Search - 2023

 
 
Pieces of gum arabic, a natural emulsifier, displayed in a warehouse of an exporting company, in Port Sudan, Sudan.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 22, 2025

A genocidal militia in Sudan controls a key ingredient in Coke and Pepsi

Gum arabic acts as an organic emulsifier in consumer goods around the world — in candy, medicine, soda and cosmetics.
At the inauguration of a factory owned by Japanese power electronics manufacturer TMEIC in Tumakuru, India, in 2017. Although Japanese companies have become a significant presence in India, the flow of fresh investment has slowed down.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 23, 2025

Japan-India business ties can go the extra mile

After remarkable growth, Japan-India business ties are plateauing. Companies on both sides need help from their governments to promote more understanding and, hence, opportunities.
An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Longform
Apr 7, 2025

Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it

Outdated government policy, changing diets and even an earthquake scare have had an impact on the national food staple.
Nomura Orient International Securities has trimmed staffing by about two-thirds in its China wealth business over the past two years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2025

Nomura scaling back China wealth unit, shifting focus to brokerage and assets

Japan's biggest brokerage is currently seeking a new CEO for the securities business on the mainland.
Tiangong Ultra, a humanoid robot, crosses the finish line after securing the first position during the E-Town Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2025

All hail the rise of the humanoid robots

Robotics is another of the critical emerging technologies, mastery of which will be central to 21st-century economic leadership.
A view of Koror, Palau’s main town, on April 10
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 1, 2025

Inside the U.S. battle with China over a Pacific island paradise

Palau is again on the frontline as China and the United States and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control.
Alpine's Flavio Briatore (right) and Jack Doohan are seen before qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
May 8, 2025

Alpine dealing with major shakeup as winds of change blow again

Pierre Gasly is now working with his fourth team boss at the Enstone factory.
More Chinese families are clustering in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward, a district renowned for having the finest educational environment in Japan.
JAPAN / Society
May 29, 2025

Chinese parents are fueling Tokyo’s education race

International schools in Tokyo are already witnessing an influx of children from the newly arrived, highly involved Chinese households.
Arsenal players and fans celebrate outside Emirates Stadium in London after winning the Women's Champions League  on May 26.
SOCCER
Jun 17, 2025

Nielsen projects women's soccer to become top-five most popular sport

Women's soccer is already one of the top 10 most followed sports globally, and momentum appears to be building.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thailand's prime minister, during a news conference in Bangkok, on Thursday. Thailand's government faces collapse after a leaked phone call unleashed fresh political turmoil.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 20, 2025

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thailand's prime minister, under siege

After less than a year in office, Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has her back to the wall — and little room left to maneuver.
Many recent video games, including Breath of the Wild and Planet of Lana, have borrowed from the pastoral aesthetic of Studio Ghibli films like “Princess Mononoke.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2025

Studio Ghibli’s majestic sensibility is drawing imitators

Forty years after the Japanese animation studio was founded, game creators are embracing its legacy of moral integrity.
Stock prices are displayed at the Indonesia Stock Exchange in Jakarta on April 18. Indonesia’s flurry of listings this year is even more notable because globally the number of initial public offerings has fallen.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 26, 2023

Indonesia rides EV rush to domestic IPO boom

The trend is interlinked with President Joko Widodo’s ambitious bid to transform the nation into an EV manufacturing powerhouse, capitalizing on Indonesia’s rich resources.
 Gerrymandered districts and attacks on voting rights are further threatening American democracy at the state and local levels.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2023

The local threat to American democracy

Through "preemption" measures, ballot and voting restrictions, gerrymandering and other schemes, America continues to be threatened by entrenched minority rule.
The expansionist era is over for Taiwan's life insurance industry.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2023

U.S. interest rate hikes haunt Taiwan’s $1 trillion life insurance industry

Over the past year, local regulators have repeatedly loosened operating rules after a cocktail of unrealized investment losses.
China and India both began liberalizing their economies around the same time in the 1980s. But China invested more in human-capital and is now benefiting from that decision.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2023

Unlike China, India cannot be an economic superpower

In the 1980s, the belief among observers was that an authoritarian Chinese regime would mismanage its economy while a democratic India would thrive.
A Ukrainian soldier stands guard next to Odesa's famous statue of the city's founder, Duke de Richelieu, in March 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2023

Russia should be expelled from UNESCO

UNESCO has condemned Russia’s attacks across Ukraine. It should go further, expelling Russia for as long as the Kremlin continues its criminal behavior.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with NATO’s leaders at the bloc’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 12. 
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2023

How Russia could benefit from Ukraine’s NATO membership

While Russian leaders have cited NATO enlargement as a justification for invading Ukraine, ordinary Russians have much to gain from Ukrainian membership.
As long as coal plants are still operating, it is a good idea to make them capture their carbon dioxide emissions. But the sooner that coal is replaced by renewables, the better it will be for the planet.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2023

Carbon capture and the changing economics of power generation

Carbon capture policies could unwittingly extend the life of dirtier energy sources.
A farmer picks coffee beans at his plantation in West Java, Indonesia, on Aug. 2.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 14, 2023

World's fourth largest coffee crop threatened by El Nino

Lower coffee output in Indonesia could trigger a steeper rise in prices, which have climbed more than 40% in 2023.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with the Chinese Communist Party's foreign policy chief, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Jakarta on July 13.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 16, 2023

Southeast Asia uses great power competition to dodge failures

The U.S. needs to rethink its approach toward Southeast Asia, counter China's narrative, and engage in effective public diplomacy.
Crowds packed the Mountain Stage at Summer Sonic for Yoasobi’s set on Saturday and went wild when the J-pop duo played the opening notes of “Idol.”
CULTURE / Music
Aug 25, 2023

Summer Sonic closes out the season with one hot party

Asian artists NewJeans, Gen Hoshino, Awich and Babymetal drew impressive crowds at the summer festival despite the overbearing heat.
Koenji-based dance troupe Tengu-ren performs at an Awa odori event in Tokyo's Kagurazaka neighborhood a month before the Koenji Awa Odori.
CULTURE / Longform
Aug 26, 2023

The party returns to Koenji

While the COVID-19 pandemic put a temporary pause to one of Tokyo’s biggest festivals, its dancers never stopped practicing their steps.
Employees work on the assembly line at an electric vehicle plant in Shanghai. Cutting salaries is illegal in China, but complex pay structures offer loopholes.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 5, 2023

China's auto workers bear brunt of price war as fallout widens

Cutting salaries is illegal in China, but complex pay structures offer ways around this.
The famous Nike swoosh and Air Jordan logo on an Air Jordan 1, called "Notorious" and released from 1984-85, during a preview for "The Rise of the Sneaker Culture" exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 2015.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 28, 2023

Air Jordan resale prices tumble, casting shadow over Nike

Sneaker styles that once sold on StockX for $100 or more above Nike's list price are now selling for a premium of less than $10.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with servicemen taking part in Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the Kremlin in Moscow on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 3, 2023

Russia allots a third of 2024 spending to defense amid Ukraine war

Russia also plans to ramp up state borrowing to help fund its invasion and is counting on a recovery in oil and gas revenues to pre-invasion levels.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Oct 5, 2023

Giants prepare to start new era as manager Tatsunori Hara walks away

Manager Tatsunori Hara's departure closes the book on an eventful chapter in the storied history of the Giants.
On Oct. 17, the world's best bartenders gathered in Singapore for a celebration of cocktails and the announcement of this year's global rankings.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 17, 2023

Japan's SG Club, Ben Fiddich named to World’s 50 Best Bars list

Aside from the rankings, the impact of Japan's elite cocktail culture was a visible influence throughout the evening.
An employee operates at a production facility of Zaporizhstal Iron and Steel Works, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, this month.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Oct 27, 2023

Ukraine's once-mighty steel sector choked by export blockade

Until producers can get steel to markets via the Black Sea, where Russia continues to pose a threat to shipping, there is little prospect of recovery.
In September, the Sapporo Convention Center played host to the first Adventure Travel World Summit ever to take place in Asia.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 28, 2023

Travel pros warn against diluting ‘Japaneseness’

“Don’t dilute the Japaneseness, because that’s what makes it special,” said one travel expert. “We want to come to Japan.”
Japan Times
PRESS
Nov 17, 2023

週刊英語学習紙『The Japan Times Alpha』がオンラインで読める・学べる、団体向けデジタルサービスのお試しIDを発行

株式会社ジャパンタイムズ出版(本社:東京都千代田区、取締役社長:伊藤秀樹)は、学校や法人等の団体に向け、週刊英語学習紙『The Japan Times Alpha』(以下Alpha)のデジタル版や公式Webサイトにアクセスできるデジタルサービスを提供しています。このたび、充実したサービス内容や英語教育への効果を、より多くの教員や研修担当の皆様に知っていただくことを目的として、1カ月間無料体験できるお試しIDを期間限定で提供します。...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past