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SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Aug 16, 2023

Future of sumo could feature bigger rings — and better care

Though notoriously slow to change, the next 50-100 years could see a number of major developments that alter how sumo is contested and enjoyed.
New Paraguayan President Santiago Pena (left) shakes hands with Taiwanese Vice President Lai Ching-te at the presidential residence in Asuncion, Paraguay, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 16, 2023

Lai’s Paraguay trip shows Taipei’s embrace of diplomatic partners

The visit has also reignited a hotly debated topic in Taiwan — whether the struggle with China over diplomatic recognition is still worth it.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with the Chinese Communist Party's foreign policy chief, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Jakarta on July 13.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 16, 2023

Southeast Asia uses great power competition to dodge failures

The U.S. needs to rethink its approach toward Southeast Asia, counter China's narrative, and engage in effective public diplomacy.
A playful photo of Japanese female politicians on a work trip to Paris drew much criticism back home. The backlash may be one of the reasons women choose to avoid public service.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2023

Japan has a misery-loves-company problem

The backlash to government officials' lighthearted moment is a prime example of how to undermine workers.
Booking a flight with a layover in the city that’s the real destination for the traveler can net big bargains, but airlines prohibit the practice.
LIFE
Aug 19, 2023

'Skiplagging' flights could land you big deals or a lifetime ban

Known as "skiplagging," this travel hack sees consumers buy a ticket for a connecting flight with a layover in the city that’s the real destination.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with a payload of 21 Starlink satellites from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Feb. 27.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 18, 2023

Starlink lifts off in Asia as satellite internet race heats up

Elon Musk's company has carved out a niche and an opportunity through the region's natural disasters and the vast sweep of its archipelagoes and islands.
Kapo Choryumon's signature crispy chicken, like much of Hong Kong cuisine, is a blend of influences from the former city-state's long and varied history.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Chefs Table
Aug 20, 2023

Where have Tokyo’s great Hong Kong restaurants gone?

Cantonese, British and Indian cuisines have all influenced Hong Kong recipes, flavor profiles and favored ingredients over the centuries.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 18, 2023

Abe faction decides leadership structure, but can it hold?

The agreement is an acknowledgment there is no clear successor to Shinzo Abe, and it may make negotiations with other factions harder.
Social division and the polarization of the American political system are becoming more and more apparent.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2023

Where is the America I once knew headed?

The sociopolitical transformation I witnessed in San Francisco is not just a West Coast phenomenon, but perhaps a nationwide trend.
It is still unclear whether BA.2.86 will be able to out-compete other strains of the virus that causes COVID-19, or have any advantage in escaping immune responses from prior infection or vaccination.
WORLD / Science & Health / EXPLAINER
Aug 21, 2023

What you need to know about BA.2.86, the new COVID variant

Scientists are keeping an eye on the new lineage because it has 36 mutations that distinguish it from the currently dominant XBB.1.5 variant.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2023

BOJ adjustments show strain as record bond buying continues

Doubling the effective cap on benchmark yields in December and again last month has yet to significantly reduce the central bank's purchases.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Aug. 18. Putin’s authority as a guarantor of stability has taken a big hit in the wake of the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 21, 2023

Putin turns to ruble and ballot to shore up shaken authority

Despite growing misgivings among Russia’s elites, for the regular voter, Putin remains wildly popular.
Spain players celebrate with the trophy after winning the World Cup in Sydney on Sunday.
SOCCER / Women's World cup
Aug 22, 2023

Success of Women's World Cup can't hide financial gap with men

The 2023 World Cup buoyed hopes that the women's game can start to bridge the yawning financial gap.
Cloning a person’s voice is increasingly easy. Once a scammer downloads a short sample from an audio clip they can use AI voice-synthesizing tools to create the content they need.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 22, 2023

Powered by technology, imposter scams drive new wave of fraud

Scammers methods sound like the stuff of science fiction, but advanced techniques are already available to criminals preying on everyday consumers.
Pheu Thai's Srettha Thavisin. Thailand's parliament voted in favor of his prime ministerial candidacy in Bangkok on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 23, 2023

Thai property mogul Srettha Thavisin's unlikely rise to PM

The conservative establishment sees Srettha and his Pheu Thai party as more palatable than the progressive Move Forward Party.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2023

