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Seaweed in the ocean off Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture. Local residents aim to restore seagrass and seaweed beds suffering from marine desertification, and their project has also been certified to receive "blue carbon" credits.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Jun 23, 2024

Japan looks to 'blue carbon' to cut emissions — and restore its coasts

The nation's net zero goal has driven interest in these ecosystems, but verifying the amount of carbon stored by seaweed presents a challenge.
Families of those killed in Boeing 737 Max 8 plane crashes hold up pictures of their deceased loved ones as the planemaker's CEO Dave Calhoun testifies before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Investigations Subcommittee hearing on the safety culture at Boeing, on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 18.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 24, 2024

U.S. prosecutors recommend DOJ criminally charge Boeing as deadline looms

They concluded the planemaker had violated a settlement related to two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 involving its 737 MAX jet, source say.
In his 14 years as prime minister, Viktor Orban has become expert in playing hardball with Brussels and has repeatedly wielded his veto to get more EU funds.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 24, 2024

Will Hungary hijack the EU during its presidency?

Officials and diplomats fret that one major victim of Hungary's six months in charge will be EU support for Ukraine as it battles Russia's invading forces.
People light a fire during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic's "morality police," in Tehran on Sept. 21, 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 24, 2024

For Iran's youth, legacy of 2022 clashes shapes presidential race

Contrasting views of the worth of the election have underscored the division in Iran between supporters and opponents of the 45-year-old Islamic Republic.
A wind farm in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture. For Japan's future energy roadmap to center on clean sources, the government should reform the institutions overseeing energy policy to avoid vested interests from slowing the transition down.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 24, 2024

It’s time for Japan to set up a climate change agency

The government is currently reviewing Japan's Strategic Energy Plan. But who's shaping this key document for the future? It's mostly older men with vested interests.
People await the arrival of the Dalai Lama in New York on Sunday. The Tibetan spiritual leader is in the U.S. to undergo knee surgery.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2024

China must not choose the next Dalai Lama

The 14th Dalai Lama, who is in the U.S. to undergo knee surgery, should leave instructions to choose his successor, therefore delegitimizing any Beijing-anointed figure.
LINE, the app at the center of a tug-of-war for control. Line was introduced in Japan in 2011 by Naver, the operator of South Korea’s leading search engine.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 24, 2024

Japan and South Korea are fighting over an app at a tense time

Leaders on both the Japanese and South Korean sides appear determined to prevent the quarrel over Line from escalating.
Croatia midfielder Luka Modric during a UEFA Euro 2024 Group B soccer match against Italy in Leipzig, Germany, on Monday
SOCCER
Jun 25, 2024

Croatia's Modric wants to carry on despite Euro 2024 disappointment

The player has taken part in 178 internationals since his debut in 2006.
France forward Kylian Mbappe fights for the ball with Polish midfielder Pawel Dawidowicz (right) during a group stage match on Tuesday in Dortmund, Germany.
SOCCER
Jun 26, 2024

Mbappe's return fails to mask France shortcomings at Euro 2024

The French are through to the last 16 after emerging unbeaten from the first round, but a draw with Poland meant they finished second in Group D behind Austria.
Israeli police detain a protester as they they try to disperse ultra-Orthodox Jews blocking a highway during a protest against changes to the laws on the military draft from which the ultra-Orthodox community has traditionally been exempt, in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak on Thursday.
WORLD
Jun 26, 2024

Israel top court rules ultra-Orthodox men must serve in army

The decision on the politically charged issue comes as calls grow for ultra-Orthodox men, historically exempt from mandatory service, to enlist.
Kentaro Kitagawa
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 26, 2024

Former top Osaka prosecutor arrested for alleged sex crime

The high prosecutor's office did not reveal whether Kitagawa admitted to the allegation.
North Korea's claimed successful separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads is seen in this image released Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 27, 2024

In a first, North Korea claims successful multiple-warhead missile test

Such a capability would potentially allow Pyongyang to use a single missile to drop nuclear warheads on a broad swath of targets.
U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been accused of espionage, looks out from inside a glass defendants' cage prior to a hearing in Yekaterinburg's Sverdlovsk Regional Court on Wednesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 27, 2024

Russia opens secret trial of U.S. reporter accused of espionage

The Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich, 32, faces up to 20 years in prison on an espionage charge that he, his employer and the U.S. State Department vehemently deny.
An altar is decorated with a portrait of Aum Shinrikyo founder Chizuo Matsumoto at an Aleph facility in Tokyo this month.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Jun 27, 2024

Japan authorities remain on alert over Aum successor group

Aleph, which has most of the roughly 1,650 worshippers of Aum Shinrikyo's three successor groups, continues to worship the teachings of cult leader Chizuo Matsumoto.
Yuta Orisaka strips things back on his latest album, “Jumon,” though it still features a few explosive moments.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 28, 2024

Yuta Orisaka's folk style is far more than a throwback

The singer-songwriter wanted to make songs his grandmother could enjoy, but that doesn't mean he'll skimp on the electronic touches.
Belgium fans cheer before their team's match against Ukraine at Euro 2024 in Stuttgart, Germany, on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Jun 28, 2024

