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A wind farm in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture. For Japan's future energy roadmap to center on clean sources, the government should reform the institutions overseeing energy policy to avoid vested interests from slowing the transition down.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 24, 2024

It’s time for Japan to set up a climate change agency

The government is currently reviewing Japan's Strategic Energy Plan. But who's shaping this key document for the future? It's mostly older men with vested interests.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has not yet formally announced whether he will seek another three-year term as party president.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 24, 2024

Pressure mounting on Kishida within LDP to give up on reelection

Veterans fear the LDP — under Kishida — will lose control of the government in a general election, while younger members don't want an unpopular president leading them.
Emergency workers are seen at the site of a deadly fire at a lithium battery factory owned by South Korean battery maker Aricell, in Hwaseong, South Korea, on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 24, 2024

At least 16 killed after fire guts South Korea battery plant

The blaze began after a series of battery cells exploded inside a warehouse with some 35,000 units.
The fire-damaged lithium battery factory owned by South Korean battery maker Aricell is seen at dusk in Hwaseong on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 25, 2024

Blaze at South Korea lithium battery plant kills 22 workers

Eighteen Chinese workers, two South Koreans and one Laotian were among the dead.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris greets her audience before discussing reproductive rights on the second anniversary of Roe v. Wade being overturned, in Phoenix on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 25, 2024

Harris and the Democrats aim at Trump on abortion ruling anniversary

Since the 2022 ruling, more than 20 Republican-led states in the U.S. have imposed abortion restrictions.
The U.S. Supreme Court opened the way for states to ban or strictly limit abortion in 2022
WORLD / Politics
Jun 25, 2024

U.S. Republican push to limit abortion access falters two years after Dobbs

Pro-abortion groups are easily finding support for ballot initiatives, highlighting strong momentum to restore abortion rights.
Fast fashion e-commerce company Shein's logo outside its office in Guangzhou, China, on June 11
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 25, 2024

What is at stake for China-founded Shein as EU rule looms

Shein has faced more than 90 lawsuits alleging it plagiarized others’ designs or products.
A billboard with a picture of the presidential candidates is displayed on a street in Tehran on June 17.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 25, 2024

Iran’s presidential election dominated by Khamenei loyalists

The next president will likely be closely involved in the eventual process of choosing a successor to Iran's supreme leader.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about student debt in Madison, Wisconsin, in April.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 26, 2024

How Trump and Biden might attack each other at their first 2024 debate

Immigration, the economy, democracy and abortion rights: Here are the main ways each candidate is likely to slam the other at Thursday’s high-stakes confrontation.
Akira Otani's "The Night of Baba Yaga” explores the boundaries of finding one's place in society as it questions ideas of violence, love, family and honor.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2024

‘The Night of Baba Yaga’ weaves a yakuza thriller into a meditation on queerness

Translator Sam Bett gravitated to the Akira Otani novel for its refusal to adhere to established genre conventions.
Tadej Pogacar (left) rides behind rival Jonas Vingegaard and Vingegaard's teammate Sepp Kuss during the Tour de France in July last year.
MORE SPORTS / Cycling
Jun 27, 2024

Tour de France favorite Pogacar says he has 'never felt so good on a bike'

The Slovenian is seeking to become the first cyclist since Marco Pantani in 1998 to win both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in the same season.
A campaign event of reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian less than a week ahead of a presidential election called after Ebrahim Raisi’s death
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2024

Iran’s election could bring lasting peace

The upcoming election in Iran is more consequential than it's being given credit for. A triumph of the only reformist candidate, Masoud Pezeshkian, would be momentous.
Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani said that the mobile company now has more than 7 million subscribers, and is seeking to hit 10 million subscribers next.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 27, 2024

Money-losing Rakuten Mobile rolls out new 700 MHz service

The new offering, which is being introduced incrementally, will improve connectivity, including in densely populated areas, it says.
Tsuguhiko Kadokawa (center) and his lawyers head to the Tokyo District Court on Thursday to file the lawsuit against the state.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 27, 2024

Ex-Kadokawa chairman files lawsuit over 'hostage justice' system

Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, 80, is seeking ¥220 million in damages in the civil lawsuit after he was detained for 226 days before being released in April 2023.
Lawyer and activist Rozkar Ibrahim walks past a headstone marked with the word 'grave of life' in an area reserved for the victims of femicide and honor killings, at the Siwan cemetery in Sulaimaniyah, the autonomous Kurdistan region's second city, on May 17.
WORLD
Jun 27, 2024

Murdered and forgotten: Iraqi victims of gender-based violence

Domestic violence and femicide have long plagued Iraq's conservative society.
Bolivian President Luis Arce holds a news conference in Casa Grande del Pueblo after the country's armed forces pulled back from the presidential palace and a general was arrested following an apparent coup attempt, in La Paz, Bolivia, on Thursday.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jun 28, 2024

Bolivia coup fiasco lays bare a divided country in crisis

The attempt has uncovered tense political fault lines in the nation and growing anger with a flagging economy.
A monitor at a foreign exchange brokerage in Tokyo shows the yen falling below ¥161 against the dollar on Friday morning.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 28, 2024

Japan names new forex diplomat as yen hits 38-year low

Atsushi Mimura, a financial regulation veteran, replaces Masato Kanda, who launched the biggest yen-buying intervention on record this year.
To be the best of the best, according to the exclusive Relais & Chateaux group, Japan's 'ryokan' inns need to leave guests with "a transcendental feeling."
LIFE / Travel
Jun 29, 2024

To Relais & Chateaux, not all ‘ryokan’ inns are created equal

In Japan, this exclusive association has partnered with just 13 hotels and traditional 'ryokan' inns and seven stand-alone restaurants spread across the country.
Ryosuke Kunisawa hopes his "concept brewpub" serves as a focal point to an image change for the salaryman epicenter that is the Shimbashi neighborhood.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2024

Craft beer, craftsmanship and a family of reinvention

On the first two floors of his family’s slender eight-story building, Kunisawa launched the Kunisawa Brewing Company, Shimbashi's first beer brewery, in May 2022.
People protest near the Diet building in Tokyo in May 2020 against a bill to raise prosecutors’ retirement age.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 28, 2024

Nondisclosure of prosecutor tenure extension records reversed

The case was in relation to a former head of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutor's Office.
Tadej Pogacar rides during a training session ahead of the Tour de France in Florence, Italy, on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Cycling
Jun 28, 2024

'Unbeatable' Pogacar eyes rare Tour-Giro double despite bout with COVID-19

"The Giro-Tour double is difficult to achieve," the Team UAE rider said Thursday. "It's a big challenge, but I'm ready to take it on."
Belgium fans cheer before their team's match against Ukraine at Euro 2024 in Stuttgart, Germany, on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Jun 28, 2024

Fans take center stage at Euro 2024 in Germany

Three years after the soulless experience of Euro 2020, played amid sparse crowds and restricted travel due to COVID-19, Germany is hosting a soccer festival at Euro 2024 as fans from across the continent take over the country.
Prospective candidates for the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election include digital minister Taro Kono (left) and former LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 28, 2024

Potential candidates in LDP presidential election come into view

Digital minister Taro Kono and former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba appear ready to run in September.
An employee works on a laptop next to a drone at SD Guthrie's Sungai Linau estate in Selangor, Malaysia, on June 6.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 29, 2024

Robots are stepping into one of Asia’s dirtiest farm jobs

With global stockpiles of palm oil set for the first back-to-back decline in more than 40 years, Malaysia is pushing for automation to boost production.
The U.S. Supreme Court justices pose for a group photo in Washington in October 2022. Two recent rulings by the Republican-appointed majority add to its steady pursuit of enfeebling the ability of the administrative state to impose rules on powerful business interests.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 29, 2024

Weakening regulatory agencies to be key legacy of conservative U.S. Supreme Court

Two recent rulings add to its steady pursuit of enfeebling the ability of the administrative state to impose rules on powerful business interests.
People offer flowers during a memorial ceremony in Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Sunday to pray for those killed due to heavy rains in the area four years ago.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2024

Victims of heavy rains in Kumamoto remembered four years on

Bereaved families and others on Sunday prayed for those killed due to heavy rains in Kumamoto Prefecture four years ago.
U.S. President Joe Biden takes a call as he walks from Marine One to Air Force One with first lady Jill Biden and granddaughters Natalie Biden and Finnegan Biden in Burlington County, New Jersey, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 1, 2024

Top Democrats rule out replacing Biden amid calls for him to quit 2024 race

A post-debate CBS poll showed a 10-point jump in the number of Democrats who believe Biden should not be running for president, up to 46%.
Samples of newly designed yen banknotes at the National Printing Bureau's Tokyo plant on June 19
BUSINESS / EXPLAINER
Jul 1, 2024

What you need to know about Japan's new banknotes

The last time the country redesigned its banknotes was 20 years ago.
Peruvian political scion Keiko Fujimori is accused of allegedly having led a criminal enterprise that laundered some $17 million to fund her presidential campaigns in 2011 and 2016.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 2, 2024

Peru puts political scion Keiko Fujimori on trial for money laundering

Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of up to 30 years for the daughter of the country's disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori.
An aerial view of a burnt area in the Amazon rainforest near the Lago do Cunia Extractive Reserve, on the border of the states of Rondonia and Amazonas, northern Brazil, on Aug. 31, 2022. Brazil recorded 13,489 fire outbreaks in the Amazon in the first half of this year, according to satellite data available on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 2, 2024

Brazil's Amazon sees worst 6 months of wildfires in 20 years

They were caused by a historic drought that struck the world's largest tropical rainforest last year, experts say.

Longform

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