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December 04, 2024
The Independent Voice in Asia
December 04, 2024
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A line of police officers stand guard as protesters gather at the edge of Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul on Wednesday after President Yoon Suk Yeol formally lifted martial law earlier, six hours after having declared it.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Yoon fights for political life as martial law repercussions reverberate
By Jesse Johnson and Himari Semans
Even the president's party appears to support moves against him after his unexpected move triggered South Korea’s biggest political crisis in decades.

More coverage

In pictures: A night that shook South Korea to its core
What we know about South Korea's martial law
How the streets of Seoul responded to a martial law decree
A line of police officers stand guard as protesters gather at the edge of Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul on Wednesday after President Yoon Suk Yeol formally lifted martial law earlier, six hours after having declared it.
Activated on Wednesday, U.S. Space Forces Japan — a component similar to the one established at South Korea’s Osan Air Base in 2022 — will operate out of Yokota Air Base in the city of Fussa, western Tokyo, with a staff of about 10.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
U.S. Space Force launches first unit in Japan
By Gabriel Dominguez
The move is part of an effort to boost coordination and interoperability with its ally, including the Air Self-Defense Force’s own Space Operations Group
Kentaro Okuda, CEO of Nomura Holdings, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nomura CEO takes pay cut after former employee charged with attempted murder
By Kathleen Benoza
The CEO and four other executives will take a 30% pay cut for three months, while five board of directors will take a 20% pay cut for the same period.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda reiterated in an interview published Saturday that authorities will raise rates if the economy performs in line with projections.
BUSINESS / Economy
BOJ weighs case for first triple hike since Japan’s bubble burst
By Toru Fujioka
The last time the BOJ conducted three hikes in a single year was in 1989, with the third increase that year coming on Christmas Day.
Kim Seongmin, president of Free North Korea Radio, edits content for the station at his home on Ganghwa Island, west of Seoul, on Nov. 21. Kim has cancer and was recently told that he has months to live.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
A North Korean voice that Kim Jong Un would like to silence
By Choe Sang-Hun
North Korean defectors have been infiltrating the North with outside media for two decades, through balloons floated across the border or radio broadcasts.
Kim Seongmin, president of Free North Korea Radio, edits content for the station at his home on Ganghwa Island, west of Seoul, on Nov. 21. Kim has cancer and was recently told that he has months to live.

JAPAN

Donna Nelson says her life was turned upside down when she learned that the man she was falling for had tricked her into smuggling 2 kilograms of methamphetamine into Japan.
Australian says romance scam tricked her into smuggling drugs into Japan
By Karin Kaneko
Donna Nelson says her life was turned upside down when she learned that the man she was falling for had tricked her into smuggling drugs.
Police officers enforce electric scooter traffic regulations in Chuo Ward, Osaka, in July.
Luup CEO blames repeat offenders for high e-scooter traffic violations
According to the National Police Agency, there were 25,156 e-scooter traffic violation cases in the year after e-scooter regulations were relaxed.
Ex-prosecutor Hotta, who probed Lockheed scandal, dies at 90
Saitama police arrest suspected yami baito financial coordinator
Japan to use AI to tackle online manga and anime piracy
WCPFC decides to expand Japan's pacific bluefin tuna catch quotas

BUSINESS

"No matter who takes the helm, Japan’s fiscal discipline will worsen in a situation like this," said Mana Nakazora, a credit analyst on an economic panel advising Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Japan needs a wake-up call on debt, government advisor warns
By Erica Yokoyama and Takashi Umekawa
The advisor criticized the government’s decision to resume subsidies for utilities as part of the stimulus package.
Nissan Motor vehicles bound for shipment at the Nissan Oppama wharf in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Nissan is awash in outdated models as car buyers look elsewhere
By Nicholas Takahashi
While Japan’s other major carmakers take six months or more to ship a new vehicle, many of Nissan’s most popular models can be delivered within a month or two.
Netflix Japan subscribers top 10 million
By Sam Nussey
Mitsubishi loses $90 million in suspected China metal fraud
By Alfred Cang and Koh Yoshida
Intel’s CEO departure opens door to new deal discussions
By Ryan Gould and Ian King
Meta seeks new nuclear reactors to run U.S. data centers
By Will Wade

WORLD

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova in Moscow on May 31.
Putin's Kremlin planes took away Ukrainian children for adoption, report alleges
By Anthony Deutsch
The research identified 314 Ukrainian children taken to Russia as part of what it says was a systematic, Kremlin-funded program to "Russify" them.
People watch South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of martial law and the following announcement that he will lift the martial law, after parliamentary vote, at a railway station in Seoul on Wednesday.
South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol, embattled conservative
The novice politician took office with some of the lowest approval ratings of any democratically elected South Korean president.
U.S. chips 'no longer safe,' Chinese industry bodies say in latest salvo
By Eduardo Baptista and Brenda Goh
China dials up U.S. trade tension with tit-for-tat metals export ban
Canada mining group uses China ban to push back on Trump's tariffs
By Jacob Lorinc
Ukraine pushes for NATO membership as allies sidestep call for invite
By Andrew Gray and Lili Bayer

Sports

World Anti-Doping Agency Director-General Olivier Niggli speaks during the agency's symposium in Lausanne, Switzerland, in March.
Anti-doping agency froze out investigators who warned about China
By Tariq Panja and Michael S. Schmidt
The decision by WADA’s leaders to keep its own investigators in the dark raises new questions about WADA's response to possible doping by Chinese athletes.
Pohang clip Vissel's wings in Asian Champions League
A 12th F1 team after Cadillac? Why not, says FIA president
By Alan Baldwin
Tiger Woods has 'long way to go' after latest back surgery
Barca boss Flick rues missed chances and urges players to be more clinical

Opinion

The primary motivation for potentially adding Japan to the Five Eyes alliance is the considerable intelligence contributions the country could make concerning China, North Korea, Eastern Russia and East and Southeast Asia.
If ever invited, should Japan make it 'Six Eyes'?
Edo Naito
The primary motivation for potentially adding Japan to the alliance is the considerable intelligence contributions the country could make.
Hunter Biden’s pardon is understandable — but wrong
By Noah Feldman
Should nuclear weapons for Ukraine be on the table?
By Slavoj Zizek
The Lebanon ceasefire can be leveraged for a broader deal
By Marc Champion
Venice’s beauty curse
By Edoardo Campanella

ENVIRONMENT

Trees in a forest in Nyanga, Gabon
Scientists behind ‘net zero’ concept say nations are getting it wrong
By Eric Roston
Countries may be claiming carbon credits for work already being done by land and oceans — and the accounting mismatch has consequences.
Barbados completes world's first debt swap for climate resilience
By Virginia Furness
Glittering dreams: India's big push for solar power
By Philippe Alfroy
Battle over curbing plastic output jeopardizes U.N. treaty hopes
Researchers analyze DNA from dung to save Laos elephants
By Stuart Graham

CULTURE

Drag queen Becca D’Bus plays Dido, the forlorn queen of Carthage, in a drag version of “Dido and Aeneas."
Divas and diversity: Opera meets drag in ‘Dido and Aeneas’
By Zoria Petkoska
Becca D’Bus, one of Singapore’s most popular drag queens, and Tokyo’s voguers and queens team up for a grand show at the Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting.
Anime-loving cartoonist from Sweden shares joys of Tokyo life
By Ran Kawai
Hiroshi Kurosaki looks beyond Japan for heart-wrenching drama
By Mark Schilling
‘Faceless’: Fugitive thriller turns a blind eye to hard truths
By James Hadfield
The mind-bending melancholy of ‘Lust in the Rain’
By Mark Schilling

LIFE

Designed by Kei Atsumi and Motoya Iizawa, "The Warp" was a 3D-printed tea pavilion with organic, twisting curves placed in downtown Dubai.
Far East meets Middle East at Dubai Design Week 2024
By Erik Augustin Palm
This year's Dubai Design Week functioned much like a portal between continents, philosophies and futures.
For holidays in warm weather, a light, rolled meringue fits best
By Simon Daly
Putting mountainous Nagano on a plate
By Kyoko Nakayama
Ms. Rachel’s improbable journey from toddler whisperer to holiday toy sensation
By Sapna Maheshwari
The young sap collectors underpinning Japanese lacquerware
By Jessica Kozuka

COMMUNITY

Timeleft uses an algorithm to match its users with five or six strangers in an effort to prompt “human connection” over dinner at a restaurant. It determines the attendees with the help of a simple personality quiz available when you sign up for the service. 
Seven strangers and an algorithm: Can this new dinner app help you make friends?
By Phoebe Amoroso
An app called Timeleft hopes to combat big-city alienation through a simple meal with a diverse group of people.
President of L’Oreal Japan leverages innovation
By Louise George Kittaka
Kumiko Shichijo: ‘Living abroad helped me appreciate Japanese etiquette’
By Ansel Swindells
How a solo yoga teacher built a wellness community in the Japanese Alps
By Samantha Mythen
Omar Nok: 'There are good people everywhere'
By Ansel Swindells

Editors' Picks

JAPAN
Can Japan's scientific community rebound from a Nobel nosedive?
By Tomoko Otake
The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo is a popular place to foster curiosity in the natural sciences.
WORLD
Europe eyes 'boots on the ground' in Ukraine as possible peace deal option
By Gabriel Dominguez
A serviceman with the Ukrainian Army's 24th mechanized brigade fires a machine gun during an exercise, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the country's Donetsk region on Friday.
COMMUNITY
Seven strangers and an algorithm: Can this new dinner app help you make friends?
By Phoebe Amoroso
Timeleft uses an algorithm to match its users with five or six strangers in an effort to prompt “human connection” over dinner at a restaurant. It determines the attendees with the help of a simple personality quiz available when you sign up for the service. 
JAPAN
Don’t worry, you can still use your Japan health insurance card — for now
By Tomoko Otake
A My Number card reader at a pediatric clinic in Tokyo. While the government will stop issuing new health insurance cards on Monday, most people will remain unaffected by the move in the short term as existing health insurance cards can still be used for another year.
LIFE
The Geisha bean is the leading lady of Tokyo's coffee scene
By Melinda Joe
Discovered in the 1930s, the Geisha coffee plant came to worldwide fame in the early 2000s and now represents some of the best coffee on the planet — Tokyo's top cafes included.

Podcast

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

Longform

The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo is a popular place to foster curiosity in the natural sciences.
Can Japan's scientific community rebound from a Nobel nosedive?
By Tomoko Otake

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SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’
SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

WHAT’S TRENDING

JAPAN
Japan’s 2024 buzzword of the year urges a reevaluation of past norms
By Yukana Inoue
Sadao Abe, who played the role of a time-traveling Showa Era teacher transported to present day in a popular TV drama, receives the 2024 buzzword of the year award for the word "futehodo," the nickname of the series.
ASIA PACIFIC
South Korea's Yoon backs down after parliament rejects martial law
Soldiers try to enter the National Assembly building in Seoul, after South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law late Tuesday evening.
BUSINESS
BOJ weighs case for first triple hike since Japan’s bubble burst
By Toru Fujioka
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda reiterated in an interview published Saturday that authorities will raise rates if the economy performs in line with projections.
JAPAN
Princess Aiko, only child of emperor, turns 23
Princess Aiko on Nov. 22 ahead of her 23rd birthday on Sunday at the Imperial Palace
JAPAN
Ishiba questioned on political reform, social issues and the economy
By Gabriele Ninivaggi
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks in the Lower House in Tokyo on Monday.