Fans take center stage at Euro 2024 in Germany

Three years after the soulless experience of Euro 2020, played amid sparse crowds and restricted travel due to COVID-19, Germany is hosting a soccer festival at Euro 2024 as fans from across the continent take over the country.
Prospective candidates for the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election include digital minister Taro Kono (left) and former LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 28, 2024

Potential candidates in LDP presidential election come into view

Digital minister Taro Kono and former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba appear ready to run in September.
The University of Tokyo, the only Japanese institution in the Times university rankings’ top 50, is considering raising tuition fees.
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 2024

Japan’s universities must prepare for tough changes

Higher education institutions in Japan rarely rank among the world's top universities. To rise, they should tackle long-term issues like growing costs and fewer students.
Horror artist Junji Ito adds just a dash of comedy to his work, though he aims for it to be understated. “If it’s truly a horror story, the humor must be restrained and more veiled,” he says.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 29, 2024

Fear still matters to Junji Ito

Currently on view at Tokyo's Setagaya Literary Museum is an extensive collection of the horror master's work, the first large-scale exhibition of it's kind in Japan.
The door of a polling station is closed after the end of voting Saturday in Tehran, in a snap presidential election to choose a successor to Ebrahim Raisi following his death in a helicopter crash.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 29, 2024

Sole moderate candidate leads Iran presidential vote amid low turnout

With over 3.8 million ballots from Friday's election counted so far, Massoud Pezeshkian won over 1,595,000 votes.
Then-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte holds a sniper rifle next to outgoing Philippine National Police Chief Ronald Bato Dela Rosa during the National Police chief handover ceremony in Camp Crame, Quezon City, in metro Manila, in April 2018.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 29, 2024

Years later, Philippines reckons with Duterte’s brutal drug war

The violence unleashed by the former Philippine leader is finally getting a look, including from the International Criminal Court.
German midfielder Jamal Musiala celebrates scoring his team's second goal during Germany's win over Denmark on Saturday in Dortmund.
SOCCER
Jun 30, 2024

The German soccer team is back after a rare lean spell

After a long drought for the soccer power, Germany deservedly ran out as a 2-0 winner in Dortmund to reach a first major tournament quarterfinal in eight years.
Tour guide and history buff Rory Dent left his job at a U.K.-based tour operator to move to Japan and start his own business.
LIFE / Travel / Longform
Jun 30, 2024

Guiding Japan through the challenges of overtourism

With the number of overseas tourists breaking records, guides and tour operators are seeing their businesses flourish.
Toyota Customizing & Development, founded in April 2018 and 90.5% owned by Toyota, develops vehicles on behalf of the parent firm.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 30, 2024

Toyota unit violates subcontract law

The Fair Trade Commission will shortly recommend that TCD take steps to prevent a recurrence of similar misconduct, sources said.
Then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at an EU-Japan trade summit in Brussels in 2019. Abe was an early believer in the need for Japan to strengthen relations with Europe based on shared values and interests.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 1, 2024

Strong Europe-Japan relations are a legacy of Shinzo Abe

Late former Prime Minister Abe was an early believer in the need for Japan to strengthen its relationship with Europe based on shared values and mutual interests.
Voters queue at to cast their ballots for Iran's presidential election outside a mosque in Tehran on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 1, 2024

Iran election shows declining voter support amid calls for change

Of the 61 million eligible voters in Iran, only about 40% cast ballots, marking a record low turnout.
Rodrigo Duterte is being investigated by the International Criminal Court over his signature "war on drugs" campaign, where thousands were gunned down in what authorities called vigilante killings during his 2016-22 presidency.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 1, 2024

Duterte's senate election bid poses threat to former ally Marcos

The political challenges by the Duterte family could upset the Philippine president's hopes of consolidating power so he can groom a potential successor for 2028.
U.S. President Joe Biden takes a call as he walks from Marine One to Air Force One with first lady Jill Biden and granddaughters Natalie Biden and Finnegan Biden in Burlington County, New Jersey, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 1, 2024

Top Democrats rule out replacing Biden amid calls for him to quit 2024 race

A post-debate CBS poll showed a 10-point jump in the number of Democrats who believe Biden should not be running for president, up to 46%.
Hanako and Taro Nomura, who are suing the government over forced sterilization, show their late daughter's birth register issued by a temple, in their living room in a city in Osaka Prefecture. For years, the couple wondered why they could not conceive after the death of their firstborn.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 2, 2024

Seeking justice, deaf couple confronts issue of forced sterilization

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will rule on lawsuits against the government filed by the Nomuras and others who were sterilized under a now-defunct eugenics law.
Peruvian political scion Keiko Fujimori is accused of allegedly having led a criminal enterprise that laundered some $17 million to fund her presidential campaigns in 2011 and 2016.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 2, 2024

Peru puts political scion Keiko Fujimori on trial for money laundering

Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of up to 30 years for the daughter of the country's disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori.

Longform

Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo” was released Nov. 23, 1985, and though it wasn’t a hit at the time, it has gained a cult following in the years since.
Eat, slurp, love: 'Tampopo' turns 40