Search - people

 
 
Shohei Ohtani's prowress on the diamond translated into an outsized influence on Japan's consumer trends this year.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 13, 2024

The year that Shohei Ohtani achieved 'yokozuna' status … in the market

To qualify as a genuine "hitto" (hit), a product or service must harness some new concept or technology in a manner that significantly impacts the marketplace.
A broken statue of late Syrian president Hafez Assad lies outside the Baath party offices in Damascus, on Thursday. Islamist-led rebels took Damascus in a lightning offensive on Dec. 8, ousting Syrian President Bashar Assad and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 13, 2024

G7 to meet on Syria as new government pledges 'rule of law'

Leaders of the Group of Seven said they were ready to support the transition to an "inclusive and nonsectarian" government in Syria.
Carlos Sainz finished second for Ferrari at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Dec 12, 2024

Carlos Sainz motivated by new challenge with Williams

Sainz jumped in his Williams car for end-of-season testing on Tuesday, and posted the second-fastest time behind Charles Leclerc.
Numbered evidence markers indicate where bullet casings were located at the crime scene outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot, Dec. 4.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 13, 2024

Suspect in UnitedHealthcare shooting visited Japan, then vanished

New details are emerging about Luigi Mangione’s growing impatience with "a capitalist society” and his search for refuge in the mountains of Japan.
Before (top) and after images of the regrowth of a tooth in a ferret (center top and bottom) and mice (right and left)
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 13, 2024

Japanese researchers test pioneering drug to regrow teeth

Tests on mice and ferrets suggest that blocking a protein called USAG-1 can awaken a third set of teeth.
People wave the flag of the Syrian National Coalition as they celebrate the fall of the Assad regime in Aleppo, Syria, on Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 13, 2024

The Syrians have a chance to be free. They need our help.

The future of Syria, and the wider Middle East, remains uncertain, however, and the ultimate outcome could be more threatening than that of the Assad era.
Climbers on the slopes of Mount Fuji in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, in July. The prefecture implemented a ¥2,000 fee per climber starting last year, while neighboring Shizuoka Prefecture is planning to collect ¥4,000 per climber starting in 2025.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2024

Shizuoka Prefecture aims to collect ¥4,000 from all Mount Fuji climbers

The proposal for an entry fee for Japan's highest mountain is designed to ease congestion at the site and prevent dangerous attempts to scale the peak.
Tokyo Union Church volunteers prepare food for unhoused individuals. The church helps people regardless of religion, race or sexuality.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Dec 16, 2024

From the stage to the streets, make a difference this holiday season

Discover the joy of giving back through a variety of charitable efforts. Helping others helps you, too.
Evacuees from an area flooded by the Kinugawa river, in Joso, Ibaraki Prefecture, in 2015
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2024

Japan updates disaster shelter guidelines

The central government on Friday updated its guidelines for disaster shelter operations, with the update calling for ensuring there is one toilet for every 20 people, among other measures.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers an address to the nation at his official residence in Seoul on Saturday after the National Assembly voted to impeach him earlier in the day.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 15, 2024

South Korean president impeached over martial law decree

The 204-85 vote means Yoon Suk Yeol's ultimate fate now rests with the Constitutional Court, which can either decide to formally oust him or return him to office.
People watch a TV screen, broadcasting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivering an address to the nation, at a railway station in Seoul, on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 14, 2024

Yoon Suk Yeol: from rising star to impeachment

He rose from public prosecutor to South Korea's highest office in just a few years, but as president, Yoon staggered from scandal to scandal.
Girls hold banners urging passersby to stop and pay their respects during a minute of silence honoring the victims of Russia's invasion at 9 a.m. in front of Golden Gates metro station in central Kyiv.
WORLD / Society
Dec 14, 2024

Observing a minute of silence for Ukraine's fallen soldiers

As fewer people stop to pay their respects during a 9:00 am ritual for victims of the war, a small activist group is pushing for a change.
Police seek information from the public on a high-profile murder case, in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, on Saturday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 14, 2024

Tokyo police seek public's help on Setagaya family murder 24 years ago

In the high-profile homicide case, a couple and their two children were killed at their home in the ward's Kamisoshigaya district in December 2000.
Gifting secondhand used to have a bad rap, but it doesn’t carry the taboo it once did.
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2024

How to buy a secondhand gift someone might actually want

Gifting secondhand used to have a bad rap, but thanks to more environmentally conscious consumers, it doesn’t carry the taboo it once did.
Protesters calling for the ouster of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol react after the result of the second impeachment vote outside the National Assembly in Seoul on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 14, 2024

Protesters in South Korea rejoice as lawmakers impeach Yoon

Saturday was a big day in Seoul, where many thousands have gathered over the past couple of weeks to voice their displeasure for — or support of — Yoon.
"Butter," Asako Yuzuki’s thrilling novel inspired by a real-life femme fatale, was named the Waterstones Book of the Year in 2024.
CULTURE / Books / 2024 in Review
Dec 15, 2024

Women are writing a new chapter in Japanese literature in the 2020s

From the deadly serious and deeply weird to the fluffiest of diversions, a bounty of Japanese fiction in translation has delighted readers and critics this decade so far.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters gather in Damascus on Saturday.
WORLD
Dec 15, 2024

U.S. says it is in contact with new Syria rulers

Secretary of State Antony Blinken's comment on "direct contact" with the HTS rebels came despite the United States having designated the group as terrorists in 2018.
A damaged poster of Syria's ousted leader, Bashar Assad, in Aleppo on Nov. 30
WORLD / FOCUS
Dec 15, 2024

Assad's final hours in Syria: Deception, despair and flight

Hours before he fled to Moscow, Assad assured army and security chiefs that Russian support was on its way and urged ground forces to hold out.
Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Dec 16, 2024

The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition

A year after disaster devastated the region, brewers have turned to nationwide partnerships and new technologies to sustain their culture.
Lekh Juneja, chairman and CEO of Kameda Seika, at the company's headquarters in the city of Niigata in August
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 15, 2024

Indian-born CEO of Japanese company says nation needs immigration to thrive

Japan has very few foreign-born CEOs, and boardrooms are overwhelmingly male.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, speaks during a rally in Seoul on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 15, 2024

South Korean opposition urges swift removal of impeached President Yoon

Yoon Suk Yeol has been suspended while South Korea's Constitutional Court deliberates, with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo serving as interim leader.
Then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in August 2021. From Syria to Ukraine, Merkel and former U.S. President Barack Obama’s missteps still haunt the West.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2024

Putin’s loss in Syria exposes Western failures

The West's indecision and failed liberal internationalist policies allowed Putin to bolster Assad’s regime and secure strategic advantages in Syria.
Palestinians inspect the damage at a tent camp sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday.
WORLD
Dec 16, 2024

Israeli forces carry out air and ground attacks in Gaza; dozens dead

Israel's air and land offensive that has killed almost 45,000 people, mostly civilians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
A rebel fighter inspects writings on a jail cell wall at the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate (GID) Branch 251, also known as Al-Khatib branch, in the capital Damascus on Saturday.
WORLD
Dec 16, 2024

'Torture after torture': Turkish inmate recalls time in Syria's jails

The man said he paid the price for the hatred Syria's authorities bore for Turkey's president, who early in the war urged the Syrian president to leave.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of South Korea's Democratic Party, speaks to members of the media on the steps inside the National Assembly after an impeachment vote against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul on Dec. 7.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 16, 2024

Yoon’s fall gives nemesis surprise path back to lead South Korea

The impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is giving his biggest political rival, Lee Jae-myung, a chance to finally win the country's top job.
Workers stage a warning strike at the Volkswagen factory in Zwickau, Germany, on Dec. 2.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 16, 2024

Germany is unraveling just when Europe needs it most

Germany’s economy is now 5% smaller than it would have been if the pre-pandemic growth trend had been maintained.
A delegation from Nihon Hidankyo poses for a photo before this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo on Dec. 10.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2024

Nihon Hidankyo raises ¥44.7 million in crowdfunding campaign

The campaign achieved its goal of ¥10 million on the first day after Nihon Hidankyo members held a news conference to seek donations.
Industry ministry officials hold a briefing session for residents over the planned restart of reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, on Sunday.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2024

Government seeks local understanding for nuclear plant restart

Officials from the industry ministry are explaining plans to allow the restart of reactors whose safety has been confirmed.
National Rally leader Marine Le Pen delivers a speech during a meeting in Etrepagny, central France, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 16, 2024

Le Pen takedown of Barnier holds lessons for next French PM

There is no placating the leader of the far-right National Rally, the largest party in the French National Assembly.
Satoyo Kojika, who has run a barbershop inside the parliament building for more than half a century
JAPAN / Politics / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Dec 23, 2024

Woman who ran a parliament barbershop for half a century retires

The shop has been run by Satoyo Kojika, 85, a native of the village of Kawauchi in Fukushima Prefecture.

Longform

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