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August 12, 2025
The Independent Voice in Asia
August 12, 2025
Shigeru Ishiba
Trade deal
Hiroshima/Nagasaki
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Stocks in Japan have been rising recently in part on trade optimism.
Breaking News
BUSINESS / Markets
Japan's Nikkei 225 hits record high on tariff and rate optimism
By Francis Tang
Shares rose soon after the opening Tuesday following a three-day holiday weekend.
Stocks in Japan have been rising recently in part on trade optimism.
The number of Japanese students who applied to the National Taiwan University in Taipei in 2025 is more than 60% higher than last year due partly to affordability and proximity.
JAPAN
Japanese students who want to study abroad looking at options in Asia
By Elizabeth Beattie
Amid a weak yen, students are increasingly picking more affordable schools in the region, such as Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines.
HMS Prince of Wales arrives into the Port of Darwin, Australia, in July during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025.
JAPAN
Britain’s Prince of Wales aircraft carrier makes Japan debut
By Gabriel Dominguez
This is the second time that a British aircraft carrier has docked in Japan — after the HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2021.
A sapper in the Ukrainian Armed Forces blows up an explosive device during a training session in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on Saturday
WORLD / Politics
Europe races to try to influence U.S. position ahead of Trump-Putin talks
By Sarah Marsh and Lili Bayer
Kyiv and its EU allies fear that Trump, keen to claim credit for peace and lucrative deals with Moscow, could cut a one-sided deal with Putin.
A terrace of a shopping mall overlooking the central business district of Beijing on Monday. An extension of a trade truce between Washington and Beijing buys crucial time for the autumn surge of imports for the Christmas season, including electronics, apparel and toys, at lower tariff rates.
BUSINESS / Markets
U.S. and China extend tariff truce by 90 days, staving off surge in duties
By Trevor Hunnicutt, Andrea Shalal and Joe Cash
The timing of the extension buys crucial time for the seasonal autumn surge of imports for the Christmas season at lower tariff rates.
A terrace of a shopping mall overlooking the central business district of Beijing on Monday. An extension of a trade truce between Washington and Beijing buys crucial time for the autumn surge of imports for the Christmas season, including electronics, apparel and toys, at lower tariff rates.

JAPAN

Agriculture and fisheries minister Shinjiro Koizumi (left) meets with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun in Seoul on Monday.
Koizumi presses Seoul to lift fishery curbs, meets S. Korea, China counterparts
South Korea has been suspending imports of fishery products from eight prefectures following the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi visits a rice field near Seoul on Sunday.
Farm minister Koizumi visits rice field in South Korea
South Korean rice exports to Japan have sharply increased, reaching a record 416 tons in January to June this year.
Osaka Expo ticket sales exceed break-even point
Millions told to evacuate as heavy rain sparks flooding and landslides in Kyushu
Komeito struggling after crushing Upper House election defeat
98-year-old woman recalls brother's death from dummy atomic bomb

BUSINESS

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (right) speaks alongside U.S. President Donald Trump about investing in America, at the White House in Washington on April 30.
Trump opens door to sales of version of Nvidia's next-gen AI chips in China
By Karen Freifeld, Arsheeya Bajwa, Trevor Hunnicutt and Alexandra Alper
The chip will be a less-powerful version of the Blackwell.
Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer; Bob McGrew, an adviser at Thinking Machines Lab and OpenAI’s former chief research officer; Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technology officer; and Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s chief product officer at a military ceremony in Arlington, Va., in June 2025. The four current and former executives were pronounced lieutenant colonels in a new unit, Detachment 201, which will advise the Army on new technologies for potential combat.
Silicon Valley is in its ‘hard tech’ era
By Mike Isaac
Instead of the tap-to-pay apps of a decade ago like Clinkle and Bump, young companies are now making unmanned aerial drones stocked with AI-guided Barracuda cruise missiles.
Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund is hiring amid ballooning assets
By Nao Sano
India's ethanol drive imperils its push for edible oil self-sufficiency
By Rajendra Jadhav
Japan marks lowest level of competition on record for civil service applicants
Lithium market erupts as CATL shuts one of world’s biggest mines
By Martin Ritchie, Annie Lee and Alfred Cang

WORLD

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin during a joint news conference in Helsinki in 2018. For Putin, the upcoming summit with Trump is an opportunity not just to end the Ukraine war on his terms, but to split apart the Western security alliance.
In a Trump-Putin summit, Ukraine fears losing say over its future
By David E. Sanger and Luke Broadwater
Kyiv's worry for the past six months has been that U.S. President Donald Trump’s image of a "peace accord” is a deal struck directly between him and Russia.
Ahmad Habibi and his younger brother Mahmood Habibi pose for the camera in Canada in 2014.
How a CIA hit on al-Qaida ensnared a U.S. citizen in Afghanistan
By Jonathan Landay
Interviews reveal that the Taliban likely detained Mahmood Habibi because the CIA had penetrated the company where he worked.
Indonesia expands military as defense budget soars
By Chandra Asmara
Jellyfish shut down French nuclear reactors as heat wave builds
By Eamon Akil Farhat and Joe Wertz
India decries 'saber rattling' after Pakistan army chief's reported nuclear remarks
Trump takes over D.C. police and deploys national guard in Washington
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose

Sports

Kaoru Mitoma celebrates scoring Brighton's second goal against Chelsea in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Feb. 8.
Kaoru Mitoma looks to build on Premier League success with Brighton
By Zach Lowy
No Japanese player will be more essential for their team’s Premier League ambitions than Kaoru Mitoma.
Steely Sinner advances amid Cincinnati power-failure chaos
Australia loses Charlotte Caslick ahead of Women's Rugby World Cup
Donald Trump praises Grant Forrest for 'brilliant' win on Trump-owned course
Liverpool spends big to hold off Arsenal and City in title fight
By Kieran CANNING

Opinion

A model of the upgraded Mogami-class frigate is displayed at the Defense Security Equipment International Japan exhibition at Makuhari Messe in Chiba on May 21.
The Japan-Australia frigate deal is more than a weapons pact
The scale of the agreement is sweeping. Japan has never before won a bid this size.
Espionage and tariffs can’t tarnish TSMC’s crown
By Catherine Thorbecke
Xi steals a page from Mao’s foreign-policy playbook
By Kazuko Kojima
Stagflation is hitting Russia’s war economy
By Anders Aslund
RFK Jr.’s mRNA decision may be his worst yet
By Lisa Jarvis

ENVIRONMENT

An Afghan woman walks next to a pile of trash full of plastic bags in Kabul.
Momentum sagging at U.N. plastic pollution treaty talks
By Robin Millard
The negotiations have four working days left to strike a legally-binding instrument that would tackle the growing problem choking the environment.
Hedge funds flip on green energy and start betting against oil
By Natasha White, Liza Tetley and Ishika Mookerjee
How Canadian wildfire smoke is jeopardizing health across North America
By Robert Tuttle, Brian K Sullivan and Danielle Bochove
U.N. plastic pollution treaty talks progress not 'sufficient': chair
Pacific microstate sells first passports to fund climate action

CULTURE

Sung in Japanese, German and Ukrainian, “Natasha” is a multilingual opera with a multinational cast. Belgian soprano Ilse Eerens will originate the titular role, with Japanese mezzo-soprano Hiroka Yamashita as Arato and German baritone Christian Miedl as their trickster guide.
‘Natasha’ distills global zeitgeist on the opera stage
By Kris Kosaka
An original work commissioned by the New National Theatre, Tokyo, “Natasha” is a multilingual opera with a multinational cast from Japan, Germany and Belgium.
Futuristic mermaid tale ‘ChaO’ makes a splash
By Matt Schley
'Glass Heart’: A flashy rock fairytale scrubbed of grit
By James Hadfield
‘Nagasaki: In the Shadow of the Flash’ honors young nurses thrust into hellish nightmare
By Mark Schilling
The families that rock together at Fuji
By Mark Thompson

LIFE

At Himawari Shokudo 2, chef Hozumi Tanaka serves Italian-inspired fare with a focus on Toyama produce, such as this appetizer of lightly blanched "hotaru ika" (firefly squid) served atop mixed wild plants and a crepe prepared from "yamato-imo" yam.
At Himawari Shokudo 2, Italian food with a Japanese soul
By Robbie Swinnerton
Punching above its own weight, the intimate restaurant is one of the growing number of quality establishments that are helping to cement Toyama's status as a dining destination.
In a coffee-mad neighborhood, a gin distillery is a clear alternative
By Melinda Joe
A walk through Kokura, the city spared nuclear destruction
By Edward J. Taylor
Tokyo’s WWII museums hold diverse views on war and peace
By Mark Schreiber
Brave the Bon holiday traffic to discover tourism gems off the beaten path
By Yuko Tamura

COMMUNITY

Francisco Villarreal moved to Japan in 2014 to attend a teacher training program and has forged deep ties to the kindergarten in Tokyo's Asakusa district where he has worked since 2018.
Kindred spirits, kindergarten connections: From Buenos Aires to east Tokyo
By Francisco J. Villarreal
An Argentinian teacher finds echoes of his hometown in the working-class neighborhoods of eastern Tokyo.
A campaign to preserve Hiroshima’s historic trees for another 1,000 years
By Patrick Parr
Briton brings artistic view to Japanese buildings
By Louise George Kittaka
‘Mad cute’ Scottish fold to brighten your day
The international artists supporting Japan’s craft legacy
By Laura Pollacco

Editors' Picks

ENVIRONMENT
Osaka Expo highlights the challenge of holding events in Japan's scorching summer
By Joel Tansey
People huddle near a large fan blowing icy-cold mist at the Osaka Expo on July 12. Amid Japan's relentless summer heat, organizes have put myriad measures in place in order to keep guests safe.
LIFE
At Himawari Shokudo 2, Italian food with a Japanese soul
By Robbie Swinnerton
At Himawari Shokudo 2, chef Hozumi Tanaka serves Italian-inspired fare with a focus on Toyama produce, such as this appetizer of lightly blanched "hotaru ika" (firefly squid) served atop mixed wild plants and a crepe prepared from "yamato-imo" yam.
MORE SPORTS
Cheer with caution: Expert advises sports fans have game plan for extreme heat
By Mai Yoshikawa
A Cardinals fan fans himself during the seventh inning of a game against the Pirates in St. Louis, Missouri, in June 2022.
JAPAN
Australia's warship selection signals Japanese defense industry's arrival
By Gabriel Dominguez
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Mogami-class frigate. Australia's selection of an upgraded version of the Mogami-class warship for its next frigate class could prove to be a watershed moment for Japan’s defense industry.
BUSINESS
Japan's inheritance tax is high, unforgiving and sometimes avoidable
By James Wongvipat
The National Tax Agency at the Ministry of Finance, Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. Japanese tax authorities can bill foreign residents in Japan for assets inherited globally.

Podcast

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

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person
By Naoko Abe

JT Directory Service

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SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

COMFACTS

GO GRANDCLASS Uonuma Koshihikari Edition Wins Platinum Award at Milano Sake Challenge 2025
GO GRANDCLASS Uonuma Koshihikari Edition Wins Platinum Award at Milano Sake Challenge 2025
TSUNAN SAKE BREWERY

WHAT’S TRENDING

JAPAN
Millions told to evacuate as heavy rain sparks flooding and landslides in Kyushu
Heavy rain falls in the city of Kumamoto on Monday morning.
ENVIRONMENT
Osaka Expo highlights the challenge of holding events in Japan's scorching summer
By Joel Tansey
People huddle near a large fan blowing icy-cold mist at the Osaka Expo on July 12. Amid Japan's relentless summer heat, organizes have put myriad measures in place in order to keep guests safe.
ASIA PACIFIC
Chinese vessels collide while pursuing Philippine boat in South China Sea
This handout video grab released and taken on August 11, 2025 by the Philippine Coast Guard shows an incident between a Chinese Navy vessel (left) and a Chinese Coast Guard ship as seen from a Philippine fisheries boat near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea.
JAPAN
Weather agency warns of landslides and flooding in Kyushu as heavy rain continues
An embankment on the Amikake River that collapsed due to heavy rain in Aira, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Friday. Downpours continued in the Kyushu region over the weekend.
LIFE
Tokyo’s WWII museums hold diverse views on war and peace
By Mark Schreiber
A carrier-based Type 52 Zero fighter marks the entrance foyer of Yasukuni Shrine's Yushukan, a museum that tells a more nuanced story of Japan's experience in World War II than the controversies around the shrine might suggest.