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Digital minister Masaaki Taira, who has jurisdiction over a bill to introduce an “active cyberdefense” system, speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 13, 2024

Government set to postpone submission of cyberdefense bill to next year

The delay in the bill to introduce an "active cyberdefense" system follows the ruling bloc's election drubbing, which drained the prime minister's political capital.
The Democrats focused on issues like racial and gender inequality and overlooked the economic and social struggles of the working class, allowing Donald Trump to tap into this resentment.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2024

Voters to elites: Ignore the working class at your own peril

The redistribution of respect saw those who climbed the academic ladder celebrated with accolades, while those who didn’t were rendered invisible.
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng. He, 69, is a Politburo member and Beijing’s point person for U.S.-China economic and trade affairs.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 14, 2024

Xi’s key players to lead China in another Trump trade fight

Donald Trump’s return to power makes Beijing’s potential negotiators some of the most important people in Xi Jinping’s government.
Nippon Steel Vice President Takahiro Mori is set to visit United States next week to meet with union members in a bid to move forward a U.S. Steel takeover deal.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 14, 2024

Nippon Steel’s vice president to meet steelworkers in Pittsburgh next week

The move shows the Japanese company is making a push to persuade union members that its bid to take over U.S. Steel will be good for workers.
The Tokyo District Court has found Nagumi Osada, 27, guilty of sexually abusing seven girls between the ages of 3 and 6.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 14, 2024

Former day care center worker given 14-year term for child sex abuse

The man was found guilty of abusing seven girls between the ages of 3 and 6 at day care centers where he worked and of filming the acts over a period of two years.
Hackers infiltrated the networks of multiple U.S. telecommunications companies to steal customer call records and compromise the communications belonging to a "limited number” of people in government and politics, officials said.
WORLD
Nov 14, 2024

U.S. accuses China of vast cyberespionage against telecoms

The hackers infiltrated the networks of multiple telecommunications companies to steal customer call records and compromise communications.
Taiwanese writer Yang Shuang-zi’s novel “Taiwan Travelogue” provides a portal to the past and allows the reader to explore a bygone world with their eyes, ears and stomach.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 15, 2024

The sentimental gastronomies of ‘Taiwan Travelogue’

Yang Shuang-zi’s layered tale of female companionship takes readers on an epicurean frolic through Taiwan's colonial era.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks in Phoenix, Arizona, on August 23, 2024. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he is nominating Kennedy to be the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 15, 2024

Vaccine skeptic RFK Jr. vows to 'Make America Healthy Again'

Donald Trump announced he would nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to become the next secretary of Health and Human Services.
Tulsi Gabbard's nomination has raised alarm among the ranks of intelligence officers.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 15, 2024

Trump's choice of Gabbard as U.S. intelligence chief vexes spy world

Donald Trump’s nomination of Tulsi Gabbard is among several high-level picks that suggest he may be prioritizing personal allegiance over competence.
The grey tabby cat Dorayaki is timid and cautious, but a gentle and patient person will certainly gain his trust over time.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Nov 18, 2024

Scaredy-cat looking for his safe place

Someone gentle, caring and patient would be the best fit to help this poor thing overcome the fears from his past.
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Nov 18, 2024

In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation

The latest edition of the Japan Writers Conference was a friendly forum for anglophone writers to connect and converse.
A Ferrari F12tdf fetched a record-high price of ¥171,001,000 ($1.09 million) in a tax agency auction this week.
BUSINESS
Nov 15, 2024

Ferrari sells for ¥171 million at Japanese tax sale

The gunmetal gray Ferrari F12tdf, registered in 2017 and with only 1,509 kilometers on the odometer, received 127 bids during the auction.
A SeaGuardian unmanned drone is seen at the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Hachinohe Air Base in Aomori Prefecture in June last year.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2024

MSDF to deploy U.S.-made SeaGuardian surveillance drones

The Defense Ministry said Friday it plans to procure a total of 23 SeaGuardian drones over the next 10 years or so.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during a rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 27.
WORLD
Nov 16, 2024

Senators ask Pentagon and U.S. attorney general to probe Musk's alleged Russia calls

Musk, who has been appointed to a senior government role by Trump, oversees billions of dollars in Pentagon and intelligence-community contracts.
A factory in Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture. Even among profitable small and medium-sized enterprises, it is not uncommon for business owners to shut down due to aging and a lack of successors.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Nov 16, 2024

Japan issues warning over bad-faith buyers in small business M&As

As M&As gain attention as a viable option for business succession, measures are being introduced to raise awareness and safeguard companies.
Fuji Subaru Line fifth station is crowded with hikers on Mount Fuji in Yamanashi Prefecture in September 2023.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2024

