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February 03, 2025
 

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POVERTY

Solar panels near the cooling towers of the retired coal-fired Komati Power Station in South Africa's Mpumalanga province on May 9
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 27, 2025
South Africa's patchwork climate plans risk widening inequality
Poorer regions may be left behind in the transition away from polluting industries to green jobs.
In 2024, child mortality for children before the age of 5 reached a record low of 3.6%, down from over 25% in 1950. For most of history, about half of all newborns died as children.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2025
Even this year is the best time ever to be alive
Another way of looking at it: Every day over the past couple of years, roughly 30,000 people moved out of extreme poverty worldwide.
A student takes unified university entrance examinations in Tokyo on Saturday. According to a survey on struggling households with children of high school age or older, 87% responded that they strongly feel their economic situations will affect their children's university applications and education choices.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2025
98% say poverty will impact their child's education path, survey finds
Many survey respondents called for subsidies or exemptions for examination fees, as well as financial aid for out-of-school lesson tuition.
Wawira Njiru, the founder of Food4Education, serves food during the opening of a new kitchen in Mombasa County, Kenya, in 2022. The organization started in 2012 by feeding 25 children out of a single kitchen. Now it feeds nearly half a million every day.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Jan 19, 2025
Amid rising world hunger, a Japan-inspired group in Kenya is making a big impact
Food4Education is helping feed half a million students through a program that drew inspiration from Japan's renowned school lunch programs.
A woman who was displaced by a flood shells cowpeas as she sits outside her shelter in Banki, in Maiduguri, Nigeria, in October.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Jan 6, 2025
The uphill battle against poverty
After the pandemic years, when tens of millions of people were pushed into poverty, the need for a renewed effort is obvious.
A man pushes a cart along Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles
WORLD / Society
Jan 4, 2025
Ahead of Trump term, U.S. cities grapple with homelessness
The crisis worsened with the end of pandemic-related aid, and are driven by a lack of affordable housing, as well as inflation and low wages.
Tomoko Yamashita, head of the NPO that runs Park. Youth & Books & Design, says she wants to make the facility a place where older teens can feel secure.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Dec 23, 2024
New facility offers truant high school students a place to feel at home
Himitsukichi, a nonprofit group, has renovated an old, vacant house to turn it into a site for older teens.
A vendor sells a box of cigarettes across rolls of barbed wire, separating Thailand and Myanmar, in Mae Sot, Thailand, on Aug. 18, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 17, 2024
Myanmar’s war has forced doctors and nurses into prostitution
The rise in prostitution is another blow to the status of women in Myanmar.
Corn crops affected by a long drought, near Buenos Aires in January 2022
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Dec 15, 2024
World falls short of drought deal at Saudi-hosted talks
The Riyadh talks came after a lack of progress on in other international summits regarding biodiversity, plastics pollution and climate finance in recent months.
Children eat at a <i>kodomo shokudo</i> in the city of Osaka. The number of such cafeterias, which provide free or low-cost meals to children in need, has surpassed 10,000 nationwide.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 13, 2024
Number of cafeterias for children in need hits record high in Japan
There are now more kodomo shokudo, which offer free or low-cost meals, than elementary and junior high schools.
Insurance tycoon Douw Steyn’s 250 million rand home overlooks the luxury residential estate bearing his name near Johannesburg, South Africa.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2024
Luxury estates for the rich are a booming business in South Africa
Despite a 20% decline in South Africa’s millionaire population over the past decade, it remains a hub for the continent’s high-net-worth individuals.
About $105 trillion is projected to be passed down from older generations over the next quarter century, according to research firm Cerulli Associates, an amount roughly equal to global gross domestic product in 2023.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 6, 2024
A $105 trillion inheritance windfall is on the way for U.S. heirs
The latest inheritance projection by Cerulli is 45% higher than the 25-year forecast the firm made only three years ago.
The policy chiefs of the Democratic Party for the People, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito — Makoto Hamaguchi (left), Itsunori Onodera (center) and Mitsunari Okamoto — shake hands after reaching an agreement on an economic stimulus package on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 22, 2024
Japan approves ¥21.9 trillion stimulus plan
Combined with expected spending from the private sector, this year’s package is estimated to add a total of ¥39 trillion to the economy.
Members of nonprofit organization Moyai Support Center for Independent Living give out food packs to people in need in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo in October.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 22, 2024
Nearly 30% of children from struggling families do not enjoy school
The figures came from a survey by Usnova, whose chief Koji Ogawa said, "Measures against child poverty are of utmost priority."
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva greets Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 19, 2024
G20 summit spotlights Global South while bracing for Trump's return
The G20 summit's agenda highlighted a shifting global order while trying to shore up multilateral consensus before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump returns to power.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump attends a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 16, 2024
G20 set to back climate goals and global trade in message to Trump
Group of 20 leaders meeting in Brazil next week are set to show unity on climate action and global trade rules.
The government aims to finalize an economic package later this month to help households hit hard by rising prices.
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2024
Japan eyes ¥30,000 benefits for low-income households
The planned economic package includes a proposal of ¥20,000 per child to the benefits, which are designed to support households hit hard by soaring prices.
Displaced Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate their neighborhoods in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
WORLD / Society
Oct 22, 2024
War has knocked Gaza back to the 1950s, UNDP says
The war has devastated the Palestinian economy and left nearly all of Gaza's population in poverty, with health and education knocked back 70 years.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Huntington Place in Detroit on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 19, 2024
U.S. cities seek to 'Trump-proof' inequality action ahead of election
After the pandemic and protests following the death of George Floyd in 2020, racial and economic inequality moved to the center of federal policymaking.
Afghan women after an earthquake in Herat, Afghanistan, on Oct. 10, 2023
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 14, 2024
Poorest nations in worst financial shape since 2006, World Bank says
The World Bank report finds these economies are poorer today, on average, than they were on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Japan scrambles jets as Russian bombers fly over high seas
Tupolev Tu-95MS strategic bombers perform a flypast during the victory day parade in Moscow in June 2020.
Slope built to reach man trapped in sinkhole in Saitama
A slope (left) is built at the intersection of a sunken road in Yashio City, Saitama Prefecture on Saturday.
Japan to ease foreign worker rules for hotel restaurants
The Japanese government is considering allowing foreign workers under its specified skilled worker program to take orders and serve and cook food at restaurants within inns and hotels.
Snow may disrupt traffic in Tokyo area from Sunday
Snow falls as cars and pedestrians cross an intersection in Tokyo. The meteorological agency is warning of possible traffic disruptions caused by snow and icy roads.
Trump launches trade war with tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
Trucks wait in line at the Zaragoza-Ysleta border crossing into the U.S. on Friday in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a day ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's order to impose tariffs on Mexican imports.
First official survey set to change backcountry Hokkaido skiing
The first official government survey of Hokkaido backcountry skiing could spell changes for trails in the northern prefecture.
Fuji TV’s go-big PR strategy wins grudging praise globally
Fuji TV executives take questions during a news conference on Monday in Tokyo in which some participants became unruly.
Two decades of unparalleled access into the world of Hayao Miyazaki
Documentary director Kaku Arakawa’s filming style — naturalistic, intimate and unobtrusive — proved essential to portraying anime powerhouse Hayao Miyazaki as a man as flawed and human as he is a visionary artist in “Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron.”
For two weeks only, cold-water yellowtail can give you chills
Yellowtail caught during the coldest period of the year is delicious enough — but paired with a classic method of marinade and pan-searing, it's divine.
In meat- and fish-loving Japan, veganism is making a comeback
Though vegan restaurants have been on the upswing since 2017, Japanese vegans still lack a wide variety of options.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.
Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick
By Alex K.T. Martin

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