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Japan is the world's biggest market for Iqos, a heat-not-burn tobacco product marketed by its maker Philip Morris as a less harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes — a claim not backed by independent scientific research.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 6, 2025

Smoke and mirrors: How big tobacco manipulates science in Japan

In Japan, not only does the tobacco industry have close ties to government, but universities are also vulnerable to its influence. In this equation, public health loses out.
The new basic plan for promoting disaster prevention measures is expected to call for intensive efforts to develop evacuation shelters and stockpile emergency supplies to prevent earthquake-related deaths from indirect causes.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2025

Japan plans to target 80% reduction of likely megaquake death toll in 10 years

The target will be included in a new basic plan for promoting disaster prevention measures, which is expected to be adopted in early July.
Nomura Holdings shuffles its leadership in its currencies and emerging markets trading business following the departure of the unit’s co-head Nagaraj Pangal.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2025

Nomura shuffles leadership in trading units after second exit in nine months

The business has been suffering from a series of high-profile exits, and on one team as of January at least eight traders had left or gone on leave in the prior 12 months.
Kenji Nanba, a former manager of Nihon University’s weightlifting club, is believed to use his authority as manager to compel staff to give him rides.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 11, 2025

Ex-Nihon University weightlifting manager allegedly forced staff to give him rides

Kenji Nanba, 63, allegedly used his authority as manager to compel staff to give him rides to and from work.
In “Dollhouse,” a grieving mother (Masami Nagasawa) finds comfort in an old doll that resembles her deceased child, until the toy starts wreaking havoc on her family.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2025

Parental grief and spiritual terror collide in ‘Dollhouse’

Previously known for feel-good comedies, Shinobu Yaguchi turns to delivering creeping unease in his mysterious film.
Brian Wilson is seen at home in Beverly Hills in 2004. Wilson, who as the leader and chief songwriter of the Beach Boys became rock’s poet laureate of surf-and-sun innocence, was also the embodiment of damaged genius through his struggles with mental illness and drugs.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 12, 2025

Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson dies at age 82

The band defined California beach culture for a generation, with Wilson achieving what many musicians saw as perfection in "Pet Sounds."
A Chinese J-15 fighter jet flies just to the side of a Maritime Self-Defense Force P-3C surveillance plane over the high seas in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2025

Chinese fighter jets in close encounters with MSDF patrol planes over Pacific

Chinese fighters made “abnormal approaches” to MSDF patrol aircraft over the Pacific Ocean in recent days that risked collisions, the Defense Ministry said.
Relatives of victims who died in the Air India plane crash mourn as they wait outside the postmortem room at a hospital, in Ahmedabad, India, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 12, 2025

Search for answers hastens in Air India crash that killed over 240

Questions are growing over how and why the 787-8 Dreamliner, bound for London, exploded into a huge fireball just minutes after takeoff.
India’s potential participation in the Japan-U.K.-Italy fighter jet project GCAP makes strategic sense but should be postponed until the core partners solidify the program to avoid delays, conflict and operational risk.
COMMENTARY
Jun 12, 2025

India should join the Global Combat Air Program — but not just yet

GCAP is more than just a weapons platform. It is a statement of strategic autonomy, industrial innovation and trilateral cooperation among democracies.
An Air India 787-8 Dreamliner. Boeing's widebody 787 planes, one of the most modern passenger aircraft in service, have never had a fatal crash until Thursday's Air India incident.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 13, 2025

Air India crash is the latest test for new Boeing leadership

Public perception of the planemaker is still on shaky ground after three high-profile accidents involving its planes in recent years.
The public breakdown between U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk highlights a familiar pattern among authoritarian leaders: They elevate allies only to discard them when their loyalty falters or their influence threatens the throne.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2025

No loyalty lasts: Why authoritarians always betray their allies

The very public and acrimonious split between U.S. President Donald Trump and his once-favorite aide, Elon Musk, would be amusing if it were not so terrifying. Their puerile public feud demonstrated just how insecure — even unhinged — the world’s most powerful person and its wealthiest really are....
A worker prepares a sign ahead of the Group of Seven summit at a satellite location in Banff, Alberta, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 15, 2025

Guest list for G7 summit tells of global challenges

The leaders of India, Ukraine, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea are joining at a time of global turmoil and a radical new U.S. approach to world affairs.
A registration system linking local governments with the so-called connected population — nonresidents who regularly interact with regional areas — is designed to encourage people living in urban areas to play active roles in rural communities amid their shrinking populations.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 15, 2025

Japan considers new system to connect urban and rural populations

The system aims to help those in overpopulated cities to play more active roles in rural communities with shrinking populations.
U.S. President Donald Trump walks to have a family photo taken at the Group of Seven leaders' summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 17, 2025

G7 backs Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’ as Trump hastily leaves summit

In a tersely worded joint statement, the bloc labeled Iran a “principal source of regional instability.”
Oilers center Connor McDavid skates with the puck against the Panthers during Game 5 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final on Saturday. McDavid is listed on Canada's preliminary roster for the 2026 Olympic Games.
OLYMPICS / Ice Hockey
Jun 17, 2025

Preliminary 2026 Olympic rosters filled with NHL stars

This will be the first appearance of NHL players in the Olympics since they were held in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.
Residents react as Ukrainian rescuers conduct a search after a Russian missile strike in Kyiv on Tuesday.
WORLD
Jun 17, 2025

Russia kills at least 15 in strikes on Kyiv and other cities

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian forces sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a meeting with Group of Seven leaders during the bloc's annual summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 18, 2025

G7 abandons joint Ukraine statement as Zelenskyy says diplomacy in crisis

The Ukrainian president also did not get to meet U.S. President Donald Trump, with whom he hoped to talk to about acquiring more weapons.
A dead sea star in 2015. About 5 billion sea stars died from a disease outbreak, likely including this one.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 18, 2025

Marine heat waves are spreading around the world

Some unusual ocean events have become so intense that scientists have coined a new term: super marine heat waves.
Trishit Banerjee moved to Japan in 2015, embarking on an academic and personal journey that taught him lessons about the collective and the individual.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 23, 2025

A singular ensemble: Indian food, science and Fukushima

After moving to Sendai for college, an Indian student began thinking about the dynamic between the individual and the ensemble — in food, science and society.
A mosaic portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin exhibited at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Jun 19, 2025

'Russia's Davos' yet to recover Western appeal despite thaw with Washington

The annual Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum is designed to attract foreign investment and is the biggest showcase of Russian technology and business.
Many Japanese firms are delisting their shares from the Tokyo Stock Exchange under the  bourse’s broad push to make the market more appealing for foreign investors by ensuring that listed companies offer high shareholder returns.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 19, 2025

Japan firms exit Tokyo exchange at record pace in delisting rush

If firms continue to exit the TSE at this pace, the figure for 2025 will exceed last year’s annual record of 94 companies.
Upper House lawmaker Hirofumi Yanagase in his office on June 9. Last month in parliament, he urged the criteria for naturalization to be revised.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 20, 2025

Calls to make naturalization more difficult emerge in parliament talks

Naturalization requires applicants to have lived in Japan for at least five consecutive years, or half of the duration required for permanent residency.
A visitor looks into North Korea from South Korea's Odusan Unification Observatory in Paju on June 12.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jun 20, 2025

Rights abuses continue in North Korea a decade after probe, says U.N.

A U.N official said he is still surprised by the continued prevalence of executions, forced labour and reports of starvation in the authoritarian country.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko visits the site of an apartment building hit during Russian drone and missile strikes in Kyiv on Monday.
WORLD
Jun 23, 2025

'Massive' Russian attack on Kyiv kills at least five, says Ukraine

The latest strikes came after Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky vowed to intensify strikes on Russia.
Arisa Trew understands both sides of the debate around the introduction of a minimum age limit for World Skateboarding Tour events.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 23, 2025

World Skate puts brakes on skateboarding's preteen movement with new age limits

The minimum age of 11 this year will be raised one year each in 2026, 2027 and 2028 so that when the LA Olympics roll around in 2028, the minimum age will be 14.
Ariya Jutanugarn was part of Thailand's 2023 LPGA International Crown-winning team.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Jun 24, 2025

Holder Thailand to join Japan and others for LPGA International Crown

The Thai squad of Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn, Patty Tavatanakit and Jeeno Thitikul won the most recent Crown in 2023.
Since its introduction in 1985, Sega's UFO Catcher machine has come to define crane games in Japan.
LIFE / Digital
Jun 24, 2025

King of Japan’s arcades, Sega’s UFO Catcher turns 40

Where would Japan’s arcades be without the rows and rows of crane games that Sega’s influential machine helped popularize?
A replica of a great white shark is driven around the island of Martha's Vineyard during the "Jaws" 50th Anniversary celebration on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2025

Fifty years after 'Jaws,' the water’s not safe ... for sharks

The apex predator has had half a century of bad press.
Softbank has invested $15 million in a startup's climate monitoring stations that are designed to capture real-time data on wildfires, flooding and greenhouse gases.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 26, 2025

SoftBank backs startup building giant floating climate stations

The massive, bullet-shaped helium balloons will monitor climate data and bring connectivity to hard-to-reach areas.
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra goes on trial for lese-majeste next week, while his daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, faces being sacked as prime minister while activists threaten mass protests.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 27, 2025

Thailand braces for crisis as trials and protests loom

Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy looks set for a new round of the turmoil that has periodically gripped it over the last two decades.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years