Mount Fuji eyes China-made tram to transport hikers, source says

Pollution and overcrowding have become a headache for authorities seeking to clean up the site, which many Japanese people hold sacred.
Troops from the Ground Self-Defense Force's Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade take part in a marine landing drill as a part of the country's nationwide 05JX military exercises in Kagoshima Prefecture in November of last year.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 17, 2024

Elite GSDF troops to regularly deploy for drills in Australia

Tokyo will begin the deployments of the GSDF’s elite Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade to the city of Darwin starting next year.
A Metropolitan Police Department official offers a lecture on yami baito dark part-time jobs to high school students in Tokyo's Taito Ward on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 17, 2024

Japan police helping people quit illegal part-time jobs

Police took protective steps for 46 such applicants in October and November, with more than half of them being young people.
Ukrainian emergency service personnel remove fragments of a downed Russian hypersonic missile which hit a five-story residential building in Kyiv on Sunday.
WORLD
Nov 17, 2024

Russia pounds Ukraine's power grid in 'massive' air strike

Ukrainians have been bracing for weeks for an attack on the hobbled energy system, fearing crippling damage that would cause long blackouts as winter sets.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Microsoft Build conference in Seattle on May 21. Altman recently fired off a social media post saying "There is no wall" as fears arise over potential blockages to AI development.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 18, 2024

Is AI's meteoric rise beginning to slow?

Industry insiders are beginning to acknowledge that large language models aren't scaling endlessly higher at breakneck speed when pumped with more power and data.
A poster in the Tamil language advertises smartphone assembly roles outside a shop in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, in India, on Oct. 28.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 18, 2024

Foxconn tells India recruiters: Nix marital status in iPhone job ads

The move follows an investigation published June 25 that found Foxconn excluded married women from jobs at its main India iPhone assembly plant.
Japan’s megabanks have resumed trading activities with Nomura Holdings, people with knowledge of the matter said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 18, 2024

Nomura's trading clients return after market manipulation probe

Many of the firms returned to Nomura after the brokerage explained measures it is taking to prevent a recurrence of the breach, sources said.
The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter destroyer JS Hyuga sail in formation with 16 other ships from the U.S. Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force as aircraft from the U.S. Air Force and Japan Air Self-Defense Force fly overhead in formation during the Keen Sword exercise in the Philippine Sea on Nov. 8, 2018.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 18, 2024

Japan, Australia and U.S. boost collective deterrence efforts amid China concerns

The coordination will see the Ground Self‑Defense Force take part regularly in annual amphibious training drills in Australia involving U.S. Marines.
The Bluesky social network has soared to one of the top positions in social network downloads in app stores in the past week since the U.S. election. The company reported a recent gain of 700,000 new users joining the social media platform, an alternative to X.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 18, 2024

How Bluesky, alternative to X and Facebook, is handling explosive growth

Bluesky’s meteoric growth underscores its role as a decentralized alternative to traditional social networks, prioritizing user control and developer creativity.
Leaders of over 70 universities and research institutions from Japan and India attended a forum in New Delhi in mid-October.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2024

Japan's public and private sectors seek workers from India

The number of technical trainees and what are known as specified skilled workers coming from India to Japan has been on the rise in recent years.
A drone view shows a tree on fire in Humaita, Amazonas state, Brazil, on Sept. 8.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 19, 2024

Can a COP29 deal clean up scandal-ridden carbon offsets?

Carbon trading is seen as one way for richer countries to meet their emissions reduction targets.
A rubber-tired tram system, tentatively called the “Fuji Tram,” would run along magnetic markers, reducing environmental damage, according to the Yamanashi Prefectural Government.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 19, 2024

Why Yamanashi gave up building a light-rail system on Mount Fuji

As an alternative, the governor proposed a new plan to use a rubber-tired tram system.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan Sergiy Korsunsky said that while North Korea’s provision to Russia of military equipment and troops is certainly worrisome, what’s “really a serious problem” is what Moscow is giving Pyongyang in return.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 19, 2024

Ukraine ambassador warns of Russian military tech transfers to North Korea

What Moscow is giving Pyongyang in exchange for its troops could have direct security implications for East Asia, Kyiv's envoy to Tokyo warns.
Tomohiro Koyama (center), who was arrested for his suspected involvement in a fraud case, arrives at Narita Airport on Tuesday afternoon from Manila.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 20, 2024

Senior JP Dragon member linked to Luffy crime group arrested

Tomohiro Koyama was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department on board an aircraft while being deported from the Philippines.
The group executive is denying violating the employment security law, while the other four have admitted to it, according to sources.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 19, 2024

Japan police arrest executive of group referring women to sex trade

According to the sources, the group, called "Akusesu," had about 160 members who used aliases among themselves.

Longform

Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.
Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick