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A Bank of Japan rate hike in May would likely be too early given the need to assess the impact of upcoming U.S. tariffs and ongoing wage talks, Kazuya Shimba, Secretary General of the Democratic Party for the People, said on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 2, 2025

A May BOJ hike would be too early given tariffs and wages, DPP says

Most economists see the next increase in borrowing costs coming in June or July, but many have said a May hike is possible.
A collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar, following Friday's quake.
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2025

One Japanese injured in Bangkok after Myanmar quake

This person, as well as the two Japanese nationals in Myanmar who have been confirmed injured, is not in a life-threatening condition.
The body of a high school girl was found in a closet at the home of Masaki Eguchi, a 21-year-old unemployed man, on Tuesday in the city of Ichinomiya in Aichi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 2, 2025

Aichi man admits to stabbing Tokyo high school girl over gaming dispute

The victim went missing after saying on Friday she was going to the home of a friend she met through online gaming.
The bus stop sign for the Ghibli Museum at Mitaka Station. The viral trend of AI-generated Ghibli-style images reflects both a longing for comfort in uncertain times and the ongoing debate over AI’s impact on art.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 2, 2025

For a brief moment, everything was Ghibli

ChatGPT will make almost anything Ghibli-ish, but it won’t draw Totoro.
Marine Le Pen’s embezzlement conviction and election ban intensify France’s political divide, challenge French President Emmanuel Macron’s government and set the stage for a far-right succession battle.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2025

Le Pen’s MAGA-style martyrdom is new risk in France

One big factor could complicate Le Pen’s pivot to MAGA martyrdom, however: The antics of Trump himself.
New vehicles parked at a pier in Yokohama on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 2, 2025

'Give me a break': Trump tariffs threaten Japan auto sector

The 5.6 million people employed directly or indirectly in the auto sector are now fearful about their future.
Goro Miyazaki joined Studio Ghibli in 1998 and directed films including 2006's "Tales from Earthsea" and 2011's "From Up on Poppy Hill."
CULTURE / Film
Apr 2, 2025

AI may be coming for anime, but Hayao Miyazaki is irreplaceable, son says

Goro Miyazaki says that though nothing can replicate the depth of his father's work, new technology brings "great potential for unexpected talent to emerge."
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is reasserting military influence in politics, pushing fiscal policies that challenge long-standing restraints and accelerating democratic backsliding — moves that are causing economic instability and political unease.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2025

Prabowo tries to remake Indonesia, but at what cost?

The economic and political pillars that emerged after the turmoil of 1998 are in peril. Markets are rightly apprehensive. 
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
LIFE / Digital
Apr 3, 2025

Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5

The gaming giant's newest console will retail for ¥49,980 for its Japanese-only version and ¥69,980 for multilingual and multiregion support.
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 3, 2025

Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments

NHK's new four-episode miniseries, “After the Quake,” probes the ripple effects of past major disasters across Japanese society.
A trio of former schoolmates (from left: Hana Sugisaki, Kaya Kiyohara and Suzu Hirose) share a mysterious bond in “Unreachable.”
CULTURE / Film
Apr 3, 2025

‘Unreachable’: An attractive but half-baked fantasy

The combined talents of Suzu Hirose, Hana Sugisaki and Kaya Kiyohara can’t save this flimsy fantasy drama.
Israeli soldiers conduct operations in Gaza on Wednesday.
WORLD
Apr 3, 2025

Israel ‘carving’ new corridor in south Gaza, Netanyahu says

As mediators try to cobble together another ceasefire and hostage-release deal, Israel has been carrying out attacks with a new threat to seize land.
The words "This site has been hacked by RENEG4DE.COM" are displayed on the archived site of a rival video game cheating website on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 3, 2025

DOGE official at DOJ bragged about hacking and distributing pirated software

National security professionals were largely split on how seriously to take 33-year-old Christopher Stanley's past.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking is in talks to provide corporate client data to Fujitsu to run through the IT company’s multimodal machine learning tools to make business forecasts.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 3, 2025

SMBC and Fujitsu to partner on AI-driven forecasting services

The move would be a rare instance of a Japanese bank allowing another company access to sensitive customer data.
North Korean IT workers have historically focused on infiltrating companies in the U.S. but are now targeting European firms.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 3, 2025

North Korean IT warriors push to infiltrate European firms

North Korean IT workers have historically focused on infiltrating companies in the U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced and delayed tariffs on Canada since returning to the White House in January.
MORE SPORTS / Ice hockey
Apr 3, 2025

NHL commissioner says U.S.-Canada tensions could impact league

U.S. President Donald Trump, since returning to the White House in January, has announced and delayed tariffs on Canada.
People visit the graves of relatives as is customary on the first day of Eid al-Fitr marking the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, at the damaged cemetery of the Yarmuk camp for Palestinian refugees in Damascus on Monday.
WORLD
Apr 3, 2025

Syria says deadly Israeli strikes a 'blatant violation'

Syrian state media said the strikes hit close to a defense research center in Damascus, among other sites, while a war monitor reported four dead.
Brooks Koepka is a five-time major winner who will be seeking his first Masters title next week.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Apr 3, 2025

LIV Golf stars look ahead to Masters

"It's almost a religious experience every time you set foot on Augusta National," said Phil Mickelson.
Teruki Hara (left) and Kazuyasu Takahashi in the city of Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Jan. 27
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2025

14 years on: Teen from Tokyo begins fishing career in Fukushima

Teruki Hara remains initially discovered his love for fishing in the prefecture as a child.
U.S. President Donald Trump unveils new U.S. tariffs at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 3, 2025

Japan promises 'bold and speedy' response to Trump’s surprise 24% tariffs

The duty rate for Japanese products is the "worst among the scenarios that had been imagined" by the market.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks and signs tariffs in the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 3, 2025

With Trump’s tariffs, the chasm between allies and the U.S. widens

Trump’s plan, which he unveiled on Wednesday and is calling "reciprocal,” would impose a wave of tariffs on dozens of countries.
Seiji Adachi, a former member of the Bank of Japan's Policy Board, says there is a chance of a May rate hike.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 3, 2025

Ex-board member who just left BOJ sees chance of May rate hike

Seiji Adachi, whose five-year term ended last week, said he would probably vote for a rate hike in the central bank's May meeting if one was proposed.
Tokyo police on Thursday sent to public prosecutors papers on six comedians from major Japanese entertainment agency Yoshimoto Kogyo on suspicion of gambling via online casino services.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 3, 2025

Papers on six Japanese comedians sent to prosecutors over online gambling

They are suspected of accessing and gambling on overseas online casino websites between January 2023 and December 2024.
Among those arrested, 1,011 were ringleaders or individuals who gave instructions. About 90% were perpetrators, including people who received defrauded money, and around 40% became involved in the crimes through recruitment via social media.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 3, 2025

New ‘tokuryū’ crime groups outpace yakuza in arrests

The term was coined by the National Police Agency to describe a new form of criminal group that has emerged as an alternative to traditional yakuza organizations.
People enjoy running and yoga on Tokyo Expressway’s KK Line, a 2-kilometer elevated expressway cutting through the capital’s commercial Ginza district, when it was opened as a pedestrian space in May last year.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2025

Tokyo’s KK Line to close for decadelong overhaul as public greenway

The line will become a pedestrian-focused green space called Tokyo Sky Corridor, with sections opening in phases before its full relaunch in 2035.
U.S. President Donald Trump walks in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington on Wednesday, the day of his remarks on tariffs.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 4, 2025

For Trump, tariff gamble brings political risk

If his promises to recast the economy don't work out, it could cause political headwinds for his party and economic pain for his constituents.
Donald Trump's presidency took third place in a new survey on Southeast Asia's top three geopolitical concerns.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 4, 2025

Trump presidency a key concern for Southeast Asia, survey shows

Trump took third place at 46.9% in top concerns for Southeast Asians, according to a ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute survey published Thursday.
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) address a news conference after bilateral talks on Thursday in Budapest.
WORLD
Apr 4, 2025

Israeli leader Netanyahu applauds Hungary's ICC exit on Budapest visit

Hungary has rejected the idea of arresting the Israeli prime minister and has called the warrant "brazen."
Containers stacked up at the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port in Phnom Penh on Thursday. Southeast Asian countries with a significant trade surplus with the U.S. came in for harsh treatment from Trump's stinging tariffs.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 4, 2025

Trump tariffs are a ‘disaster’ for world’s poorest countries

Poor nations' labor-intensive export industries face new risk in trade war.
A demonstrator against impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol reacts after the Constitutional Court ruled to remove him from office in Seoul on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / EXPLAINER
Apr 4, 2025

What happens next after South Korea removes President Yoon

Yoon's removal from office was the culmination of months of turmoil in which hundreds of thousands took to the streets, either to protest or support him.

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Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.