecture, apologizes to Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito ahead of a meeting between prefectural government officials and leaders of municipalities in the prefecture held in Kobe on Nov. 26. Taniguchi publicly questioned whether Saito had the credentials to become governor before his election.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 5, 2024

'Old' media blames 'new' media for success of 'populist' candidates

Many young voters, especially those in their 20s, are believed to have supported Hyogo Gov. Saito due to his social media outreach.
Newly arrived asylum-seekers take advantage of phone chargers and free Wi-Fi to connect with family back home at an immigrant service center in Oceanside, California, in October 2023.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2024

Sanctuary cities may be having an identity crisis

So far, the mayors and governors of these sanctuary cities and states have remained largely undeterred, even defiant in the face of such threats.
People in cities across Japan will pop into their local convenience store for any number of products they believe will help them with a night of drinking.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Dec 6, 2024

Hangover cures are everywhere in Japan — but do they work?

Japan’s suspect remedies make up 20% of the world’s market for hangover cures, but their success lies more in marketing than science.
The publisher in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, announced in 2016 that it would publish a reprinted version of a pre-World War II survey listing areas where the descendants of feudal outcasts lived. It published lists of the areas on its website.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 6, 2024

Japan's top court finalizes order to erase feudal outcast area lists

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit said the publication of the lists violated their personal rights.
“Shogun,” created by American channel FX and made by a joint American-Japanese team, utilized the strengths of both Japan and Hollywood to create a bona fide smash that critics adored. 
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / 2024 in Review
Dec 7, 2024

2024 was the year Japanese TV found its prestige

The triumph of “Shogun” at the Emmys served as an exclamation point for an industry taking big swings and opening up to trans-Pacific partnerships.
A year-old film on Netflix titled "12.12: The Day" saw a spike in viewers after the political turmoil that hit South Korea this week.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 6, 2024

Korean coup movie hits No. 1 on Netflix after martial law chaos

The film depicts the events surrounding a Dec. 12, 1979, coup in South Korea, a theme also tackled in Han Kang's novel "Human Acts."
People stand near a damaged vehicle, after rebels have sought to capitalize on their swift takeover of Aleppo in the north and Hama in west-central Syria by pressing onward to Homs, in Hama, Syria, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 7, 2024

Syrian rebel assault widens as Assad races to defend Homs and Damascus

With the fall of Daraa, Assad's forces have surrendered four important centers to the insurgents in a week.
A Ukrainian serviceman wipes a mirror at an outdoor washbasin near the Kharkiv region in November.
WORLD
Dec 7, 2024

In Ukraine, more and more exhausted soldiers abandon their posts

Since 2022, Ukraine opened nearly 96,000 criminal cases against servicemen who abandoned their positions since Russia’s invasion.
The decision significantly raises the prospects of an unprecedented ban in just six weeks on a social media app used by 170 million Americans.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 7, 2024

U.S. appeals court upholds TikTok law forcing its sale

The decision is a major win for the Justice Department and opponents of the Chinese-owned app and a devastating blow to TikTok parent ByteDance.
Crowds gather in front of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Friday, a day ahead of its official reopening.
WORLD
Dec 7, 2024

Notre-Dame Cathedral reopens on Saturday, five years after fire

The 860-year-old medieval cathedral has been meticulously restored, with a new spire and rib vaulting.
Iwao Hakamata (right) and his sister Hideko attend a news conference on Nov. 29
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2024

Sister of ex-death row inmate Iwao Hakamata wins human rights award

The Tokyo Bar Association said it recognized Hideko Hakamata's decadeslong efforts to save her brother and her work to eradicate wrongful convictions.
Police disperse anti-government protesters during a ninth consecutive day of mass demonstrations against the government's postponement of European Union accession talks, in central Tbilisi early Saturday.
WORLD
Dec 7, 2024

Dozens arrested in overnight crackdown on Georgia pro-EU protests

Security forces fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the thousands of people who had gathered outside parliament in Tbilisi.
A protest against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside the National Assembly in Seoul on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 7, 2024

Yoon impeachment vote puts focus on South Korea’s generational gap

On one side are older voters, who back Yoon. The other end represents younger, more liberal South Koreans, who blame the president for a lack of job opportunities.
Lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo sits alone as the only People Power Party lawmaker to remain in the voting chamber during the plenary session for the impeachment vote of President Yoon Suk Yeol at the National Assembly in Seoul on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 7, 2024

South Korea's Yoon survives impeachment after his party boycotts vote

Yoon's party claimed after the vote that it had blocked the impeachment to avoid "severe division and chaos."
Employees at large Tokyo companies who travel to the office daily to work fell to 47.4% in 2024 from 53.1% in the previous year, a survey shows.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 8, 2024

Hybrid work on the rise for Tokyo’s office employees: NRI Survey

For the July 2024 Nomura Research Institute survey, the firm polled 3,091 people from ages 20-69 who work for large companies in Tokyo.
People gather at Umayyad Square in Damascus on Sunday. The Islamist-led rebels declared that they have taken the city.
WORLD
Dec 8, 2024

Syrian rebels topple President Assad; prime minister calls for free elections

Syrian rebels seized Damascus, ending President Bashar Assad's 13-year rule and raising uncertainty over a transition led by Islamist group HTS in a war-torn nation.
Makoto Uchida, President and CEO of Nissan, holds a press briefing at the Japan Mobility Show 2023 in Tokyo on Oct. 25, 2023. Uchida is under presser to deliver a turnaround and to keep his job at the troubled carmaker.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 8, 2024

Nissan boss Uchida races to save the automaker — and his job

Makoto Uchida is under pressure to reverse Nissan’s fortunes after years of turmoil following the 2018 arrest of former chairman Carlos Ghosn.
South Korea Prime Minister Han Duck-soo (left) and the ruling People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon speak at a news conference after their meeting to discuss plans for President Yoon Suk Yeol's "orderly retreat" at the People Power Party headquarters in Seoul on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 8, 2024

South Korea martial law fallout deepens as prosecutors close in

South Korea’s ruling People Power Party leader says Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will manage the nation’s affairs as the country struggles with the political crisis.
Filipino housekeepers undergo training to work for a Japanese staffing company. By applying the same criteria when hiring overseas and local workers, Japanese firms tend to underutilize the unique skills that foreign nationals can bring.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 8, 2024

Firms should quit turning foreign workers into Japanese ones

Many foreign nationals struggle with the idiosyncrasies of Japan's employment system. Firms tend to assimilate overseas personnel rather than utilize their unique skills.
The United Nations once projected the world’s population would peak at 10.3 billion in the 2080s, but now expects 700 million fewer inhabitants by 2100.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2024

Why falling fertility is not a crisis

The current population decline mirrors past transitions like the industrial revolution, where smaller families fueled economic growth and innovation.
A woman waves a Syrian opposition flag as she celebrates at Umayyad Square in Damascus on Sunday as celebrations erupted around Syria after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus and declared President Bashar Assad had fled the country.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 9, 2024

Assad’s fall in Syria puts world on watch for more Middle East chaos

Multiple Arab and U.S. officials said that a power vacuum could now be dangerous, with memories of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya and Saddam Hussein in Iraq still fresh.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako visit Merton College in Oxford, during their state visit to the United Kingdom in June.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2024

Empress Masako marks 61st birthday

The empress said that thoughts of people affected by disasters, including the massive Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake, continue to weigh on her mind.

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A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake