Search - 2025

 
 
A Tesla showroom in Beijing in January 2024. In today's world, the car isn’t the biggest moneymaker for automakers; instead, it is the services attached to the connected vehicle.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2025

China’s EVs may change the world in unimaginable ways

China has about 100 EV brands and they claim about 80% of the new electric vehicle market.
Demonstrators inside the U.S. Capitol after breaching barricades on Jan. 6, 2021
WORLD / Society
Jan 8, 2025

Violent extremism lingers online with U.S. flagging less content

Donald Trump’s return to the White House promises to cement the hands-off approach toward online behavior.
Tokyo led the country's 47 prefectures with 146 traffic-related fatalities in 2024, followed by Aichi with 141 and Chiba with 131.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2025

Japan's traffic death toll falls to third-lowest in 2024

There were 2,663 traffic-related deaths in 2024. The government has a goal of lowering the annual toll below 2,000 by 2025.
Voters take pictures and videos of a candidate campaigning for the Tokyo gubernatorial election in Tokyo's Chuo Ward in June.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 8, 2025

Japanese political parties struggling to use social media effectively

Social media proved to be a powerful campaign tool in 2024 elections, shocking political parties that had stuck to old-fashioned campaigns.
Jannik Sinner hits a return during an exhibition in Melbourne on Tuesday.
TENNIS
Jan 8, 2025

Sinner turns focus to Australian Open defense after 'amazing' year

The Italian is coming off a breakthrough year in which he backed up his maiden Grand Slam title at Melbourne Park by winning the U.S. Open and ATP Finals.
The message is clear: Many governments and authorities see encryption not as a human-rights safeguard, but as an obstacle.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2024

Will your encrypted messages remain private in Europe?

Governments and law-enforcement agencies have been increasingly eager to access encrypted communications, even if that means undermining public confidence in privacy protection.
Prime Minister Shigeru (upper left), along with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders, takes a group photo during the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro in November.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 8, 2025

Japan PM struggles with both U.S. relations and China’s growing threats

Ishiba has to govern under the constant threat of a no-confidence vote that could see the opposition parties pull the rug out from under him if they ever choose to work together.
For store managers in their first or second year at Fast Retailing, the monthly salary is set to increase to ¥410,000 from the current ¥390,000.
BUSINESS
Jan 8, 2025

Fast Retailing to raise starting monthly salary to ¥330,000

The operator of the Uniqlo casual clothing stores said that it wants to attract talented university graduates in a bid to reinforce the company's global competitiveness.
Cancer patient Anne Maldzinski was given an experimental therapy developed by French biotech MaaT Pharma through an early access program. The effect was dramatic.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 9, 2025

Drug from bowel bacteria helps blood cancer patients facing deadly complication

A burgeoning field of therapies is harnessing the power of the microbiome to treat and potentially prevent diseases.
Brock Purdy threw for 3,864  yards and 20 touchdowns for the 49ers during the 2024 season.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jan 9, 2025

49ers prepared to go all in on quarterback Brock Purdy

Purdy had 3,864 passing yards and 20 touchdowns for the 49ers in 2024.
A lithium smelter in Yichun, Jiangxi province, China
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 9, 2025

Stubbornly resilient lithium supply remains hurdle to recovery

Lithium prices have plunged since late 2022 on oversupply and slower-than-expected growth in electric vehicle demand.
Prices continue to outpace wage increases in Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 9, 2025

Real wages fall for a fourth month, squeezing Japanese households further

Inflation-adjusted real wages dropped 0.3% from a year earlier in November as some food prices and utility rates increased.
A meteorite from Mars found in Antarctica will be shown to the public for the first time at the Japan Pavilion during this year's World Exposition in the city of Osaka.
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2025

Japan pavilion to exhibit Mars meteorite at Osaka Expo

The meteorite, collected by an Antarctic research expedition in 2000, will be shown to the public for the first time at the expo.
Hobonichi's 'techō' notebooks come in both set and customizable formats, and a thriving community of enthusiasts means there are even extensive guides on how to make the journal even more unique to your individual approach to journaling.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 10, 2025

American stationery nerds are fueling a Japanese notebook boom

A Japanese-made paper planner from the 1980s has reblossomed in the post-COVID era.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (second from right) addresses a ministerial meeting held Friday at the Prime Minister's Office to discuss measures to boost exports of farm produce and food products.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2025

Japan to step up efforts to increase food exports

The government will support efforts by Japanese food-related companies to team up with foreign businesses.
The sun sets over the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park, near Furnace Creek, during a heat wave impacting Southern California in July.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 10, 2025

Record heat pushed 2024 above global warming threshold of 1.5 C

A clear acceleration in rising temperatures has puzzled scientists, even as the evidence of the fast-warming atmosphere became impossible to miss.
Airmen from the U.S. Air Force's 104th Fighter Wing complete post-flight checks on four F-15C fighter jets at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture, in October 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 10, 2025

U.S. falling behind on aircraft shelters in Asia as China’s missile arsenal grows

Beijing has also been making substantial investments to defend, expand and fortify its air bases.
A portion of the Grand Ring at the site of the Osaka Expo during a media tour late last month
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2025

Race circuit and resort among post-event proposals for Osaka Expo site

One proposal envisages an entertainment complex housing a circuit and a large arena.
“The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic” centers on three teenage protagonists who are transported into a fantasy world where they must grapple with a foreign culture.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 11, 2025

Isekai anime offers a key to understanding globalization

The fantastical genre wherein characters are dropped into unlikely worlds — and sometimes bodies — can be read as an allegory for the structure of the contemporary anime industry.
Head of Presidential Security Service, Park Chong-jun, is surrounded by media in the National Office of Investigation in Seoul on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 11, 2025

President Yoon’s security chief quits as new arrest bid looms

It’s not immediately clear if the vice chief who will take over will cooperate with a probe team’s warrant execution for Yoon.
A clinic in the city of Saitama in May 2020
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 11, 2025

Japan may provide support to boost rollout of smartphone-based health cards

The health ministry may provide support to medical institutions and pharmacies to promote the use of digital My Number personal identification and health insurance cards.
The exterior of a blast furnace building run by Nippon Steel in Kashima, Ibaraki Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 12, 2025

U.S. delays enforcement of order blocking Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel deal

The delay will give the courts time to review a legal challenge brought by parties earlier this month against Biden's order.
China's Zheng Qinwen reacts after winning the first set of her first round match at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Sunday.
TENNIS
Jan 12, 2025

Rusty Zheng into second round as Grand Slam tennis returns to Melbourne

The fans were sent scurrying for cover inside the first hour when a dramatic thunderstorm swept across the area.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (left) shakes hands with Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto after giving a press statement following their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, Indonesia on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 12, 2025

Ishiba hopes diplomacy will give boost to parliamentary management

As the Ishiba administration will have to go into the parliamentary session leading a minority government, he is hoping diplomacy will give his administration a boost.
Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance plans to raise its starting monthly salary for university graduates joining the nonlife insurer in April 2026 to as much as ¥410,000.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 12, 2025

Tokio Marine to raise starting pay to up to ¥410,000

The insurance firm aims to secure and retain human resources amid continuing labor shortages in Japan.
Palestinians pass through an Israeli checkpoint as they make their way to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, in the West Bank, in March 2024. Israeli forces have frequently used disguises to infiltrate Gaza and target Hamas operatives.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 12, 2025

In the art of war, mimicry runs the gambit from disguises to deepfakes

Impersonation is one of the oldest tactics in war, because it exploits our social nature and persists because humans are dependent on identities for cooperation.
Jack Smith
WORLD / Politics
Jan 12, 2025

Special counsel who led Trump prosecutions leaves U.S. Justice Department

Smith accused Trump of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding — the session of Congress called to certify Biden's election win.
A man casts his ballot during the general election at a polling station in Tokyo on Oct. 27.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 13, 2025

Ishiba keeping eye on Lower House multiseat constituency talks

The prime minister is believed to be eyeing cooperation with opposition parties by using electoral system reform as an opportunity.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump meets with then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Group of 20 leaders summit in Osaka in June 2019.  Though Trump's first term in office was not as earth-shattering for Japanese companies as many feared, it would be a mistake to assume his second will be the same.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 13, 2025

Trump 2.0 presents new challenges for Japanese companies

Another challenge for Japanese firms will be that Trump, his Cabinet by and large and many key advisers are China hawks.
Yoshihiko Noda, the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, gives a speech in the city of Kitakyushu last week.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 13, 2025

CDP's Noda looks to local elections to build party's momentum

The moves by main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan chief Yoshihiko Noda come amid speculation of a rare double election this summer.

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