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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Sep 28, 2022

South Korea emerges as major defense industry player

One of the key features of Seoul's plan to go big on defense involves the continued international promotion of the latest South Korean-made military equipment and technologies.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 10, 2022

Russia launches Iranian satellite amid Ukraine war concerns

Iran, which has maintained ties with Moscow, has sought to deflect suspicions that Russia could use the Khayyam satellite to spy on Ukraine.
Xi Jinping's third Belt and Road Forum begins today in Beijing.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Oct 16, 2023

Xi’s $1 trillion ‘project of the century’ faces uncertain future

China’s overall activity in BRI countries is down about 40% from its 2018 peak as the world’s second-biggest economy slows.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2023

Japan considers allowing exports of fighter jets to third nations

The government has clarified its position that it would be "desirable" to lift a ban in place on such exports.
Commuters ride on rickshaws on a flooded road after heavy rains in Dhaka in September.
ENVIRONMENT / ANALYSIS
Oct 19, 2023

Can pre-disaster cash and aid help fix climate loss and damage?

Anticipatory action can help avert the worst effects of climate-related disasters.
Chinese President Xi Jinping exits the podium after giving his speech during the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2023

Belt and Road anniversary prompts reflection on China's global ambitions

Countries like the U.S., Japan, India, and Canada should participate in the BRI's infrastructure projects to influence the initiative's evolution.
A street thermometer marks 40 degrees Celsius in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 15, 2023

Heat projected to kill nearly five times more people by 2050

A team of international experts warned that without climate change action, the "health of humanity is at grave risk."
This undated picture released Wednesday shows the first ground combustion test of a high-power solid-fuel engine for a new intermediate-range ballistic missile, at an undisclosed location in North Korea.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 15, 2023

North Korea eyes surprise attack ability with missile engine test

The new engines for the intermediate-range ballistic missiles would give Pyongyang another means of targeting Japan.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets with Hamas' top leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in June. Both men met again in early November during which the former told the latter that Iran would not intervene directly following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 16, 2023

Iran's 'Axis of Resistance' against Israel faces trial by fire

Iran has built a military alliance over four decades to oppose Israeli and American power in the Middle East.
Tunnel construction for the Hokkaido Shinkansen has proved slow in some areas due to geological reasons and the difficulty of blasting through the earth.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Nov 20, 2023

Tight labor market puts Hokkaido Shinkansen 2030 goal in doubt

The 212-kilometer route now under construction will link cities between Hakodate, at the southern tip of the prefecture, and Sapporo.
An Apple Store in Shanghai in September
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Nov 19, 2023

Asian regulators turn focus to Big Tech

Across the region, there are indications that Big Tech may soon have to comply with standards that could become international benchmarks.
Vehicle carriers operated by Nippon Yusen sit docked at the Port of Zeebrugge in Zeebrugge, Belgium, in March 2020.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 20, 2023

Japan confirms Nippon Yusen cargo ship seized by Houthis

The Nippon Yusen-operated vessel was captured by the Iran-linked group in the Red Sea as it was traveling south near Yemen.
Up until very recently, the business of packaging semiconductors — encasing chips in materials that both protect them and connect them to the electronic device they’re part of — was, at best, an afterthought for the industry.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 22, 2023

A new front is opening up in the U.S.-China conflict over chips

The process of packaging semiconductors is increasingly seen as the "secret sauce" — a path toward achieving higher performance.
Pedestrians walk past a screen displaying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un celebrating after the launch of a military reconnaissance satellite, in Tokyo's Akihabara district on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 23, 2023

North Korea ends 2018 military accord with South after launch

Pyongyang said its first military spy satellite is in orbit, with the rocket passing over the Japanese archipelago late Tuesday.
A wind farm near near Golmud, Qinghai province, China
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2023

The promise of China’s sustainable-development path

As of this month, China has (since 2017) approved 572 “ecological civilization construction demonstration zones.”
Activists dressed up like CEOs take part in a fake banquet near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Monday where they feign the celebration of company profits over climate responsibility.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2023

We already know what will happen at COP28

It’s beyond time to ask whether the COP gatherings work as they should. After all, we’ve had nearly three decades of summits
A Ukrainian serviceman fires a self-propelled howitzer toward Russian troops.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 4, 2023

Despite rising demand, arms sales hampered by production woes: study

COVID-derived labor and supply-chain issues had a significant impact on manufacturers, experts say.
Traffic along a highway amid heavy smog and pollution in New Delhi in November
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Dec 7, 2023

As China enjoys cleaner air, India's pollution struggle continues

Huge swaths of northern India choke on clouds of polluted air during winter as temperatures drop, winds disappear and farmers set fields ablaze.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan (left), South Korean national security adviser Cho Tae-yong (center) and secretary-general of Japan's National Security Secretariat, Takeo Akiba, at a news conference in Seoul on Saturday.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2023

Japan, U.S., South Korea to step up action on North's cyberthreats

The national security advisers of the three countries met in Seoul on Saturday as Pyongyang warned that it would deploy more spy satellites.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Reno, Nevada, in December last year. Trump's potential return to the White House could have serious implications for the U.S, as well as Japan, as he appears set to be even less inhibited and open to reason than before.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 5, 2024

Potential Trump redux: Unrestrained in Asia or bound by a changed region?

A win for the ex-president in November's election would potentially have big implications for Japan, given the death of Shinzo Abe, its most effective “Trump whisperer.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center) sits next to Bhutan's King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck (second from left) and others, while watching a cultural performance at the Tashichhodzong monastery in Thimpu, Bhutan, in August 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

India and China eye strategic areas bordering 'last barrier' Bhutan

New Delhi is determined not to let Beijing extend its influence further across what India sees as its natural sphere of influence
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visits the bedside of a person injured in Jan. 3 twin blasts in Kerman, at a hospital in the southern city.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 7, 2024

Middle East player Iran weakened by internal woes

Tehran is accused by the West of playing a key role in unrest plaguing the Middle East, but recent twin bombings are a keen reminder of its own weaknesses.
In late 2023, a Chinese hacker group was blamed for an attack that compromised a Philippine government agency around the same time the two countries clashed in the South China Sea.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 8, 2024

Philippines turns to hackers amid Chinese cyberthreat

In a November report, a Chinese group known as Stately Taurus was blamed for an attack that had compromised a Philippine government agency for five days earlier in 2023.
U.S. President Joe Biden gives a thumbs-up as he walks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at Filoli estate on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, in Woodside, California, on Nov. 15. Their meeting attempted to calm the waters and tried to convey a sense that the U.S. and China could effectively manage their differences.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 11, 2024

In 2024, U.S.-China ties likely to get worse before they get better

The trajectory of Washington and Beijing's relationship this year will have profound effects on Japan's own policies going forward.
The Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo. In the wake of a political funding scandal, some are calling for the dissolution of the LDP's factions.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 16, 2024

Eliminating factions isn’t the answer to the funding scandal

In the wake of a political funding scandal that has embroiled the LDP, some are calling for the dissolution of the party's factions. That would be a mistake.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden participate in their first 2020 presidential campaign debate in Cleveland, Ohio.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 25, 2024

Wall Street maps out 2024 election as Trump vs Biden looks likely

While calculations at this stage come with caveats, expectations for politically fueled moves in asset prices around the 2024 vote are high.
As China struggles with a slumping stock market and a collapsing real estate sector, commentary and even financial analysis Beijing deems negative are blocked.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2024

China’s censorship dragnet targets critics of the economy

The government's new information campaign about the economy is wider than usual censorship, with efforts now extending to mainstream commentary.
Shoppers walk past an ID Hub, a Volkswagen showroom for electric cars, at a mall in Shanghai on Dec. 3, 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 19, 2024

Firms with deep roots in China reconsider their Xinjiang ties

Volkswagen Group is reviewing the future of its joint venture in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China
A man stands next to a model of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which was used to launch several Indonesian satellites into orbit, at the office of Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, an Indonesia’s satellite-based telecommunication firm, in Jakarta on Jan. 15.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 20, 2024

How a Chinese rocket failure boosted SpaceX's fortunes in Indonesia

Elon Musk seized on the incident to prevail over a state-owned Chinese contractor as Jakarta's company of choice for putting satellites into space.
People read newspapers at a roadside tea stall in Patna, Bihar, India. Newsrooms are being reshaped, journalists say, by India’s richest press barons, many of whom are close to the ruling party and depend on millions of advertising dollars from the government.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 26, 2024

Billionaire press barons are squeezing media freedom in India

Many press barons are close to the ruling party and depend on millions of advertising dollars from the government.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes