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JAPAN / Politics / Notebook
Sep 13, 2023

What Kishida’s reshuffle says about female participation in politics

Political family ties of most of the female appointees speaks to the difficulty women face in entering the political arena.
Mia Lee Sorensen with her Danish mother, Lilian Hansen, 72, and father, Bent Hansen, 74, on the coast of Korsor, Denmark, on July 13. South Korean adoptees have been returning to the country to hold the government accountable for what they call a corrupt and predatory adoption system.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 18, 2023

World’s largest ‘baby exporter’ confronts its painful past

South Korean adoptees have been returning to the country to hold the government accountable for what they call a corrupt adoption system.
Identifying a sustainable product can involve evaluating claims about emissions, plastic use, water waste and packaging recyclability.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Sep 19, 2023

Regulators are trying to stop greenwashing before it gets worse

The range of agencies tackling dubious sustainability claims is indicative of its ambiguity and breadth.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
WORLD / Politics
Sep 20, 2023

Janet Yellen defends climate progress as critics push harder

The U.S. Treasury chief has made climate change a top priority. For some that’s a great relief. For others, it’s a distinction that’s too easy to claim.
Women with portable electric fans in the Yurakucho district of Tokyo on Sept. 12. In Japan, Cool Biz became especially popular with women, who tended to wear lighter clothes and often complained about the cold temperatures needed to make business suits comfortable for their male colleagues.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 24, 2023

Where did all the dark-suited Japanese businessmen go?

Under Cool Biz, salarymen and government workers don short-sleeved shirts in the summer as offices are kept above 28 degrees Celsius to save energy.
If you've ever dined on fresh fish, either within Japan or anywhere else in the world, there's a healthy chance it was processed via ikejime, a Japanese technique for preserving freshness in line-caught fish.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 30, 2023

How the world got hooked on ikejime-caught fish

Roughly rendered in English as “locking in life,” this technique delivers a quick death to ensure freshness.
A screen at the Karolinska Institute shows this year's laureates Katalin Kariko of Hungary (left) and Drew Weissman of the U.S. during the announcement of the winners of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 2, 2023

Pair win medicine Nobel for work related to COVID-19 vaccines

Their findings "fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system," the Nobel committee said.
Katalin Kariko (right) and Drew Weissman, the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discoveries enabling the development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023

Nobel for mRNA vaccines shows the power of perseverance

Decades of work by Nobel Prize winners Kariko and Weissman made the rapid development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines possible.
Max Verstappen (right) celebrates with Red Bull's team principal, Christian Horner, after the Dutch star won the Japanese Grand Prix on Sept. 24 to clinch the constructors' title for the team.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Oct 6, 2023

Lewis Hamilton says 'phenomenal' Max Verstappen raised bar in F1

Verstappen needs just three points to secure another F1 title.
BUSINESS
Oct 8, 2023

Australia vows stable energy exports to Japan amid emissions cut

Australia has worked to strengthen its policies to tackle climate change, including mandating emissions cuts of 43% from 2005 levels by 2030.
Houses and buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in Gaza City, on Tuesday
WORLD / Politics
Oct 10, 2023

Israel pounds Gaza with fiercest airstrikes ever

Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with the fiercest airstrikes in the 75-year history of its conflict with the Palestinians, razing whole districts to dust.
A group of Chinese tourists arrive at Haneda Airport in Tokyo in August.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 11, 2023

Japan public opinion turns most negative on China in nine years

More than 92% of respondents to the Japanese section of the poll said their impression of China was "not good,” up from 87% last year.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Arab leaders pose for a group photo during the China-Arab summit in Riyadh on Dec. 9.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 12, 2023

China’s economic stake in the Middle East: Its thirst for oil

China, the world’s second-largest economy, has become addicted to foreign oil at a stunning pace.
A Palestinian fighter from the armed wing of Hamas takes part in a military parade to mark the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel, near the border in the central Gaza Strip, in July.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 14, 2023

How Hamas secretly built a 'mini-army' to fight Israel

The group has a military academy training a range of specializations and boasts a naval commando unit among its 40,000-strong military wing.
New Zealand's National Party leader Christopher Luxon addresses his supporters in Auckland after winning the general election on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 15, 2023

New Zealand elects its most conservative government in decades

Former Air New Zealand CEO Christopher Luxon's center-right National Party will lead a coalition with a smaller libertarian party.
The Iriomote cat, native to the island of the same name in Okinawa Prefecture, is remarkable for its resilience: It occupies the smallest habitat of any wildcat on Earth.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Oct 15, 2023

The last of Japan's wildcats

Only about 100 animals of each species survive today, putting both on the brink of extinction along with more than 3,700 other species nationwide.
Israeli soldiers load tank shells as their unit masses in Be'eri, near the border with the Gaza Strip, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 15, 2023

Israel plans Gaza invasion to avenge Hamas atrocities

The assault is expected to be Israel’s biggest ground operation since it invaded Lebanon in 2006.
A Palestinian with dual citizenship waits outside the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the hope of getting permission to leave Gaza, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / EXPLAINER
Oct 18, 2023

What is the Rafah border crossing and why is Egypt keeping it shut?

The crossing is the sole route for aid to enter Gaza directly from outside Israel and the only exit that does not lead to Israeli territory.
China's ambitions to control the legacy chip market have implications for the world economy and Western nations are beginning to take countersteps.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2023

China's economic ambitions squeeze the developing world

While Chinese diplomats try to promote “win-win” solutions, Chinese policy is preventing developing-world partners from selling goods to China.
People react during the funeral of a Palestinian who was killed by Israeli forces, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 20, 2023

West Bank a possible 'third front' for Israel

More than 70 Palestinians have been killed in West Bank violence since Oct. 7 and Israel has arrested more than 800 people.
Children look to the sky at the sound of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Oct. 9.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2023

The never-ending catastrophe that plagues Palestinians

Displacing the Palestinian residents of northern Gaza would be a flagrant violation of international law.
A statue of the Demon Spirit in the Mononoke Village area, a new area within Ghibli Park in the city of Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2023

Ghibli Park unveils new 'Princess Mononoke' area

The Mononoke Village area within the facility will open on Nov. 1, showcasing the sceneries of village forests in Japan.
A fledgling film director (Mayu Matsuoka, center) returns home to make a film about her dysfunctional family in “Masked Hearts.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 26, 2023

‘Masked Hearts’: Catharsis comes out of familial discord

Yuya Ishii returns to his indie roots with a comedy-drama that comes from a personal and painfully real place.
Israeli soldiers gather around a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip on Oct. 15. The IDF is preparing to conduct a ground offensive into the Palestinian territory.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 26, 2023

When history rhymes: Are we back in 2003, at the dawn of the Iraq War?

Given the parallels between the Israeli position today and the U.S. invasion of Iraq a decade ago, history can offer important lessons.
The simplest option for many Japanese industries facing labor shortages might be to do what the taxi sector is doing — keep people in the workforce longer.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 26, 2023

Octogenarian taxi drivers to the labor-crunch rescue

An option for many Japanese industries facing labor shortages might be to do what the taxi sector is doing — keep people in the workforce longer.
The interiors of what the Israeli military say is a cross-border attack tunnel dug from Gaza to Israel, on the Israeli side of the Gaza Strip border near Kissufim in 2018.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 27, 2023

The Hamas tunnel city beneath Gaza — a hidden frontline for Israel

Hamas has different kinds of tunnels running beneath the sandy 360-square-kilometer Gaza Strip — including attack, smuggling, and storage burrows.
Plaintiffs, lawyers and supporters march to the Tokyo District Court on Nov. 30, the same day the court ruled that Japan’s lack of legal protections for same-sex couples is unconstitutional.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 27, 2023

Japan's 'failed' same-sex marriage lawsuits can still propel reform

Even unsuccessful cases challenging Japan’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage have gotten courts to acknowledge a constitutional problem.
The Israeli military fires shells toward the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 29, 2023

Israel on verge of perilous push into Gaza, analysts say

Thousands of civilians have already died in Gaza and Israel since Hamas launched its shock Oct. 7 attacks.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 30, 2023

In the Japan Series, it’s a tale of two fanbases

The Tigers and Buffaloes have a lot of similarities, but there's a yawning gap in the support, enthusiasm and attention paid to each Kansai club.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 30, 2023

Police prep crowd control plans in case Tigers win Japan Series

The Tigers are facing off against the Orix Buffaloes in the series, which kicked off on Saturday.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past