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One of the representatives of 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo, Terumi Tanaka, speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony in Oslo City Hall on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2024

Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo calls for a world without nukes

The atomic bomb survivors urged countries to abolish the weapons resurging as a threat 80 years after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
The Northvolt Drei EV battery plant in Heide, Germany, one of several European-led battery facilities to have been delayed or canceled.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 10, 2024

Europe’s big battery ambitions are failing, and China is benefiting

Fallout is spreading across the region as EV demand wanes and local manufacturers struggle to master the technology.
Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. under-secretary-general and high representative for disarmament affairs, speaks during an interview on Nov. 19 in New York.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2024

Nihon Hidankyo continues to inspire push toward nuclear disarmament

The group of atomic bomb survivors has always sent its members to convey the voices of hibakusha during U.N. conferences on nuclear disarmament.
Incumbent Mayor Shuhei Azuma announces the opening of applications for a possible successor at a news conference on Sept. 25.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 11, 2024

City in Osaka Prefecture looks for new mayor using job search site

The idea is to encourage more people to get involved in local government in Japan, but questions have emerged about the project and its implications.
FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a meeting in Washington in September.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 12, 2024

FBI chief Christopher Wray to resign before Trump takes office

Donald Trump has announced the nomination of staunch loyalist Kash Patel to head the top U.S. law enforcement agency.
Keiko Ogura (center) and Masao Tomonaga (right), representatives of hibakusha, speak at a forum on nuclear disarmament held at the University of Oslo in Norway on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2024

Nuclear disarmament forum held to honor Nihon Hidankyo's Nobel win

Two hibakusha from the bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki joined past peace prize recipients in a panel discussion about their experiences of the bombings.
Actor Sadao Abe accepts the 2024 U-Can New Word and Popular Phrase Award for ふてほど (futehodo), the abbreviated title for his series, “Futekisetsu nimo Hodo ga Aru!” (“Extremely Inappropriate!”).
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 12, 2024

How often do Japan's buzzwords make it into the vernacular?

We crown a new one every year, but trendy terms tend to disappear from public consciousness if they're related to pop culture.
A handout photo shows Kosuke Nozaki (right), who was found dead of a drug overdose, and Saki Sudo, who was his wife.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 12, 2024

28-year-old widow of ‘Don Juan of Kishu’ acquitted of his murder

Prosecutors had argued that Saki Sudo, 28, somehow caused her wealthy 77-year-old husband Kosuke Nozaki to ingest drugs, resulting in a fatal overdose.
U.S. first lady Melania Trump, U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife, Akie Abe, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in May 2019
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 12, 2024

Widow of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hopes to meet with Trump

Akie Abe's late husband was once dubbed the “Trump Whisperer” for his close ties with the former U.S. president.
Nippon Life Insurance, Japan’s largest insurer by assets, will buy $250 million worth of convertible notes and $300 million of preferred securities issued by TCW Group.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 12, 2024

Nippon Life ramps up global push with $550 million TCW deal

The announcement comes just a day after Nippon Life agreed to buy Bermuda-based Resolution Life Group Holdings for about $8.2 billion.
Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Japan's same-sex marriage ban, along with their lawyers and supporters, hold signs saying the court ruled the ban as unconstitutional on Friday in front of the Fukuoka High Court.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 13, 2024

Fukuoka High Court rules ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional

It is the third such high court ruling so far in Japan after the Sapporo High Court in March and the Tokyo High Court in October.
President-elect Donald Trump plans to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change and increase domestic fossil fuel production, putting international efforts to cut global carbon emissions in peril.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2024

Trump's election sets stage for new climate leaders to emerge

As Trump plans to put "America first," including before the planet, other countries must seize the opportunity to keep alive efforts to limit global temperature rise.
Containers at the Yangshan deepwater port in Shanghai earlier this year. A new trade war with the U.S. would still hurt China more as Washington can levy ever-larger import duties on its goods and further rip the Asian giant from its supply chains, analysts say.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 13, 2024

China eyes negotiations as Trump threatens new tariffs

Beijing is seeking to amass bargaining chips to kick off talks with a new U.S. administration on contentious aspects of its ties with Washington.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers an address to the nation at his official residence in Seoul on Saturday after the National Assembly voted to impeach him earlier in the day.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 15, 2024

South Korean president impeached over martial law decree

The 204-85 vote means Yoon Suk Yeol's ultimate fate now rests with the Constitutional Court, which can either decide to formally oust him or return him to office.
U.K. Ambassador to Japan Julia Longbottom holds a news conference on Friday in Tokyo ahead of Britain's entry into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2024

Britain joins trans-Pacific pact in biggest post-Brexit trade deal

The accession means Britain will be able to apply CPTPP trade rules and lower tariffs with eight of the 11 existing members.
George Glass in July 2017
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 15, 2024

Trump reportedly eyeing businessman George Glass as envoy to Japan

Glass, who served as ambassador to Portugal under Trump's first administration, is one of the biggest fund donors who supported his comeback as U.S. president.
People holding K-pop idol sticks attend a rally to protest South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, in Seoul on Dec. 8.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 15, 2024

'Into the New World': the K-pop song that became South Korea's protest anthem

The Girls' Generation track has a history of being used to give young South Koreans a voice in politics.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, in October. India and China reached a border deal for Chinese forces to retreat from disputed territory and for India to resume border patrols.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2024

How India’s soft power led to a border deal with China

New Delhi played its cards right, adopting a multipronged strategy that led to Beijing withdrawing from disputed territory that could be model for other countries, too.
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou speaks to press in Paris on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 16, 2024

Macron has a new prime minister but the same old problems

73-year-old Francis Bayrou was the torch-bearer of centrism until Macron reshaped the political landscape in 2017.
A thermal power plant at an undisclosed location in Ukraine that was damaged during a missile attack amid Russia's invasion
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 27, 2024

When Russia fights the wrong enemy

The longer the war in Ukraine continues, the weaker Russia will become, leading many to wonder when it will decide to staunch its losses.
Sulaiman, a Rohingya refugee who recently fled Myanmar, poses for a picture at a refugee camp near the town of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Nov. 22.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 17, 2024

How Myanmar’s junta is suppressing information about a hunger crisis

Junta representatives have warned aid workers against releasing data and analysis that indicate millions of people in Myanmar are experiencing serious hunger.
Tomoyuki Sugano (right) talks with former player Yoshinobu Takahashi at a 90th anniversary ceremony for the Giants held as part of a fan appreciation event at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo on Nov. 30.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 17, 2024

Orioles sign pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano to one-year deal

Sugano, a star pitcher with the Yomiuri Giants, arrives in MLB after 12 seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball.
Serbia's Novak Djokovic and Australia's Nick Kyrgios pose for a photograph after an exhibition match in Melbourne in January 2023.
TENNIS
Dec 17, 2024

Kyrgios to team up with Djokovic for Brisbane International doubles

The pair have developed a friendship after once being at loggerheads.
The sentence of four years in prison and a fine of about ¥7.6 million for former House of Representatives lawmaker Tsukasa Akimoto will now become final.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 18, 2024

Guilty sentence for ex-lawmaker Akimoto to become final

The sentence of four years in prison and a fine of about ¥7.6 million will now become final.
Nils Nielsen coaches Switzerland during the a match in September 2022. On Wednesday, the Dane was introduced as the next coach of Nadeshiko Japan.
SOCCER
Dec 18, 2024

New Nadeshiko Japan coach Nils Nielsen targets World Cup glory

The 53-year-old Dane becomes Japan's first foreign-born women's coach and succeeds Futoshi Ikeda, who left at the end of his contract in August.
Max Fried pitches for the Braves in San Diego on Oct. 2. The free-agent hurler signed with the Yankees this offseason.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 19, 2024

Max Fried excited to become part of Yankees' winning tradition

The 30-year-old lefty received a $20 million signing bonus as part of a deal that will pay him an average of $27.5 million per season until 2032.
Runako Onodera,who donated a book purchased at a bookstore to "Book Santa" on Nov. 25 in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2024

Santa project to deliver donated books to children in Noto

1,868 bookstores joining the project across the country's 47 prefectures at present will continue to collect donations until Wednesday.
Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of semiconductor company Micron, addresses Semicon India 2023, India’s annual semiconductor conference, held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat state. India is trying to boost domestic chip production, a strategic move for its industrial growth and economic security.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2024

India’s budding chip industry: A cause for cautious optimism

Amid the global "chip war," India has entered the fray as it tries to become a semiconductor leader, a move welcomed by those diversifying supply chains away from China.
Residential buildings under construction at China Evergrande Group's Riverside Palace development in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China, in November 2023
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 20, 2024

China’s economic rebound hangs on the fate of its richest cities

Preserving earning power in China was given fresh urgency as U.S. Presidential-elect Donald Trump says he will choke off critical Chinese exports.
A soldier stops a car at a checkpoint in Bishnupur, Manipur, India, in April.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 20, 2024

Fighters from Myanmar's civil war exacerbate ethnic conflict in India

The conflict between Manipur's mostly Hindu Meitei community and the mainly Christian Kuki tribes is seen as one of India's biggest law-and-order failures.

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped