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Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward is testing a project to fight rats using garbage bags imbued with the smell of herbs they hate.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 11, 2024

Tokyo ward using garbage bags with herbs to combat rats

Chiyoda Ward received around 200 complaints annually in fiscal 2019 to 2022, a surge from around 50 until fiscal 2018.
Manchester City's Erling Haaland (right) and Everton's James Tarkowski vie for the ball during their match in Manchester on Saturday.
SOCCER
Feb 12, 2024

Manchester City gets stars back as club eyes more Champions League glory

Pep Guardiola's men head to FC Copenhagen for the first leg of their last 16 tie on Tuesday on the back of 10 consecutive wins in all competitions.
Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani works out with trainers during spring training camp in Glendale, Arizona, on Saturday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 13, 2024

Batting practice has Dodgers' Ohtani optimistic for opener

According to reports, Ohtani took swings at 21 pitches and hit 10 of those pitches over the fence.
A surveillance drone is seen in midair during the G7 foreign ministers' summit in Lucca, Italy, in 2017.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 13, 2024

'Intrusive' drones? U.S. surveillance case tests privacy law

Evidence suggests police departments are increasingly using drones, including as first responders to emergency calls.
Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan friar and a professor at the Gregorian, the Harvard of Rome's pontifical universities, in his office at the university in Rome on Jan. 29. Benanti advises the Vatican and the Italian government on navigating the tricky questions — moral and otherwise — raised by artificial intelligence.
WORLD / Society
Feb 14, 2024

The friar who became the Vatican’s go-to guy on AI

Father Paolo Benanti, an ethics professor and self-proclaimed geek, spends his days thinking about the Holy Ghost and the ghosts in the machines.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group. One of SoftBank's primary objectives will be to harvest returns from its huge portfolio rather than priming unprofitable startups for growth.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 14, 2024

SoftBank’s Vision Fund swaps splashy bets for ‘timid’ investing

As other tech investors have heaped money into new artificial intelligence firms, Vision Fund has stayed out of the fray.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the Prime Minister's Office on Feb. 8
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Kishida becomes 10th longest-serving prime minister in postwar era

In the last 25 years, only Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe have served as prime minister for longer than Kishida.
U.S. allies reevaluate priorities in relations with Washington out of concern Donald Trump may win the U.S. presidency again.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2024

U.S. allies fear the fallout of a new Trump era

The world appears to have priced in former U.S. President Trump’s disdain not only for allies but the entire global order his predecessors created.
Diagnosed at a young age with a rare variant of glycogen storage disease type IV, Mark Bookman went on to distinguish himself in academia in both the United States and Japan.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Feb 19, 2024

New film honors life and legacy of disability pioneer Mark Bookman

Free screenings of THE new documentary on Japan-based disability rights advocate Mark Bookman will be held around Tokyo on Feb. 24, 25 and 27.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 16, 2024

LDP survey doesn't quell demand from opposition for ethics hearing

The scandal, and the demand to convene a meeting of the ethics committee, have Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in a political bind.
Kylian Mbappe has reportedly informed PSG of his intention to leave at the end of the season.
SOCCER
Feb 16, 2024

Kylian Mbappe informs Paris Saint-Germain of intention to leave team

Mbappe declined to activate a clause that would allow him to remain with PSG for another year.
Police officers detain a woman during a gathering in memory of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, near the Wall of Grief in Moscow on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 18, 2024

Risking arrest, Russians mourn Navalny in small acts of protest

Bouquets at the Wall of Grief become a form of dissent in a country where such action could result in detention.
In Hokkaido’s Niseko ski resort area, a bowl of ramen or soba from a food truck easily goes for more than three times what it costs at a sit-down joint in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Feb 18, 2024

¥3,800 ski-slope ramen is a glimpse of Japan’s future

Foreign tourist spending has potential to stimulate growth but needs careful management to ensure equitable distribution of benefits for locals.
Demonstrators hold a rally to honor the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in front of the Russian Embassy in Warsaw on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2024

The lonesome death of a Russian opposition leader

The prison where Navalny died, Nicknamed “Polar Wolf,” is a freezing cold gulag for violent criminals. But Navalny — an anti-corruption lawyer and blogger.
A supporter carries an Indian National Congress Party flag outside the party's headquarters in New Delhi in 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 19, 2024

India’s opposition targeted by tax agency before polls

Opposition parties have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of using the country’s federal law enforcement agencies to single them out.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said she had also spoken to her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi about making sure that Western sanctions against Russia held as the war in Ukraine dragged on.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 19, 2024

Canada says China has role to play in keeping Red Sea safe

Chinese ships that ply the key trade route between Asia and Europe are at risk of attacks by Houthi militants as well, Canadian foreign minister says.
Romance scams are designed to exploit individuals emotionally, leading them to part with their money.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2024

Deceptive lawyer ads exploit victims of romance scams Japan

Some legal practitioners exaggerate their success records in recovering stolen funds and fail to follow through on the collection process.
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.
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2024

Hirotake Yano, founder of ¥100 chain Daiso, dies at 80

The retailer capitalized on a shift in spending habits after Japan's economic bubble burst, launching Yano onto the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Demonstrators hold Iranian flags and a huge inflated figure representing Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei holding a nuclear bomb as they protest against the Iranian regime on Friday in Munich.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 20, 2024

Iran's nuclear enrichment exceeds commercial needs, says IAEA chief

The IAEA warned at the end of 2023 that Tehran already had enough material to make three nuclear bombs if it enriches material now at 60% to beyond 60%.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's supporters demonstrate against U.S. extradition in front of the British Consulate in Barcelona on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 21, 2024

Assange absent at final hearing against extradition to U.S.

The two-day session is likely the WikiLeaks founder's last chance to fight the extradition in Britain's courts after a half-decade battle.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 21, 2024

Film director Hideo Sakaki held on suspicion of sexual assault

While allegations of sexual abuse were made against Sakaki as far back as March 2022, this is the first time that the director has been taken into custody.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 21, 2024

Senior LDP members likely to appear before ethics committee next week

While the opposition said the willingness of additional LDP figures to answer questions was an improvement, they called for more to step up.
After stints working in New Zealand and Germany, Yoshitada Katsuki opened his winery in his home prefecture of Miyazaki in order to work with grapes his own way.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 24, 2024

Despite ‘inhospitable’ Miyazaki, Katsuki Wines stays au naturel

For pest control, Yoshitada Katsuki applies to vines a solution of vinegar, sugar and local shōchū that he jokes “lets bugs get drunk before dying.”
Sanfrecce will play its first regular-season match against Urawa on Friday at the brand-new Edion Peace Wing Hiroshima.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 22, 2024

The J. League is back with a top flight that's bigger than ever

Hiroshima has eyes on the title as the club raises the curtain at a new stadium, but Urawa will be looking to spoil the party starting Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 22, 2024

Committee probing LDP funds scandal set to open next week

The committee will likely gather next Wednesday and Thursday to interrogate five senior LDP lawmakers over their involvement in a kickback scheme.
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.
Members of the 31st Separate Mechanized Brigade fire at a Russian target in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on Tuesday. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States and China and their allies are pulling apart, World Trade Organization economists say.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Feb 23, 2024

Global trade rift widening as Ukraine war passes two-year mark

There are clear signs that the global economy is fragmenting into two separate blocs, World Trade Organization economists say.
Demonstrators protest the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in front of the Russian Embassy in Berlin on Feb. 16.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2024

Vladimir Putin must be shown the limits of his power

Navalny’s death deprives Russia of its most thoughtful and powerful opposition to President Vladimir Putin and his criminal clique.
Electron micrograph of Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of syphilis
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 26, 2024

Syphilis cases hit record high for third straight year in Japan

While the precise reasons for the surge in reported cases remain unclear, experts have identified several potential contributing factors.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?