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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2021

Regulators may be doing Alibaba a favor after all

Of great concern is that this core business once again contributed all of the operating profit because the rest of Alibaba's divisions remain a drag on earnings.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2021

Russia’s bear economy

Lacking secure property rights and being subject to Western sanctions, Russia can attract only fools and crooks.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 16, 2021

Taiwan and Singapore, COVID-19 success stories, face threats

The regression of COVID-19 control progress shows the difficulty of sustaining a virus-free environment, especially when a low level of threat made locals reluctant to get vaccinated.
JAPAN
May 16, 2021

Rainy season in western Japan arrives earlier than ever

The Kinki region likely entered the rainy season Sunday, 25 days earlier than last year and 21 days earlier than average.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 16, 2021

Philippines cuts rice tariffs to ensure food security and fight inflation

The Southeast Asian nation, which is battling elevated inflation, took into consideration the increase in global rice prices and uncertainties in local rice supply with the decision.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 16, 2021

Biden laments recent civilian deaths in call with Israeli leader

U.S. President Joe Biden ramped up efforts to calm Israeli-Palestinian tensions and urged the protection of civilians, including children, after an Israeli airstrike targeted media offices in Gaza.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 16, 2021

How the U.S. policy on masks went from science to secret to surprise

For a nation mired in a pandemic for more than a year, the biggest step toward a return to normal came suddenly, even to U.S. President Joe Biden.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA
May 16, 2021

Kobe Bryant remembered in emotional Hall of Fame inductions

Vanessa Bryant stood at the podium on Saturday evening as her late husband Kobe was being formally inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and she noted that she always avoided praising the former Los Angeles Lakers star in public.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 16, 2021

‘Things Remembered and Things Forgotten’: History, memory and cultural identity

Kyoko Nakajima's latest collection of translated short stories explores the ties connecting Japan's past to its present. Ghosts are involved in more ways than one.
A Taiwanese military honor guard holds Taiwanese flags during an open day event for the public at the Keelung port on the island Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 18, 2025

China sends most military aircraft near Taiwan since October

Beijing's military move came days after the democratic island’s president called it “a foreign hostile force.”
Then-U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun arrives at a meeting with the media in Bangkok in December 2017.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 18, 2025

U.S. official says South Korea's watchlist status due to mishandling of lab data

The U.S. Department of Energy confirmed this week that it had designated South Korea a "sensitive" country in January, but did not explain why.
Akinori Nakayama, who has died at the age of 82, won 10 Olympic medals and gave his name to a rings maneuver still performed by the world's top gymnasts. 
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Mar 18, 2025

Japanese gymnastics great Akinori Nakayama dies aged 82

Nakayama won 10 Olympic medals and gave his name to a rings maneuver still performed by the world's top gymnasts. 
A supporter of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte holds a placard during a prayer rally in Manila on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 18, 2025

'Bring him home': Philippines migrant workers grapple with Duterte fallout

Despite ICC charges of a systemic attack on civilians in his war on drugs, the ex-Philippine president "understood the everyday life of overseas Filipinos," experts say.
Rieko Tamaki (left) tells her story about the Battle of Okinawa to university student Hinata Kinjo at a park in Yaese, Okinawa Prefecture, near the area where Tamaki’s brother was killed during the conflict.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Mar 24, 2025

Battle of Okinawa survivor passes down memories of war

The 90-year-old woman still remembers the final moments of her then-14-year-old brother's life during the 1945 battle.
People wait to receive bags of rice distributed by the World Food Program on the outskirts of Yangon in 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 18, 2025

Myanmar faces 'untold' suffering due to U.S. aid 'betrayal': U.N. expert

A former U.S. congressman has torn into the cuts, saying they were politically motivated, based on distortions and being carried out in the worst possible manner.
BYD's large cylindrical cell batteries are pictured at Smart Energy Week in Tokyo on Feb. 19.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 18, 2025

How BYD’s five-minute charging stacks up against the competition

The Chinese firm is now staking claim to a system it says will make it as quick to charge an electric vehicle as to refuel a gasoline car.
Releasing on March 20, Assassin's Creed Shadows excels in atmosphere and open-world gameplay but falls short of narrative expectations.
LIFE / Digital
Mar 19, 2025

Assassin’s Creed Shadows puts samurai style over substance

Ubisoft’s latest game is a gorgeous jaunt through feudal Japan entirely unworthy of the controversy surrounding it.
Prince Hisahito arrives at the University of Tsukuba's Senior High School at Otsuka in Tokyo on Tuesday morning for the school's graduation ceremony.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2025

Prince Hisahito graduates from high school

The 18-year-old prince, nephew of Emperor Naruhito and second in line to the throne, is scheduled to enter the University of Tsukuba in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, next month.
Locals fill up bottles from a communal water tank in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 30, 2024, following the Noto Peninsula earthquake on New Year's Day.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 18, 2025

Lower House passes bill on peninsular disaster prevention

The bill is centered around advancing disaster prevention efforts that take into consideration the unique geographic features of such regions.
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya has named the issue of fishery products imports as an important topic to be discussed with China.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 19, 2025

Japan, China and South Korea's top diplomats to meet in Tokyo

The last such trilateral meeting was held in November 2023 in the South Korean port city of Busan.
Bags of the government's rice stockpile are shipped out of a warehouse in Saitama Prefecture on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2025

Portion of government rice stockpile to hit shelves as early as next week

In a bid to stop the surging price of rice, the government auctioned off a portion of its emergency stockpile.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a session of the Upper House Budget Committee in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 18, 2025

Why ousting Ishiba could be a tricky task

Passing a no-confidence motion could result in the dissolution of the Lower House within 10 days, triggering another election the opposition might lose.
The Environment Ministry has removed more than 200 species from its red list of endangered plants and fungi, with the removal largely reflecting a recovery of populations. For instance, the Cypripedium macranthos var. rebunense, which grows on Rebun Island in Hokkaido, has been moved to the "near threatened" category.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Mar 18, 2025

Japan removes 207 species from red list of endangered plants and fungi

The decrease largely reflects the recovery of populations, though 57 species were recognized as extinct.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba instructs his government to develop a system to operate what are known as hospital ships by January 2026 at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 18, 2025

Japan to begin hospital ship operations by next January

The program calls for using existing private-sector ships to transport patients from disaster-affected areas and provide medical care.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’