search

 
 
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 24, 2021

Episode 83: What is Clubhouse and why is it so popular in Japan?

Less than a year old, earlier this month Clubhouse became the most popular app on the Japan App Store.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 24, 2021

Thailand receives its first coronavirus vaccines

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is expected to be among the first to receive the vaccine this weekend.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2021

One shot or two? Japan weighs question as vaccine rollout stalls amid shortages

Health minister Norihisa Tamura says Japan will stick to the standard two-dose schedule, but some in the LDP are calling for a change of course.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2021

Northern Ireland is the first test of the post-Brexit order

Trade deals, like peace agreements, aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on without good faith vested in their implementation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2021

Germany’s empty pipeline logic

The pipeline across the Baltic has pitted the United States and the European Union against Germany, and a swelling chorus of domestic critics against German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2021

The Russia strategy Europe needs

Europe no longer has any illusions that Russia is on a trajectory toward liberal democracy that could be accelerated through engagement.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2021

Keeping troops in Afghanistan makes America safer

The case for maintaining a small yet strong military presence in Afghanistan is sound, if not popular.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2021

Time for realism in the climate battle

After the one-year respite caused by COVID-19, carbon emissions will be staying stubbornly high, just as they were before the pandemic pushed down world energy demand for a while.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2021

Bitcoin and blackouts fuel anti-Chinese sentiment in Iran

Many people were outraged to learn that the Chinese are supposedly devouring the country's electricity in their bitcoin mining farms.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, at a news conference on Tuesday. He said that when Japan states it wants the tariffs reviewed, it means Tokyo wants them removed.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 20, 2025

Japan confirms hard-line position ahead of possible tariff talks in Washington

Tokyo wants all new levies put into place by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump completely removed.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers an address to mark the first anniversary of his inauguration at the Presidential Office in Taipei on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 20, 2025

Taiwan willing to talk to China, Lai says, as island boosts defenses

Lai, a staunch defender of Taiwan's sovereignty and detested by Beijing, delivered wide-ranging remarks on the need "to prepare for war to avoid war."
Singaporean Ambassador to Japan Ong Eng Chuan says his country hopes to “collaborate closely” with Japan in the area of quantum computing technology.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 20, 2025

Singapore envoy eyes stronger cyber and digital links with Japan

Quantum computing is one particular area of interest as Japan develops its technical capability via a collaboration with Intel.
If tax exemptions are revised, small parcels containing products bought from Shein and PDD Holdings' Temu shipped into Japan could be subject to the country’s sales tax, which mostly stands at 10%.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 20, 2025

Japan considers taxing small parcels as Shein and Temu expand

An experts group has discussed problems related to existing exemptions, including concerns about the channel being a conduit for illegal drugs and counterfeit goods.
The Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested Masaki Natori, 45, president of an auto accessory sales company in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward, on suspicion of violating the unfair competition prevention law.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 20, 2025

Kanagawa man arrested for selling mopeds as battery bicycles in Tokyo

The man is suspected of selling some 1,000 mopeds between March 2022 and May this year by falsely labeling them as battery-assisted bicycles.
A lot at a Nissan plant in Mexico. The company may have overextended itself during the Ghosn era.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
May 20, 2025

Nissan’s troubles might go all the way back to Ghosn 

Some analysts argue that aggressive expansion by the iconoclastic executive left the company overextended.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is among the key Democrats who have raised concerns about Middle East chip deals.
WORLD / Politics
May 20, 2025

Democrats warn Trump’s Middle East chip deals imperil U.S. security

Key U.S. Senate Democrats have urged the administration of President Donald Trump to revisit new artificial intelligence deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, saying that expanded sales of AI chips to the Middle Eastern countries risk exposing advanced technology to China and Russia,...
Police have arrested a senior official of Nippon Kakekomidera, a nonprofit organization that helps vulnerable people in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district, for cocaine possession.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 20, 2025

Youth support group official arrested for cocaine possession

A senior official of a group that helps youth in Tokyo's red-light district was arrested along with a woman in her 20s who is believed to have sought help from the nonprofit.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in parliament in Budapest on Tuesday. Critics have likened recent moves by the prime minister to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to crack down on domestic rivals.
WORLD / Politics
May 20, 2025

Viktor Orban tightens grip on freedoms in Hungary ahead of election next year

Over the past 15 years, the premier has expelled a university, overhauled the judiciary and whipped up propaganda campaigns against political opponents.
China has faced spates of extreme weather events, from searing heat and drought to downpours and floods, for several consecutive summers.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 20, 2025

Record May heat scorches north and central China

China has endured spates of extreme weather events, from searing heat and drought to downpours and floods, for several summers running.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is looking to make the cost of base service fees in water utility bills free during the summer, hoping the financial support will allow residents to turn on their air conditioners and protect themselves against heatstroke.
JAPAN / Society
May 20, 2025

Tokyo to cover cost of base service fees for water utilities through summer

By lowering utility fees, the metropolitan government hopes to give residents a sense of security that they can accommodate other necessary expenses.
Kimihiro Matsuzaki prepares dishes at his half-century-old restaurant, Yanagi, in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jun 2, 2025

Profitable Fukushima companies closing due to lack of successors

According to Teikoku Databank, more than a third of the companies that went out of business in the prefecture in 2024 were in the black.
Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe says the company's investment plans for electric vehicles have been scaled back during a news conference in Tokyo Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 20, 2025

Honda walks back EV investment and sales targets on poor demand

Honda now sees hybrids accounting for 2.2 million of 3.6 million in global sales by 2030, up from the 2 million it previously saw.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, apologized on Tuesday at the Prime Minister's Office to Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki over LDP member Shoji Nishida's inappropriate remark about war-related exhibits in the prefecture.
JAPAN / Politics
May 20, 2025

Ishiba apologizes over LDP member's remark on World War II exhibits

LDP lawmaker Shoji Nishida called descriptions on a monument commemorating the Himeyuri corps of female students who died in the Battle of Okinawa "a revision of history."
China’s Made in China 2025 program set an ambitious agenda, and a decade later, initial assessments conclude it had mixed success but maintain its goals will shape Chinese policy for years to come.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2025

Ten years of Made in China 2025 sees mixed success

MIC2025 set an ambitious agenda, and a decade later, early reviews say it has had mixed success but maintain that its goals will shape Chinese policy for years to come.
''A Minecraft Movie'' star Jack Black attends the films world premiere in London on March 30. Video-game adaptations like the movie are overtaking superhero films at the box office.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2025

Success of ‘Minecraft’ shows the future of movies is games

The big-screen feature from Warner Bros. Discovery, "A Minecraft Movie," has outearned every other U.S. movie so far in 2025.

Longform

"Shake hands with Lima-chan," a statue that shares the name of the Peruvian capital looks in the direction of Peru, where a sister statue, "Sakura-chan," is located. Erected in Yokohama's Rinko Park in 1999, it commemorates Peruvian-Japanese friendship.
The journey of Peru’s Nikkei: Finding identity in Japan