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Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 19, 2022

Japan's trade gap widens as import costs surge on supply pressures

Japan's exports rose 12.5% in April from a year earlier, Finance Ministry data showed, led by U.S.-bound shipments of cars .
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
May 19, 2022

More pain in Sri Lanka before any resolution to crisis

To bring back some stability, new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has proposed selling the national airline, printing more money and possibly raising taxes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 19, 2022

Li Kotomi's 'Solo Dance' flows across prose and borders

A beautiful translation by Arthur Reiji Morris of 'Solo Dance' will solidify Li Kotomi's place in the next generation of Japanese writers.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 19, 2022

North Korea boosts production of drugs and medical supplies to battle COVID

The country is also increasing production of traditional Korean medicines used to reduce fever and pain, KCNA said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 19, 2022

‘Wandering’: Questionable subject matter, handled with care

Zainichi Korean filmmaker Sang-il Lee's drama about the lasting effects of an unconventional attachment between a child and a grown adult reveals the brutal realities of Japanese society.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 19, 2022

‘Shin Ultraman’: No deeper messages, just a lot of fun

Otaku 'dream team' duo Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi join forces once again to revive another special-effects classic that's fun and camp but lacks some punch.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 19, 2022

Katsumoto Saotome, who preserved memories of Tokyo firebombing, dies at 90

He compiled six books of survivors' recollections of the 1945 attack. He also founded — without government support — a memorial museum.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
May 18, 2022

North Korea not seeking help for COVID-19 ‘crisis,’ aid groups say

Pyongyang has reportedly appeared to have sent airplanes to China, its biggest benefactor, in the past few days to pick up medical supplies.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 18, 2022

Climate change boosted cost of Japan storm by $4 billion, study shows

Hagibis, which killed about 100 people and brought torrential rainfall to Tokyo, was one of the costliest Western Pacific typhoons on record, scientists in the U.K. have said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 18, 2022

Japanese firm donates smart masks to Ukrainian evacuees

Capable of translating into 100 different languages, the masks were provided to Ukrainians for better communication with locals in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 18, 2022

With Ukraine taking firmer stance, peace talks grind to a halt

After weeks of trying to hammer out a peace deal, negotiators for Russia and Ukraine appear further apart than at any other point in the nearly three-monthlong war.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 18, 2022

Cats purrfectly know their feline friends’ names, Japanese study says

Scientists from Kyoto University, Azabu University and other institutions have proposed that cats learn to associate names with certain objects, possibly including owners.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 18, 2022

When Africans asked for COVID shots, they didn't get them. Now they don't want them.

The perception that COVID-19 doesn't pose a significant threat is common in Africa, as its population has suffered a fraction of the casualties seen in other countries.
JAPAN
May 18, 2022

Kishida takes aim at Japan's primary care doctor system in response to pandemic

After COVID-19 patients were turned away from local physicians, the government began considering reforms to how private practice doctors operate.
The Tokyo court's ruling comes amid ongoing debates on how to regulate generative AI and is part of a transnational class action lawsuit.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 17, 2024

Can AI-generated inventions be patented? A Tokyo court says no.

The ruling comes amid ongoing debates on how to regulate generative AI and is part of a transnational class action lawsuit.
Toshihiro Nikai, former secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, announced in March that he would not run in the next Lower House election to take responsibility for the political funds scandal that rocked his party and his own faction.
JAPAN / Politics
May 17, 2024

Son of LDP heavyweight Toshihiro Nikai to run in Lower House election

Nobuyasu Nikai's decision to throw his hat into the ring also has larger implications for the Liberal Democratic Party.
The Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito discuss the bill for the revision of the political funds control law in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 17, 2024

LDP submits its own proposal to revise political funds law

A tight parliamentary schedule has pushed the party to expedite negotiations with the opposition even at the cost of deepening a rift with its longtime ally.
U.S. President Joe Biden signs orders that increase tariffs on China during an event at the White House on Tuesday. The escalating trade tensions risk slowing the transition to green technologies by boosting production costs.
EDITORIALS
May 17, 2024

Looming U.S.-China 'trade war' bodes ill for green tech

China has denounced the new U.S. tariffs as bullying and warned of potential retaliation, arguing that they could harm global green economic transition efforts.
The Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee approves legislation to introduce a new training scheme for foreign workers on Friday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 17, 2024

Japan parliamentary panel OKs bill on training foreign workers

It will replace the foreign technical intern program with a new training scheme to allow foreigners to work in Japan for the medium to long term.
Samples of cannabis edibles are offered during The 1st Phuket Cannabis Cup in Phuket, Thailand, in March 2023. Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said marijuana should soon be classified as a narcotic again and its use limited to medical and health purposes.
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2024

Thailand’s cannabis U-turn is a cautionary tale

Banning the drug outright will no doubt cause a lot of pain to farmers, small business owners and consumers. A middle-ground approach to return to medical usage would be wise.

A 2010 study found that U.S. adults averaged 5,117 steps daily and that this was lower than the averages found in similar studies in Switzerland, western Australia and Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2024

America wasn’t made for walking, and it’s killing them

A 2010 study found that U.S. adults averaged 5,117 steps daily and that this was lower than the averages found in similar studies in Switzerland, western Australia and Japan.
Japan Times contributor Laura Pollacco (front right) was offered the role of one of her all-time favorite heroines, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bennet, in the Tokyo International Players’ production of “Pride and Prejudice.”
CULTURE / Stage
May 18, 2024

Local theater in Japan is more than a hobby — it’s a community

For contributor Laura Pollacco, companies such as Tokyo International Players and Sheepdog Theatre offer a home away from home.
A demonstration condemning the killing of three Chinese teachers from the University of Karachi's Confucius Institute in April 2022. Terrorist groups in Pakistan are targeting Chinese nationals and threatening Beijing's Belt and Road initiative projects in the country.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2024

Should we stay or should we go? China's dilemma in Pakistan

Beijing is pouring billions into Pakistan to complete a key Belt and Road initiative artery. But this is threatened by terrorist groups targeting Chinese nationals and interests.
Atsuhiko Kurokawa, the head of Tsubasa no To, is taken to the Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Friday after being arrested.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 17, 2024

Political group's chief arrested for Tokyo poll obstruction

Atsuhiko Kurokawa, who heads Tsubasa no To, allegedly disrupted the speeches of opponents during April's by-election in Tokyo along with two others.
Representatives of the ruling bloc and opposition parties meet in Tokyo on Friday to start discussions on possible relaxations of the imperial family's strict succession rules.
JAPAN
May 17, 2024

Lawmakers begin talks on Japan's dwindling imperial line

Japan currently has only one heir: Emperor Naruhito's 17-year-old nephew Prince Hisahito.
Japanese baseball superstar is presented with a proclamation by the Los Angeles City Council naming May 17 "Shohei Ohtani Day" in honor of the Dodgers' slugger on Friday in the city in this image taken from an official livestream of the council meeting.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 18, 2024

City of Los Angeles celebrates 'Shohei Ohtani Day'

In a ceremony at City Hall, council president Paul Krekorian hailed the Dodgers' acquisition of Ohtani in a record-breaking $700 million deal.
David DePape (left) assaults Paul Pelosi, husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at their San Francisco home on Oct. 28, 2022 in still screen shot from a police bodycam. DePape, convicted in 2023 of breaking into the couple's San Francisco home and bludgeoning Paul Pelosi with a hammer, was jailed Friday for 30 years.
WORLD / Politics
May 18, 2024

Nancy Pelosi's husband's attacker jailed for 30 years

Jurors in his trial heard how David DePape — a Canadian former nudist activist who supported himself with occasional carpentry work — had initially planned to target Nancy Pelosi.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during an interview at the Presidential Office in Kyiv on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
May 18, 2024

Zelenskyy warns Russia could step up offensive

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would only accept a "fair peace" despite the West's calls for a quick solution.
Ships are seen near a temporary floating pier built to receive humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip in Gaza Beach in this image release on Saturday.
WORLD
May 18, 2024

Fierce fighting in northern Gaza as aid starts to roll off U.S.-built pier

As the fighting raged, the U.S. military said trucks started moving aid ashore from a temporary pier, the first to reach the besieged enclave by sea in weeks.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past