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JAPAN
Jul 15, 2021

Pfizer vaccine crunch continues to trouble Japan's inoculation efforts

In response to supply issues, the central government will soon set aside a certain quantity of Pfizer doses that prefectures can distribute to municipalities that need them the most.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2021

Obscure cyberagency becomes nemesis of China's tech giants

Companies with large pools of user data now need approval for listings abroad.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 15, 2021

China’s key cities face future risk from hotter and longer summers

The temperature rise in some parts of China's major metropolitan areas could reach 2.6 C by 2100 and extend summer by about a month in those regions, according to Greenpeace East Asia.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 15, 2021

China’s economic growth slows in second quarter from record pace

Gross domestic product expanded 7.9% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday, down from 18.3% in the previous quarter.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 15, 2021

Toyota’s tech arm plans major hiring push in self-driving race

With profits withstanding the pandemic, the automaker can continue making strategic investments.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2021

Suga adviser says Japan needs extra budget as big as ¥30 trillion

Economist Heizo Takenaka has joined ruling party members calling for more spending as Japan muddles through a fourth virus emergency and voters prepare to head to the polls by fall.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2021

Netflix plans to offer video games in push beyond films and TV

Video games give Netflix another way to lure new customers and may make it easier to justify price increases in coming years.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 15, 2021

‘Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop’ bursts with love for the 1980s aesthetic

Kyohei Ishiguro's coming-of-age anime is a sweet and summery ode to the music and style of city pop.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 15, 2021

‘Restart’: There’s no place like home for second chances

Director Hiroshi Shinagawa, who endured his own struggles as a young comic, shows the darker side of showbiz, as well as the welcoming beauty of Shimokawa, Hokkaido Prefecture.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Jul 15, 2021

How a ban on a swim cap galvanized Black swimmers

After a backlash, members of the International Swimming Federation are reconsidering a ban they put on a swim cap designed for Black hair.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 15, 2021

‘Tokyo Kurds’: A sobering look at lives in limbo

Fumiari Hyuga's documentary about asylum seekers in Japan is an intimate portrait of life with freedom hanging in the balance.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2021

Facebook and Instagram to invest over $1 billion in content creators

Facebook Inc. will spend $1 billion on social media creators through the end of 2022 in a fight for top talent announced in a week when TikTok became the first rival mobile app to hit 3 billion global downloads.
Taxis in central Sendai. More people are becoming attracted to the job of a taxi driver as it can allow them to work flexibly.
BUSINESS / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Feb 10, 2025

Cab driving becoming an increasingly popular job in Sendai

Flexible hours and the work-at-your-own-pace environment has led to a renewed interest in taxi driving among younger people.
People were more concerned about the direct and specific impact of the Bank of Japan's latest rate hike on their personal lives, according to an artificial intelligence-driven analysis of various platforms, including social media.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 29, 2025

Japan begins feeling the pain of BOJ rate hikes more concretely

As time goes on, the BOJ’s rate increases appear to be having a stronger impact on people’s everyday lives, shifting from more abstract concepts to more concrete effects.
Female runners do not tend to have an increased risk of cardiac arrest with age, according to the results of the survey by a Japanese research team.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 29, 2025

Men over 60 at greater risk of cardiac arrest during marathons

The frequency of cardiac arrests for men of that age group was six times the rate of those age 49 or younger, according to Keio University researchers.
Hindu devotees sit after a deadly stampede before the second Shahi Snan (royal bath) at the Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival, in Prayagraj, India, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jan 29, 2025

Over a dozen dead in stampede at Hindu mega-festival in India

The six-week Kumbh Mela festival is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar.
With China's growing military threat against Taiwan, experts argue that real deterrence — such as increased training ties with Japan, the U.S. and other nations — may be necessary to prevent an invasion and protect regional stability.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 29, 2025

How to secure Taiwan as drumbeats of a looming invasion grow louder

It is high time to get creative for real deterrence to protect the democratic island.
Economic coercion has become a prominent tool in global geopolitics, with both China and the U.S. relying on it to pursue their policy goals, and more so with Donald Trump now in office.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2025

When big countries wave their big economic sticks

There is no agreed definition of economic coercion under international law; like pornography, we know it when we see it.
DeepSeek’s latest R1 model was built with just $6 million in raw computing power and inferior AI chips, a fraction of the money and resources spent by firms like OpenAI and Alphabet’s Google.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2025

Deepseek shows Silicon Valley’s huge blindspot on AI

OpenAI and others have coasted along believing money was their moat. It’s not.
Members of the popular Japanese pop group SMAP, including scandal-plagued Masahiro Nakai (right), perform in Beijing in September 2011.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 29, 2025

A pop-star sex scandal shows the death throes of old Japan

As the leader of a now-defunct boy band SMAP, the 52-year-old Nakai has been a ubiquitous mainstay in Japanese life for decades.
Frustrated by policy uncertainty and modest stimulus, investors are shifting from long-term bets to short-term trades in China.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 29, 2025

Growth engine or casino? Global investors rethink China playbook

Investor uncertainty and policy shifts have fundamentally changed how analysts and money managers view China’s markets.
Nidec announced its takeover bid for machine manufacturer Makino Milling Machine without first making a proposal. Such nonconsensual takeover bids are increasing.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 29, 2025

Japanese ministry opens door to taboo corporate takeovers

It used to be common for takeover bids to be launched after both sides reached an agreement in behind-the-scenes negotiations.
Tokyo is expected to lead the season with its first cherry blossoms on March 21, followed by Fukuoka, Kochi and Hiroshima prefectures as well as the city of Yokohama on March 22.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2025

Cherry blossom season predicted to begin in Tokyo on March 21

This year’s cherry blossom season is expected to align with or slightly precede historical averages in western and eastern Japan.
A packed Fuji TV news conference on Monday in Tokyo
JAPAN / Media
Jan 29, 2025

Shukan Bunshun corrects article on scandal over former Fuji TV host

According to the correction, Masahiro Nakai was the one who invited the woman to the gathering, not the Fuji TV official.
Many workers at small companies continue to fall behind as wages fail to keep up with inflation.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 29, 2025

Smaller Japanese companies unlikely to meet wage-increase target for 2025

For this year’s spring negotiations, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation set hike targets of more than 6% for smaller firms.
U.S. surfer John John Florence rides a wave during a practice session earlier this month off the north shore of Maui, Hawaii.
MORE SPORTS / Surfing
Jan 29, 2025

Absent champions, fresh venues in focus as surfing's world tour begins

Hawaii's John John Florence, who won his third world title last year, is taking the year off tour but will compete as a wildcard at the season opener in Hawaii.
Fuji TV adviser Hisashi Hieda in 2005
JAPAN / Media
Jan 29, 2025

Who are the key figures involved in the growing Fuji TV scandal?

Koichi Minato, who resigned as president of Fuji TV on Monday, will be one focus of a third-party probe, given his executive role when the incident occurred.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?