Search - 2023

 
 
Serbia's Novak Djokovic hits a return during a practice session ahead of the Australian Open, in Melbourne on Tuesday,
TENNIS
Jan 10, 2024

Djokovic poised to scale Grand Slam peak at favorite stomping ground

The 36-year-old enjoyed one of the most dominant seasons of his career in 2023.
A supporter of KMT presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih in Taipei on Tuesday
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2024

Cross-strait relations hang in the balance with Taiwan election

Despite voter fatigue with the DPP and Lai Ching-te’s own lackluster campaign, his opponents have failed to articulate a compelling alternative.
Ayao Komatsu speaks during an event ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture on Sept. 21.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Jan 11, 2024

Tokyo native Komatsu takes over as Haas F1 boss after Steiner's departure

"In appointing Ayao Komatsu as Team Principal we fundamentally have engineering at the heart of our management," the team owner said.
Fast Retailing, the operator of Uniqlo stores, says strong overseas sales drove a 25% rise in first quarter operating profit.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 12, 2024

Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing's Q1 profit soars on strong overseas sales

Profit was ¥146.7 billion ($1.01 billion) in the three months through November compared with ¥117.1 billion a year earlier.
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2024

Japan to bolster measures against bears waking up from hibernation

Each prefecture will be given ¥3 million to ¥5 million in financial resources to help with the measures.
Iga Swiatek won the WTA Finals in November 2023 to end an event that featured bad weather and a number of complaints from the players.
TENNIS
Jan 15, 2024

WTA and ATP Tours embarking on year of formative changes

The WTA is looking to take steps toward equal pay for women at combined events, and the ATP hopes to align the interests of its players and tournaments.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrives on stage during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday. 2024.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 17, 2024

China sees one of its worst years of growth since 1990 as recovery stalls

China's National Bureau of Statistics revealed that gross domestic product expanded 5.2% to hit 126 trillion yuan ($17.6 trillion) last year.
The health of China's economy will always be a factor in how other Asian economies fare, and some of those are doing OK despite their larger neighbor’s woes.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2024

The latest indignity for China’s flawed recovery

Neighbors whose economic fortunes were supposed to be tied to the heft of China’s rebound from the pandemic seem to be doing pretty well without it.
Past warnings of a housing-market crash in China have never been borne out. But unless the government takes concerted action, this time may well be different.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2024

Fixing China’s real estate sector

Housing dreams to economic nightmares, the perils of China's real estate boom.
The drop in funds stolen by North Korean hackers mirrors a larger trend in the cryptocurrency security landscape: an overall decline in hacks of the once-lucrative decentralized finance, or DeFi, protocols.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jan 25, 2024

North Korean hackers targeting crypto more but stealing less: report

The drop in funds stolen by North Korean hackers mirrors a larger trend in the cryptocurrency security landscape.
Sensoji Temple, a popular tourist location, in Tokyo on Jan. 18
JAPAN / Society
Jan 26, 2024

Japan aims to direct Asian tourists to places less traveled

The tourism body is attempting to direct visitors to places outside Tokyo in order to prevent over-tourism, specifically by appealing to “light repeaters.”
At Crypto HK, a popular crypto store in Hong Kong, customers can buy cryptocurrencies with a minimum 500 Hong Kong dollars ($64) and are not required to provide any identity documents.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 28, 2024

Bruised by stock market, China rushes into banned bitcoin

More and more Chinese investors are using creative ways to own crypto assets they believe are safer than investing in stock and property markets at home.
The rural economy has been hurt by a drop in the output of some key crops, such as wheat, in the past three years due to a rise in temperatures, patchy monsoon rains and falling reservoir levels.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 1, 2024

World-beating growth? Not for India's rural majority

For many in rural India, which is home to 60% of its 1.4 billion people, the country's so-called spectacular economic growth is nowhere in sight.
BASEBALL / Sac Bunts
Feb 5, 2024

Fighters' Tsuyoshi Shinjo needs to match substance with style in third season

Nippon Ham manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo is trying to turn around the Fighters after last-place finishes in 2022 and 2023.
A man walks through panels at a solar power plant under construction in Aksu, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, in 2012.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 6, 2024

Banned Chinese solar goods worth billions find route to U.S. via India

Amid a solar boom, India’s largest panel-maker has sent millions of panels to the U.S. made with parts from a Chinese firm denied entry to the U.S. market.
Shipments from China to the U.S. are increasingly making a pit stop in third countries such as Vietnam and Mexico.
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2024

Biden wins U.S.-China trade war by Trump’s pet metric, but does it count?

Figures due Wednesday are set to show the U.S. deficit in goods trade with China in 2023 at its lowest annual level since 2010.
Straight-to-video films, locally called “V-Cinema,” were popular in the 1990s and into the 2000s, becoming a training ground and launchpad for Japanese directors and actors.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2024

Threatened with extinction, V-Cinema hopes for new saviors

Physical deterioration and copyright issues mar the influential film genre that once served as a launchpad for directors and actors in Japan.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 8, 2024

Cyber and phone fraud cases in Japan surge, marking 15-year high

National Police Agency officials say that it is premature to conclude that public safety in Japan has deteriorated.
The market in 2023 and 2024 has been marked by breathless enthusiasm for the potential of artificial intelligence as well as wildly disparate guesses about how the technology will translate into future cash flows.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2024

Is the S&P 500's surge signaling a bubble or a bull market?

Are we reliving 1995 — when, coincidentally, a previous "soft landing” economy pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 5,000?
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Feb 15, 2024

Giants' new Godzilla Yuto Akihiro taps into Hideki Matsui's teachings to level up

Akihiro is the latest player to try and walk in Matsui's footsteps.
Fans of virtual YouTuber Selen Tatsuki and VTubers in general took to social media to express their outrage over major agency Nijisanji terminating Tatsuki’s contract.
LIFE / Digital / Japan Pulse
Feb 16, 2024

High-profile shakeups prompt scrutiny of virtual YouTuber industry

As VTubers enter a new era defined by prestige, Selen Tatsuki and Mikeneko's recent dramas demonstrate how complicated getting famous can be.
The International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington. The IMF sees downside risks in the Japanese economy, which unexpectedly slipped into a recession at the end of last year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 23, 2024

IMF sees downside risks for Japan in 2024

Japan unexpectedly slipped into a recession at the end of last year, losing its title as the world's third-biggest economy to Germany.
Electron micrograph of Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of syphilis
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 26, 2024

Syphilis cases hit record high for third straight year in Japan

While the precise reasons for the surge in reported cases remain unclear, experts have identified several potential contributing factors.
The revamped BYD Atto 3 in Tokyo. A perceived resistance in Japan to battery EVs and foreign brands is seen as a major barrier for BYD.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 1, 2024

BYD bolsters Japan push with EV lineup and dealership network

The Chinese carmaker has sold less than 1,500 passenger cars in 2023 in the Japanese market, which is dominated by hybrids.
A Vietnamese worker picks tomatoes at a farm in Asahi, Chiba Prefecture. Japan is set to sharply increase the number of foreign nationals it accepts under its skilled worker visa, with plans to receive up to 800,000 people in the next five years.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 6, 2024

Japan considers doubling limit on skilled foreign workers

The government is said to be considering adding the road transportation, railway, forestry and timber sectors to those eligible for the visa.
The U.S and Japan are working together to secure a stable semiconductor supply chain and maintain their leading position in this critical technology amid concerns over China.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 5, 2024

Semiconductors are back to center stage in the Japan-U.S. alliance

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of semiconductors to the 21st century. They’re everywhere and in every digital item.
Rescuers clear debris from a multistory building heavily damaged following a Russian drone strike in Odessa on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2024

ICC issues warrants over Russian strikes on Ukraine's power grid

The court has previously targeted Russian President Vladimir Putin with an international arrest warrant over the deportation of Ukrainian children.
An event for female coders in New York in 2013. Women’s full participation is key to ensure technologies like AI help bridge the gender gap.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2024

Now is our chance to govern AI for women’s empowerment

The pace of AI development may seem relentless, but there's still time to create safeguards to ensure that innovation doesn't perpetuate gender inequality.
Nebraska guard Keisei Tominaga has become one of the most exciting players in the Big Ten during his three seasons with Nebraska.
BASKETBALL
Mar 11, 2024

'Japanese Steph Curry' Keisei Tominaga shoots for stars and NBA with Nebraska

“I think I still gotta get better about a lot of things,” he said. “I think it’s getting closer to my dream."
A farmers open cocoa pods in Cote d’Ivoire in October 2018. Many West African farmers make just enough to subsist, with most lacking the means to re-invest in their small plots.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2024

The meltdown in chocolate is coming as prices signal supply shortages

It’s worth remembering that cocoa beans traded a year ago for $2,500 and that in 2000 they changed hands at just $650.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji