Search - 2019

 
 
Tour guide and history buff Rory Dent left his job at a U.K.-based tour operator to move to Japan and start his own business.
LIFE / Travel / Longform
Jun 30, 2024

Guiding Japan through the challenges of overtourism

With the number of overseas tourists breaking records, guides and tour operators are seeing their businesses flourish.
Then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at an EU-Japan trade summit in Brussels in 2019. Abe was an early believer in the need for Japan to strengthen relations with Europe based on shared values and interests.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 1, 2024

Strong Europe-Japan relations are a legacy of Shinzo Abe

Late former Prime Minister Abe was an early believer in the need for Japan to strengthen its relationship with Europe based on shared values and mutual interests.
Japan's most expensive plot of land lies in front of Kyukyodo stationery store in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district, according to National Tax Agency statistics.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 1, 2024

Japan's land prices rise at fastest pace since 2010, tax agency says

Average land prices climbed 2.3% last year, rising for the third straight year.
Inside the TikTok office in Singapore in 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 1, 2024

China’s AI startups head to Singapore in a bid for global growth

Singapore offers many Chinese artificial intelligence startup companies better access to global investors and customers than China does.
Lakers forward Rui Hachimura will be a key part of Japan's Olympic ambitions this summer.
BASKETBALL
Jul 1, 2024

Japan’s basketball stars set sights on glory at Paris Games

Some think Akatsuki Japan is sending the best team it has ever assembled to the Olympics.
Sumitomo Corp. President Shingo Ueno speaks during an interview at the company's head office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 1, 2024

Sumitomo looks to tap U.S. shale boom despite exiting production

The company will seek to boost sales of pipelines used in U.S. shale fields.
Naomi Osaka in action during her Wimbledon women's singles first round match against Diane Parry in Wimbledon, London, on Monday. Osaka won the match 6-1, 1-6, 6-4.
TENNIS
Jul 2, 2024

Osaka wins first match at Wimbledon since 2018

The player recovered from a break down in the final set to defeat Diane Parry of France.
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer speaks during the launch of the party's general election manifesto in Manchester, England, on June 13.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 2, 2024

Labour win in U.K. election would likely mean continuity for Asia

While the party has focused on domestic challenges in the run-up to Thursday's election, it maintains a deep interest in the region, experts say.
Several examples of rare and expensive fruits at Melissa’s Produce in Los Angeles on May 22.
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2024

The world of luxury fruit: Does a $156 melon taste sweeter?

The United States is developing an appetite for luxury fruits long known in countries like Japan and South Korea.
Australia's Emma McKeon in action at the 2023 world championships in Fukuoka in July 2023
OLYMPICS / Swimming
Jul 3, 2024

Olympic swimmers hope for winning edge with latest 'rocket suits'

Competitors believe innovation can be the difference in a sport where medals are sometimes decided by a mere fingertip, although the evidence is not as clear.
Chinese EV-maker Nio’s Onvo L60 SUV is unveiled in Shanghai in May. As an EV powerhouse, China should share the fruits of its success with the rest of the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2024

Easy solutions to EU-China tariff dispute

The EU should see the futility of tariffs on Chinese EVs, and China should not retaliate but instead share the fruits of its success in building up its auto sector.
R-Shitei (left) and DJ Matsunaga have scored the biggest hit of the year so far in Japan with “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born.” The track is inspired by the Jersey club style of music, right down to the squeaky chair sample.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 3, 2024

Is Creepy Nuts' catchy, rapid-fire 'Bling-Bang-Bang-Born' the song of the year?

The fast-paced ode to a style called Jersey club is everywhere in Tokyo, and it may just be the rap duo's key to international success.
Naomi Osaka reacts after losing a point against Emma Navarro during the second round of Wimbledon, in London on Wednesday.
TENNIS
Jul 4, 2024

Naomi Osaka focuses on Olympics after Wimbledon exit

The Japanese superstar, playing at the All England Club for the first time since 2019, went down 6-4, 6-1 in her second-round match on Centre Court in less than an hour.
An LG Energy Solution battery pack for an electric vehicle using cell-to-pack technologies displayed at the InterBattery exhibition in Seoul on March 6
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 4, 2024

LG sees battery breakthrough by 2028 that has eluded Tesla

It aims to commercialize the dry-coating technology for making electrodes that can allow savings on energy, equipment costs and space.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president, during an interview in Kyiv on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Jul 4, 2024

Zelenskyy challenges Trump to reveal plans for ending war

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has boasted that if he wins the election, he’ll end the Ukraine-Russia war by the time he’s inaugurated in January.
Russia isn’t a theocracy but Orthodox Christianity, the state religion, has become all-encompassing, with President Vladimir Putin claiming to have a divine mission.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2024

The demigods of populism

By claiming to represent the will of the divine, populist leaders like Putin, Modi, Erdogan — and even Trump — stake an otherworldly claim to political power.
Workers collect detritus after the Britain's Glastonbury Festival on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 4, 2024

Music festivals seek greener footprint

The world's top 1,000 DJs took 51,000 flights in 2019, equivalent to 35,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, according to climate group Clean Scene.
Lufthansa planes in Frankfurt on March 7
BUSINESS
Jul 4, 2024

EU's airline deal demands fuel doubts over further attempts

While the deal expands Lufthansa's footprint in southern Europe, the combined group will have to cede some routes and slots to rivals for it to proceed.
A man from North Africa (right) embraces his lawyer after a verdict was handed down by the Osaka District Court revoking a decision by immigration authorities not to grant him refugee status, in Osaka on Thursday.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 4, 2024

Osaka court recognizes gay African man as refugee

The court concluded that the plaintiff had been nearly killed by his family and could be harmed if he returns home.
After losing her family to a plane accident, Suzie (played by Rashida Jones) receives a posthumous gift from her husband in the form of a robot named Sunny (voiced by Joanna Sotomura).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 5, 2024

Rashida Jones uncovers an AI-fueled mystery in the AppleTV+ series 'Sunny'

Set in Kyoto, the story about a woman dealing with grief and an unexpected robot companion is a departure from the actor's comedic repertoire.
An exit poll predicting that the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer will win 410 seats in Britain's general election is projected onto BBC Broadcasting House in London on July 4, 2024. Labour is set for a landslide win in U.K. election, exit polls showed.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 5, 2024

U.K.'s Labour set to sweep into power with huge majority, exit poll shows

The result would give Labour a majority of 170 and would bring the curtain down on 14 years of increasingly tumultuous Conservative-led government.
Britain's Andy Murray waves to the crowd after his men's doubles match on Thursday at Wimbledon in London.
TENNIS
Jul 5, 2024

'I wish I could play forever,' says tearful Murray at Wimbledon farewell

Murray and brother Jamie were defeated in the first round of men's doubles as the British great prepares to call it a career.
BYD electric vehicles before being loaded onto the "BYD Explorer No.1" roll-on, roll-off vehicle carrier in Jiangsu province, China, on April 25.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 5, 2024

China-built EVs hit with duties in biggest EU trade case yet

The tariffs remain provisional while intensive talks continue between Chinese and EU officials as Beijing threatens wide-ranging retaliation on European products.
Takuya Matsunaga (right), whose wife and daughter were killed by a runaway car in Ikebukuro in April 2019, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo in October. Two men have allegedly defamed Matsunaga.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 5, 2024

Charges loom for pair accused of defaming families of traffic accident victims

The defamatory remarks were made on social media, including toward a man who lost his wife and child in a high-profile car accident in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district.
Fish swim near recovering coral reefs after bleaching in late December 2023 due to extreme weather, in Bondalem village, Buleleng regency, Bali, Indonesia, on June 20.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 5, 2024

Coral bleachings devastate Bali reefs as sea temperatures rise

Indonesia, which had its most severe dry season last year since 2019, has roughly 5.1 million hectares of coral reefs and accounts for 18% of the world's total.
American Gregorio Narvasa has gone from baking cookies in his spare to time to working with major Tokyo companies from his new Koenji shop.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 7, 2024

Koenji gets a new cookie shop. Its owner gets a community.

After several years of sharing his creations at pop-up events scattered across Tokyo, Gregorio Narvasa opened a physical bake shop in Koenji on April 20 of this year.
The weak yen continues to attract visitors from abroad, while travelers from Japan are rethinking their plans amid rising costs.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 5, 2024

Weak yen slows overseas summer travel recovery

While the currency's weakness continues to attract visitors from abroad, travelers from Japan are rethinking their plans amid rising costs.
Although air travel in Asia has picked up since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still below 2019 levels, with many passengers preferring to travel shorter distances.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2024

Asian airlines face a cold summer

Despite seemingly positive results, air travel in Asia hasn't returned to pre-pandemic levels, with many of the continent's travelers preferring to stay closer to home.
Toyota Customizing & Development, a Toyota subsidiary, broke the subcontract payment law, the Fair Trade Commission said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 5, 2024

Toyota unit violated subcontractor protection law: regulator

Yokohama-based Toyota Customizing & Development broke the law by having dozens of suppliers store metal die casts and other items without paying any storage fees.
New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer addresses the nation on Friday in London.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Jul 5, 2024

U.K.’s election is a rare win against anti-climate campaigns

Keir Starmer’s Labour has a manifesto that puts climate and clean energy front and center, unlike some parties in Europe and the U.S.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?