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JAPAN

Kirin Beverage will raise the suggested retail price of its 1.5-liter Gogo no Kocha tea product to ¥432 from ¥400.
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2024
Prices of 417 food items to go up in Japan in May
Although the figure fell for the fifth straight month, the rate of price increase averaged 31%, the highest since the monthly statistics began in 2022.
A pack of dietary supplements designated by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical as a functional food.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 30, 2024
Japan panel reviewing 'functional foods' label system
The system has been criticized for leaving it entirely up to functional food makers to guarantee the safety of their products.
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / EXPLAINER
Apr 30, 2024
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
By Tomoko Otake
Yellow sand gets carried by the wind from the deserts of China and Mongolia to Japan along with man-made pollutants, causing a host of symptoms.
A polling station is set up at the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai for the Lower House elections in October 2021. Japanese nationals living abroad have to travel to diplomatic missions that serve as polling stations to cast their votes during elections.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 30, 2024
Internet voting for Japanese abroad remains a distant prospect
Apart from the need to revise an existing law, concerns remain over the integrity of online identity verification and the confidentiality of votes.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 30, 2024
What's next for Kishida after LDP's by-election loss?
By Eric Johnston
Speculation has been rife over how he may decide to take responsibility, from dissolving parliament to making senior party leadership changes.
Hikaru Sasaki enters the Metropolitan Police Department's Osaki police station in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward on Monday after being arrested over suspected involvement in the torching of the two bodies found in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, earlier this month.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 30, 2024
Another possible suspect emerges in case of torched Tochigi bodies
Police are investigating whether another figure gave orders to the man to dispose of the bodies.
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara takes part in an arrival ceremony with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon in Washington last October.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 30, 2024
‘Collective capacity’ to top agenda at four-way defense talks in Hawaii
By Gabriel Dominguez
One thing will be on Defense Minister Minoru Kihara's mind: how to deepen military and security cooperation with allies to counter China.
Peaches grown in Fukushima Prefecture. A so-called zebra firm in the prefecture is selling substandard fruits to greengrocers in urban areas, which leads to higher incomes for local farmers.
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2024
Japan eyes socially mindful startups to boost regional economies
Starting in June, the government will launch pilot projects to help such startups cooperate with local governments, banks and companies.
The Ibaraki Prefectural Government has introduced an optional four-day workweek to serve as a model for work style reform.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 30, 2024
Are local governments in Japan ready to embrace a four-day workweek?
Several municipalities are testing the waters by allowing employees to opt for longer workdays in exchange for an extra weekday off.
Staff from ANA group pose during a Tokyo event in February to commemorate the launch of a comic featuring women in airport ground handling roles.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Apr 30, 2024
Japan steps up drive to secure airport ground handling workers
The initiative seeks to ramp up interest in the workforce responsible for ensuring on-time airplane departures behind the scenes.
Former Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda is among the 4,108 people recognized for this year's spring honors.
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2024
Former BOJ head among 4,108 people receiving spring honors
Haruhiko Kuroda, who led the central bank's unprecedented monetary easing, was given the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure.

ASIA PACIFIC

The Philippine Coast Guard ship BRP Bagacay being hit by water cannon from China Coast Guard vessels near the Chinese-controlled Scarborough shoal in the disputed South China Sea in this screen shot from video taken and released Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 30, 2024
Philippines says China Coast Guard fired water cannon at its vessels
The incident was the latest to occur between the two countries at the disputed atoll in the South China Sea.
An eruption from Mount Ruang volcano is seen from Tagulandang island in Sitaro, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 30, 2024
Indonesia's Mount Ruang erupts again, closes international airport
Authorities created a 6-kilometer exclusion zone around the volcano, forced evacuations and closed Sam Ratulangi international airport.
Demonstrators surround a cardboard cutout of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a protest outside the Indian Consulate in Toronto after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the prospect of New Delhi's involvement in the murder of Sikh separatist leader in the country last September.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 30, 2024
India’s spy chief cleared plot to kill Sikh activist, report says
An alleged plot to kill a U.S. citizen and Sikh activist on American soil last year was approved by senior-level members of India’s intelligence agency, including its chief at the time, the Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the matter it didn’t identify.
Solomon Islands' Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare speaks during a bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing last July.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 30, 2024
Solomon Islands pro-China PM says not standing for new term
During four spasmodic spells as the Pacific nation's leader, the 69-year-old Sogavare has maneuvered through armed coups, riots and the rise of China.

WORLD

For a little more than a decade, scientists have been studying a subset of people they call "super-agers.” These individuals are age 80 and older, but they have the memory ability of a person 20 to 30 years younger.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 30, 2024
A peek inside the brains of ‘super-agers’
By Dana G. Smith
New research explores why some octogenarians have exceptional memories.
A woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan, in January.
WORLD
Apr 30, 2024
Surrounded by fighters and haunted by famine, Sudan city fears worst
By Declan Walsh
The contest for control of El Fasher in Darfur has prompted alarmed warnings from American and United Nations officials who fear mass bloodshed.
An aerial view of Prince Heinrich XIII’s Waidmannsheil hunting lodge, where German police searched for evidence while arresting dozens across the country in December 2022 in connection to an alleged insurrectionist plot, in Bad Lobenstein, Germany, on Dec. 8, 2022.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 30, 2024
The first court trial over alleged coup plot in Germany begins
By Christopher F. Schuetze
A random assortment of people comprised a group that attempted a coup in Germany in 2022, but investigators say they were well-organized and dangerous.
Razor wire lies near an abandoned house, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, near Israel’s border with Lebanon in northern Israel on March 19.
WORLD
Apr 30, 2024
Residents of northern Israel brace for possible all-out war with Hezbollah
By Andrew MacAskill
Since October, more than 300 people have died in fighting in the border area, mainly Hezbollah fighters.
A Ukrainian serviceman stands guard at his position in a trench at a front line on the border with Russia, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy region, Ukraine, on Jan. 20.
WORLD
Apr 30, 2024
Thirty men have died trying to leave Ukraine to avoid fighting since war started
By Oleksandr Kozhukhar
Nearly 20,000 men have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the war to avoid being drafted, according to BBC reports.
A human tooth discovered at Taforalt Cave in Morocco. Isotopic analysis has uncovered unexpected dietary habits among preagricultural communities in the country.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 30, 2024
New study offers insight into what people ate before agriculture
By Will Dunham
Chemical markers in the bones and teeth from the remains of seven individuals were analyzed, along with several isolated teeth, dating back 15,000 years.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a joint ministerial meeting of the GCC-U.S. Strategic Partnership in Riyadh to discuss the humanitarian crises in the Gaza, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 30, 2024
U.S. warns ICC action on Israel would hurt cease-fire chances
By Jennifer Jacobs, Alberto Nardelli and Alex Wickham
The U.S. and its allies are concerned that the International Criminal Court may issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials just as the country is getting closer to a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, potentially jeopardizing a deal, people familiar with the matter said.
Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip in March
WORLD / Politics
Apr 30, 2024
U.S. implicates five Israeli units in rights violations before Gaza war
The incidents in question took place in October outside of Gaza before conflict broke out between Israel and Hamas.
A cardboard cut-out of a cyborg is on display in the Hofburg, the former imperial palace in Vienna, during a conference on regulating autonomous weapons systems often referred as "killer robots," in the Austrian city on Monday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 30, 2024
AI faces its ‘Oppenheimer moment’ during killer robot arms race
Governments worldwide have taken steps to collaborate with companies integrating AI tools into defense
A screen shows Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron, at the GAC Motor booth at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition in Beijing on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 30, 2024
Xi seems on a mission to drive a wedge between Europe and the U.S.
During his five-day trip to France, Serbia and Hungary on Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to show the EU how much China can offer them.

BUSINESS

A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 30, 2024
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
By Kazuaki Nagata
The size and timing of the swing indicates that the government stepped in after the currency fell significantly.
Japan's industrial production rose 3.8% in March from February, as demand picked up after two straight months of declines.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 30, 2024
Japan’s factory output records weakest quarter since pandemic
By Yoshiaki Nohara and Erica Yokoyama
The yen’s plunge to a fresh 34-year low versus the dollar could spur a resurgence of cost-push inflation via higher costs for imports of food and energy.
Krishna Srinivasan, director of Asia and Pacific at the International Monetary Fund, wrote in a blog post that global disinflation and the prospect of lower central bank interest rates had made a soft landing more likely.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 30, 2024
IMF boosts Asia growth forecast this year on China and India prospects
By Katia Dmitrieva
It expects Asia to grow 4.5% from the prior year — 0.3 percentage points higher than its previous forecast but still slower than last year’s 5% pace.
Japan's government debt has grown to the equivalent of more than 250% of the nation’s economy, more than any of its peers.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 30, 2024
Japan’s debt dilemma may doom any FX intervention, Brooks says
By Anya Andrianova
The consequences have been a sharply weaker yen, which has lost more than a quarter of its value against the U.S. dollar since March 2022.
Samsung's Seocho building in Seoul on Tuesday. The electronics company said that its first-quarter operating profits had risen nearly tenfold year-on-year — a 931.8 percent increase — amid recovering chip prices and growing demand.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 30, 2024
Samsung says AI to drive technology demand in second half after strong Q1
By Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang
The upbeat outlook sent its shares 1.8% higher after it reported a more than 10x rise in first-quarter operating profit.
A man rides a scooter past apartment high rises under construction in Zhengzhou, China, in January 2019.
BUSINESS
Apr 30, 2024
Strained Chinese cities struggle to pay homebuying subsidies
Some local governments are unable to raise funds to pay promised subsidies, frustrating buyers and casting doubts over future support measures.
TikTok raised eyebrows last month when it mobilized users to petition against a potential ban, demonstrating its influence on Americans.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 30, 2024
TikTok and Tesla just the start of U.S.-China clash over Big Data
By Sarah Zheng and Josh Xiao
Data security is again taking center stage in the intensifying rivalry between the U.S. and China.
Customers look at chocolate bars at Cacao Store, a specialist chocolate store, in Tokyo. Japan is a large market for high-value confectionery and it sources about 75% of its cocoa imports from Ghana.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 30, 2024
Chocoholics in Japan set for sticker shock after cocoa price surge
By Akemi Terukina and Alfred Cang
Crop declines in top suppliers Ivory Coast and Ghana leave buyers struggling for beans and prices more than doubling since the start of the year.
Activist investor campaigns are becoming more commonplace in Japan as the government and the Tokyo Stock Exchange encourage companies to boost shareholder returns.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 30, 2024
Elliott Management's Sumitomo stake reflects growing activism in Japan
By Manuel Baigorri
Elliott has built a large holding in Sumitomo after investing several tens of billions of yen in the trading house backed by Warren Buffett.
Japan's vice minister of finance for international affairs, Masato Kanda, poses for a photograph during an interview at the Finance Ministry in Tokyo in January 2022.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 30, 2024
Japan forex authorities ready '24 hours,' top currency diplomat Kanda says
Masato Kanda again declined to comment on whether the Finance Ministry had intervened to prop up the yen a day earlier.

ENVIRONMENT

Researcher Mercury Wong holds a rice plant on April 1.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 30, 2024
Hong Kong team plants seeds to safeguard legacy grains
By XINQI SU
Scientists and farmers in Hong Kong are tending to local varieties of grain they say could be an important food source in the face of climate change.
This combination of photos shows the cooling tower of the Emile Huchet coal-fired power station undergoing demolition in Saint-Avold, northeastern France, in February.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 30, 2024
G7 reportedly agrees end date for coal-fired power plants
The meeting in Turin is the first big political session since the world pledged at the U.N.'s COP28 climate summit in December.

Opinion

A team of scientists in 2009 set out to pick a date when the Holocene ended and the Anthropocene began. They settled on 1952, when humanity added detectable byproducts of atomic bomb testing to our planet’s surface.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2024
A century of bad choices will haunt Earth for 100,000 years
By F.D. Flam
A group of scientists rejected a proposal to give our current epoch a new name: the Anthropocene, derived from the Greek word for human.
We don't know how much damage these polymers do to our health. But we can make significant inroads on litter and emissions to tackle this issue head-on.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2024
Plastic pollution is a growing problem. Here are some ideas on how to solve it.
By David Fickling
International cooperation and proactive measures are needed to mitigate the harmful effects of plastics.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2024
U.S.-China tensions rise as the tides begin shifting
By Brad Glosserman
Irritation colored last week’s visit to China by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken amid amplified Chinese anxiety.
The United Nations Security Council votes on a Gaza resolution that demands an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and unconditional release of all hostages, at the U.N.'s headquarters in New York on March 25. So far, such resolutions have proven ineffective.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2024
Can ‘minilaterals’ save the world?
By Stephen R Nagy
Minilateral partnerships offer a new approach to addressing regional challenges effectively and ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.

Sports

A Spain player holds the Women's World Cup trophy after the team won the 2023 tournament, in Sydney on Aug. 20.
SOCCER / Women's World cup
Apr 30, 2024
Mexico and U.S. withdraw joint bid for 2027 Women's World Cup
By Rob Woollard
The two countries' soccer federations said they would now switch toward a bid for the 2031 tournament.
Japan's players pose for a picture after defeating Iraq in an Under-23 Asian Cup semifinal match in Doha on Monday.
SOCCER
Apr 30, 2024
Japan and Uzbekistan secure qualification for Olympic Games
Japan has maintained its record of qualifying for every Olympics since 1996.
Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray controls the ball during game five of the first round for the 2024 NBA playoffs, in Denver on Monday.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Apr 30, 2024
Nuggets send Lakers crashing out of the NBA playoffs
After a 4-1 series win, Denver will now face Minnesota in the next round.
Red Bull Racing driver Sergio Perez speaks during a news conference in Shanghai on April 21.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Apr 30, 2024
Red Bull should stick with Perez, says Szafnauer
By Alan Baldwin
Perez's contract runs out at the end of the season, and the 34-year-old faces an uncertain future.
Britain topped the cycling medals table at the Tokyo Games in 2021, winning seven medals, including three golds.
OLYMPICS / Cycling
Apr 30, 2024
British Cycling confident new track bike will deliver more gold
British Cycling has prided itself on delivering state-of-the-art kit, including bikes and clothing, to its riders.

LIFE

Japanese fashion designer Yumi Katsura (center) greets guests during the finale of the 2015 Yumi Katsura Grand Collection in Tokyo. Katsura has died at the age of 94.
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 30, 2024
Yumi Katsura, a pioneer of Japan’s bridal fashion, dies at 94
By Francis Tang
Katsura developed a unique style combining Japan’s traditional techniques with French motifs throughout a career spanning over half a century.
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
Kishida defends planned rule to revoke foreigners' residency
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a meeting of the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Human bone-like objects found at Nippon Steel plant’s molten iron pot, with one worker missing
Police believe it’s highly possible that human bones found in a molten iron pot at Nippon Steel's Oita factory belong to a missing male employee.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
Japan to review romanization system for first time in 70 years
An advisory panel to the education ministry will consider how the Japanese language should be transcribed into the Latin alphabet, including unifying different romanization styles currently in use.
Japanese rap creates its mecca in Pop Yours
Tokyo-based artist Jumadiba says he forgoes the label of simply “rap” for his music because the Japanese rap scene isn’t confined to a particular sound.
Who’s toughest on China? Biden’s tariff tactic ups ante as election looms.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about new actions to protect American workers and businesses from China's "unfair" trade practices, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
Ishin struggles to set itself apart from other parties
Nippon Ishin no Kai Secretary-General Fumitake Fujita (right) speaks beside Yui Kanazawa, the party's candidate in the Tokyo 15th district by-election on April 28. Nippon Ishin lost in this by-election as well as another in Nagasaki held on the same day.
In Japan, 68,000 people over 65 projected to die alone at home this year
As Japan grapples with its population's rapid aging, supporting people who live and age alone is looming larger on the policy agenda.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.
How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan
By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there
Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

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