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Empowering nuns and laypeople could help preserve struggling parishes and restore the Catholic Church’s role as a vital community anchor, especially with nuns who have long been its most dedicated and overlooked servants.
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2025

To save Catholicism, let’s talk nuns, not popes

All eyes were on Rome as Pope Leo XIV was announced. But to secure the future of the faith, Catholics should look closer to home.
People who fled the Zamzam camp, a refuge for the internally displaced, after it fell under RSF control gather for communal cooking in a makeshift encampment near the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on April 13.
WORLD / Society
May 13, 2025

More than 83 million people internally displaced worldwide, report shows

Weather-related events, many intensified by climate change, triggered 99.5% of all of last year's disaster displacements.
Japan captain Michael Leitch
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
May 13, 2025

Japan rugby tightens eligibility rules on foreign-born players

More than half of the players who started last season's final of the Japan Rugby League One championship were born overseas.
The beach on Aka Island, Okinawa Prefecture, where U.S. forces first landed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
May 26, 2025

How a remote island escaped mass suicide in Battle of Okinawa

Residents had been told that, if captured, women would be assaulted and men mutilated by U.S. soldiers.
Chinese J-10 fighter jets from the People's Liberation Army Air Force August 1st Aerobatics Team perform during a media demonstration at the Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, in November 2015.
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
May 14, 2025

Success of Chinese-made fighter jets against India raises alarm in Asia

The recent conflict is challenging long-held perceptions of Chinese weapons' inferiority to Western arms and sparking concern in places wary of Beijing.
Palestinians struggle to receive food cooked from a charity kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on April 29.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2025

U.N. humanitarian chief slams Gaza aid plan Israel proposed and U.S. backs

No humanitarian aid has been delivered to Gaza since March 2, and a global hunger monitor has warned that half a million people face starvation.
Nippon Life Insurance is diversifying its investments to enhance yields, although it’s a tricky time to invest with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war fueling global market volatility.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025

Japan’s biggest insurer weighs riskier overseas CLO investments

Japan’s biggest life insurer is considering taking on a little more risk with its investments in collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), as it looks for ways to eke out better returns abroad.
New research by a U.S. climate scientists’ group reveals that extreme heat has increased the risks of preterm births and other pregnancy complications in Japan, nearly doubling the number of days that are harmfully hot for pregnant women over the past five years.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 14, 2025

Harmfully hot days for pregnant women in Japan nearly doubled over past five years

Heat stress can raise the risks of stillbirths, miscarriages, preterm births and low-weight births, as well as congenital abnormalities for the babies.
The yen slumped more than 2% on Monday alone, nearing ¥150 to the dollar, after the U.S. and China temporarily lowered tariffs, triggering a reversal of bearish dollar bets.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 15, 2025

Rich Japanese still fear yen crash, wealth manager says

Japan's most prosperous households are still scarred by the market’s collapse in the early 1990s.
Nozomu Hagihara reaches the goal at the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi on Thursday after dribbling a soccer ball for about 2,000 kilometers across India.
JAPAN
May 18, 2025

Japanese man dribbles soccer ball 2,000 km across India

Hagihara, who is working to contribute to Indian society through soccer, plans to apply for a Guinness World Record for the longest journey dribbling a soccer ball.
Trey Cabbage celebrates after hitting a home run at Tokyo Dome on May 1.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 19, 2025

Giants' Trey Cabbage not weighed down by pressure to replace Kazuma Okamoto

Cabbage has taken the majority of the at-bats in the cleanup spot since Okamoto suffered an elbow injury on May 6.
Tomomi Bitoh, seen crossing the finish line in Antarctica, on the first stop of the World Marathon Challenge, is one of the very few Japanese athletes to speak publicly about her experience with egg freezing.
MORE SPORTS
May 19, 2025

The race for more time: Japanese runner decided to freeze eggs for her future

More women in Japan are expressing interest or following through with freezing their eggs in recent years, but only a few athletes in Japan have spoken about it publicly.
Carp pitcher Hiroki Tokoda has seven hits this season, including a double.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
May 20, 2025

Can the Central League hold out against designated hitters?

There have been plenty of calls for the league to adopt the DH over the years. But some prefer the status quo.
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.
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.
Tokyo Verdy Beleza players celebrate after being crowned WE League champions on Saturday at Ajinomoto Field Nishigaoka in Tokyo.
SOCCER
May 21, 2025

Tokyo Verdy Beleza hope to stay on top after long-awaited WE League triumph

The storied club earned its first league title of the professional era on the back of a formidable attack and consistent play throughout the year.
Afghans carry water canisters on the outskirts of Kabul on April 27.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
May 22, 2025

'Serious problem': Afghan capital losing race against water shortages

Kabul's crisis, driven by unruly and rapid urbanization, mismanagement over years of conflict, and climate change, forces residents to choose between food and water.
The U.S. debt crisis can’t be fixed without reforming entitlements, and that means Americans must retire later and pay more in taxes.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2025

To fix the U.S. debt problem, Americans must retire later

The House’s proposed $3.7 trillion tax bill isn’t what sparked that Moody’s downgrade — it was the runaway growth of entitlement spending.
A candlelight vigil is held in Lafayette Square in Washington on Thursday following the fatal shooting of two employees of the Israeli Embassy.
WORLD
May 23, 2025

Israeli embassy staffers killed in U.S. aspired to Middle East bridge-building

The staffers were shot as they left an annual event for young Jewish diplomats, this year focusing on resolving humanitarian crises in the Middle East.
The Hokkaido East Trail links some of the northern prefecture's most striking national parks and landscapes.
LIFE / Travel
May 24, 2025

In search of untouched Japan? Meet Hokkaido’s newest hiking trail.

The 410-kilometer Hokkaido East Trail links three national parks as it winds through marshland, calderas and more.
Paraguayan President Santiago Pena speaks during an interview with The Japan Times in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 23, 2025

As Taiwan looks to boost ‘unofficial ties,’ Paraguay’s leader offers facilitator role

Paraguayan President Santiago Pena stressed his government is “more than willing to support and be a strong ally” to Taiwan.
All services on East Japan Railway's Yamanote Line in Tokyo were suspended for early Friday morning due to wire trouble.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 23, 2025

Tokyo's Yamanote Line resumes suspended train operations

The loop line was suspended Friday morning due to wire trouble, affecting some 197,000 passengers.
Modern pentathlete Ayumu Saito competes in the laser run at nationals in 2022.
MORE SPORTS / Modern Pentathlon
May 25, 2025

2028 Olympic hopeful giving modern pentathlon some time in the sun in Japan

As modern pentathlon takes on a Japanese flavor with a "Sasuke"-inspired event, Ayumu Saito is working to raise the sport’s profile in Japan.
Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / Longform
May 26, 2025

Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?

Trees have long occupied a sacred place in Japanese culture. In the fast pace of the 21st century, however, they're increasingly losing out to progress.
Shu Yamamoto runs a ramen shop in the city of Hiroshima by renting a barbecue restaurant during its off hours.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
May 26, 2025

Off-hours property rentals take off in Hiroshima

The renter can cut down on startup costs for their business while the owner can earn extra income, though it means sharing responsibilities.
A Boeing 747 from Qatar at Palm Beach International Airport, following President Donald Trump’s tour of the plane, in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb. 15. The president and his family have profited from the White House more than any other occupant, normalizing activities that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations.
WORLD / Politics
May 26, 2025

As Trump family monetizes presidency, profits outstrip protests

The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking.
Takahiro Mori, executive vice president of Japan's biggest steelmaker Nippon Steel, speaks about its strategy in its headquarters in Tokyo on Nov. 28, 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
May 26, 2025

Garage meets and sleepless flights: How Nippon Steel's negotiator stuck at U.S. merger

With Biden's incoming successor Donald Trump also voicing opposition to the planned purchase, the outlook was bleak.
Itsunori Onodera, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on Wednesday visited the city of Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture to address issues between Kurdish residents and locals, including illegal waste dumping.
JAPAN
May 29, 2025

LDP policy chief visits Kawaguchi over reported problems with Kurdish residents

The problems reported include illegal waste dumping and foreigners illegally working.
As humidity rises in the rainy season, it’s a good idea to get some moisture absorbers and place them around the home.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 30, 2025

How to talk about change in Japanese — one forecast at a time

Use the changing seasons as a springboard to learn how Japanese expresses cause-and-effect shifts.
Shipping containers from China at the Port of Los Angeles, in San Pedro, California.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
May 30, 2025

Trump's tariff tally: $34 billion and counting, global companies say

Many companies said the erratic nature of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies has made it impossible to accurately estimate costs.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear