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Results of spring wage negotiations are written on a board at an office of the Japan Council of Metalworkers' Unions in Tokyo's Chuo Ward on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 13, 2024

Major Japanese firms offering solid pay hikes for second year running

Several companies met or even exceeded labor union demands, raising the possibility the Bank of Japan will adjust monetary policy soon.
China insists that for meaningful negotiations to occur, the nuclear arsenals of the U.S. and Russia must be reduced to levels comparable to its own.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2024

China’s ‘minimum’ nuclear deterrence is still a threat

Estimates of the number of Chinese warheads range from 400 to 500, a striking contrast to the several thousand that the U.S and Russia possess.
A flare burns at a gas plant near Orla, Texas. Production and use of fossil fuels put more than 120 million metric tons of methane into the atmosphere last year, a slight rise from 2022.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Mar 14, 2024

Methane emissions from energy sector rose in 2023 despite pledges

Production and use of fossil fuels put more than 120 million metric tons of methane into the atmosphere last year.
A Boeing 737 Max aircraft at an airshow in Farnborough, England, in 2022. In early January, the door plug on an Alaska Air 737 Max 9 blew off shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, prompting an explosive decompression.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 14, 2024

Boeing 737 Max probe still in dark over who caused door fail

The planemaker has said it’s unable to find the relevant records, and factory security footage that may have helped have been overwritten.
Made by Karimoku, Keiji Ashikawa’s design of the JAL Boeing 777 cabin window stool uses an outer window pane from the plane as a transparent seat set on a base comprising recycled oak off-cuts.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Mar 16, 2024

Recycling old JAL planes and bullet trains into design treasures

This month, On: Design looks at recycled products designed to rev the engines of plane and train enthusiasts.
A Sapporo municipal official uses a telephone relay service at the city office in April last year.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 14, 2024

Phone relay service helps hard of hearing government staff

The service facilitates communication for workers hard of hearing and those with speech impediments by connecting them with operators online.
Built for two artists, Ishii House is a simple, rectangular timber structure with a double-height window facing the veranda.
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 16, 2024

Architecture of community won Riken Yamamoto the Pritzker Prize

Unlike many other laureates, Yamamoto is not a household name. But his work and approach have long been admired within the Japanese architectural scene.
An offshore wind farm near Nysted, Denmark. Japan aims to become a major offshore wind power producer, with the government targeting projects totaling 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Mar 15, 2024

Japanese firms join forces to promote floating offshore wind

Floating offshore wind power is seen as a way to ensure Japan has a stable and sustainable energy supply.
To squeeze more energy out of the wind, turbines are getting bigger and bigger, which means that ships capable of installing them are in growing demand.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 17, 2024

Offshore wind’s next big problem: Not enough ships

As economies go green and utilities retire fossil-fuel power stations, wind is emerging as one of the most popular forms of alternative energy.
Reims' Junya Ito (left) celebrates with teammate Keito Nakamura after scoring during a Ligue 1 match against FC Metz in Reims, France, on Sunday.
SOCCER
Mar 18, 2024

Ito hailed by coach for 'mental strength' amid sexual assault claim

"He is a key player, undoubtedly one of the best Japanese players at the moment," said Reims coach Will Still.
U.S. lawmakers last week overwhelmingly backed a bill to ban TikTok unless Chinese parent company ByteDance divested itself within six months.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 18, 2024

Monsters, asteroids, vampires: AI conspiracies flood TikTok

YouTube tutorials show users how to create "viral conspiracy theory videos" and profit off TikTok's Creativity Program.
Firefighters tackle a forest fire ravaging the Bolivian Amazon, in San Buenaventura, Bolivia, in November 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 18, 2024

Reading the ruins of Amazon fires, scientists see crisis ahead

Fanned by drought, high winds and human felling, the forest is suffering unprecedented early-year fires.
A container ship passes at Keelung port in northern Taiwan in July 2010.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mar 18, 2024

Pressure builds for charge on shipping sector's CO2 emissions

At an International Maritime Organization meeting, 47 countries are supporting the imposition of a fee on each ton of greenhouse gas the industry produces.
Masaaki Okawara (center) and other plaintiffs celebrate in December after the Tokyo District Court ruled that police and prosecutors had falsely accused them of illegally exporting spray dryers. But the civil suit continues as both sides have appealed the ruling.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Mar 19, 2024

Japan's 'hostage justice system' faces renewed scrutiny

The long-criticized system has come under the spotlight as executives wrongly accused of a crime continue their legal battle.
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, shelter in a tent camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip this month.
WORLD
Mar 19, 2024

Displaced Palestinians in Gaza face compounding health risks

While the U.N. warns of famine, humanitarian officials say fast-deteriorating sanitation conditions are making people even more vulnerable.
Japanese automakers explore a unified approach and industry consolidation to stay competitive in the global EV market.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 19, 2024

As China’s EVs approach, Japan’s carmakers must step on the gas

China sees an opportunity to dominate, and just as it did with sectors from steel to solar panels, it’s unlikely to always play fair.
Ice forms on the window of an airplane heading from Iqaluit to Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada. The Earth's poles are warming faster than elsewhere, with the North Pole heating up about twice as fast as the rest of Earth for the last 30 years.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 20, 2024

Climate change speeds up as major indicators blow off the charts, WMO warns

2023 was the warmest year on record — with global average temperatures 1.45 degrees Celsius higher than in pre-industrial times.
Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder & CEO of Inflection AI, at the Greylock Partners office in Menlo Park, California in May 2023. Suleyman, a co-founder of Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence lab, is leaving the startup he was running to lead Microsoft’s consumer AI business, in another sign of Microsoft’s aggressive plans for the technology.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 20, 2024

Microsoft deepens AI focus, hiring DeepMind co-founder for consumer tools

Over a year after unveiling an AI-enhanced Bing search, the company has made few gains in the search market, still dominated by Google.
 A cow is prepared for slaughter at a facility in Corbas, France.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2024

Does religious freedom trump animal welfare?

The European Court of Human Rights found that protecting the welfare of animals is part of the legitimate government objective of protecting public morals.
A woman checks a lottery ticket at a lottery ticket store in Shanghai
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Mar 21, 2024

Chinese youth ease economical angst by playing the lottery

"It’s so difficult to make money now, no matter what you do”
A monitor showing the Nikkei index on Thursday
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 21, 2024

Nikkei scales record high; yen rebounds as Fed out-doves BOJ

The Nikkei marked a record closing high of 40,815.66, up more than 2% on the day, after also setting a fresh all-time intraday peak of 40,823.32.
A protest against the extradition law in Hong Kong in June 2019
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 22, 2024

Where are Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy figures now?

In 2019, Hong Kong erupted into the most stunning expression of public anger with Beijing in decades.
The Monrovia NSU Challenger bulk carrier transits the expanded canal through the Cocoli Locks of the Panama Canal in April 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mar 22, 2024

'We all need water': Panama's canal, and people, thirst for more

A severe drought last year caused water levels in Gatun Lake, which provides drinking water and is the main reservoir for the canal, to fall.
Homes affected by sea level rise on Tierra Bomba Island, Cartagena, Colombia
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 22, 2024

Global sea level jumped due to El Nino and climate change, NASA says

The global average sea level rose by about 0.76 centimeters from 2022 to 2023 — nearly four times the increase of the previous year.
While policies differ from country to country, a common goal is to clean up an aviation industry that for a century has relied on fossil fuels to function.
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2024

Expensive flights become new normal on $5 trillion green transition

Sustainable aviation fuel is the industry’s primary means of reaching a 2050 net zero target.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks during a news conference on Tuesday after the central bank ended its ultra-aggressive monetary stimulus program and scrapped the world's last negative interest rate.
EDITORIALS
Mar 22, 2024

The BOJ's rate hike is both more and less than it seems

There are some fears that the BOJ's return to a positive interest rate environment threatens weak companies.
Shoppers in Tokyo on Tuesday
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2024

Historic day for BOJ will take some time to be felt by people in Japan

With future rate hikes likely, the yen and mortgages could still see a more substantial impact.
A coal-fired power plant in Shanghai in October 2021. For years, analysts expected coal production to plateau after it hit a then-record in 2013. Then came 2021, when power shortages in China set Beijing on a path to order more mining to ensure energy security.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Mar 24, 2024

Coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, is preparing for a long goodbye

Output hit a record last year, and producers expect a future where coal will be required to balance renewable energy for decades.
Containers transporting coal at a dock in Cam Pha, Vietnam. Enthusiasm for Vietnam’s renewables boom is dampened by factors such as its underdeveloped electricity grid and patchy regulatory framework, while the country’s major source of electricity remains coal.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Mar 25, 2024

With Japan’s help, is Vietnam headed for a flawed energy transition?

The climate-vulnerable nation is looking to renewables, but also questionable solutions promoted by Tokyo, for its energy needs.
An ammonia tank at JERA's Hekinan thermal power station in Aichi prefecture. JERA and Exxon Mobil will jointly work on a low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia production project in the United States.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2024

JERA and Exxon to explore development of hydrogen and ammonia production project in U.S.

Exxon is developing what is expected to be the world's largest low-carbon hydrogen production plant at its Baytown Complex east of Houston in Texas.

Longform

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