Search - 2023

 
 
Astellas Pharma's headquarters in Tokyo
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 16, 2025

Chinese court jails Japanese executive after sudden detention for spying

The convicted man, an executive of Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma, was detained in March 2023 and charged with espionage in October of that year.
Palestinians transport people who were killed or injured while trying to get humanitarian aid, into the Red Cross field hospital in the Mawasi area of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.
WORLD
Jul 21, 2025

Gaza civil defense says Israeli gunfire kills 93 aid seekers

Israel's military disputed the death toll and said soldiers had fired warning shots as thousands gathered near Gaza City.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Jair Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago on March 7, 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

Brazil’s top court defies Trump and signals no retreat on Bolsonaro

After the U.S. threatened 50% tariffs on Brazil, a group of justices advocated for the court to issue a statement challenging President Donald Trump ’s assertion of a "Witch Hunt.”
A nurse takes a blood sample from a child for an HIV test at a clinic in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, South Africa, on March 12.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

Tighter borders bar poor nations from summits — on poor nations

Sudanese climate activist Roaa should have been leading meetings with other youth advocates at a United Nations climate conference in Germany in June.
Wakana, a Japanese fan of Thai BL, visits a temple in Thon Buri, Bangkok featured in the Thai adaptation of the Japanese series “Cherry Magic.” Her media consumption kindled an interest in Thai culture and language, and ultimately led her to relocate to Thailand. “I fell in love with the whole country,” she says.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Jul 28, 2025

Boys’ love dramas from Thailand make waves in Japan

Thailand has become a top producer of BL (boys’ love) dramas — and audiences in Japan are among the most ardent consumers.
China's government will offer subsidies to parents to the tune of $500 per child under the age of three per year, Beijing's state media said on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 29, 2025

China rolls out childcare subsidy to boost birth rate

The assistance is meant as an incentive for young couples wary of rising costs of child-rearing.
Palestinians crowd a coastal path west of the city of Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip after managing to get aid parcels on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 30, 2025

Britain warns Israel it could recognize Palestinian state as Gaza starves

The warning, which drew a harsh Israeli rebuke, came after a hunger monitor warned a worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding and immediate action is needed.
Palestinians carry aid supplies from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
WORLD
Aug 1, 2025

U.S. shifts toward Israel after envoy meets Netanyahu in bid for Gaza aid and truce

The U.S. also announced sanctions on officials of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which run a state France, the U.K. and Canada may recognize.
Despite topping physical health rankings, Japan’s children face a worsening mental health crisis due to limited early education, inconsistent counseling support and poor awareness of their rights.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 3, 2025

It’s time to take children’s mental health seriously

Given these disparities, it is clear the government needs to build a consistent school system with appropriate emotional support mechanisms
The U.S. State Department's 2024 Human Rights Report was delayed for months as appointees of President Donald Trump altered an earlier draft dramatically to bring it in line with "America First" values, according to government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2025

U.S. State Department softens criticism of some countries in human rights report

The 2024 Human Rights Report's section on Israel was much shorter than last year's edition and made no mention of the severe humanitarian crisis or death toll in the Gaza Strip.
Rescued migrants rest aboard the migrant search and rescue ship Sea-Watch 5, operated by German NGO Sea-Watch, as it makes its way towards the designated port of Salerno, Italy, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Society
Aug 14, 2025

EU security measures cut illegal arrivals, but migrants take riskier routes

Experts say migrants are adapting to stricter borders controls and becoming more reliant on smugglers and newer, often more dangerous paths.
Students visit the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park in late April. Attitudes in Japan are shifting away from the traditional pacifist views that have held sway since the end of World War II.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 20, 2025

Trump shock spurs Japan to think about the unthinkable: nuclear arms

There is a growing willingness to loosen the country’s decades-old pledge not to produce, possess or host nuclear weapons in its territory.
A journalist holds the blood-covered camera of Palestinian photojournalist Mariam Dagga, who was killed during an Israeli strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, during her funeral on Monday.
WORLD
Aug 26, 2025

Israel hits Gaza hospital, killing at least 20 people, including five journalists

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel deeply regretted what he called a "tragic mishap."
While markets clearly reflect the belief that the United States is ahead in the AI arms race, early leadership does not mean victory — especially when it comes to innovation.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2025

Who’s winning the U.S.-China artificial intelligence race?

The winner will most likely be the country that provides greater support for basic research, in which case China is better positioned for the long haul.
East Asia’s fertility plunge is driven not just by financial costs but by perfectionist cultural expectations that burden parents with intense educational and social demands.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 5, 2025

‘Confugenics’ and East Asia's demographic crisis

The numbers are staggering when you dig into them. Parents in Japan covered half of higher education costs in 2024 — more than double the OECD average.
Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrives with his daughter Thailand's recently removed prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra (right) at the Supreme Court in Bangkok on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 9, 2025

Thai top court orders ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to jail for a year

Shinawatra's political clan has for two decades been the key foe of Thailand's pro-military, pro-royalty elite, who view their populism as a threat to traditional social order.
Azamat Iskaliyev, accused of the murder of his ex-girlfriend, stands in a courtroom cage as he is sentenced to 19.5 years in jail, in Saratov, Russia, on July 9.
WORLD / Society
Sep 9, 2025

Heroes and villains: Russia braces for eventual return of its enormous army

Verstka, an independent Russian media outlet, calculated in October last year that almost 500 civilians had become victims of veterans returning from fighting in Ukraine.
Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, arrives for a probate court hearing in Reno, Nevada, on Sept. 16, 2024. A new deal gives Lachlan Murdoch control of his family's media empire for probably decades to come.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 10, 2025

Lachlan Murdoch 'a very different leader than his father'

The eldest son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch strategizes plays designed to generate profits, not increase his political clout.
Omar Abu Kuwaik, a 6-year-old Gazan child who lost an arm, gestures as six Gazan families with wounded children arrive at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport for medical treatment in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sept. 2
WORLD
Sep 11, 2025

Missing limbs and loved ones, Gazan children begin treatment abroad

At least 45,000 children have been wounded in Gaza, many of them suffering life-changing injuries, according to UNICEF.
Tara Davis-Woodhall celebrates after winning the women's long jump final at the World Athletics Championships at Tokyo's National Stadium on Sunday night.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Sep 15, 2025

Tara Davis-Woodhall leaps to gold and finds redemption at world championships

The U.S. long jumper won her first world title in the long jump back in Tokyo, the city that reduced her to tears just four years ago.
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.
Displaced Palestinians move southward along a road in the Nuseirat refugee camp area in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 24, 2025

Israel seeks permanent Gaza control and Jewish majority in West Bank: U.N. inquiry

Israel maintains that its war is not against the population of Gaza but against the Hamas militant group whose fighters led the attack on Israel that precipitated the war.
The Gas Pavilion had welcomed around 500,000 visitors by the end of August, making it one of the most popular exhibits at the Osaka Expo.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Oct 12, 2025

At Osaka Expo, gas giants promote a greener future. But is it a lot of hot air?

While major Japanese gas companies have lauded e-methane as key in fighting climate change, experts paint a different picture.
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.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Oct 13, 2025

Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building

A surge of new arenas from Chiba to Yokohama reveals how Japan’s cities are betting big on live entertainment.
Coco Gauff celebrates after winning against Jessica Pegula during their women's singles final at the Wuhan Open tennis tournament in Wuhan, China, on Sunday.
TENNIS
Oct 13, 2025

Gauff rallies to capture Wuhan crown in all-American final with Pegula

The current world No. 3 is the first woman in a decade to win nine consecutive hard-court finals.
People holding up portraits of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza wait for their release at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv early on Monday.
WORLD
Oct 13, 2025

The 20 living hostages due for release from captivity in Gaza

The hostages expected to be released range from a lover of Japanese culture who dreamed of visiting one day to a young pianist who had been about to start music studies.
A major bonus of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme is the time it offers you to be able to plan for long-term goals. Writer Erik M. Jacobs was able to map out what he needed to pursue a career in U.S.-Japan relations, for example.
COMMUNITY / Issues / Learning Curve
Aug 8, 2023

Every situation is different on JET, but they're all similarly rewarding

As a new wave of JET Program participants arrives in the country, a program alumni shares tips on getting the most out of the experience.
A sign warning for the presence of mines inside a cemetery in Sviatohirsk, Ukraine, in June
WORLD
Jul 29, 2023

In Ukraine, land mines left by Russian forces pose deadly threat

As Ukraine forces push ahead with their offensive after over a year of shifting battle lines, the military and civilians face a deadly problem: mines.
As the Kremlin’s grip on power slips, Russia’s generals will likely organize a putsch against Putin and his KGB/FSB cronies — the army’s historical rival.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2023

The Kremlin’s mobster code

While Western experts continue to view Russia as a modern state, it turns out that President Vladimir Putin is the boss of one crime family, but not all of them.
This year’s Fuji Rock Festival, which took place last weekend and featured The Strokes, Foo Fighters and Lizzo as headliners, brought a cumulative total of 114,000 attendees to the mountains of Niigata Prefecture.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 4, 2023

Fuji Rock’s diversity is back — and it feels great

Millennial rock, Gen Z rap and a Sinead O’Connor tribute fill a stellar weekend of music.

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