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Pope Francis arrives at the weekly general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 29, 2024

Pope Francis takes climate message to Southeast Asia on 12-day trip

It will be the longest trip yet by Pope Francis, who now regularly uses a wheelchair due to knee and back pain.
Big Blue head coach Mike Phair (front, right) participates in the X League 2024 Season Kickoff news conference.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Aug 30, 2024

Japan ties guide veteran NFL coach Mike Phair to Big Blue in X League

The Arizona native had long been thinking about rekindling his involvement with Japanese football.
Blue Jackets left-winger Johnny Gaudreau skates with the puck during a game against the Canadiens in Montreal in March.
MORE SPORTS / Hockey
Aug 31, 2024

NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother killed in New Jersey crash

Johnny Gaudreau played 11 NHL seasons with the Flames and Blue Jackets and took part in seven All-Star games.
NPB Commissioner Sadayuki Sakakibara (left) Samurai Japan manager Hirokazu Ibata (second from left) and WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari pose for photos during a news conference on Friday.
BASEBALL
Sep 1, 2024

Hirokazu Ibata looking to keep Japan on top of baseball world by winning Premier12

Japan will enter the Premier12 as the defending champion.
American Taylor Fritz celebrates after defeating Germany's Alexander Zverev in the U.S. Open quarterfinals on Tuesday.
TENNIS
Sep 4, 2024

Tiafoe, Fritz and Navarro boost American hopes of U.S. Open title sweep

The 12th-seeded Fritz won a big-hitting battle against fourth-seeded 2020 runner-up Alexander Zverev of Germany 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan greet the press before welcoming leaders from African countries in Beijing on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 5, 2024

Debt woes and funding needs in focus as China hosts African leaders

Africa and its ample mineral and oil resources have become the focus of intense geopolitical competition in recent years.
One problem with Japan’s investments in African infrastructure compared to other countries is that its projects often lack long-term sustainability and alignment with local development plans, limiting their impact. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 5, 2024

Is Japan’s involvement in Africa’s development outdated?

Japan's traditional aid approach is seen as too transactional and insufficiently addressing Africa's broader development challenges.
Bangladeshi military personnel stand guard at an empty police station in Dhaka on Aug. 9. The U.S. and Western nations have sacrificed democracy for geopolitics, evident in Bangladesh’s chaos and violence after the prime minister was recently forced from power.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 6, 2024

The Western world's stealthy assault on democracy

Elections alone — even if competitive — do not guarantee popular empowerment or adherence to constitutional rules, especially when the military holds decisive power.
Former Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda's remarks on Friday suggest the central bank has a long way to go since its latest rate hike took the key rate to just 0.25%.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 6, 2024

Kuroda indicates that BOJ is still a long way from neutral rate

A nominal neutral rate could be less than 2%, the former central bank governor told the Bund Summit in Shanghai via video link.
Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi declares his candidacy in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 6, 2024

Shinjiro Koizumi promises immediate snap election if elected LDP president

The former environment minister said he will turn to the electorate to allow voters to judge his plan to transform Japan.
Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia arrives in Barlovento Town, Venezuela, on June 26 to meet with supporters.
WORLD
Sep 8, 2024

Venezuelan presidential opposition candidate heads for Spanish exile

Madrid's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on X that Gonzalez Urrutia "at his request" had departed on a Spanish military plane.
The Tokyo leg of Magical Mirai 2024, a gathering centered on a concert starring the aqua-haired Hatsune Miku and other avatars created by Sapporo-based company Crypton Future Media, kicked off on Aug. 30.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 9, 2024

Magical Mirai 2024 shows that the future is bright for Hatsune Miku

Thousands of visitors helped kick off the Tokyo leg of the gathering, which offers an immersive dive into every part of the aqua-haired anime avatar's world.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike poses with Liberal Democratic Party members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on July 8, following her win for a third term in the gubernatorial election the previous day.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 10, 2024

After Tokyo governor poll, eyes turn to 2025 assembly election

Both the Liberal Democratic Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan are under pressure to regroup ahead of the quadrennial metropolitan assembly election.
While there are similarities between the geopolitical competition involving the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, such as global rivalry and ideological divisions, key differences suggest the situation with China does not constitute a new Cold War.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2024

A new ‘Cold War’ with China might be the best hope for the future

The current situation is often described as "a new great game," a world in which our time and challenges result from the stirring of old empires.
Ikeda Suisan's saury fishing boat is also being used for tuna fishing.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2024

To stay afloat, some Japanese saury fishers turn to tuna and squid

Saury fishers in Japan are also trying to secure enough income by working during the saury fishing offseason.
Cristiano Ronaldo scores for Portugal during a Nations League match against Scotland in Lisbon, Portugal, on Sunday.
SOCCER
Sep 12, 2024

Cristiano Ronaldo labels Erik ten Hag's attitude as too negative for United

The Portugal star, who now plays for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, fell out with Ten Hag before his second spell at Old Trafford ended late in 2022.
United manager Erik ten Hag directs his team during a match against Liverpool on Sept. 1.
SOCCER
Sep 13, 2024

United manager Erik Ten Hag responds to criticism from Cristiano Ronaldo

Ten Hag has said he is "quite confident" of claiming more silverware this campaign after lifting the League Cup and FA Cup over the past two seasons.
Cyclists participate in the Tour de Tohoku 2024 on Sunday in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2024

1,300 cyclists participate in Tour de Tohoku 2024

The event is designed to support reconstruction efforts in the affected areas, and participants do not compete for time or rankings but aim to complete the race.
Campaign spending in the U.S. has surged, with dark money and Super PACs dominating elections.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 13, 2024

Dark money is a cancer on U.S. lawmakers — but it’s curable

Nearly three-fourths of Americans voters say lobbyists and special interests wield too much influence compared to constituents.
Brighton & Hove Albion's Kaoru Mitoma (left) in action with Arsenal's Ben White at Emirates Stadium in London on Aug. 31
SOCCER
Sep 17, 2024

Japanese players in vogue as British clubs widen horizons

"It feels like there is more interest in Japanese players from around the world," says Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo.
Women in managerial positions at Japanese firms has topped 10%, but the figure still lags far behind those in European countries and the United States.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 17, 2024

Women in managerial posts top 10% for first time in Japan

Women in managerial roles are slowly increasing in Japan, but the country remains far from the government's 30% target for this decade.
In China, discussing feminism is apparently forbidden, as seen with the controversy over the maker of Black Myth: Wukong censoring feminist topics during streaming, despite its global success and praise for visuals and gameplay. 
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2024

Wukong makes equal rights for women a taboo topic

Women are increasingly active consumers in the gaming industry: The growth rate of new female gamers in Asia is nearly double that of males.
The Liberal Democratic Party's suspected ties with the Unification Church have been little discussed in the ongoing leadership race campaign.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 18, 2024

Unification Church issue continues to haunt LDP amid leadership race

The Asahi Shimbun daily has published a photo purporting to show a meeting between then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a senior official of the religious group in 2013.
A group of older women performs during a midautumn festival at a mall in Jinan, in eastern China, on Sept. 6. China’s shrinking population poses threats to growth but has opened opportunities for businesses that serve older adults.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 18, 2024

China’s ‘silver economy’ is thriving as birthrate plunges

Births in China fell to 9 million in 2023, down about 6% from the previous year, with the number of preschool children plummeting nearly 12%.
Attendees to the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at National Convention Center in Vientiane take a group photo on July 26. Southeast Asian nations are concerned about nuclear weapons but are more focused on regional security and stability.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2024

Southeast Asia untroubled by China’s nuclear modernization efforts

Southeast Asian nations are concerned about nuclear weapons but are more focused on regional security and stability.
The percentage of South Korean respondents with a good impression of Japan jumped from the previous year to 41.7%, the highest level since the survey began in 2013.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2024

Survey shows record number of South Koreans view Japan positively

Nearly 42% of South Koreans have a favorable impression of Japan, according to the East Asia Institute.
Arisa Trew competes in the women's skateboard park competition at X Games Chiba on Sunday. Trew went on to win the event to back up her gold from the Paris Olympics.
MORE SPORTS / Action sports
Sep 22, 2024

Arisa Trew's golden run continues with win in skateboard park at X Games Chiba

Japan’s men had a big day in the skateboard street competition, with Sora Shirai grabbing the title ahead of two of his compatriots.
A view of the RSS Invincible during a commissioning ceremony of the Republic of Singapore Navy’s first and second Invincible-class submarines Invincible and Impeccable, at the Changi Naval Base in Singapore on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 25, 2024

Singapore commissions new submarines as Asia's undersea rivalry grows

The new submarines represent a technological step forward for Singapore's fleet, allowing the nation to operate farther from shore.
Residential buildings in the Toyosu area in Tokyo, Japan, on Feb. 11, 2023. If rising rates on real estate investment loans are seen as a burden, people may become more cautious about acquiring properties for leasing, experts warn.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2024

Tokyo home prices are seen to largely withstand BOJ rate hikes

The days of making large profits from property in Tokyo may be over
Shigeru Ishiba speaks at a campaign meeting on Sept. 12 in Tokyo in the lead-up to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election scheduled for Friday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 24, 2024

Japan’s next leader will be different — and flawed

While nine LDP lawmakers are contesting the race to become the country’s next leader, the field has narrowed to just three.

Longform

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