Kishida under pressure to spend even as debt costs rise

The prime minister pivoted away from his previous stance Tuesday by scrapping September-end plans to stop subsidies that cap gasoline prices.
An internet influencer (Tina Tamashiro) loses her identity to AI in Daisuke Miyazaki’s “#Mito.”
CULTURE / Film
Aug 24, 2023

‘#Mito’: Sharp satire riffs on the dark side of AI and social media

Daisuke Miyazaki’s drama offers an intimate look at an influencer’s life and career stripped of surface glamour and glitz.
Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and attorney of former U.S. President Donald Trump, outside the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta on Wednesday after he surrendered to authorities
WORLD
Aug 24, 2023

Giuliani surrenders at jail in Georgia election case

Giuliani, whose bond was set at $150,000, arrived in Atlanta as another defendant in the sprawling case filed a motion seeking a speedy trial.
A customer shops at a sushi counter at the Food Le Parc supermarket in Hong Kong.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 24, 2023

Hong Kong restaurants brace for cost jump after Japan seafood ban

The saga is yet another headache for the city’s restaurant industry, which is still suffering from the effects from pandemic curbs and a worker shortage.
England's Mary Earps won the Golden Glove as the top goalkeeper of the 2023 Women's World Cup
SOCCER / Women's World cup
Aug 24, 2023

England goalkeeper Mary Earps hits back at Nike over statement

England goalkeeper Mary Earps has questioned a Nike statement regarding the unavailability of her replica jersey during the recent Women's World Cup.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (left), former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (center) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at the first debate between Republican candidates on Wednesday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 24, 2023

Absent Trump still steals show at raucous Republican debate

Trump's snubbing of the event deprived a chasing pack of rivals, whom he leads in polls, of the opportunity to direct shots at him live on stage.
Wagner mercenaries guard the president and other high-ranking attendees at an event in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, in May 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 25, 2023

Wagner’s empire in Africa will live on after Prigozhin

Prigozhin built a business empire on the continent over the past five years, becoming an iconoclastic celebrity in places like Mali.
People wait in line to take a COVID-19 oral swab test on a sidewalk in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City on June 20.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 25, 2023

Highly mutated COVID variant BA.2.86 found in two more countries

Omicron offshoot BA.2.86 carries more than 35 mutations in key portions of the virus compared with XBB.1.5, the dominant variant through most of 2023.
EDITORIALS
Aug 26, 2023

Bigger isn’t necessarily better for the future of BRICS

Shared grievances may bind them, but they are not enough to fuel concerted action to challenge the dominace of the West.
Guy Perryman hosts the Tokyo-based "Guy Perryman Show" on InterFM on Friday mornings.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Aug 26, 2023

Guy Perryman: ‘Sound and rhythm are ingrained in our DNA’

Radio personality Guy Perryman says around 99% of his audience consists of Japanese people who want to listen to English content.
The Black unemployment rate fell to 5% in March, the lowest level ever recorded in the monthly data, but then rose to 6% in June, showing how erratic it can be.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2023

The mysterious fall and rise of Black unemployment

After a roller-coaster move this spring, it’s now essentially back to where it was in February. How much is statistical noise?
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Kursk during World War II in Russia's Kursk region on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 26, 2023

Russia pushes long-term influence operations aimed at U.S. and Europe

Russian spy agencies are using the techniques to hide the Kremlin’s involvement in cultivating pro-Russia messages, a U.S. analysis has shown.
A billboard promoting contract army service in front of the Private Military Company Wagner Center in St. Petersburg on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 27, 2023

Kremlin eyes how to bring private military group under its control

The organization’s military prowess, experienced operators and ties to African governments may be too valuable to lose.
Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, from left, Kazuo Ueda, governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), and Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), walk the grounds at the Jackson Hole economic symposium in Moran, Wyoming, on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 28, 2023

At Jackson Hole, post-inflation challenges vex central bankers

The bankers stressed the need to keep interest rates high until inflation is contained, and wrestled with deep shifts that will make their jobs harder.
Over the last decade, the attention given to falling income and wealth inequality has been tiny, creating a view of the issue that may be seriously out of date.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2023

We should concentrate on fighting poverty, not income inequality

Wealth inequality has recently gone down in the U.S. and the West, and the decline has been going on for the better part of the last decade.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan