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With brightly colored hair and equally colorful attire, the 48-year-old Maaya Orii certainly stands out in a crowd.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 1, 2024

Paging Dr. Maaya, the neurosurgeon doubling as a fashion designer

Maaya Orii works as a neurosurgeon in Tokyo on weekdays and as a doctor in Kushiro, Hokkaido, on weekends. In her spare time, she’ll shift gears and focus on fashion.
This untitled work was completed and installed in 1994 by a prominent Nigerian artist named Sunday Jack Akpan.
COMMUNITY / Voices / Black Eye
Jun 3, 2024

How a cache of African art found a home in western Tokyo

When I first encountered these statues, I was just minding my business headed for Tachikawa Station. I was struck dumb, paralyzed damn near mid-step.
Kanoa Igarashi, who earned a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is excited to get another shot at gold at this year’s Summer Games.
MORE SPORTS / Surfing
May 31, 2024

Kanoa Igarashi ready to challenge Teahupo'o in search of gold at Paris Olympics

Igarashi earned the silver medal in the inaugural Olympic surfing competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Local residents rush to get cold water at an ice factory in Jacobabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday. It is yet another brutal summer in the age of climate change, in a part of the world that is among the most vulnerable to its dire effects.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jun 1, 2024

A matter of survival as South Asia’s heat wave reaches 52 degrees

It is yet another brutal summer in the age of climate change, in a part of the world that is among the most vulnerable to its dire effects.
Palestinians walk and inspect the damage after Israeli forces withdrew from Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 1, 2024

Hamas responds positively to Biden's new Gaza truce proposal

"It's time for this war to end and for the day after to begin," said Biden, who is under election-year pressure to stop the conflict, now in its eighth month.
Wang YunHe's residence in Singapore, overlooking the country's premier shopping belt.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jun 1, 2024

Singapore wealth flows face new scrutiny in superhacker case

The case is a reminder of the difficult balancing act faced by Singapore and other financial hubs as they push to attract the world’s ultra rich.
Greek-flagged bulk cargo vessel Sea Champion is docked to the port of Aden, Yemen to which it arrived after being attacked in the Red Sea in what appears to have been a mistaken missile strike by Houthi militia, in February.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 1, 2024

How Red Sea disruptions are driving up carbon emissions

A surge of attacks on ships traveling the waters of the Red Sea is forcing shippers to reroute their vessels, driving up emissions.
Real Madrid players celebrate with the trophy after winning the Champions League final over Borussia Dortmund on Saturday in London.
SOCCER
Jun 2, 2024

Real Madrid defies Dortmund to win 15th Champions League

Real Madrid has now won its last nine European Cup finals and has won the competition six times in the last 11 seasons.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks at a campaign rally on April 8. Exit polls revealed on June 1 indicated that the opposition was struggling to significantly cut into the sizable majority held by Modi's party.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 2, 2024

Modi set for landslide election win in India, exit polls show

No prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru — who ruled India for 17 years after independence — has managed to secure three consecutive terms in power.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 2, 2024

Zelenskyy pillories China over reluctance to use sway to end Ukraine war

The Ukrainian president also implored Asian leaders to attend a peace conference slated for later this month in Switzerland.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs after delivering remarks at Trump Tower in New York on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 2, 2024

Biden's big weakness vs Trump: Voters without college degrees

Such results help set the stage for what national opinion polls show is a tied race between Biden and Trump.
Bidet toilets are the norm in Japan, where more than 80% of homes have one. But their numbers are growing worldwide.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 2, 2024

Feeling flush: Japan's high-tech toilets go global

Sales are surging abroad and especially in the United States, led by A-list bidet fans such as Drake, the Kardashians and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean defense chief Shin Won-sik attend a trilateral meeting on sidelines of the Shangri-la Dialogue security conference in Singapore on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 2, 2024

Japan, South Korea and U.S. unveil new initiatives to cement defense ties

The three partner nations agreed to develop a framework to institutionalize trilateral cooperation within the year.
A plastic bag carrying trash that crossed the inter-Korean border with a balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea is seen in Seoul in this picture released Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 3, 2024

North Korea halts sending trash balloons over border to South

Pyongyang has threatened a resumption of the "unpleasant" practice in the event South Korean activists restart the flying of anti-regime leaflets.
Philippine Coast Guard personnel aboard the BRP Bagacay observe a China Coast Guard ship during the distribution of fuel and food to fishers by a civilian-led mission in the disputed South China Sea on May 16.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 3, 2024

Beijing slams 'ignoble' U.S. role in South China Sea dispute

Responding to a warning by the Philippines' president, Beijing accused Washington of exploiting the issue to "drive a wedge between China and other regional countries."
The stone pillar at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo that had "toilet" spray painted on it, on Monday after it was cleaned
JAPAN / Society
Jun 3, 2024

Police launch investigation over Yasukuni Shrine vandalism

In a video shared online, a man went to the shrine and urinated on a stone pillar before writing the word “toilet” in red spray paint.
A North Korean soldier is seen at a guard post inside the country in this picture taken from Paju, South Korea, near the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas in June 2020.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 3, 2024

Seoul to suspend inter-Korean military pact with Pyongyang over balloons

South Korea said the halt will last "until mutual trust between the two Koreas is restored,” after the North sent trash-filled balloons across the border over the last week.
Artificial chemical scents that come from things like perfume or fabric softener can cause discomfort or even sickness for some individuals.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 7, 2024

Scents and sensitivity: Understanding ‘smell pollution’ in Japan

In the country's crowded urban areas, it is important to be aware of how your deodorant, perfume or fabric softener can affect others.
Brexit architect Nigel Farage said he'll stand as a candidate for Reform U.K. in Britain’s general election on July 4, an about-turn that threatens to destabilize the campaign for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s governing Conservatives.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 4, 2024

Nigel Farage barrels into U.K. campaign in gut punch to Conservatives

With trademark chutzpah, Farage convened what he called an "emergency” press conference to tell reporters that he would, in fact, be standing as a candidate.
Supporters of Pakistan's jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan in Karachi hold his poster as they celebrate his acquittal of leaking state secrets following a court verdict on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 4, 2024

Pakistan's Imran Khan acquitted of leaking state secrets charges

But the former prime minister will remain in jail for now due to a conviction in another case.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gives a presentation on Sunday night before Computex Taipei’s official opening to talk about the chipmaker’s strategic plans.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 4, 2024

Nvidia and AMD square off in fight to take control of AI

The heads of both companies employed different tacks in conveying their expertise during back-to-back shows at the world’s largest computing conference this week in Taipei.
Machida Zelvia's Yu Hirakawa (center) is challenged by Albirex Niigata's Yuto Horigome during the two teams' J. League clash at Machida Gion Stadium in Machida, Tokyo, on Saturday.
SOCCER / J. League
Jun 4, 2024

From nonleague to top of the league for upstarts Machida

The team from Tokyo's suburbs tops the table approaching the halfway point of the season.
Sebastien Delogu, deputy for La France Insoumise (LFI) party speaks at a pro-Palestinian protest in central Paris on May 29.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 4, 2024

Gaza war rattles European politics from the left

The rise of radical positions on both the left and right will have widespread affects on the political landscape, observers say.
President of the French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National-RN) party Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen, parliamentary party leader of the French far-right National Rally, attend a political rally to launch the party's campaign for the European elections, in Marseille, France, on March 3.
WORLD
Jun 4, 2024

A surging hard right stumbles over its own divisions

Immigration is an issue that has laid bare the contradictions for nationalist parties of trying to forge an international alliance.
A child holds a sign during a rally demanding the release of Israeli hostages outside the U.S. consulate in Tel Aviv on Monday.
WORLD
Jun 4, 2024

Back to class — or shelters? Next school year snags Israel's Lebanon strategy

Of 60,000 civilians relocated from northern Israel at the outset of the war, 14,600 are children, scattered in temporary kindergartens and schools.
Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki says the city is holding off on inviting Israeli representative to this year's peace ceremony.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2024

Nagasaki holds off inviting Israel to peace ceremony

Worries that protests could disrupt the memorial for atomic bomb victims are partly behind the decision, according to the mayor.
Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, outside a U.S. federal court in Santa Ana, California, on Tuesday
BASEBALL / MLB
Jun 5, 2024

Ohtani's ex-interpreter pleads guilty to stealing nearly $17 million

Ippei Mizuhara admitted to one count of bank fraud, which carries a maximum 30-year prison sentence, and one count of filing a false tax return.
A screen shows news footage of China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe collecting a sample from the far side of the moon, in Beijing on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 5, 2024

China’s moon mission leaves patriotic graffiti on surface

The lunar surface was left with a mark that resembled the Chinese-language name for China.
The children of some of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies are also listed as participants at the four-day St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), including Roman Rotenberg, whose father was among the Russian president’s childhood judo partners.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 5, 2024

Children of Russia's elite take center stage at Putin’s flagship forum

Once touted as a "window” into Russia, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is increasingly becoming a generational showcase.
France star Kylian Mbappe during a news conference in Longeville-les-Metz on Tuesday ahead of the national team's friendly against Luxembourg.
SOCCER
Jun 5, 2024

Mbappe arrival ignites Madrid fans and press

The official announcement of the 15-time Champions League winners' latest star signing on Monday was a seismic event in Madrid.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic