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The “myahk,” a community currency implemented on Okinawa Prefecture’s Miyako Island in 2018, is intimately tied to local efforts for environmental preservation.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Feb 10, 2024

Japanese communities are creating currencies to educate and empower citizens

The yen will do when paying for things throughout the country. In some places, though, you may try paying with a coin that also helps reduce plastic waste.
Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto speaks during a campaign rally in Jakarta on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 11, 2024

Indonesian election candidates make their case as election day looms

With young people accounting for almost 60% of the electorate, the candidates have needed to factor in their demands and preferences.
Experimentation seemed to be a driving force throughout conductor Seiji Ozawa’s life as he pushed the boundaries of what a Japanese artist could achieve with classical music to magnificent heights.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 13, 2024

Seiji Ozawa’s boundless experiment

The influential conductor was not only a man of extraordinary talent, his warm character had the power to unite people as one.
A Sudanese man looks out his balcony in Cairo as he waits for his displaced family to arrive from war-ridden Khartoum, in April.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Unable to survive in Egypt, refugees return to war-torn Sudan

Since the fighting began in April between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces, over 450,000 people have crossed the border into Egypt.
Nvidia's shares slipped 0.17% on Tuesday, leaving its stock market value at $1.78 trillion, eclipsing Amazon's $1.75 trillion value after the online shopping and cloud-computing heavyweight's stock declined 2.15%.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 14, 2024

Nvidia market cap threatens Alphabet after overtaking Amazon

The chipmaker's stock market value at the end of Tuesday's trading session was $1.78 trillion, while that of Google's owner was $1.81 trillion.
U.S. Special Envoy on North Korean Human Rights Issues Julie Turner speaks to media at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 15, 2024

U.S. supports Japan's push for talks with North Korea, envoy says

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told parliament last week that he wants to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 19, 2024

North Korea eyes well-worn playbook with Japan summit hints

Pyongyang's offer of repairing ties with Japan may be concealing what may be a more likely motivation — to drive a wedge between Tokyo and its partners.
Doosan Bears fans during a game in Seoul in April 2022
SPORTS
Feb 21, 2024

Women outnumber men in South Korea’s sports stadiums

Women in South Korea make up 55% of fans at professional sporting events, including baseball, basketball, soccer and volleyball.
Zazen Boys (from left: So Yoshikane, Shutoku Mukai, Miya and Atsushi Matsushita) released “Rando,” its first original album in 12 years, last month. The 13-song collection features the sonic hallmarks of the band while also reflecting a new focus on the everyday, informed by frontman Mukai’s bike rides through Tokyo’s residential areas and sleepy side streets.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 23, 2024

Character studies of city folk reinvigorate Zazen Boys

Frontman Shutoku Mukai brings a newfound focus on ordinary life and youth to his rock project's first original album in 12 years.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 27, 2024

What to know about the ethics committee probing the LDP funds scandal

When the committee convenes later this week, at least five senior ruling party officials are expected to testify on what they knew about the scandal.
Demonstrators protest inside the Rockefeller Center asking for a cease-fire in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as U.S. President Joe Biden attends an interview in midtown Manhattan in New York on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 28, 2024

Among key Democratic Party voters Biden faces rebellion over Gaza war

Officials say the depth of Democratic Party anger over U.S. President Joe Biden’s handling of the Gaza war has caught his campaign off guard.
An earthquake measuring a shindo 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale that hit southern Chiba Prefecture was among several that have shaken the area in recent days.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 3, 2024

Japan warns of more strong quakes as 'slow slip' phenomena hits Chiba

Three earthquakes measuring a shindo 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, as well as four measuring a shindo 3, have occurred since Thursday.
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.
New series "Shogun" focuses on power struggles during Japan's samurai era, with warlord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) finding himself in danger of being bested — and perhaps beheaded — by rival Lord Ishido and his allies.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Mar 9, 2024

New ‘Shogun’ series is a cut above the original

From the 1980 original to ‘Last Samurai’ to now, Hollywood is getting better at depicting Japan.
Portugal's Democratic Alliance (AD) leader Luis Montenegro casts his ballot a polling station in Espinho, near Porto, during the legislative elections held on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 11, 2024

Luis Montenegro, the unlikely champion of Portugal's right

Luis Montenegro is a seasoned parliamentarian with no government experience who is perceived as honest and competent despite a lack of flair.
French President Emmanuel Macron on International Women's Day in Paris on March 8
WORLD / Politics
Mar 14, 2024

France faces centrist vacuum as far right builds momentum for presidency

A far-right presidency would be a transformational moment for France, Europe’s second largest economy.
Women attend a protest in 2018 against the rape of three girls, an 8-year-old, an 11-year-old and a teenager, in different parts of India. The country experiences alarming rates of sexual violence against women.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2024

Why is India failing to protect its women?

India is plagued by sexual violence, with many horrific cases in the spotlight over the years. Despite reforms, cultural norms are hindering progress.
Nearly half of married couples in Japan are “sexless,” a recent survey shows.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 18, 2024

Nearly half of Japanese married couples are 'sexless,' survey finds

The most common reasons include “my partner doesn’t respond to my advances" for men, and “it’s too much hassle” for women.
Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka hits a forehand during a match at Indian Wells on March 13.
TENNIS
Mar 20, 2024

Tennis rallies around Sabalenka at Miami Open after boyfriend's death

Sabalenka's partner, Belarusian former NHL ice hockey player Konstantin Koltsov, 42, died earlier this week, police said.
Ichibata Department Store, located in Matsue, capital of Shimane Prefecture, was the last remaining department store in the prefecture but ended its 65-year history on Jan. 14.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 21, 2024

More prefectures losing department stores even amid pandemic recovery

In 17 prefectures there is currently only one department store and there are none in three, set to rise to four in July.
Retired management professor and trekker Jitendra V. Singh completed his goal of collecting all 46 prints in the series “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji” in 2023.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 23, 2024

One collector’s high mountain road to Hokusai

A professor’s 30-year dream of assembling a complete set of “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji,” the pinnacle of the artist’s career, leads to an auction.
Tsuneyasu Miyamoto speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Saturday.
SOCCER
Mar 24, 2024

Ex-Japan captain Miyamoto becomes youngest head of soccer association

Miyamoto, 47, is the youngest JFA president since the end of World War II, and the first JFA head to have played in the World Cup.
People gather near lit candles outside the Crocus City Hall concert venue on Sunday, declared a day of mourning declared following a deadly shooting, in the Moscow Region, Russia.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 25, 2024

Concert hall attack revives terrorism fears for Russians in Moscow

A series of terror attacks that began in the late 1990s spread a climate of fear across the country as Putin was rising to power.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's powerful sister said Monday that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has requested a summit with her brother, hinting that any meeting was unlikely without a policy shift by Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 25, 2024

Japan reaching out to North Korea for Kim-Kishida summit

The sister of leader Kim Jong Un said any summit would hinge on whether Japan was willing to make a "political decision" — likely on the abductee issue.
Kim Yo Jong, who serves as a top adviser to her brother, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Tuesday that Pyongyang had ruled out holding a leaders' summit with Japan.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 26, 2024

North Korea rules out summit with Japan and rejects more talks

The sister of leader Kim Jong Un said that a meeting was not of interest to the North, alluding to Tokyo's unyielding stance on the abductions issue.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (left) and Yuichiro Tamaki (right), leader of the Democratic Party for the People, hold a party leaders' debate in June 2021.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 28, 2024

Is Japan-style 'question time' facing abolition in parliament?

Both ruling and opposition parties have shown a lack of enthusiasm for holding such events, with some forces even advocating for its abolition.
China coach Li Tie reacts during a soccer match between China and Australia in Qatar in September 2021.
SOCCER
Mar 29, 2024

Former China coach pleads guilty to taking millions in bribes

"Li Tie made his final statement, pleaded guilty and expressed remorse," a court said.
Supporters of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, mayoral candidate of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), celebrate following early results in front of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in Istanbul on April 1.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 1, 2024

Inflation delivers shock defeat for Erdogan in Turkey’s municipal vote

Higher lending costs have dented consumer sentiment but have yet to reverse the trajectory of price increases running at an annual rate of just under 70%.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told dismayed supporters overnight that they "must not waste" the four years remaining before the next presidential vote.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2024

Opposition defeat of Erdogan redraws Turkey's political map

Opposition candidates and voters celebrated inflicting a stinging defeat on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party in municipal elections.
People hold candles as they attend a night vigil and prayer at the Amahoro Stadium as part of the 25th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide, in Kigali, Rwanda, on April 7, 2019. Rwanda will soon commemorate the 30th anniversary this year.
WORLD
Apr 3, 2024

Rwanda marks 30 years since genocide

During the 1994 genocide, Hutu extremists targeting the Tutsi minority slaughtered around 800,000 people in a massacre lasting 100 days.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo