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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Swastika Jajoo (fourth from right) began attending the daily radio calisthenics routine at Sendai’s Kitasanbancho Park and struck up unexpected friendships with a group of elderly residents.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Sep 15, 2025

Calisthenic companions bridge cultures and generations

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a doctoral student in Sendai found friendship in unexpected places.
Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life and 7-Eleven, a chain that began in the U.S. in 1927, opened its first store in Japan in 1974 — and then became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005 through parent company Seven & I Holdings.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 12, 2025

Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens?

Facing a stagnant and highly competitive retail market in Japan, Seven & I’s growth is expected to come from overseas.
Palestinians transport their belongings as they evacuate Gaza City toward southern areas of the Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
WORLD
Sep 12, 2025

Palestinians displaced in Gaza return to a city under Israeli assault

Many are arriving to find no space for shelter, even in an area designated by Israel as a humanitarian zone.
"I don't want to scare a company from ever hiring a blind person again,” said Emeline Lakrout. But she and others want change.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 13, 2025

‘PowerPoint broke me’: The challenges for blind professionals

"I don't want to scare a company from ever hiring a blind person again,” said Emeline Lakrout. But she and others want change.
Paris Saint-Germain players and officials celebrate with the Champions League trophy at the Elysee Palace in Paris in June.
SOCCER
Sep 14, 2025

PSG begins title defense as Champions League kicks off

PSG ended over a decade of disappointment in continental competition when it lifted the trophy in May, tearing Inter Milan apart in the final.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves as he arrives to attend a signing ceremony for a framework agreement, aiming to speed up development in the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, a settlement in the occupied-West Bank, on Thursday.
WORLD
Sep 14, 2025

Netanyahu says killing Hamas leaders is route to ending Gaza war

Israel has ramped up efforts to seize control of Gaza City, telling residents to evacuate and blowing up buildings it said were being used by Hamas.
A volunteer recruit listens to an instructor as she learns how to dig trenches during military training in Braniewo, Poland, on June 24.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 14, 2025

Fearful of Russia, Poles flock to receive military training

More than 20,000 Poles signed up for voluntary military training in the first seven months of 2025.
International observers are briefed during the Zapad 2025 joint exercises between Russia and Belarus near Borisov, Belarus, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 16, 2025

Belarus hosts drills with Russia, spooking Poland and Baltics

The drills designed to simulate a possible invasion of their territory came just days after Russian drones were downed over Poland.
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani (center) chairs the 2025 Arab-Islamic emergency summit in Doha on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 16, 2025

Arab and Muslim leaders urge review of Israel ties after Qatar attack

The Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation want members to take firm action after Israel's attack on Qatar-hosted Hamas officials last week.
Fans cheer on the home favorites during the women's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Sep 16, 2025

Japanese athletes inspired by raucous home fans at World Athletics Championships

The atmosphere at National Stadium has been raucous in the opening days of the championships, particularly when hometown heroes are on the track or field.
Cars drive along a road during a snowstorm in the Arctic city of Norilsk, Russia, on March 19.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Sep 16, 2025

Ticket to the Arctic: Inside Russia's system of convict labor

Russia says forced labor, introduced in 2011, is a humane form of punishment. Convicts tell a much different story.
Chinese migrants intent on reaching the United States walking in the jungle of Panama’s Darien Gap on March 3, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 16, 2025

He risked everything to leave China for the U.S. Then he was sent back.

Tao was not a Chinese dissident, just an ordinary worker who wanted freedom. Deportation did not stop him from trying again.
Itsumi Tanaka smiles as she is complimented during lunchtime at Grandma’s Cafe in the city of Fukuoka.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Sep 29, 2025

‘Grandma’s Cafe’ offers purpose and income for elderly

A company in Fukuoka Prefecture is operating unique eateries where elderly women, some with dementia, welcome guests with homestyle cooking.
Tourists in the Dotonbori area in Osaka. Calls are growing in Osaka Prefecture for a review of <i>minpaku</i> private lodging services for tourists, as locals face the issue of bad manners by some foreign guests.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2025

Review of minpaku private lodgings sought in Osaka

Issues linked to such services became one of the focal points in the July election for the House of Councillors.
The process of making “Baan” was personal and enlightening for Maneetapho, who spent years talking about anime on his YouTube channel and podcast before making the jump to becoming an anime creator himself.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2025

YouTuber Gigguk shifts from talking anime to making anime

Garnt Maneetapho, who runs the YouTube channel Gigguk, makes the jump from critic to creator with his short film “Baan — The Boundary of Adulthood.”
A woman carries a portrait of a relative killed in clashes with security forces while joining a protest march moving toward the prime minister's office in Kathmandu on Sept. 13.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2025

Nepal’s Gen Z protests and humanity’s shared future

This is not Nepal's story alone. It is a reminder that the future isn’t inherited but forged by today’s youth.
A wheat harvest in Ukraine
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 20, 2025

NASA scientist starts food crisis hotline with tech giant funding

The aim is to use images from space that are then sifted and interpreted by AI models to predict potential crises early.
Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, visits Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Aug. 19.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 21, 2025

The world needs Japan’s leadership in life sciences

For decades now, Japan has understood the value of global health investment better than almost any other country on the planet.
Osamu Dazai struggled with depression and addiction, themes that were also central to his writing.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 22, 2025

Why Japan’s most melancholic writer speaks to today’s youth

Osamu Dazai's works are enjoying a new boom of retranslations and readers 80 years after they were first published.
Women in the U.K. still tend to handle the weekly shop, meaning they’re the first to feel the pinch from higher grocery, water and transport bills — the main drivers pushing inflation to its highest since early 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 22, 2025

Women turn away from Labour as they lose faith in economy

Already, Britain's government has lost nearly half of the female voters who helped it win power just a year ago, according a political strategy and communications consultancy.
A recruiter speaks with an MBA student at a college recruitment event at GL Bajaj Institute of Technology & Management in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India in 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 22, 2025

Trump’s $100,000 visa targets a $280 billion India success story

The move to curtail H-1B visas threatens to rewrite the rules for a decades-old model that underpins much of the technology behind the world’s largest corporations.
“Between Currents and Bloom,” an eye-popping crocheted seascape by Indonesian artist Mulyana, dazzles with Instagram-ready cuteness while recalling a vibrant ocean now threatened by warming seas.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 22, 2025

Aichi Triennale’s message to the art world: Free Palestine

At Aichi Triennale 2025, Hoor Al Qasimi, the festival’s first foreign artistic director, takes a stand in support of Palestine.
Gantry cranes and container ships at the Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai on May 14. China is hurtling toward a record $1.2 trillion trade surplus.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 23, 2025

China floods the world with cheap exports after Trump's tariffs

The export surge is causing governments to weigh the potential damage to their domestic industries against the risk of antagonizing Beijing.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks as he meets with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines during the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 24, 2025

Trump says Ukraine can win back all territory, in sudden shift

The suggestion that Kyiv could win marks an extraordinary shift after months of saying Ukraine would likely have to cede land to its larger neighbor.
Carlos Alcaraz speaks during a news conference on the sidelines of the Japan Open in Tokyo on Wednesday.
TENNIS
Sep 24, 2025

Alcaraz expects Sinner to come back stronger after U.S. Open loss

Alcaraz is playing at the Japan Open in Tokyo this week, while Sinner will compete at the China Open in Beijing in his first appearance since the U.S. Open.
People displaced by fighting between Myanmar's military and an ethnic minority army sit in a shelter on the grounds of a monastery in Mandalay.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 27, 2025

Quake-hit Myanmar city becomes epicenter of junta election offensive

The junta has pledged elections beginning on Dec. 28 and has touted them as a path to peace with its myriad adversaries.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro addresses pro-Palestinian demonstrators, through a translator, at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza outside United Nations headquarters, during the U.N. General Assembly in New York City on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 28, 2025

Colombian leader’s call to defy Trump amplifies rifts in region

Trump’s confrontational approach to Latin America, which is still scarred by U.S. interventions before and during the Cold War, will be tested in a string of upcoming elections.
Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Sep 29, 2025

Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?

Soaring property costs, foreign investment and scarce supply are reshaping who can afford to live in central Tokyo.
The city of Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, used a crowdfunding-style hometown donation program to help fund fireworks during the Matsue Suigosai festival held in August.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Sep 29, 2025

Crowdfunding-style hometown donations gain traction in Japan

Such initiatives set clear fundraising targets and deadlines to solicit contributions to address specific local challenges.
Japanese property developers are expanding investments in London's prime business locations.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 29, 2025

U.K. draws Japan property investors eyeing hedge on U.S. turmoil

Japanese investors have been pouring more capital into the U.K. over the last couple of years.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes