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Chinese President Xi Jinping exits the podium after giving his speech during the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2023
Belt and Road anniversary prompts reflection on China's global ambitions
Countries like the U.S., Japan, India, and Canada should participate in the BRI's infrastructure projects to influence the initiative's evolution.
Chinese President Xi Jinping during the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Wednesday
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 20, 2023
Europe’s snub turns Xi’s Belt and Road into Global South party
The Chinese leader appears to have reformed the initiative as a club for emerging economies known as the Global South.
Xi Jinping speaks during the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 19, 2023
Xi says green projects will anchor China’s overseas spending
Beijing is in a unique position to help mitigate climate change as the world’s largest producer of everything from solar panels to batteries.
Xi Jinping's third Belt and Road Forum begins today in Beijing.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Oct 16, 2023
Xi’s $1 trillion ‘project of the century’ faces uncertain future
China’s overall activity in BRI countries is down about 40% from its 2018 peak as the world’s second-biggest economy slows.
The senior leadership of the Taliban government arrives at an inauguration event for a canal project in Hairatan, Afghanistan, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 15, 2023
Taliban to join China's Belt and Road forum, elevating ties
The Taliban's participation underscores Beijing's growing official ties with the group, despite its lack of recognition by any government.
The "Toyoko" area in Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district
JAPAN / Society
Oct 8, 2023
Japan considers shelters for young runaways
The Children and Families Agency hopes the shelters will help prevent youth involvement in downtown area crime.
Medics tend to COVID-19 patients at the intensive care unit of a hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2022.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 7, 2023
Japan-led team identifies how severe COVID-19 cases develop
The research results are expected to facilitate the development of drugs to prevent serious COVID-19 complications.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino attends a FIFA Virfual Council meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, on Wednesday.
SOCCER / World cup
Oct 5, 2023
FIFA World Cup be held across three continents in 2030
FIFA will allow all six of those countries' national teams to receive automatic entries.
A group of lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party discuss plans to establish a new system to block convicted sex offenders from jobs involving children on Sept. 7.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 24, 2023
Japan to delay bill blocking sex offenders from working with children
The decision to postpone comes after criticism from within the LDP that that more professions should be subject to the system.
Masanobu Ogura (center left), then-minister in charge of policies related to children, receives a petition from Hiroki Komazaki (center right), founder of nonprofit organization Florence, in Tokyo on Sept. 1.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Sep 18, 2023
Debate grows in Japan over proposed background checks for teachers
The Children and Families Agency is proposing to make screening for criminal convictions mandatory for people looking to work in schools or nurseries.
The Toronto International Film Festival opened on Sept. 7 with admiring applause for "The Boy and the Heron," Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki's latest movie — a meditation on love, loss and the horrors of World War II.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 16, 2023
Hayao Miyazaki has ideas for next project after 'The Boy and the Heron'
Junichi Nishioka, Studio Ghibli's vice president for international distribution, says the director "shows the willingness to create something new."
Young villagers gather on the black sand beach in the village of Waisisi in Tanna, Vanuatu.
ENVIRONMENT / Oceans
Sep 11, 2023
Sinking islands turn to court as they fight for climate survival
The latest legal push comes amid frustration among island states and developing nations that the world is addressing global warming too slowly.
Officers of Chiba Prefectural Police department and child consultation center workers use a model house to conduct joint training in the city of Kimitsu in Chiba Prefecture last November.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2023
Record 219,000 cases of child abuse logged in Japan in fiscal '22
Over half of the total cases were reported to child consultation centers by police.
Masanobu Ogura (right), minister in charge of policies for children, speaks during a meeting of an experts' panel held Tuesday in Tokyo to discuss a planned system to require people seeking jobs related to children to submit certificates proving that they have no record of sex crimes.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2023
Planned sex-offense barring system drafted for child-related jobs
The Children and Families Agency plans to submit a bill to establish the system during this autumn's extraordinary Diet session.
Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” follows a young boy who enters a strange realm on a quest to find his missing stepmother.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 4, 2023
‘The Boy and the Heron’ hype ramps up ahead of English release
Pairs of tickets to the Hayao Miyazaki film’s international debut at the Toronto International Film Festival are reselling for as much as ¥45,000.
Parents of children who were victims of sex crimes hold a news conference from behind partitions in Tokyo in July 2020.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 22, 2023
Japan to bar sex offenders from work in day nurseries and schools
A system certifying candidates as having no such convictions is being discussed by experts after cases involving sexual abuse by teachers and babysitters.
The Nakamise shopping street in Tokyo's Asakusa district under reconstruction after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. This photograph was colorized with the cooperation of Hidenori Watanave, a professor of the University of Tokyo.
JAPAN / History
Aug 21, 2023
Colorized photos of 1923 Tokyo quake to be displayed
The photos of the 1923 disaster will be displayed as part of an exhibition set to start at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo on Sept. 1.
Reader opinions have been mixed on Haruki Murakami's latest novel, “The City and Its Uncertain Walls.”
CULTURE / Books
Aug 20, 2023
Haruki Murakami’s latest has readers and reviewers perplexed
Following the arrival of the renowned author’s first full-length novel in six years, critics and readers have been left scratching their heads.
Fans in Tokyo take pictures of the poster for "The Boy and the Heron."
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Aug 18, 2023
Hayao Miyazaki's final film to open San Sebastian festival
Miyazaki's "The Boy and the Heron" will open two film festivals in September, a rare feat for any director.
A popular dinosaur exhibit at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno, Tokyo
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 9, 2023
Crowdfunding success at Japan science museum sends mixed message
While such initiatives provide much-needed cash, they are also a sign of limited government funding for science.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals