September 18, 2025

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Chinese tech stocks have surged in past weeks, driven by a perception that the nation’s industry leaders are making steady progress in developing homegrown AI and chips.

BUSINESS

Sep 18, 2025

Huawei unveils AI chip road map to challenge Nvidia’s lead

Chinese tech stocks have surged in past weeks, driven by a perception that the nation’s industry leaders are making steady progress in developing homegrown AI and chips.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday about his candidacy in the Liberal Democratic Party leadership race.

JAPAN / Politics

Sep 18, 2025

Hayashi pledges to carry on Ishiba and Kishida’s work if elected LDP president

The chief cabinet secretary, who served under both prime ministers, says he will follow their lead as well as add initiatives of his own.

Signage in Nagoya counting down to the start of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games earlier this month.

MORE SPORTS

Sep 18, 2025

Japan considering North Korea's participation at 2026 Asian Games

The neighboring countries have no diplomatic ties and North Korea was a no-show when Japan last hosted the Asian Games in 1994.

In July, the government ordered Hanoi to phase out gas-powered motorbikes in central districts within a year.

BUSINESS / Tech

Sep 18, 2025

Vietnam startup seeks slice of third-largest EV motorbike market

Vietnam is behind only China and India in terms of its market size for electric two-wheelers, according to an August report from MotorCycles Data.

Stocks in Tokyo have been rallying for months on political and trade hopes and in anticipation of a rate cut in the United States.

BUSINESS / Markets

Sep 18, 2025

Japan's Nikkei 225 rallies to record following Fed rate cut overnight

Trade was choppy and tentative at first until a decisive move upward started at about 10 a.m.

Takaya Awata, president of Toridoll Holdings, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.

BUSINESS / Companies

Sep 18, 2025

Marugame Seimen noodle restaurant managers to see raise of up to ¥20 million

Eatery chain operator Toridoll Holdings' president also indicated the company may extend the plan to other restaurant chains in the group.

Agricultural minister Shinjiro Koizumi was the most favored candidate for the Liberal Democratic Party's next president, a Jiji survey found.

JAPAN / Politics

Sep 18, 2025

Agriculture minister Koizumi most favored for LDP chief, poll finds

Koizumi was favored by 23.8% of respondents, while 21% backed former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi.

The Syrian flag is flown in Aleppo on May 14.

WORLD / Politics

Sep 18, 2025

U.S. envoys focused on Syria ousted amid pro-Damascus shift, sources say

The diplomats at the de facto U.S. mission to Syria, based in Istanbul, all reported to the U.S. special envoy for Syria, a longtime friend of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (front right) and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (front left) meet in Riyadh on Wednesday.

WORLD / Politics

Sep 18, 2025

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign mutual defense pact amid regional tensions

The enhanced defense ties come amid growing uncertainty about the reliability of the United States as a long-standing security guarantor, and after an attack on Qatar by Israel.

Jimmy Kimmel arrives at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sept. 12, 2022. Kimmel's late-night show has been taken off the air by ABC.

BUSINESS / Companies

Sep 18, 2025

Disney's ABC yanks 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' off air after remarks about Kirk

The move is the latest taken against media figures, academic workers, teachers and corporate employees over their remarks about Kirk following his assassination.

Organizers of the World Athletics Championships said over 500,000 tickets had been sold and that they are expecting to end the event in front of large crowds this weekend.

MORE SPORTS / Athletics

Sep 18, 2025

World Athletics stars relish Tokyo atmosphere after COVID-hit Olympics

For many athletes competing at the world championships in Tokyo this week who also competed at the COVID-hit Summer Games, the experience has been like night and day.

KDDI has launched a new service that allows direct linkups between smartphones and the Starlink satellite communication network.

BUSINESS / Companies

Sep 18, 2025

In shift from price-cutting trend, Japan's telecom firms hike rates as costs rise

Desperate to ensure price hikes are accepted by subscribers, telecom carriers have improved their networks and service quality, and offered extra services.

A street near the site where a Japanese boy was stabbed to death in Shenzhen in September last year.

JAPAN / Society

Sep 18, 2025

Safety concerns linger as year marked since stabbing of Japanese boy in China

Security measures have been increased around the school amid worries that anti-Japanese sentiment could rise in China around historical anniversaries.

Theoretical physicist Fumitaka Sato, professor emeritus at Kyoto University and known for his work on black hole mysteries, died of bacterial pneumonia in Kyoto on Sunday.

JAPAN

Sep 18, 2025

Fumitaka Sato, who contributed to black hole research, dies at 87

The professor emeritus at Kyoto University wrote many books introducing the beauty of space and physics to general readers.

Pupils put their hands up to answer a question during a lesson at a grammar school in Maidstone, U.K. Private school alumni remain dominant among the most powerful positions in British society despite corporate efforts to hire from more diverse backgrounds.

WORLD / Society

Sep 18, 2025

Britain wants social mobility but private schools still dominate

Elite schooling remains the surest route to the top of British society, new data from a social mobility charity show.

A Linktour vehicle at the IAA Mobility 2025 expo in Munich

BUSINESS / Tech

Sep 18, 2025

Chinese startup pitches tiny EVs to European markets

Linktour Automotive’s two new all-electric models are exempt from the European Union’s EV import tariffs set in place last year.

Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani pitches during the third inning against the Phillies on Tuesday in Los Angeles.

BASEBALL / MLB

Sep 18, 2025

Dodgers considering using Ohtani as a relief pitcher

The two-way superstar has been superb on the mound as a starting pitcher this year after not pitching at all in 2024 as he recovered from elbow ligament surgery.

A badge hangs over the uniform of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Rights activists warn that deporting Russian dissidents puts them at risk of prison and persecution back home.

WORLD / Politics

Sep 18, 2025

'I don't cry anymore': In U.S. jail, Russian dissidents fear deportation

With the U.S. stepping up its sweeping anti-immigration crackdown, rights activists warn deporting Russian dissidents puts them at risk of prison and persecution back home.

The government is considering raising the upper limit on the industry ministry's subsidies for video productions costing ¥300 million or more from the current ¥200 million.

JAPAN

Sep 18, 2025

Japan to boost support for its anime and film industry

The government is aiming to triple overseas revenue from Japanese content to ¥20 trillion in 2033.

Kunio Yanagida, author of a nonfiction book about Typhoon Ida and the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, speaks at a symposium in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, on Sunday.

JAPAN

Sep 18, 2025

80 years after bombing and typhoon, Hiroshima guide warns of double tragedy risk

Typhoon Ida killed 3,756 people in Japan, including atomic bomb survivors and specialist medics, just a month after the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Boring tests will be conducted in two areas near the No. 3 reactor at Kansai Electric Power's Mihama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture to look into ground hardness, ahead of the planned construction of a new nuclear reactor.

JAPAN

Sep 18, 2025

Kansai Electric to complete survey for new nuclear reactor in 2030

A final decision on whether to build the new reactor will be made after a detailed survey to examine the impact of earthquakes.

Attendees hold their smartphones as the new Xiaomi electric SUV YU7 is unveiled onstage, at the Chinese smartphone maker's launch event in Beijing on May 22.

BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS

Sep 18, 2025

China is sending its world-beating auto industry into a tailspin

The sector is showing symptoms of a vastly oversupplied market — and point to a potential shakeout mirroring turmoil in country's property and solar industries.

Signage atop the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo. Japan’s ruling party faces a tough decision over its future as it searches for a new leader to replace outgoing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, reverse its waning popularity and reassure investors

JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS

Sep 18, 2025

After seven decades, is it finally time for the LDP to split up?

With the LDP fraying at the seams, some wonder if the patchwork party will split along ideological lines instead of stitching itself back together.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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international-reports

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.

Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’

By Alex K.T. Martin