Search - 2023

 
 
The Olympic flag flies at Centennial Park in Atlanta on Jan. 19.
OLYMPICS
Feb 27, 2025

World Boxing looks toward Olympics after provisional recognition from IOC

The Olympic body said World Boxing had met several key criteria to merit provisional recognition.
Chinese teacher Shuaib Ma (right) gives a Mandarin language lesson at a school in Riyadh.
WORLD
Mar 7, 2025

Mandarin lessons in Saudi schools show growing ties with China

Mandarin's entry into public schools is the latest sign of growing ties between Saudi Arabia and China.
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Outdated government policy, changing diets and even an earthquake scare have had an impact on the national food staple.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.
Sensing a bleak future for the local "awamori" liquor, Mizuho Distillery ventured into rum production, releasing a collection of eight rums made from "kokutō" (partially refined or unrefined sugar) sourced from various islands in Okinawa Prefecture.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 12, 2025

The sweet rise of Okinawan rum

The spirit is emerging out of the shadow of the local “awamori” liquor, thanks to a growing band of producers who are keen to tell the tale of the islands' traditional agriculture.
Defending champion javelin thrower Haruka Kitaguchi is likely to be the center of attention for Japanese fans during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
SPORTS / Athletics
Sep 12, 2025

10 stars to look out for at the 2025 World Athletics Championships

The world championships are back in Tokyo for the first time since 1991.
Japan’s high-tech toilets, from bidets to innovative public lavatories, offer a unique lens through which to explore the country’s culture, technology and even soft power.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 16, 2025

‘Perfect Days’ spent pondering the Japanese potty

The Japanese toilet is an engineering and technological marvel that transforms daily ablutions.
Palestinians inspect the site of an overnight Israeli strike on a house in Gaza City on Tuesday.
WORLD
Sep 16, 2025

Israel says 'Gaza is burning' as it launches ground assault

Gaza health officials reported at least 24 people killed, most of them in Gaza City, in the early hours of the assault.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi, Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong at the State Department in January.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2025

Japan and India must anchor America in the Indo-Pacific

Neither Japan or India possess the military strength to counter China independently.
Attendees hold their smartphones as the new Xiaomi electric SUV YU7 is unveiled onstage, at the Chinese smartphone maker's launch event in Beijing on May 22.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Sep 18, 2025

China is sending its world-beating auto industry into a tailspin

The sector is showing symptoms of a vastly oversupplied market — and point to a potential shakeout mirroring turmoil in country's property and solar industries.
Paulina “Jedda” Puruntatameri with Antonia Burke and Tiwi fisher Clinton offshore of Melville Island, one of the Tiwi Islands, in Australia's Northern Territory. Together with other Tiwi, Jedda has been campaigning for years to stop Australian company Santos and its backers, including Japanese investors, from drilling for natural gas at the Barossa gas field.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Sep 21, 2025

As Japan keeps buying gas, Aboriginal Australians pay the price

Japan is Australia’s second-largest export market for energy and natural resources, giving Tokyo a certain political weight when it comes to Australian energy matters.
People carry a banner depicting U.S. President Donald Trump, as they protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after he delivered an address at the 80th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 27, 2025

Trump says Gaza talks with Middle East countries are intense and will continue

Trump met leaders and officials from multiple Muslim-majority countries this week to discuss the situation in Gaza.
Palestinian mother Iman Abdel Halim Abu Mutlaq holds her newborn twins Uday and Hamza Abu Odah inside the maternity ward at Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on Nov. 2, 2023.
WORLD
Oct 7, 2025

The Gaza twins whose whole lives have been war

The lives of the children have been defined and encompassed by Israel's military offensive, launched in response to the deadly attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
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.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building