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The Kurama Fire Festival is one of Japan's most visceral 'matsuri' (festivals), but growing throngs of spectators could bring changes in the future.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 2, 2024

At Japan’s hottest festival, crowds threaten to smother the flames

Despite the growing throngs of attendees, it’s the smaller details of the Kurama Fire Festival that add up to more than the sum of its parts.
Held weekly at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward, Tatakai Tuesday brings together both local and visiting fighting game enthusiasts.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Nov 2, 2024

Blood, bruises and brotherhood at Tokyo’s fighting games club

Organizers Jonathan Metoyer and Andrew Fidelis started the events to 'replicate a sense of pressure you’d feel in competitive space.'
Cream-filled 'maritozzo' buns are just one of the many sweet treats on offer at Japanese convenience stores.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 3, 2024

Exploring the ‘B-gourmet wonderland’ of Japanese convenience stores

Tourists who obsess over 7-Eleven and FamilyMart can seem a bit absurd, but there's no denying the integral role these stores have in daily life in Japan.
The Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani embraces teammate Enrique Hernandez following Game 5 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium in New York on Wednesday.
BASEBALL / Sac Bunts
Nov 1, 2024

Shohei Ohtani in position to continue winning after first World Series title

Ohtani finished his first season with the Dodgers with a championship.
Officials gather at the BRICS summit in Russia on Oct. 24. It it estimated that by 2040-2050, the gross domestic product of the Group of Seven countries will be surpassed by that of emerging economies, raising questions as to whether the U.S. is prepared for this shift.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Nov 1, 2024

The U.S. is unprepared for a multipolar world

There is little acknowledgement in the U.S. that the world it now made up of multiple centers of power, which risks making Washington's foreign policy ineffective.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an official welcoming ceremony with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on June 19. Some 10,000 Korean soldiers are headed to the battlefields of Ukraine to assist Russia in its illegal invasion.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2024

North Korea troop deal exposes Putin's weakness

Many North Korean soldiers will die and some will desert despite the consequences, but their military impact will likely be insignificant.
Government Pension Investment Fund saw a loss of 3.6% in the three months through September, with assets totaling ¥248.2 trillion ($1.6 trillion), it said Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 1, 2024

GPIF has worst loss since 2020 as yen strength hits assets

GPIF, one of the world’s largest state pension funds, incurred losses in three of four major asset classes.
Tokyo's Ginza shopping district. In its revised estimates, the Cabinet Office cut its inflation-adjusted GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal year ending in March 2025 to 0.7% from 0.9% projected in July.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 1, 2024

Japan cuts growth forecast again for current fiscal year on weak exports

In its revised estimates, the Cabinet Office cut its inflation-adjusted GDP growth forecast for the year ending in March 2025 to 0.7% from 0.9% projected in July.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui attend a ceremony in Moscow on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 1, 2024

North Korea says will stand by Russia until 'victory' in Ukraine

North Korea's Choe Son Hui was in Moscow as the West believes up to 10,000 North Korean troops are training in Russia and on the brink of entering the war in Ukraine.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Warren, Michigan, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 2, 2024

Democrats have a plan if Trump prematurely declares election victory

Trump said he hoped to be able to declare victory on Election Day, but experts have cautioned that it could be days before the final result is known.
A staff member transfers baggage into a Cathay Pacific flight for departure at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture in September.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2024

The Japanese airport that says it never loses a bag

Kansai International Airport was ranked the World's Best Airport for Baggage Delivery by U.K.-based airport rating organization SKYTRAX in April.
The Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani speaks to fans in English during a World Series victory celebration at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 2, 2024

Dodgers celebrate World Series win with long-awaited parade

Shohei Ohtani brought his brown-and-white dog, Decoy — a fan favorite — in an Ohtani jersey, for the celebrations, with the slugger offering a rare address in English.
A handful of cases that have already reached the U.S. Supreme Court may herald the beginning of what legal experts expect would be a wave of litigation after the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, in particular if Donald Trump loses again in a race that opinion polls indicate is very tight.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 2, 2024

U.S. Supreme Court girds for rush of election-related litigation

Following the 2020 election that he lost to Joe Biden, Donald Trump and his allies brought a storm of legal cases challenging the outcome.
Leaders of Japan’s political parties pose for a group photo at the start of a debate at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Oct. 12. Sunday’s Lower House election saw the ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party take a drubbing.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2024

The balance of power shifts in Japan’s politics

Despite the LDP's losses at polls, the recent election didn't exactly indicate popular support for an opposition-led government either.
An elderly woman lies on the floor of a classroom at an elementary school in Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki Prefecture, in March 2011 following the Great East Japan Earthquake earlier that month.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2024

Tokyo government looks to ensure everyone has a bed at evacuation centers

The capital hopes to improve living conditions at evacuation centers and boost its disaster response capability.
Kemi Badenoch, the newly named leader of Britain's Conservative Party, speaks in London on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 2, 2024

Badenoch beats Jenrick to succeed Sunak at helm of U.K. Tories

The former business secretary now faces the daunting task of picking Britain’s main opposition party up from the ruins of July's catastrophic election loss.
Suzumi Suzuki’s “Gifted,” translated by Allison Markin Powell, centers on a hostess working in Kabukicho. Rather than focusing on the protagonist’s occupation, the story plunges the reader into her strained relationship with her dying mother.  
CULTURE / Books
Nov 3, 2024

A nuanced glimpse into the cloistered world of Kabukicho

Drawing on her own experience working in adult entertainment, Suzumi Suzuki crafts a fresh, visceral work for her debut novel, "Gifted"
Search and rescue team members and a member of the Spanish Civil Guard look for bodies following flooding in Chiva, Spain, on Saturday.
WORLD
Nov 3, 2024

Amid flood cleanup in Spain, residents try to make sense of the disaster

Some blamed climate change, while others pointed toward politicians, who sounded the alarm only after the flood was already raging.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris during a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday
WORLD / Politics
Nov 3, 2024

Harris and Trump nearly cross paths in final days of U.S. election campaign

The encounter was an apt illustration of how the two candidates are focusing on a handful of swing states in the final days of the campaign for president.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, addresses Iranian students in Tehran on Saturday.
WORLD
Nov 3, 2024

Iran’s supreme leader threatens Israel with ‘crushing response’ to strikes

After years of avoiding direct military clashes, Iran and Israel have been locked in an escalating cycle of retaliation that has drawn in their allies and proxies.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, face off in an election Tuesday that will have wide-ranging implications for Japan.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 3, 2024

Status quo or disruption? Breaking down the U.S. election's impact on Japan

Regardless of who wins, Washington is likely to have limited bandwidth to change tack in a significant way with its most important Asian ally.
Nobuaki Koga, former head of the Rengo, speaks during an interview in Tokyo last week.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 3, 2024

Former Rengo head Koga urges CDP and DPP to merge

Koga's tenure as Rengo chief between 2009 and 2015 overlapped with the 2009-2012 DPJ-led administration.
The Tokyo Hydrogen Museum in the capital's Koto Ward on Thursday. The capital is targeting the “full use” of hydrogen produced using renewable energy “in all fields” by 2050 as part of its decarbonization drive.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Nov 3, 2024

Tokyo's climate goals rely on a fuel that is falling out of favor

The metropolitan government is targeting the widespread use of hydrogen, but strong competition and its physical properties are limiting its applications.
As the European Commission prepares to make decisions on Google’s practices by the end of 2024, there is hope for a collaborative approach with U.S. regulators to create meaningful structural reforms.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2024

Google’s breakup needs an international tag team

There’s a growing consensus among regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to redefine antitrust harm beyond just pricing issues.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
WORLD / Politics
Nov 4, 2024

Netanyahu’s office accused of leaks to foil Gaza cease-fire

Opposition leaders and liberal commentators say it’s the latest example of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's manipulation of the public discourse around the war.
King Felipe VI of Spain (left) talks with a person as angry residents heckle him during his visit to Paiporta, in the region of Valencia, eastern Spain, on Sunday.
WORLD
Nov 4, 2024

Crowds hurl mud at Spanish king on visit to flood disaster town

The royals were met with fury over the response to the disaster that has now killed at least 217 people with many more still missing.
Tesla CEO Elon Mus joins former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the site of the first assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2024

The growing shadow of big money in U.S. politics

Changes in federal election law have made it easier for candidates like Donald Trump to trade influence for donations.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and senior officials and delegates at the National Peoples Congress in Beijing in March
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 4, 2024

China stimulus questions to persist long after meeting this week

It may be months before detailed plans to support consumption come into focus.
In a group interview at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo on Thursday, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya declined to make predictions about the Liberal Democratic Party’s approach to any revisions to the Status of Forces Agreement, but said he believes “some wisdom will probably come about” from planned talks within the party.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 4, 2024

Top diplomat says Foreign Ministry will ‘quietly examine’ revising SOFA pact

Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya says finding a "mutually acceptable" solution to issues in the pact governing the U.S. military presence in Japan is key.
Monday was the third day in a row that a large number of Chinese military aircraft had been reported around Taiwan, with the Defense Ministry in Taipei saying the earlier instances had been part of exercises that saw them head into the West Pacific for long-distance flights.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 4, 2024

Taiwan sees surge in Chinese military activity ahead of U.S. election

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said that it had detected 44 Chinese military aircraft around the self-ruled island on Nov. 4.

Longform

The sun shines from behind a waving Philippine flag at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
Eighty years after the Battle of Manila, old foes forge new ties