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Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 17, 2023

Vietnam president quits as Communist Party intensifies graft crackdown

Vietnam has been rife with speculation he would be removed following January's dismissal of two deputy prime ministers who served under him.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 17, 2023

Kishida and Yoon call for improved bilateral relations

Kishida said in his written message that relations between Japan and South Korea need to be brought back to normalcy and promoted further.
Japan Times
TENNIS
Jan 17, 2023

Andy Murray turns back the clock to win five-set epic

Murray will play the winner of Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis and Italian veteran Fabio Fognini for a place in the third round.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 17, 2023

With Kishida criticism, Suga steps back onto Japan's political stage

The former prime minister broke his monthslong silence to express his discontent with Kishida's decision to remain as an LDP faction leader.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2023

Boston startup raises $40 million to develop new low-carbon cement technology

The cement industry makes as much as 8% of the world's emissions — meeting global climate goals would require reducing that to zero.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2023

Climate activists say Big Oil is taking cycling fans for a ride

Sports sponsorships have emerged as a major battleground in the push to ban fossil fuel companies from advertising their brands.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2023

COVID-19 tracker: Tokyo reports 11,120 new cases, 28 deaths

On Monday, the daily number of new cases across Japan came to 52,622, down by about 40,000 from a week earlier.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 17, 2023

Japan’s largest trade union head says 2023 is pivotal for wages

Trade union leader has stressed the importance of moving toward continued wage growth in the face of rapid inflation and economic stagnation.
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 23, 2025

Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu

The monster dolls may be driving fans wild elsewhere, but Japan has long had plenty of its own domestically produced characters that know exactly what consumers want.
Dennis Kwok, then a pro-democracy lawmaker, answers questions from the media outside the High Court in Hong Kong on Oct. 31, 2019.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2023

Hong Kong police target more family members of wanted democracy activists

The pair, former lawmaker Dennis Kwok and unionist Mung Siu-tat, are among eight exiled activists sought by authorities for alleged violations of the National Security Law.
The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
COMMUNITY / Issues / Longform
Oct 22, 2025

Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.

From the desperate and defeated to the blissful and breezy, readers share their experiences of getting a driver’s license in Japan.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2023

Iconic dragon painting at Sensoji Temple peels off ceiling

Visitors to Tokyo's Sensoji Temple were left in shock as an iconic dragon painting on the ceiling of the main hall peeled off and was left hanging above their heads.
Japan's consumer prices rose 3.3% year-on-year in June, with the pace of inflation accelerating from the 3.2% recorded in May.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2023

Japan's price growth accelerates ahead of BOJ inflation update

Prices excluding those for fresh food gained 3.3% from a year ago, accelerating a little from the rise in May as energy prices were less of a drag on inflation.
Police investigators enter the head office of Albatross in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 23, 2025

Tokyo police raid resignation assistance firm for violating attorney law

The operator is suspected of introducing clients to lawyers and charging a commission fee even though the company has no legal qualifications to do so.
Authorities have been working to clean up an industrial park where they say a small steel company appears to have smelted scrap metal mixed with cesium, contaminating various nearby factories.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 14, 2025

How the U.S. ended up with radioactive shrimp and sneakers from Indonesia

The case lays bare shortcomings with oversight in Indonesia’s growing scrap-metal trade and underscores how a single industrial mishap can reverberate through global supply chains.
In Japan, 35% of students graduate with a degree in the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and math — compared with 38% in the U.S., 42% in South Korea and Germany and 45% in Britain.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 21, 2023

Japan to give ¥300 billion to universities expanding science education

As the country's R&D status continues to drop, the ministry’s new program aims to fund schools pivoting toward STEM subjects.
Tokyo Gendai is described by fair organizers Art Assembly as Tokyo Bay’s first international contemporary art fair in 30 years.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 22, 2023

Can a new art fair finally put Tokyo on the map?

Tokyo Gendai puts on a good event but still needs to change Japanese opinions on contemporary art.
The reference text A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar recently underwent a revision for the first time in nearly four decades.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 19, 2025

A dictionary revision illustrates how Japanese keeps on evolving

The newly revised Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar updates example sentences and grammar notes to reflect language shifts since 1989.
China holds a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Beijing on Sept. 3. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 18, 2025

Beware of China’s strategic distortion of reality

The ancient strategy resurfaced after Prime Minister Takaichi said Japan might need to respond militarily if China forced Taiwan’s unification.
JAPAN / Explainer
Jul 21, 2023

Bike, scooter, taxi? Here are your options for nonrail transit in Japan

Here's a rundown on your options and how best to utilize them — whether your a tourist or long-time resident.
SOCCER / Women's World cup
Jul 21, 2023

Nadeshiko Japan's Women's World Cup glory now distant memory

Japan begins its latest World Cup campaign against Zambia on Saturday, but is ranked 11th now and no longer among the favorites.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met for 25 minutes on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 18, 2025

Bank of Japan independence holds as governor meets with super-dovish PM

Any discussion about the movement of interest rates was kept general and vague.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2023

Japan top court sends back reemployment pay case

In the lawsuit, the male plaintiffs have demanded that their employer pay the difference between what they were paid before and after the retirement age.
Japan's Keisuke Honda after a match against Belgium in the round of 16 at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, in July 2018.
SOCCER
Nov 18, 2025

Japan has potential to win 2026 World Cup, says veteran Honda

"They have the potential (to) become at least the best four in the World Cup next year, maybe champion," Honda said.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 21, 2023

Crime ring suspect served fresh warrant over Chiba robbery

The case is part of a spate of robberies across Japan allegedly committed by a group whose ringleaders are believed to have recruited people through social media posts.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, speaks to reporters outside the Capitol as the House was voting in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 19, 2025

U.S. Congress votes for release of Epstein files, putting matter before Trump

Despite his changed position on the bill, the Republican president remains angry about the attention paid to the Epstein matter.
Clothes displayed at Shein’s headquarters in Singapore
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2023

Fast fashion report cards show what’s really in your clothes

Consumers’ drive for quantity over quality is transforming the world’s textile industry, sparking an almost doubling in global fiber production over the past two decades.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman talk to the press in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 19, 2025

Trump’s warm welcome gives Saudi crown prince ‘lopsided’ rewards

The White House said the two countries signed a loosely worded defense cooperation pact, and Trump designated Saudi Arabia as a "major non-NATO ally.”

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo