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Created by a Hokkaido workshop, this Camembert represents the vanguard of Japanese cheeses no longer content with a reputation as low-quality, processed slices.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 16, 2025

Fresh off awards, Japanese cheese seeks a taste ‘unique to this land’

A growing number of Japanese cheesemakers are gaining international recognition, and some are aiming for a new frontier of flavor.
Nadeshiko Japan celebrates after winning the SheBelieves Cup in San Diego on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Feb 28, 2025

Nils Nielsen's vision for Nadeshiko Japan comes to life at SheBelieves Cup

The remarkable achievement has brought about a renewed optimism among the fanbase, as Japan seems ready to turn the page after years of perceived underperformance.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with C.C. Wei, chief executive of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., at a news conference in Washington on March 3.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 19, 2025

Tariff threats spur TSMC’s Taiwan peers to seek U.S. expansion

Taiwanese electronic firms' migration of manufacturing to the U.S. has accelerated from previous years as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens more trade barriers.
Kirsty Coventry speaks during a news conference after being elected as IOC president on Thursday.
OLYMPICS
Mar 21, 2025

Kirsty Coventry hopes to speak with Donald Trump about 2028 LA Games

Coventry, who is Zimbabwe's sports minister, as well as Africa's most decorated Olympian, said both the IOC and the United States wanted successful Olympics in 2028.
Signs advertising the upcoming World Expo in Osaka have proliferated in the city's different neighborhood for the past few years.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 11, 2025

I’ve only just come back from Osaka, but I’m ready to hit the Expo

The term “bakari” can be used in several different ways to emphasize and define the limit of a range.
U.S. President Donald Trump attends a bilateral meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the Group of 20 leaders summit in Osaka in June 2019.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 14, 2025

How China went from courting Trump to ‘never yield’ tariff defiance

Beijing has put civilian government officials on a "wartime footing” and ordered a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at encouraging other countries to push back.
“‘Future of life,’ by Ishiguro,” the World Expo pavilion by roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, displays humanlike androids.
LIFE / Travel
May 2, 2025

Want to see the future at the Osaka Expo? Get in line.

Androids and lab-grown heart cells: A dispatch from the world fair.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer (left) U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (second from left), U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (second from right) and Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's economic revitalization minster, pose for a photo ahead of a meeting in Washington on May 1.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
May 19, 2025

China-U.S. trade truce prompts nations to consider tougher tactics

After China’s tough negotiating tactics earned it a favorable deal, nations taking a more diplomatic and expedited approach are questioning whether that’s the right path.
Toshiba's Richie Mo'unga runs with the ball at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium on May 24.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Jun 2, 2025

Mo'unga shrugs off broken hand to win Japanese title

The fly-half has finished every season in top-level domestic rugby since 2017 with a winner's medal, and he picked up another with Toshiba.
Tomoko Tamura, chairperson of the Japanese Communist Party, attends a debate with other party leaders in Tokyo in October. Her party urges voters to end the LDP’s business-centered politics and U.S. dependence by supporting its social, economic and foreign-policy reforms.
COMMENTARY / Japan / From Party Leaders
Jul 16, 2025

JCP vows fairer taxes, stronger social safety net and a commitment to peaceful diplomacy

Tamura says LDP’s politics are now in a terminal and critical state with the party unable to respond to domestic and international issues or the wishes of the people.
The Liberal Democratic Party’s historic Upper House defeat leaves the party fragmented and searching for a capable leader who can reunite conservatives, modernize its appeal, deliver real policies and rebuild its internal power structure.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2025

Who will save the Liberal Democratic Party?

The LDP is now faced with two fundamental questions: what tasks must it accomplish to restore its political dominance and who is actually capable of accomplishing them?
JAPAN / Society
Aug 4, 2023

Foreign minors born, raised in Japan to be eligible for residency

The move comes in response to a controversial revision to the asylum law that was passed earlier this year.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Oct 9, 2023

Shinnosuke Abe hoping to join special group of Giants managers

Shinnosuke Abe is hopeful of guiding the Giants back to the Central League summit.
Kanata Kimoto had his womb and ovaries removed in Thailand when he was 24, so he could have his legal gender status changed. Now he questions whether such an invasive and costly procedure was necessary.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 22, 2023

Calls grow to abolish Japan's surgery requirement for gender change

Between 2004 and 2022, a total of 11,919 people had their gender changed through the law in Japan.
Japan’s public bathhouses have been in decline for decades, with the number of such facilities in Tokyo alone dropping by nearly half in the last 15 years.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 14, 2023

Japan seeks digital detox with return to ‘way of the sauna’

Public bathhouses have been in decline for decades, with the number of sentō baths in Tokyo dropping by nearly half in the last 15 years.
A member of the Israeli security forces inspects humanitarian aid trucks arriving from Egypt on the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the southern Gaza Strip on Friday.
WORLD
Dec 24, 2023

Without a truce, U.N. resolution may do little for Gaza, aid groups say

Humanitarian assistance is "impossible" to deploy in an active combat zone, they said.
A driver for an independent contractor to FedEx delivers packages on Cyber Monday in New York on Nov. 27, 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024

Delivery firms struggle to adopt EVs as online sales drive up demand

Many climate pledges have been scaled back as the industry fails to keep pace with climbing emissions.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2024

Now Biden needs to show his moderate side

President Biden used his State of the Union speech to rebuke Republicans and offer a progressive economic agenda. But will that appeal to moderate voters?
Given Pakistan's internal security challenges and changing geopolitical dynamics, India may opt for a policy of minimal engagement with its neighbor.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2024

Does Pakistan still matter to India?

New Delhi's approach toward Islamabad is likely to remain unchanged in the foreseeable future.
As of April 4, the bird flu virus had been confirmed in more than a dozen herds across six U.S. states, with Kansas, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas all reporting infected cows.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2024

Bird flu in cows demands vigilance, not panic

Bird flu had been confirmed in herds across six U.S. states, with Kansas, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas all reporting infected cows.
An activist holds an umbrella during a Fridays for Future movement climate strike on Friday in Stockholm.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 22, 2024

World's largest private firms fail to set climate targets: report

The Net Zero Tracker report compared 200 of the world's largest public and private companies.
Palestinians crowd a street as smoke billows after Israeli strikes in Rafah on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 8, 2024

U.S. paused shipment of bombs to Israel, concerned over Rafah invasion

The U.S. has not made a final decision about how to proceed with the shipment, according to the official.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike (left) and Renho, a member of the House of Councilors, both candidates in the gubernatorial election, attend a news conference at the Japan National Press Club in the capital on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 20, 2024

The battle to be Japan’s most powerful woman is on

The race to become governor of Tokyo has officially kicked off, and is set to determine who will control a region that makes up more than 20% of the nation’s economy.
Renho announces her campaign pledges for the Tokyo gubernatorial election, in the capital on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 21, 2024

The campaigners that Tokyo hopeful Renho doesn't want you to know about

The candidate for governor has kept quiet about Japanese Communist Party activities in support of her — ties that could alienate some voters.
The 2024 presidential race throws another curveball at the markets with U.S. President Joe Biden dropping out of the race.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 22, 2024

How investors are reacting to Biden dropping reelection bid

Many investors are waiting to see who the new Democratic nominee will be, with some uncomfortable about the uncertainty.
Stuart McDonald, a fifth-generation farmer, searches for freshly planted seeds coated with Loam Bio’s fungal treatment, near Canowindra, Australia, on April 24.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 12, 2024

Australian farmers are betting on fungi to battle climate change

Fungi act as nature’s carbon traders, pulling it from the roots of plants and giving the plant nutrients in return.
As team principal, Kamui Kobayashi's role with Toyota Gazoo Racing goes far beyond his performance behind the wheel.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Sep 15, 2024

Kamui Kobayashi still driven by passion after long career in driver’s seat

Despite turning 38 on Friday, Kobayashi is not ready to pump the brakes on his auto racing career. 
Then-manager Erik ten Hag celebrates with the trophy after Manchester United won the FA Cup on May 25.
SOCCER
Oct 29, 2024

Manchester United sack Erik ten Hag after woeful start to the season

United assistant coach and ex-striker Ruud van Nistelrooy will take over on an interim basis.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump gestures as he makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 8, 2025

Trump will not rule out force to take Panama Canal and Greenland

Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, also floated the idea of turning Canada into a U.S. state.
The myth that the West provoked Russian aggression in Ukraine overlooks Russia's expansionist history, the complex dynamics of NATO expansion and the true nature of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2025

What you think you know about Ukraine is probably wrong

It’s more important than ever to fact check the Kremlin's claims and excuses for the war

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan