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Latest News

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif attends the ChangeNOW 2025 summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, France on April 25, 2025.
OLYMPICS / Boxing
Aug 21, 2025
Olympic champion Khelif denies 'malicious' claims of retirement
Khelif has not competed since winning Olympic gold in Paris.
McDonald's Japan has canceled its plan to bundle "One Piece" trading cards with its Happy Set meals, after a similar Pokemon-themed campaign sparked a frenzy and uproar over uneaten food being discarded.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 21, 2025
McDonald's Japan to skip 'One Piece' Happy Meal promo
The cancellation follows a similar Pokemon-themed campaign that sparked a frenzy and uproar over uneaten food being discarded.
Evacuees at a shelter in Saitama Prefecture after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. With a tsunami expected to reach some areas within minutes after a Nankai Trough megaquake, the government is asking municipalities to designate areas where advance evacuation is necessary.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
Megaquake alert would urge 520,000 people to evacuate
The figure exceeds the total number of evacuees after the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, which came to about 470,000.
A menstrual product dispenser installed in a restroom at the Osaka Healthcare Pavilion during the Osaka Expo.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
Free menstrual products made available in restrooms at Osaka Expo
The effort is part of an Osaka University initiative that aims to address period poverty and raise public awareness.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shakes hands with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on the sidelines of the Group of Seven leaders' summit in Kananaskis in Alberta, Canada, on June 17.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 21, 2025
Will South Korea’s Lee and Ishiba be able to continue to bury the hatchet?
The South Korean president's unprecedented visit Saturday will highlight to what extent he has put his hard-line Japan views in the rearview mirror.
Sho Tsuboi said the opportunity to drive a Formula One car at Fuji Speedway was a dream come true.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Aug 21, 2025
Sho Tsuboi realizes ‘dream’ with Haas F1 test at Fuji Speedway
An impressive performance, which also coincides with Toyota’s modest return to F1, could signal the start of something more substantial.
Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori lift the trophy after winning the mixed doubles final match against Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud at the U.S. Open in New York on Wednesday.
TENNIS
Aug 21, 2025
Errani and Vavassori fight back to retain U.S. Open mixed doubles crown
The defending champions, who needed a wild card entry into the competition that prioritized singles rankings, relied on their veteran experience to outfox the Polish-Norwegian duo.
The U.S. military's Marine Air Defense Integrated System is expected to be deployed in Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
New air defense system to be used in upcoming U.S.-Japan drill
The U.S. military's Marine Air Defense Integrated System is expected to be deployed in Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture.
Six-year-old Pooja shows her indigenous face tattoos at the Jogi Colony in Umerkot, a Hindu-majority district of Pakistan.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 21, 2025
City girls snub traditional Hindu face tattoos in Pakistan
The practice stretches back centuries in the Hindu villages that dot Pakistan's southern border with India.
A common house mosquito in the eastern suburbs of Paris on Aug. 12. A record number of outbreaks of mosquito-borne illnesses have been reported in Europe.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 21, 2025
Record number of mosquito-borne disease outbreaks in Europe: health agency
Climate change is causing longer and more intense transmission seasons for mosquito-borne diseases in Europe.
A building where, according to Syrian security forces and residents, U.S. forces took part in a predawn raid that targeted a member of the Islamic State group, a U.S. official and a Syrian security source said, in Atmeh, Syria, on Wednesday
WORLD
Aug 21, 2025
Senior IS member killed in U.S. military operation in Syria, official says
It was the second known raid in northern Syria by U.S. troops since former President Bashar Assad was ousted in December.
Investigators from the Hyogo Prefectural Police examine an area near an apartment building where a 24-year-old woman was fatally stabbed in Kobe on Wednesday evening.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 21, 2025
24-year-old woman fatally stabbed in Kobe apartment building
Police are treating the case as a homicide and are searching for the suspect, believed to be in his 20s or 30s.
Novak Djokovic in action with Olga Danilovic during their round of 16 mixed doubles match against Mirra Andreeva and Daniil Medvedev at the U.S. Open on Tuesday
TENNIS
Aug 21, 2025
Aging Djokovic out to turn back time in push for U.S. Open glory
Djokovic has placed all his chips on New York in what many see as his last realistic shot at Grand Slam glory.
Britain's Keely Hodgkinson after winning the women's 800m final in Lausanne, Switzerland on Wednesday
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Aug 21, 2025
Seville leaves Lyles trailing in Lausanne as Hodgkinson wins again
Seville stormed to victory over Lyles in London last month, and it was almost a carbon copy performance in Switzerland.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shake hands during a joint news conference following their meeting at the Chigi Palace in Rome on May 13.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 21, 2025
Meloni offers plan to aid Ukraine in a day if Russia resumes war
The Italian prime minister is pushing for a proposal that amounts to a NATO-like collective defense clause, but doesn’t come with actual membership in the alliance.
Two Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force members killed during a training exercise in Oita Prefecture on Sunday died from electrocution caused by lightning, the GSDF confirmed Wednesday.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 21, 2025
GSDF confirms two sergeants who died during drills were killed by lightning
According to the Oita Meteorological Office, a lightning warning was in effect throughout the prefecture from early morning to night on the day they died.
U.S. President Donald Trump greets Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska on Aug. 15. Trump says Putin has agreed to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 21, 2025
Trump touts his diplomatic record, but the results are mixed
Although the U.S. president has sought to broker peace in conflicts around the world, he's struggled to secure firm settlements.
People take photos in front of a large portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a government-organized tour at Potala Palace Square in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China, on March 28.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 21, 2025
Xi pushes for mega-dam, rail links to boost Tibet development
The Yarlung Tsangpo hydropower project is set to become one of the biggest infrastructure projects in history.
"'Permanent peace' was uttered for the entire world. I hope there will be peace all over the world," said Michiko Suzuki, granddaughter of former Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
Granddaughter conveys former wartime prime minister's wish for peace
Michiko Suzuki, a granddaughter of former Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki, continues to convey his wish for peace through her writings and lectures.
A Shein distribution center in Whitestown, Indiana, on April 8. Shein and other e-commerce sites originating from China are believed to have taken advantage of duty exemption systems of other countries to export goods of modest value in small lots.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 21, 2025
Duty exemptions for low-value imports face review amid exploitation
An expert panel at the government's Tax Commission has noted that overseas sellers of inexpensive goods effectively exploit tax exemption systems for small-ticket item imports.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs is recommending replacing the government’s long-standing Kunrei system with more widely used Hepburn-style spellings.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years
The change is expected to be approved within the current fiscal year, then gradually rolled out in school textbooks and other materials.
Investigators escort suspects extradited from Cambodia after arresting them on suspicion of attempted fraud, on Wednesday at Chubu Centrair International Airport in the city of Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 21, 2025
Aichi police arrest 29 Japanese extradited from Cambodia over phone scams
The suspects allegedly posed as police officers when calling victims in the Kanto region to swindle them of cash.
Hiroyoshi Takizawa looks at pictures from his days in wartime Manchuria as a child during an interview in Nagano in June.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
A life upended by Japan's wartime policy of mass suicide
Hiroyoshi Takizawa's life in Manchuria was comfortable at first. But when the Soviet Union invaded, his father, fearing the worst, chose mass suicide.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers