Comedian Hikari Ota is doing what he does best on his weekly 'news' show: taking aim at Japan's aging lawmakers.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='Comedian Hikari Ota listens to ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Yasuhide Nakayama during a taping of Ota's weekly 'news' show at NTV in Tokyo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2007/nn20070718f3a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='166'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Comedian Hikari Ota –

listens to ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Yasuhide Nakayama during a taping of Ota's weekly "news" show at NTV in Tokyo in May. AP PHOTO

"It's easy to spot them nodding off during Diet sessions," he tells the studio audience while a large screen on stage shows a napping lawmaker. "Sometimes they're even dead!"

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Our Planet

Tugboats assist a liquified natural gas tanker as it docks at a port in Yantai, China, in February. In 2021, China became the largest importer of LNG, and as of this year, China now has the most long-term LNG contracts.
China is eroding Japan's LNG dominance. How does that affect Japanese buyers?
By Nithin Coca

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

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
By Alex K.T. Martin

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Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after
Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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