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Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Feb 21, 2022

Burakumin discrimination history revealed 100 years on from rights declaration

Growing up in the chaos that followed World War II wasn't the only thing that prevented Hikari, now 82, from learning to read and write.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Feb 21, 2022

Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau join others in spurning Saudi-backed Super Golf League

Former world No. 1 Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau became the latest high-profile players to commit to the PGA Tour on Sunday, as the American-based circuit faces the threat of a rival Saudi-funded breakaway league.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Feb 21, 2022

Will a presidential election mark the end of South Korea's tattoo taboos?

Almost all of the country's 50,000 tattoo artists are at the mercy of potential police raids and prosecution, facing huge fines as well as prison terms, in theory as much as life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 21, 2022

Sky-Hi: Taking up the fight for artistic freedom

The artist-turned-talent agency CEO says Japan's music industry needs a major modern makeover.
Japan Times
Special Supplements / Ainu language special
Feb 21, 2022

Efforts underway to save Ainu language and culture

Chances are you haven’t met an Ainu speaker in Japan. After all, Google’s Endangered Languages Project puts the number of native speakers at fewer than five. But the Ainu people once populated a wide swath of northern Japan, stretching from Tohoku to Hokkaido, the Chishima islands, and the southern...
Special Supplements / Ainu language special
Feb 21, 2022

Respected comic book spurs hope for indigenous tongue

In 2009, UNESCO in its “Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger” designated the Ainu language as being critically endangered. As the most dire of the five categories — only extinct is worse — used in the report, it highlighted the precarious state that had befallen the language.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 21, 2022

Soaring gasoline bad timing for Asian governments facing voters

Soaring gasoline prices are fanning inflation and causing a headache for governments and central banks worldwide.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 21, 2022

SoftBank calls Credit Suisse subpoena a ‘fishing expedition’

The Tokyo-based holding company the subpoena prepared by the Swiss bank is nothing more than an attempt to deflect responsibility for the Greensill collapse.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 21, 2022

Thousands flee to mainland China as Hong Kong outbreak widens

Departures via land routes tripled to 24,697 in the first 17 days of February from a year earlier, according to Immigration Department data.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Feb 20, 2022

Controversial Beijing Olympics reach finish line

Japan had its best-ever showing at a Winter Games with 18 medals in an event that will be remembered for its complicated circumstances as much as its thrilling athletic displays.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 20, 2022

Nepal police fire tear gas, water cannon to disperse protest over U.S. gift

Nepal security forces used tear gas and water cannons against protesters opposed to a U.S.-funded infrastructure program that was presented in parliament for ratification.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 20, 2022

Queen Elizabeth tests positive for coronavirus, as England is poised to relax rules

The health of the queen, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has been in the spotlight since she spent a night in hospital last October for an unspecified ailment.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 20, 2022

Russia and Belarus extend military drills north of Ukraine

NATO says Russia has up to 30,000 troops in Belarus and could use them as part of an invasion force to attack Ukraine, although Moscow denies any such intention.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2022

How China’s 'COVID zero' policy is giving a polish to gold

Gold has mostly traded sideways since the start of the year, and the usual negative correlation between higher U.S. Treasury yields and lower gold prices — and vice versa — has disappeared.
Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura is calling for ride-hailing services with no limitations on time zones, locations, dates or the number of vehicles during the Osaka Expo.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 1, 2024

Uncertainty looms over ride-hailing plans for 2025 Osaka Expo

A flood of tourists from Japan and overseas is expected to visit the Osaka Expo, which will open in April next year and run for six months.
Members of Myanmar's military security force patrol a street in Yangon, Myanmar.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 1, 2024

Myanmar junta extends emergency rule as civil war rages on

This is the sixth time Myanmar's highest body has decided to extend the emergency, further pushing back long-promised elections.
Then U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, on June 30, 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 1, 2024

North Korea wants to restart nuclear talks if Trump wins, says ex-diplomat

The former diplomat said North Korea has also set Russia, the U.S. and Japan as its top foreign policy priorities.
A man walks next to an office building of FSD (Fondation Suisse de Déminage), a nongovernmental humanitarian organization, damaged during a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on July 24.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 1, 2024

Russia vs Ukraine: the biggest war of the fake news era

More than three-quarters of the Ukrainian population get their news from social media, far more than any other source of information.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the media in New Delhi on June 7.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 1, 2024

India's state elections to test Modi after budget fails to aid swing voters

Despite talk of relief, the government has raised taxes on gains from retail investments, removed some real estate tax benefits and left income tax rates untouched.
Yuto Horigome defended his Olympic title in men's street skateboarding on Monday to continue Japan's dominant run in the event.
OLYMPICS / Skateboarding
Aug 1, 2024

Why Japan is so dominant in street skateboarding

Skateboarding has only been a part of the Olympics for two editions, but the sight of Japanese skaters on the podium in the street competition is already a familiar one.
Students at Aichi Commercial High School in Nagoya participate in a makeup workshop held at the school in July.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2024

Nagoya high school allows students to wear makeup on Fridays

Aichi Commercial High School has permits students to not wear their uniform on Fridays to help them learn about maintaining a professional appearance.
The amount of money stolen in fraud cases linked to social media in the first half of 2024 exceeded that of the whole 2023, the National Police Agency said.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 1, 2024

¥66 billion stolen in Japan via online scams in first half of 2024

Of the investment fraud cases reported, 51.6% involved advertisements on social media platforms.
A 28-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of deceiving a man she met on a dating app into paying her cash for sexually transmitted infection tests.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 1, 2024

Tokyo woman arrested on suspicion of STI test fraud

Police said Misaki Watanabe asked a man to pay for tests before engaging in sexual relations, but ceased all communication after receiving the money.
Japan's personal mortgages are set to rise for the first time in a generation following the Bank of Japan's rate hike.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 1, 2024

Japan’s ultralow mortgages to see first increase in 17 years

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group said it plans to increase the short-term prime rate for the first time in 17 years in September.
Gold medalist Pan Zhanle of China celebrates on the podium after winning the men's 100-meter freestyle event at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS / Swimming
Aug 1, 2024

Chinese swim fans hit back at doping claims as Pan takes gold

Pan burnished his reputation in his home country with a world-record time of 46.40 seconds, beating the previous fastest time of 46.80 he had set in February.
Surrounded by Iranian lawmakers, Ismail Haniyeh (center), a chief political leader of Hamas, flashes a victory sign at a swearing-in ceremony for President Masoud Pezeshkian, in Tehran on Tuesday. Haniyeh was assassinated hours later, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said, a severe blow to the Palestinian group that threatens to engulf the region in further conflict.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 1, 2024

Iran and Hamas blame Israel for killing of top official and vow to strike back

In recent years, Israel has carried out several high-profile assassinations in Iran, rattling the country’s leaders.
A line of children's clothes featuring slogans about lazy, uninvolved fathers have sparked an online backlash.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 1, 2024

Japan store pulls 'lazy dad' kid clothes after backlash

Some commentators called them an affront to hard-working fathers, while others said they highlighted the country's childcare gender gap that weighs heavily on women.
Mountain climber Kazuya Hiraide, from Nagano Prefecture. Hiraide and his climbing partner, Kenro Nakajima, fell 7,000 meters while climbing K2. He was 45.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2024

Rescue called off for two Japanese climbers falling from K2

The two were spotted from a helicopter, but it could not land to retrieve them due to the steep location and other logistical problems.
Jera reported ¥93.4 billion in profit for the April-June quarter, down 48% from the year-before period.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 1, 2024

JERA's April-June profit halves; Taketoyo plant remains shut

The 1,070-megawatt (MW) Taketoyo power station in Aichi Prefecture has been shut since it was hit by a fire on Jan. 31.

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