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Giant cut-outs of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other party leaders are positioned beside a road in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Feb. 25.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 21, 2024

Hardships and broken promises no hindrance for Modi in India's rural north

If India's prime minister earns a third term in office, it will be in spite of the state of the rural and farming economy — not because of it.
The Bank of Japan's recent decision to abandon negative interest rates is seen more as a symbolic shift.
COMMENTARY
Mar 21, 2024

BOJ finally ditches negative rates, but this is no liftoff

It's the end of an era for the Bank of Japan as negative interest rates are phased out.
During cherry blossom season, lunchtime thoughts turn to outdoor picnicking, and savory sakura-flavored rice bundles are the perfect choice.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Washoku Essentials
Mar 23, 2024

Cherry blossoms are just as beautiful on a plate as a branch

With Tokyo’s cherry blossom season imminent, the tree takes center stage in sweet and savory dishes alike.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 22, 2024

Japan urges priority for children as demand for measles shots spikes

Recent outbreaks in the country have led to a surge in interest in the vaccine among unvaccinated adults who haven't been infected with the disease.
People lay flowers at a makeshift memorial near Crocus City Hall, a concert venue outside Moscow that was the site of a mass shooting on Friday night.
WORLD
Mar 24, 2024

Deadly Moscow attack shatters Putin’s security promise to Russians

The tragedy outside Moscow is a blow to a leader riding an aura of confidence only days after a stage-managed election victory.
The Central business district of Hong Kong. Hong Kong IPOs have dried up as stock prices slump and economic prospects wane.
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2024

Once high-flying bankers in Hong Kong become a lost generation

The damage is underscored by the barrage of layoffs, the retreat of global capital, and the city’s diminishing role as an international financial center.
BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda takes questions during a news conference. The bank's monetary policy overhaul announced last week was known by some Japanese media before it was made public.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 25, 2024

The BOJ has sprung a leak. Japan must investigate.

The bank's policy of disclosing information selectively to certain media is harmful and needs to be looked into, as slip-ups in other countries show.
Both the U.S. and U.K. have announced sanctions against Chinese nationals for cybercrimes.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 26, 2024

U.S. and U.K. accuse China of broad cyberattacks and voter data theft

The revelations add to a growing list of cybersecurity breaches that the U.S. and its allies say are backed by the Chinese government.
A big selling point for Starlink is its ease of setting up and use.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 26, 2024

Elon Musk’s Starlink terminals are falling into the wrong hands

A thriving black market results in kits being smuggled into territories where the service has no agreement to operate and their use by repressive regimes.
A law enforcement officer patrols the scene of the gun attack at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 26, 2024

Moscow shooting poses awkward questions for Russia's intelligence agencies

Western security analysts say agencies may have its hands full dealing with the war in Ukraine and political opposition.
The Dali cargo vessel that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2024

Baltimore’s freak bridge collapse reverberates from cars to coal

The aftermath of the bridge’s collapse throws another spotlight on the fragile nature of global supply chains.
Tesla Model 3 assembly line at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, in 2018. Before the Shanghai plant opened, Fremont was Tesla’s principal factory.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 27, 2024

A pivot to China saved Elon Musk. It also binds him to Beijing.

Musk is now treading a fine line, sounding the alarm about Chinese rivals, even as he remains reliant on the Chinese market.
Residential skyscraper buildings beyond luxury villas on the waterfront of the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2024

Dubai’s glitz dims for Russians on costs and U.S. sanction pressures

Two years ago, Dubai became a hot favorite with Russians looking to park money or build new lives after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
People exit the platform at a train station along the Yamanote Line in Tokyo in 1986. A time-traveling TV comedy with a bawdy middle-aged hero from the era has become a big hit in Japan, juxtaposing brash 1980s attitudes with the more politically correct present day.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Mar 29, 2024

Satire TV show strikes a generation-spanning chord in Japan

"Extremely Inappropriate" uses a time-traveling protagonist to humorously highlight the gap between attitudes of the 1980s and the 2020s.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical President Akihiro Kobayashi (second from left) and other executives apologize for the deaths and other health damage associated with its dietary supplements, in the city of Osaka on Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 29, 2024

Kobayashi Pharma says blue mold compound may be cause of health problems

The beni kо̄ji red yeast rice dietary supplements are now linked to five deaths and 114 hospitalizations.
Japan’s Cabinet agreed to ease defense export rules for the nation’s next-generation fighter jet, a concept model of which is seen on display here at a defense show in Chiba in March 2023.
EDITORIALS
Mar 29, 2024

Japan greenlights its defense industry

The government's steps on easing defense export rules will allow Japanese companies to participate more fully in the global market for defense equipment.
Hundreds lined up at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno to catch a glimpse of the Mona Lisa, which came to Japan for a 50-day exhibition.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Apr 1, 2024

Japan Times 1974: Some troubles reported at Mona Lisa's opening

Fifty years ago, a woman made a statement on the rights of the physically disabled by splashing paint on the Mona Lisa in Tokyo.
A mural showing Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani is seen on the side of the Miyako Hotel in Little Tokyo, downtown Los Angeles, on Thursday. The mural is by artist Robert Vargas and is 46 meters tall.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 1, 2024

Ohtani’s arrival brings hope and nostalgia home to Little Tokyo

In Los Angeles, home to one of the nation’s oldest Japanese American enclaves, rooting for the Dodgers is a cherished tradition.
Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 1, 2024

Rakuten considers combining financial units

A proposed IPO of its securities unit may not proceed if the integration is realized, while the banking arm is expected to remain listed.
New regulations took effect this month to cap the working hours of hospital doctors, with the health ministry also specifying that hours spent on duties and self-development directly associated with education and research should be considered work hours.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 1, 2024

Japan starts work style reform to cap doctors' overtime

Medical services in Japan have historically relied to some extent on the self-sacrifice of doctors.
Beni kо̄ji has been widely used in Japan and elsewhere as a food additive, and features prominently in Okinawan cuisine, particularly in a dish called tо̄fuyо̄.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 1, 2024

Beni kōji purveyors fear growing aversion following supplement scandal

The ingredient has long been used in Japan and elsewhere as a food additive, and features prominently in Okinawan cuisine.
People attend a vigil in memory of the victims of a shooting attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow, in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2024

Russian conflicts with Islamists key to Moscow attack, analysts say

Russia's conflicts with Islamist forces over half a century are key to understanding the likely motives behind concert hall attack.
Chinese Coast Guard ships fire water cannons at a Philippine boat during a supply mission near Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed South China Sea on March 5. This incident highlights the danger that such confrontations could have for sparking a wider conflict.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2024

Beware the steady creep toward crisis in the South China Sea

The Philippines is pushing back. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has adopted a policy of “assertive transparency” to show the world what China is doing.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi (left), Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (center), and Taro Aso, the party's vice president, meet in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 2, 2024

LDP’s formal punishment likely to spark discontent

Exempting Kishida and Nikai from any reprimands over the slush funds scandal will likely deepen rifts within the party, experts say.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks on as he guides a training of the fire division in this picture released on March 19. Pyongyang has spent decades stockpiling millions of rounds of artillery and thousands of rockets in the terrain north of the demilitarized zone, which sits some 40 kilometers away from Seoul.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 3, 2024

Kim Jong Un faces annihilation in nearly all Korea war scenarios

Although North Korea has a manpower advantage, the bulk of its forces rely on "increasingly obsolete equipment” dating back to Soviet era.
Hakuoho (right) shoves out Aoiyama during the Nagoya Basho in July last year. The promising young wrestler is now part of Terunofuji's Isegahama stable after the Miyagino stable was forced to close following a bullying scandal.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Apr 3, 2024

With absorption of Miyagino stable, Isegahama looks to be building sumo super team

Whether it’s Real Madrid’s famous Galacticos or the 2024 Dodgers, few things in sport divides opinion among fans more than the creation of a super team.
Shohei Ohtani's response, or lack thereof, to the gambling scandal sheds light on the cultural differences in crisis management between Japan and the West.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 2, 2024

Ohtani swings and misses at PR, but he’s not Japan’s first

Shohei Ohtani's response, or lack thereof, to a gambling scandal sheds light on the cultural differences in crisis management between Japan and the West.
The yen remains around the three-decade low in the ¥151 range against the dollar even after the Bank of Japan's interest rate hike.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 4, 2024

Why even the BOJ's historic rate hike has failed to revive the yen

Japan’s first interest rate hike in 17 years has failed to deliver the boost to the yen that policymakers had hoped for.
In an emergency move, Bob Iger returned to Disney in November 2022, just 11 months after retiring, to rescue the company from his hand-picked successor as CEO, Bob Chapek.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 4, 2024

Hunt for Disney CEO Bob Iger's successor kicks into high gear

Board members are seeking to reassure investors that they are taking the matter of succession seriously, having extended Iger's retirement date five times.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi (left) attends a disciplinary panel in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 4, 2024

LDP announces formal punishment for scandal-tainted lawmakers

An LDP disciplinary panel handed down the reprimands following weeks of debate among the leadership and several rounds of internal investigations.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan