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JAPAN
Dec 24, 2021

Japan not planning to send senior officials to Beijing Olympics

In an attempt to strike a diplomatic balance in its relationships with both the U.S. and China, only Olympic officials will represent Japan at the Winter Games.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2021

Japan’s draft budget hits record high for 10th straight year

Spending on areas such as social security and defense has jumped, while estimated tax revenue has been revised upwards.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2021

Tokyo confirms first case of omicron community transmission

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said Friday a doctor with no recent history of overseas travel has been confirmed to have been infected.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 24, 2021

GM, Google and others join retreat from CES over rising COVID-19 cases

The event will still be held in person, but with 'strong safety measures,' including vaccination requirements, masking and COVID-19 tests.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 24, 2021

Israel considers fourth vaccine doses, but some experts say it’s premature

Experts advising the Israeli government have recommended a fourth vaccine dose, but some scientists have warned that too many shots may cause a sort of immune system fatigue.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 24, 2021

'Squid Game' and BTS are driving a boom in Korean-made goods

South Korean music, TV and films are bringing once-obscure brands into the mainstream as far away as the U.S.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 24, 2021

Intel apologizes over its statement on forced labor in Xinjiang

Intel is the latest example of a multinational firm that has struggled to balance compliance with U.S. sanctions against Xinjiang and Chinese nationalist sentiment.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 24, 2021

Christmas miracle: German flood victims receive tiny houses

Franziska Hilberath and her partner had been sleeping at the homes of friends and relatives ever since their home was destroyed by flash floods this summer.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2021

Mitsubishi UFJ targets Asia unicorns with debt-finance fund

Japan's largest lender will start a u00a534 billion fund early next year after upsizing its first joint-venture fund earlier this year.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 24, 2021

Myanmar plans to hold fresh election in August 2023, junta chief says

The top general earlier extended an initial timeline for the new election after the election body annulled last year's poll results that Aung San Suu Kyi's party won in a landslide.
Workers take a midday rest at Sudirman Central Business District in Jakarta on Feb. 15. For the past two months, fund managers have boosted positions in sovereign bonds in Indonesia, as well as Thailand and Malaysia.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 18, 2024

How Asia is bracing for Fed’s imminent shift to rate cuts

The widely anticipated pivot is likely to bolster emerging market assets in Asia and extend their lead over global favorites such as Japan and chip stocks.
Liberal Democratic Party presidential election candidates after a campaign event in Nagoya on Saturday
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 18, 2024

LDP leader candidates split on separate surnames for married couples

While party conservatives worry about damaging family unity, others say it’s time to push through a legislative change.
Health ministry officials inspect the Wakayama factory of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical in March after reports of health damage surfaced among people who took the firm's red yeast rice supplements.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 18, 2024

Puberulic acid confirmed as source of beni kōji health issues

The substance produced by blue mold was the cause of kidney problems suffered by consumers of the Kobayashi Pharma supplements, the health ministry said.
Komeito Secretary-General Keiichi Ishii
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 18, 2024

Ishii to head Komeito in first leadership change in 15 years

Keiichi Ishii will be appointed the new Komeito leader at a party convention on Sept. 28.
The estimated number of overseas visitors to Japan rose 36.0% from a year before to 2,933,000 in August, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2024

Overseas visitors hit record high for August at 2.9 million

The figure was up 16.4% from the same month in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The remains of exploded pagers on display at an undisclosed location in Beirut's southern suburbs on Wednesday. Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday.
WORLD
Sep 18, 2024

Taiwanese and Hungarian firms deny making Hezbollah pagers

A source close to Hezbollah previously said the devices appear to have been "sabotaged at source."
The H3 rocket, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, lifts off from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on Feb. 17.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2024

Mitsubishi to provide H3 rockets for France's Eutelsat from 2027

The deal is a major overseas win for Japan's ¥220 billion ($1.55 billion) state-backed H3 rocket project.
The Milky Way, known as "ama no gawa" in Japanese, is seen above Mount Fuji.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 18, 2024

Comets and constellations: The language of stargazing

Whether it's telling someone to look at a shooting star or describing the difference between stars and planets, the vocabulary of space is vast and interesting.
Anna Sawai (left), winner of the outstanding lead actress in a drama series award, and Hiroyuki Sanada, outstanding lead actor in a drama series for "Shogun," at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Sep 18, 2024

Japanese are jubilant over 'Shogun' — even without having watched the series

"Shogun" is only available via Disney's streaming platform, which is relatively new in Japan. Nonetheless, people are buzzing with excitement over the show's Emmy wins.
One of the coffins is carried during the funeral of Mohammed Bilal Kanj, Mohamed Hassan Nour al-Din, Abbas Fadel Yassin and Mohammad Mahdi Ammar, son of Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament, Ali Ammar, who were killed amid the detonation of pagers across Lebanon, in Beirut on Wednesday.
WORLD
Sep 19, 2024

Hezbollah devices explode again in Lebanon, raising fears of wider Israel conflict

Lebanon's health ministry said 20 people were killed on Wednesday, while Tuesday's explosions killed 12 and injured 3,000.
Ryo Yoshizawa plays a young man with deaf parents in Mipo O’s decade-spanning drama, “Living in Two Worlds.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2024

‘Living in Two Worlds’ raises the bar for depictions of deafness

Mipo O’s film about a child of deaf adults is best when it doesn’t try to educate viewers.
Marina Tsukada’s “Mitsuki, Sekai” features young nonprofessional actors in the director’s native Nagano Prefecture as their characters mature from childhood to adulthood.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2024

Intimate and revelatory, ‘Mitsuki, Sekai’ explores the quiet trials of girlhood

Marina Tsukada’s anthology feature containing two unconnected short films lays bare the inner lives of young Japanese women in unexpected ways.
The street where a 10-year-old boy is said to have been stabbed with a knife, on Thursday in Shenzhen in southern China.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 19, 2024

Japanese school student stabbed in Shenzhen dies

The assault echoes an earlier incident of violence in June, when a man attacked a bus used by a Japanese school in Suzhou, China.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a news conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 19, 2024

Fed cuts rates by half-point in decisive bid to defend economy

It is the Fed’s first rate cut in more than four years.
A man reacts while holding a Hezbollah flag during the funeral of people killed after hundreds of paging devices exploded in a deadly wave across Lebanon the previous day, in Beirut on Wednesday.
WORLD
Sep 19, 2024

Israel cites ‘new phase’ in regional war after Lebanon blasts

More military resources will be deployed to the north of the country, where Israel has been exchanging rocket fire with Hezbollah militants for almost a year.
White Sox catcher Chuckie Robinson sits in an empty dugout reviewing his at-bats after the team's game against the Angels on Monday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 19, 2024

White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history

The White Sox lost 4-3 in 13 innings on Wednesday on the road against the Los Angeles Angels, falling to 36-117 with nine games remaining in a nightmare six-month season.

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