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Suspects in a badger game scheme allegedly forced victims to pay money by threatening them, locking them up, assaulting them and pursuing them via consumer credit companies.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 14, 2024

Tokyo police arrest nine people over alleged badger scheme

The individuals were arrested on charges for extorting about ¥2 million in cash from four male customers in their 20s to 40s between April and July.
While baldness can often be the butt of jokes in Japan, it can also be a powerfully freeing act of self-acceptance for those struggling with hair loss.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 16, 2024

Thinning up top? Hair loss in Japan is not the end.

Among Asian countries, Japan has the highest rate of alopecia at around 26%, as well as 7.8% of women experiencing some form of hair thinning.
Rice fields in the town of Ozu, Kumamoto Prefecture. The water-filled paddies glistening under the sun is a symbol of a long-running effort to preserve the prefecture’s groundwater.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Nov 17, 2024

Japan's chipmaking rush pressures Kumamoto's special water supply

TSMC and others hope that support for existing projects and proper wastewater management can avoid undermining water development efforts lauded by the U.N.
A Sardinian miner helmet, painted with the logo of Sardinia region, in Carbonia, west of Cagliari, Italy. Sardinia relies largely on coal for its electricity.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 18, 2024

Locals revolt against renewables in Italy's coal-fired island, Sardinia

The island a prime location for wind and solar power but intense investor interest has spooked locals who say Sardinia is being exploited.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman addresses the joint extraordinary leaders summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League in Riyadh on Nov. 11.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 25, 2024

Mohammed bin Salman’s style shift sets up a new world order strategy

The implications of Saudi Arabia’s transformation under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will reverberate far beyond the kingdom’s borders for decades to come.
Designed by Kei Atsumi and Motoya Iizawa, "The Warp" was a 3D-printed tea pavilion with organic, twisting curves placed in downtown Dubai.
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 30, 2024

Far East meets Middle East at Dubai Design Week 2024

This year's Dubai Design Week functioned much like a portal between continents, philosophies and futures.
Shiho Hanadate is part of a small yet growing number of young tappers pivotal in securing the future of domestic sap collection used in Japanese lacquerware.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 30, 2024

The young sap collectors underpinning Japanese lacquerware

“You can’t cut into the core, so you have to judge the thickness of the bark,” says tapper Shiho Hanadate. “You have to develop a sense for it.”
Brain adaptations during pregnancy may enhance efficiency rather than cause loss of function, similar to transformations seen during adolescence and menopause.
COMMENTARY
Nov 29, 2024

We’re finally starting to understand the pregnant brain

Brain adaptations during pregnancy may enhance efficiency rather than cause loss of function, similar to transformations seen during adolescence and menopause.
Jean-Pierre Charriton
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / The Big Questions
Dec 2, 2024

President of L’Oreal Japan leverages innovation

Name: Jean-Pierre Charriton
Students at Hiroshima University’s School of Dentistry offer silent prayers for the donors of bodies before they practice anatomy on the cadavers in late October.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Chugoku
Dec 16, 2024

In death, body donors become silent teachers for medical students

Practical training on cadavers significantly increases the understanding of the human body, says one professor.
“Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron" provides an in-depth look into the octogenarian auteur’s creative process and personal reflections.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 11, 2024

‘Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron’ documentary meditates on auteur's creativity and legacy

Filmed with unparalleled access to Studio Ghibli, director Kaku Arakawa captures the vulnerability and genius behind master animator Hayao Miyazaki’s latest feature.
A protester wears a mask depicting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol during a rally calling for his impeachment, in Seoul, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / ANALYSIS
Dec 12, 2024

South Korea's soft power gains at risk from extended political crisis

How the country — a top global destination for medical and plastic surgery tourism — gets through the period of uncertainty will impact foreign visitor numbers.
Crystal Smith, the elected chief of the Haisla people, stands on the shoreline of the Douglas Channel in Kitamaat, British Columbia, Canada, on Oct. 1.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 15, 2024

Indigenous people in Canada weigh costs of a gas windfall

The promise of billions of dollars of gas investment has renewed a generations-old debate over Indigenous identity and environmental stewardship.
Disney and Oriental Land executives pose with Disney characters at the unveiling of an expanded cruise line, in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, earlier this year.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Dec 16, 2024

Tokyo Disney Resort operator eyes cruises for new growth

The company plans to invest approximately ¥330 billion in the project, hoping to launch services in fiscal 2028.
People walk past a Dior shop in Rome on Dec. 18.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2024

Luxury labels bulk up on lower-priced goods to broaden appeal

After more than two years of sharp price hikes, luxury labels are finding themselves at risk of alienating the middle class.
At each shrine and temple, priests create festive, decorative go-shuin stamps, and you can collect the marks of all seven of the lucky gods on one piece of paper (called a shikishi) to serve as a good-luck talisman.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 27, 2024

Start the new year not with one temple visit, but seven

The seven lucky gods pilgrimage is a less hurried alternative to the often-crowded first temple or shrine visit of the year.
For the 20 Questions column this year, writers asked their interview subjects about everything from their lives in Japan to their thoughts on news topics.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Dec 28, 2024

There were plenty of hot topics to opine on in 2024

We take a look back at some of the best answers that our interviewees gave for 20 Questions from throughout the year.
An undated photo of a poster in a window promoting shows at Lincoln Center by Shen Yun, which in its 2023-2024 season performed more than 800 times on five continents, in New York. Over the past decade, the dance group Shen Yun Performing Arts has made money at a staggering rate in large part by getting followers of the Falun Gong religious movement to work for free and pay its bills.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 31, 2024

How Shen Yun tapped religious fervor to make $266 million

Shen Yun’s success flows in part from its ability to pack venues worldwide — while exploiting young, low-paid performers with little regard for their health or well-being.
Opium is harvested from poppies in Bang Laem Village, Shan State, Myanmar.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 31, 2024

Drugs, scams and sin: Myanmar’s war has made it the global crime capital

Growing opium poppies is illegal in Myanmar, but small-scale farmers see it is a relatively low-risk cash crop.
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.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Jan 1, 2025

Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake

The Year of the Snake is characterized by wisdom, calm and steady progress. It urges introspection, calculated moves and a journey of reinvention.
The entrance gate to Arakura Sengen Shrine in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, with Mount Fuji in the distance.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Jan 15, 2025

From wrath to radiance: Why the 'Manyoshu' feels like paradise lost

While the Bible’s God demands obedience and punishes sin, the 'Manyoshu' radiates innocence, joy and harmony with nature.
Japan Sumo Association Chairman Hakkaku (right) alongside David Rothschild, the promoter of an upcoming tournament in Paris, on Sunday in Tokyo
SUMO
Jan 19, 2025

Top sumo pros to enter the ring in Paris in June 2026

It will be the third such event in the French capital and the first since 1995.
Aside from purely aesthetics, the flowers in Mika Ninagawa’s art carry deep cultural and spiritual meaning.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 25, 2025

Mika Ninagawa transforms the Kyocera Museum into a vibrant dreamworld

The artist’s most expansive exhibition in the Kansai region to date is an experience that straddles the boundaries of photography, film and installation art.
Arsenal midfielder Myles Lewis-Skelly (second right) reacts after being sent off by referee Michael Oliver on January 25, 2025.
SOCCER
Jan 29, 2025

Arsenal boss Arteta urges stop to abuse after red card rescinded

The referees' body, PGMOL, said the police were investigating threats and abuse directed at referee Michael Oliver following the game.
Documentary director Kaku Arakawa’s filming style — naturalistic, intimate and unobtrusive — proved essential to portraying anime powerhouse Hayao Miyazaki as a man as flawed and human as he is a visionary artist in “Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 31, 2025

Two decades of unparalleled access into the world of Hayao Miyazaki

Documentary director Kaku Arakawa has spent years filming the anime powerhouse to reveal the man beyond the myth.
Dress-up games and dating sims were once forgotten genres, but now expanded player bases are helping to generate major profits.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Feb 1, 2025

Gaming’s feminine side is starting to make big bucks

Two recent releases — a sci-fi dating sim and a souped-up dress-up simulator — are starting to change the conversation around previously dismissed genres.
Donald Trump, then the Republican nominee for U.S. president, meets with Ukrainian Persident Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York on Sept. 27 last year.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 2, 2025

U.S. wants Ukraine to hold elections following a ceasefire, says Trump envoy

Volodymyr Zelenskyy's five-year term was supposed to end in 2024 but polls cannot be held under martial law, which Ukraine imposed in February 2022.
The Imperial Household Agency's Instagram account boasts over 1.8 million followers.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Feb 3, 2025

Imperial Household Agency finds success on Instagram amid public relations push

With the account boasting over 1.8 million followers, the agency is aiming to boost engagement.
Taiwanese star Barbie Hsu, who was hugely popular across Asia for her leading role in the 2001 television drama "Meteor Garden," died from a respiratory illness during a family trip to Japan over the Lunar New Year holiday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Feb 3, 2025

Taiwan's 'Meteor Garden' star Barbie Hsu dies at 48

The actor, who rose to fame as the romantic lead in a 2001 television drama based on a manga series, died from a respiratory illness during a family holiday in Japan.
Risshaku-ji Buddhist temple in the snow, with the valley and town in the background.
SATOYAMA CONSORTIUM
Feb 4, 2025

Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty

Each year between mid-November and April, winter sports fans from around the world flock to Japan for the country’s renowned powder snow. Aussie snowboarders, in particular, have made Niseko in Hokkaido and Hakuba in Nagano their winter homes, escaping the hot summers Down Under.

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?