Tag - focus

 
 

FOCUS

People use smartphones on the street in Tokyo in January 2019.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Nov 20, 2023
The NTT Law — a guard against monopoly, or barrier to innovation?
Some say the law regulating the telecom giant stops it from competing against the likes of Google, but others say it contains vital market protections.
An Apple Store in Shanghai in September
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Nov 19, 2023
Asian regulators turn focus to Big Tech
Across the region, there are indications that Big Tech may soon have to comply with standards that could become international benchmarks.
Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, arrives for a bipartisan Artificial Intelligence Insight Forum for all U.S. senators hosted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the U.S. Capitol in Washington in September.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Nov 18, 2023
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's ouster followed debate with board
The CEO's firing came after disagreements with his board — in particular Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI co-founder and the company’s chief scientist.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders summit in Bali, Indonesia, on Nov. 14, 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 14, 2023
Biden and Xi look to put floor under strained U.S.-China ties
The two leaders will have a laundry list of concerns to discuss, but the talks are unlikely to yield any dramatic breakthroughs.
The shortage of a class of diabetes drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists is being driven in part by healthy people looking to use them for dieting purposes.
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Nov 14, 2023
Japan tackles surge in off-label diabetes drug use for weight loss
Officials are aiming to ensure that the medications are prescribed for people with diabetes, and not for those seeking weight loss.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he drew on the graphic of a bomb used to represent Iran's nuclear program as he addresses the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York in September 2012.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 6, 2023
Israeli minister's Gaza nuclear comments spotlight opaque arsenal
The country has long had a policy of ambiguity as to whether it has nuclear weapons, though it is widely believed to possess a sizable number.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa meets with the families of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas militants to the Gaza Strip, during a visit to Tel Aviv on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 6, 2023
Israel-Hamas conflict to dominate Tokyo summit of top G7 diplomats
Japan will be looking to further align the bloc’s responses to the war amid growing calls for a humanitarian pause in the fighting.
Former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried leaves Manhattan federal court in New York in January.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Nov 4, 2023
Swift FTX case vindicates prosecution ‘need for speed’
ON Thursday, the jury took only a few hours to convict Sam Bankman-Fried of treating FTX as his personal piggy bank.
The Gaza Strip is hit with an Israeli bombardment amid ongoing battles between the Israeli military and Palestinian Hamas militants on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 4, 2023
U.S. renews talk of Palestinian state, but prospects bleak
With Israel's campaign against Hamas raging, the United States has renewed calls to work toward a Palestinian state, but few expect success now after decades of failure.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is saluted by Maritime Self-Defense Force members during the International Fleet Review to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the MSDF, at Sagami Bay, off Yokosuka, on Nov. 6, 2022.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 3, 2023
Weak yen forces Japan to cut back on historic military spending
Officials and industry sources said Japan will begin cutting back on aircraft purchases in 2024, the second year of the buildup plan, due to the weak yen.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa waits for U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to arrive for a meeting in New York in September.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 2, 2023
Japan top envoy faces diplomatic test on trip to Israel and Jordan
One of the key focuses of Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa's trip will be the role Japan can play in easing the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chats with Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki (left) in a parliamentary session in October.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Nov 2, 2023
Kishida distances himself from panel report backing tax overhaul
The advisory panel's medium-term reform proposal could mean higher taxes for salaried workers.
Utilities are increasingly controlling power output from renewable energy sources as the share of renewables expands.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 30, 2023
Renewable energy cuts from output controls surge sixfold in Japan
With renewables such as solar power in wider use, output controls aimed at balancing power supply and demand have been used more frequently.
Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh (left) and the former emir of Qatar arrive at a cornerstone-laying ceremony for the new Hamad residential neighborhood in Gaza in 2012.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 30, 2023
Israel-Hamas war escalation puts Qatar’s clout to the test
The nation has positioned itself as an key go-between, but has been criticized for housing Hamas leaders while maintaining channels to Israel.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, on Nov. 14, 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 29, 2023
U.S. and China agree to work toward Biden-Xi meeting next month
U.S. President Joe Biden emphasized the need to manage the U.S.-China rivalry "responsibly” during a rare meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
A participant tries an electric kick scooter at a safety workshop in Tokyo in June ahead of a relaxation of rules for riding the device in July.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 26, 2023
Violations of electric kick scooter rules on rise in Japan
Cases of violation in Tokyo for which the police took action came to 1,811 in the July-September period.
Two Air Self-Defense Force F-2 fighter jets (bottom) fly in formation with a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber as part of a joint exercise with the United States and South Korea in airspace near Kyushu on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 25, 2023
U.S., Japan and South Korea cooperation reaches new heights with aerial drill
While some view the move as signaling a "new era" in security ties, questions remain as to how long the current political momentum will hold
United Nations workers arrive to distribute aid to Palestinians in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 25, 2023
Scaling up Gaza aid effort faces tangle of challenges
Humanitarian staff and diplomats face a web of political, security and logistical obstacles as they try to build up and sustain deliveries of relief.
A photo of Henry Li and his husband, Edgar Ng, hangs on a wall in their apartment at Ma On Shan in Hong Kong.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / FOCUS
Oct 25, 2023
Hope and heartbreak after Hong Kong court decision on LGBTQ partnerships
The LGBTQ community has seen incremental legal victories, but same-sex marriage remains out of reach.
Speech-generating AI works by sifting through reams of data, categorizing how people speak then using an algorithm, to replicate human vocal patterns and speech characteristics.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Oct 23, 2023
Whose voice is it anyway? Actors take on AI copycats
Artists around the world are joining forces to protect their jobs, and their souls, from the ramifications of AI that sounds just like them.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’