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Chelsea defender Alfie Gilchrist celebrates after scoring the club's sixth goal during their English Premier League football match against Everton on April 15.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2024

Arsenal? Liverpool? Chelsea? Help me pick my 'football' team

This writer’s been in England for six years. It’s time he backed a club.
The U.S. should use diplomacy to achieve a cease-fire in Ukraine as a prolonged conflict could reshape global power dynamics and strengthen China.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2024

Biden's focus on Ukraine risks Indo-Pacific security

The U.S. should use diplomacy to achieve a cease-fire in Ukraine, as a prolonged conflict could reshape global power dynamics and strengthen China.
When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Apr 29, 2024

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

Among official records in Japan, the "koseki" is key to discovering where you came from. However, it's not without controversy.
At the State Department, an eight-person group informally known as "the firm” is taking steps to help embattled nations when China responds to political disputes with what the U.S. and its allies call "economic coercion."
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 29, 2024

U.S. ‘firm’ steps in when China is seen as a bully, not a partner

At the U.S. State Department, an eight-person group is taking steps to help nations when China responds to political disputes with "economic coercion."
Protesters in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and pro-Israel counterprotesters scuffle during demonstrations at the University of California Los Angeles on Sunday.
WORLD
Apr 29, 2024

White House urges 'peaceful' campus protests after hundreds arrested

The wave of demonstrations began at Columbia University in New York but they have since spread rapidly across the country.
Caitlin Clark speaks during a news conference after being drafted by the Fever with the top pick in the WNBA draft in New York on April 15.
BASKETBALL
Apr 29, 2024

Caitlin Clark pleased after first WNBA practice with Fever

Fever guard Caitlin Clark said she was pleased after her first WNBA training camp practice on Sunday.
Visitors check a Tesla Model 3 car next to a Model Y displayed at a showroom of the U.S. electric-vehicle maker in Beijing on Feb. 4.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 29, 2024

Tesla clears key regulatory hurdles for self-driving in China

Tesla is said to have reached an agreement with Baidu to use the Chinese tech giant's mapping license for data collection.
A cardboard cut-out of a cyborg is on display in the Hofburg, the former imperial palace in Vienna, during a conference on regulating autonomous weapons systems often referred as "killer robots," in the Austrian city on Monday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 30, 2024

AI faces its ‘Oppenheimer moment’ during killer robot arms race

Governments worldwide have taken steps to collaborate with companies integrating AI tools into defense
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a joint ministerial meeting of the GCC-U.S. Strategic Partnership in Riyadh to discuss the humanitarian crises in the Gaza, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 30, 2024

U.S. warns ICC action on Israel would hurt cease-fire chances

The U.S. and its allies are concerned that the International Criminal Court may issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials just as the country is getting closer to a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, potentially jeopardizing a deal, people familiar with the matter said.
TikTok raised eyebrows last month when it mobilized users to petition against a potential ban, demonstrating its influence on Americans.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 30, 2024

TikTok and Tesla just the start of U.S.-China clash over Big Data

Data security is again taking center stage in the intensifying rivalry between the U.S. and China.
This combination of photos shows the cooling tower of the Emile Huchet coal-fired power station undergoing demolition in Saint-Avold, northeastern France, in February.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 30, 2024

G7 reportedly agrees end date for coal-fired power plants

The meeting in Turin is the first big political session since the world pledged at the U.N.'s COP28 climate summit in December.
A scene from "The Maiden Benten and the Bandits of the White Waves" ("Benten Kozo") at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
CULTURE / Stage
May 5, 2024

Students from Hawaii to perform English-language kabuki in Japan

The group will perform "Benten Kozo," a play depicting the twists and turns of five thieves following their own code of honor.
Researcher Mercury Wong holds a rice plant on April 1.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 30, 2024

Hong Kong team plants seeds to safeguard legacy grains

Scientists and farmers in Hong Kong are tending to local varieties of grain they say could be an important food source in the face of climate change.
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara takes part in an arrival ceremony with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon in Washington last October.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 30, 2024

‘Collective capacity’ to top agenda at four-way defense talks in Hawaii

One thing will be on Defense Minister Minoru Kihara's mind: how to deepen military and security cooperation with allies to counter China.
Despite being a major player in industries like technology and manufacturing, South Korea's defense exports have historically lagged behind.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2024

South Korea’s cheap weapons still won’t sell themselves

Despite being a major player in industries like technology and manufacturing, South Korea's defense exports have historically lagged behind.
Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray controls the ball during game five of the first round for the 2024 NBA playoffs, in Denver on Monday.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Apr 30, 2024

Nuggets send Lakers crashing out of the NBA playoffs

After a 4-1 series win, Denver will now face Minnesota in the next round.
A team of scientists in 2009 set out to pick a date when the Holocene ended and the Anthropocene began. They settled on 1952, when humanity added detectable byproducts of atomic bomb testing to our planet’s surface.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2024

A century of bad choices will haunt Earth for 100,000 years

A group of scientists rejected a proposal to give our current epoch a new name: the Anthropocene, derived from the Greek word for human.
The United Nations Security Council votes on a Gaza resolution that demands an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and unconditional release of all hostages, at the U.N.'s headquarters in New York on March 25. So far, such resolutions have proven ineffective.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2024

Can ‘minilaterals’ save the world?

Minilateral partnerships offer a new approach to addressing regional challenges effectively and ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
The trial hearing of Masumi Hayashi, who denied killing four people and poisoning 63 at a festival by lacing a pot of curry with arsenic, was the focus of The Japan Times’ front page of May 14, 1999.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
May 1, 2024

Japan Times 1999: Hayashi admits fraud, denies curry murders

The disturbing case of the Wakayama curry killer would continue for years, resulting in the eventual execution of the woman convicted of the crime.
A Starbucks logo adorns a store in Los Angeles in 2015.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 1, 2024

Starbucks posts first sales drop since 2020 amid global pullback

Consumers growing more hesitant to spend money has given Starbucks "perhaps the worst set of results of any large company so far," an analyst said.
Australia PM Anthony Albanese. Albanese on Wednesday announced new legislation to ban deepfake pornography and additional funding for the country's online watchdog.
WORLD / Society
May 1, 2024

Australian PM says violence against women a 'national crisis'

28 women have been killed in Australia so far this year — an average of one death every four days.
A worker organizes cannabis flowers before the opening of the first legal recreational marijuana dispensary, located in the East Village in the Manhattan borough of New York, on Dec. 29, 2022.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 1, 2024

Marijuana could be reclassified in U.S. as less dangerous

The rumored move would ease access to cannabis for patients and researchers studying its medical applications without decriminalizing it.
A "cooling shelter" set up inside the city hall in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture
JAPAN
May 1, 2024

Municipalities setting up 'cooling shelters' in bid to prevent heatstroke

Operators of designated facilities will be asked to open them for use by people to escape the heat when a special alert for heatstroke is issued.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong (left) and Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles (third from left) escort South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul (second from left) and Defense Minister Shin Won-sik for a meeting of the two countries' foreign and defense ministers in Melbourne on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 1, 2024

South Korea discusses participating in AUKUS tech pillar

Talks over Seoul's inclusion in the defense technology pillar of the security pact come weeks after Japan also said it was in discussions to join.
Kotonowaka (left) competes at the Spring Basho in Osaka in March. The grandson of former yokozuna Kotozakura has decided to take on the legend's ring name.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
May 2, 2024

Love of family behind return of historic sumo ring name

The tenure of ozeki Kotonowaka lasted just one tournament, with the wrestler changing from his father’s ring name to that of his late grandfather.
The root cause of yen weakness lies in the U.S., not Japan, with the currency falling to its weakest since around 1990.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 1, 2024

Japan should leave its currency bazooka at home

The root cause of yen weakness lies in the U.S., not Japan. That makes the latter's options very limited.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2024

U.S.-China tensions rise as the tides begin shifting

Irritation colored last week’s visit to China by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken amid amplified Chinese anxiety.
An electronic screen in Tokyo displays the yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and the graph showing its recent swings, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 2, 2024

Yen swings stir talk that Japan is in the FX market once again

The yen advanced more than 3% and hit ¥153.04 per dollar as more than $4 billion of yen-related futures were exchanged.
A wounded Palestinian man and his injured son in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Wednesday
WORLD
May 2, 2024

U.S. surgeon in Gaza: Nothing prepared me for scale of injuries

Shariq Sayeed said that the vast majority of cases he dealt with involved amputation.
Laxman Narasimhan has been CEO of Starbucks for just over a year.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 2, 2024

Sales slump and shares dive at Starbucks as inflation cuts thirst for treats

The global chain expressed confidence in its forecast as recently as November, saying that demand for iced shaken espressos was resilient.

Longform

Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo