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Tokyo's Asakusa area, a popular location among foreign tourists
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2024

Japan, China, South Korea set 40 million tourist target

The number of foreign visitors to Japan hit a monthly high of some 3.29 million in July, with about half being from China and South Korea.
Historical examples show that technological advances often lead to significant but gradual changes, sometimes accompanied by social and economic disruptions.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2024

Will the AI revolution lead to greater prosperity?

Historical examples show that technological advances often lead to significant but gradual changes, sometimes accompanied by social and economic disruptions.
Starting next March, the My Number card can be used as a driver's license.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2024

Use of My Number card as driver's license to start March 24

The My Number card will function as a driver's license, with its embedded integrated circuit chip to contain new information such as license type.
The Tokyo Ballet’s 60th anniversary program includes Maurice Bejart’s famous shorts, such as “Bolero.”
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 13, 2024

The Tokyo Ballet marks year of rebirth with tributes to history and innovation

Long-time collaborator Bejart Ballet Lausanne brings masterworks to Japan for The Tokyo Ballet's 60th anniversary celebrations.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo. Some 53% of economists surveyed by Bloomberg said the earliest timing for a rate change would be in October.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 13, 2024

Over half of BOJ watchers see next rate hike coming in December

The survey results show most analysts believe the market ructions after the July 31 rate hike didn't derail the BOJ from the normalization path.
Aeon is selling an assortment of 'osechi' (traditional New Year's cuisine) curated with the support of artificial intelligence.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 13, 2024

AI fried chicken, retro chic collabs: Retailers rebrand Japan's New Year's cuisine

Major department stores and supermarkets are trying unorthodox methods to entice younger generations to buy traditional New Year's dishes in Japan.
Employees work on an electric car production line near Ningbo, China, in April 2021. In new measures announced Friday, the Biden administration is moving to block off a popular tariff-free path for Chinese apparel coming into the United States, and added stiff levies on electric vehicles, solar panels and other products.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 14, 2024

U.S. locks in steep China tariff hikes, as some industries warn of disruptions

The tariffs include a 100% duty on Chinese EVs, 50% on solar cells and 25% on steel, aluminum, EV batteries and key minerals.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a news conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 19, 2024

Fed cuts rates by half-point in decisive bid to defend economy

It is the Fed’s first rate cut in more than four years.
Though none will yet say it openly, some in German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's party believe he should follow his idol U.S. President Joe Biden and step aside for a more charismatic champion.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 20, 2024

Far-right's fate in German regional vote could break or make Scholz

The vote in Brandenburg could trigger a party backlash against Olaf Scholz or, if his party holds the state, confirm him as their candidate for 2025.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan presidential candidates Harumi Yoshida (far left), Kenta Izumi (center left), Yukio Edano (center right) and Yoshihiko Noda pose at a news conference in Tokyo on Sept. 7.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 20, 2024

CDP leader hopefuls must bridge internal and external differences

Once elected, the leader of the main opposition party must both unify the different groups within and choose who to work with to win the next general election.
Birds rest on the banks of the Susquehanna River near the Three Mile Island nuclear plant south of Middletown, Pennsylvania, in March 2019.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 21, 2024

Microsoft AI needs so much power it's tapping site of U.S. nuclear meltdown

The decision is the latest sign of surging interest in the nuclear industry as power demand for AI soars.
Many of today’s cars — both gas and electric — are equipped with devices connecting them to the internet or cloud services, making them potential targets for hacking.
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2024

Biden administration to prepare ban on Chinese car software

The U.S. Commerce Department has been meeting with industry experts as it looks to address security concerns raised by a new generation of so-called smart cars.
A destroyed car in the Biala Ladecka river following flooding in Zelazno, Poland, on Friday
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 22, 2024

U.S. election uncertainty clouds U.N. climate finance progress

Governments are analyzing a possible win by Kamala Harris, who promotes climate spending, or by Donald Trump, a climate denier who wants to boost fossil fuels.
Kishida thanked Khurelsukh at the meeting Sunday for Mongolia's cooperation over the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals decades ago.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 23, 2024

Japan and Mongolia leaders affirm defense equipment accord

The pact is designed to allow the two countries to export defense equipment and technologies to each other and to ensure their appropriate management after the transfers.
Visitors taste sake from Fukushima Prefecture at a Japan-South Korea exchange festival held in Seoul on Sunday.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2024

Japan-South Korea exchange festival held in Seoul

The event comes at a time where more and more South Koreans are visiting Japan as relations improve and the yen remains weak.
Former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda attends a news conference after being elected as the new leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan on Monday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 23, 2024

Former PM Yoshihiko Noda elected new leader of main opposition CDP

The win puts him on track for a showdown with a new leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a general election likely to be held sooner rather than later.
The rice harvest ramped up this month and will ease a supply squeeze, but farmers and Japan’s main grain distributor have agreed to higher contract prices.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2024

Rice inflation to persist despite harvest, as prices rise over 20% on year

Tokyo shoppers were paying 23% more than a year ago for 5 kilogram bags of rice last month, while wholesale prices have risen 28% — the biggest hike since 1975.
Volunteers distribute food bags to people  in Rishon LeZion in central Israel on Aug. 21.
WORLD
Sep 24, 2024

Israeli economy struggles under weight of Gaza war

Mass protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial judicial reforms had already weakened Israel's economy prior to the Hamas attack on October 7.
Toru Yamasaki, president of San-in Godo Bank, says buying the Japanese government bonds are better for a regional bank like his than foreign debt.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 24, 2024

Japan bank stung by Fed hikes plots return to government bonds

A bank operating in Japan’s least populated area is doing something that may have global repercussions if its peers do the same.
Toyota added ¥200 billion to a ¥1 trillion stock repurchase plan announced in May, according to an exchange filing Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 24, 2024

Toyota raises buyback to ¥1.2 trillion, citing share levels

The carmaker’s operating profit for the three months ended June 30 was ¥1.31 trillion, 17% higher than a year earlier.
EV cars are pictured inside BYD's first electric vehicle (EV) factory in Southeast Asia, a fast-growing regional EV market where it has become the dominant player, in Rayong, Thailand, on July 4.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 25, 2024

Biden's car-tech ban is a powerful new weapon against Chinese EVs

The ban on Chinese hardware and software, announced by the U.S. Commerce Department, is the Biden administration's latest salvo.
Flowers are laid in front of a Japanese school in Shenzhen last Friday. A Japanese boy who was on his way to the school was fatally stabbed last week.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 25, 2024

Expat safety seen as a must for Japanese firms to keep doing business in China

Business leaders have underlined the duty of a host country to foreign firms in the wake of a fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy in Shenzhen.
Italian former prime minister and economist Mario Draghi (left) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen take part in a joint news conference about the future of European competitiveness at the EU headquarters in Brussels on Sept. 9.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 25, 2024

Draghi warns Europe — and Japan — about the failure to innovate

The warning could not be clearer. Europe faces “an existential crisis.” “Over time, we will inexorably become less prosperous, less equal, less secure and, as a result, less free to choose our destiny.” Moreover, “without action, we will have to either compromise our welfare, our environment...
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), speaks during an interview in New York on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 25, 2024

UNRWA fears new 'tragedy' as Lebanon violence adds strain

Faced with mounting Israeli strikes, the UNRWA has paused some operations in Lebanon as it converts its schools into shelters for hundreds of displaced people.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams listens to a reporter during an event at City Hall in New York on Sept. 16.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 26, 2024

New York City mayor indicted following corruption probe

The largest U.S. city has been in a state of political upheaval for the past month.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan President Yoshihiko Noda (right) and Nippon Ishin no Kai leader Nobuyuki Baba in Tokyo on Tuesday
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 26, 2024

CDP's Noda wants to court Nippon Ishin and DPP, but will he succeed?

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan's new leader faces an uphill task of bridging the differences of its peers in the opposition ahead of a general election.
Liam Lawson, 22, has been Red Bull reserve since 2022 and filled in for 35-year-old Ricciardo at five races last year when the eight-times grand prix winner was injured.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 27, 2024

Lawson to replace Ricciardo at RB for rest of F1 season

The move was widely expected following mounting speculation that the Australian's Formula One career had reached the end of the road.
Morinari Watanabe speaks during an interview on Wednesday in Tokyo
OLYMPICS
Sep 28, 2024

IOC presidential candidate Watanabe vows to update Olympics

Watanabe, 65, said he is seeking the IOC's top post with the believe that "there are things that must be done for children and the athletes who perform in Olympic Games."
Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns drives to the basket against Mavericks center Daniel Gafford during a playoff game in May.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Sep 29, 2024

Knicks acquire Karl-Anthony Towns from Wolves

In a major offseason blockbuster, the New York Knicks have acquired All-Star forward Karl-Anthony Towns from the Minnesota Timberwolves, multiple media outlets reported.
The logo of Tokyo-based chipmaker Rapidus
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 29, 2024

Sony and others to make extra investments in Rapidus

The Tokyo-based chipmaker hopes to secure the necessary funds to start mass production of next-generation semiconductors as early as 2027.

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