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September 14, 2025
 

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FOCUS

A British SkySpyke anti-drone system by Quell is seen during the international military exercise Baltic Trust 25 at the Selonia military training ground near Viesite, Latvia, on Aug. 27.
WORLD / FOCUS
Sep 13, 2025
As drones swarm battlefields, militaries seek cheaper defenses
The dilemma militaries around the world face is that drones tend to be far cheaper than the response to destroy them.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a letter from Britain's King Charles as he meets with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington in February.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 13, 2025
Trump’s big U.K. visit comes at worst possible time for PM Keir Starmer
Trump's three-day trip comes just days after Starmer lost two senior members of the U.K. government to scandal.
Charlie Kirk, the right-wing influencer and founder of Turning Point USA, speaks in Chandler, Arizona, in November 2022.
WORLD / FOCUS
Sep 13, 2025
In America, Kirk's supporters still love guns, despite his violent death
"The fact that he's dead doesn't make me afraid of guns. It makes me afraid of people," one supporter said.
People pay their respects during a candlelight vigil for youth activist and influencer Charlie Kirk at a makeshift memorial at Orem City Center Park in Orem, Utah, on Thursday, a day after he was shot dead during a public event at Utah Valley University.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Sep 13, 2025
Charlie Kirk's alleged killer: what we know
Tyler Robinson, 22, had become more political in recent years, and authorities said he had engraved what appeared to be anti-fascist messages on bullet casings they found.
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi speaks in Tokyo on Thursday. He is attempting to become Liberal Democratic Party president for the second time.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 12, 2025
Will a more conservative leader emerge from the LDP presidential election?
Conservative members of the party are looking to elect such a leader, but there is a possibility that their votes might be split between two presidential hopefuls.
Japan Coast Guard officials take part in joint antipiracy exercises with the Indonesia Coast Guard, held off the coast of Jakarta in January.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Sep 12, 2025
Staffing difficulties leave Japan Coast Guard stretched
Applications for officer posts have fallen, while turnover has increased, especially among younger members.
Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the opposition Democratic Party for the People, in Tokyo on Nov. 1, 2024
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 10, 2025
Who might the LDP woo once it elects its next president?
Short of a majority in both chambers of parliament, the ruling party needs an opposition party’s support to elect its leader as prime minister.
Kobe Mayor Kizo Hisamoto addresses in May in Kobe a meeting of a study group discussing the idea of taxing owners of vacant units in high-rise condominiums.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Sep 10, 2025
Kobe eyes tax on vacant or underused units in high-rise condos
Since taking office, Kobe Mayor Kizo Hisamoto has highlighted problems associated with high-rise condominiums, pushing to strengthen regulations and address aging buildings.
Activists holding signs that reads "No one is illegal!" protest against a huge immigration raid last week in the U.S. state of Georgia, in front of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Sep 9, 2025
Workers say corporate South Korea was warned about questionable U.S. visas before Hyundai raid
For years, South Korean companies have said they struggle to obtain short-term work visas for specialists needed in their high-tech plants in the United States.
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Sep 9, 2025
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
Japan has been assisting the Philippines in several ways, including by providing security equipment and training — and could soon offer up used warships.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike (right) and Takayuki Morimura, head of Tomin First no Kai, during the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election campaign in Tokyo in June
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 8, 2025
Tokyo Gov. Koike seen keeping three-party alliance involving LDP
Attention is also turning to whether the Tokyo governor will seek cooperation with the Democratic Party for the People, which won its first seats in the metropolitan assembly.
U.S. President Donald Trump visits the USS Wasp aircraft carrier in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in May 2019 during his first term as president. Trump is expected to demand that Japan boost its host-nation support spending for U.S. military when the current plan expires in March 2027.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 7, 2025
Japan braces for Trump push on U.S. troop funding
The financial support covers the salaries of workers at U.S. military bases, utilities costs and facility maintenance expenses.
Cannabidiol products in New York in October 2014. Tetrahydrocannabinol, which gives the “high” often associated with marijuana, is illegal in Japan if it exceeds a certain amount.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Sep 5, 2025
Japan has ‘strictest standard in the world’ when it comes to CBD products
The country’s threshold for tetrahydrocannabinol, a compound derived from cannabis that gives the “high,” is just 10 parts per million, compared with 3,000 ppm in the U.S.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends the India-Japan Economic Forum in Tokyo on Friday, Aug. 29
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 4, 2025
Darkest hour for Ishiba amid pressure to quit and executive resignations
An offer by the secretary-general to resign after the party’s poor performance in a recent election has prompted Ishiba's LDP leadership team to call time on the administration.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama (left) and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attend a party executive meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 4, 2025
Seeking Upper House majority, LDP eyes support from independents
The 121-strong ruling coalition needs just three more seats for a majority in the chamber.
The remains of a barrack at the former Minidoka camp in southern Idaho where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Sep 4, 2025
Have the lessons of WWII internment gone unheeded in U.S.?
Eighty years after the end of World War II, many see troubling echoes of when the U.S. forcibly sent approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent to internment camps.
Tokyo's Shin-Okubo district filled with Korean restaurants and shops. South Korean culture has increasingly been embraced as cutting-edge, especially among younger Japanese people.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 3, 2025
Mutual cultural acceptance underpins Japan-South Korea ties
Among those between the ages of 18 and 29, 66% in South Korea and 72.5% in Japan expressed favorable views of one another.
Japanese Trade Union Confederation chief Tomoko Yoshino speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Aug. 21. Under Yoshino, the organization, better known as Rengo, has cooperated with the government to achieve wage increases, but some have raised concerns about those same close ties.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 2, 2025
Tomoko Yoshino's next move in focus as end of second term as Rengo chief nears
Under Yoshino, the organization, better known as Rengo, has cooperated with the government to achieve wage increases. But some have raised concerns about those same close ties.
A Philippine Navy sailor looks at a China Coast Guard vessel just off the coast of Pag-asa Island in the disputed South China Sea last month.
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Sep 1, 2025
Surrounded by Chinese bases, a tiny Philippine island stands firm
Pag-asa Island — population 400 — sits on the front line of a simmering territorial dispute between Beijing and Manila in the flash point South China Sea.
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Aug 31, 2025
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
Officials in a Yamanashi town have been struggling to balance welcoming visitors and preserving the quality of life for locals. A new mesh barrier is an attempt at compromise.
Japan's cutting-edge railgun successfully strikes target vessel
The Defense Ministry’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) conducted a ship-board railgun shooting test from June to early July this year with the support of the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens?
Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life and 7-Eleven, a chain that began in the U.S. in 1927, opened its first store in Japan in 1974 — and then became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005 through parent company Seven & I Holdings.
‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
People rush to make furusato nozei donations ahead of tighter rules
A booth from the town of Betsukai in Hokkaido at an Amazon Japan furusato nо̄zei promotion event, on Sept. 5 in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
Aging Japan’s centenarian population nears 100,000
Shigeko Kagawa, Japan's oldest person at 114, in Yamatokoriyama, Nara Prefecture, on July 30
‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
Aging Japan’s centenarian population nears 100,000
Shigeko Kagawa, Japan's oldest person at 114, in Yamatokoriyama, Nara Prefecture, on July 30
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.
Shizuoka farmers fight to preserve sustainable tea method that’s steeped in tradition
As of August 2024, the number of confirmed chagusaba farmers had fallen to 302, just over half the 582 reported in 2015, according to the Shizuoka Chagusaba Farming Method Promotion Council.

Podcast

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

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight
By Mai Yoshikawa

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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