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Gunma Bank's video message in English is geared toward those from overseas who are flocking to Japan to buy up stocks, bonds and real estate as the nation’s assets emerge from decades of slumber.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 22, 2024

English video shows Japanese regional banks opening up to overseas investors

Foreigners are flocking to Japan to buy up stocks, bonds and real estate as the nation’s assets emerge from decades of slumber.
Director of the Akan International Crane Center, Miyuki Kawase, says tourism is incredibly helpful for the birds, but the people who come to take pictures of the birds have to remember they are still wild animals.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Feb 24, 2024

Miyuki Kawase: ‘Experience, whether happy, sad or painful, makes you grow’

The director of the Akan International Crane Center in Hokkaido tells us how she found herself in a career centered around the symbolic white birds.
TikTok parent company ByteDance's offices in Singapore. Chinese companies are increasingly using the city-state as a springboard into the U.S. market.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2024

'Singapore-washing' and China’s sneaky trade practices

Chinese firms are using Singapore as a springboard into the U.S., circumventing restrictions. The island nation shouldn't enable these deceptive tactics.
Sanfrecce will play its first regular-season match against Urawa on Friday at the brand-new Edion Peace Wing Hiroshima.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 22, 2024

The J. League is back with a top flight that's bigger than ever

Hiroshima has eyes on the title as the club raises the curtain at a new stadium, but Urawa will be looking to spoil the party starting Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 22, 2024

Committee probing LDP funds scandal set to open next week

The committee will likely gather next Wednesday and Thursday to interrogate five senior LDP lawmakers over their involvement in a kickback scheme.
A recent surge in Tokyo share prices has been driven by foreign investors' enthusiasm for rising corporate profits, with Japanese investors still wary after more than three decades of market malaise.
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2024

Japanese investors raise a glass to Nikkei record at Stock Pickers bar

Excitement among regulars at the intimate bar in Tokyo's Ginza district had been brewing since last week as the Nikkei approached its all-time high.
Japan, Britain and Italy have made headway in their joint next-generation fighter aircraft project, with industry officials saying that the partners are close to completing the aircraft’s conceptual design phase.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Feb 26, 2024

Japan joint fighter program gains steam as firms zero in on conceptual design

The completion of the conceptual design phase will allow Japan, Britain and Italy to move to the next stage of the program next year.
Asahi Group Holdings chief executive Atsushi Katsuki
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 26, 2024

Asahi eyes overseas acquisitions to quadruple sales of Super Dry beer

Spurred on by the need to seek growth outside of the shrinking home market, Japanese firms went on an overseas buying spree worth ¥8.1 trillion last year.
A man claimed Amazon promised "unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming” of entertainment through Prime Video. He alleges the company reneged on the deal and is suing.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2024

Amazon shouldn't be swindling users

The tech giant is being sued for charging subscribers more than advertised: Not what you'd expect from a self-professed customer-obsessed company.
Wim Wenders (left) co-wrote the script for “Perfect Days” with top advertising creative Takuma Takasaki. Japanese star Koji Yakusho (right) won best actor at Cannes last year for his performance as the film’s protagonist, a taciturn toilet cleaner in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2024

Oscar-nominated 'Perfect Days' is 'not about toilets,' Wenders says

The director's film about a taciturn cleaner who keeps Tokyo's public toilets spotless prompts reflections on urban solitude, community and growing older.
In early February, the Finance Ministry announced that government debt at the end of last year had reached a record high of ¥1.2 quadrillion.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 27, 2024

With downfall of Abe faction, some see a shift in Japan’s debt debate

The faction has long promoted fiscal stimulus, but its demise combined with wider economic conditions could open up space for a different approach.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 27, 2024

What to know about the ethics committee probing the LDP funds scandal

When the committee convenes later this week, at least five senior ruling party officials are expected to testify on what they knew about the scandal.
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 28, 2024

'Shotime' arrives for Dodgers as Ohtani homers in preseason debut

"Definitely a big first step," Ohtani said after the game. "The biggest thing was that I was able to finish off the game without any problems."
DeNA plans to co-develop Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket with Creatures Co. for launch on both iOS and Android devices this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 28, 2024

Shares in DeNA soar on announcement of new Pokemon trading card game

The smartphone game was one of a flurry of announcements on the 28th anniversary of the first Pokemon game release.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 28, 2024

Kishida says he will attend ethics committee hearing on funds scandal

In addition to Kishida, five senior LDP members will face the committee in front of a fully-open session of the Lower House on Thursday and Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 29, 2024

Talks on easing Japan defense export rules pushed back to March

The Liberal Democratic Party and junior coalition partner Komeito failed to reach an agreement on revisions to existing restrictions on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 1, 2024

As ethics hearing unfolds, Diet falls into chaos over budget approval

The CDP sought to censure budget committee leader Itsunori Onodera over his decision to push through a final vote, and argued for more extensive debate.
Solar panels on display at PV Expo in Tokyo on Wednesday. Japan's "transition bonds" will cover cutting-edge solar cells, as well as more controversial projects.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Mar 3, 2024

Japan wants cash for its green transition. But what are investors actually backing?

"Transition bonds" are intended to fund a wide variety of net-zero projects, but it's not clear all of them will actually help with decarbonization.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani speaks to members of the media in Glendale, Arizona, on Thursday.
BASEBALL / MLB / Sac Bunts
Mar 4, 2024

How Shohei Ohtani mastered the media

By promising to meet with the press, the star circumvented the need for people to go digging into his marriage.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 5, 2024

Japan's Immigration Agency sets new guidelines for visa overstayers

A legislative amendment will outline the new guidelines to improve transparency and allow individuals to directly apply for special permission to stay.
The nun said she hopes her going public will cast a spotlight on the extremely cloistered nature of temples that she warned can be a hotbed of sex crimes.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 5, 2024

Japan Buddhist sect probes nun's sexual assault claims

The woman, reportedly now in her 50s, had previously accused the older monk of rape but authorities dropped her case in 2019, media reports said.
An unmanned robot navigates across a street during a demonstration of Uber Eats' robot delivery service in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 6, 2024

Uber Eats Japan begins deliveries with self-driving robots

The company has rolled out the service in Tokyo's Nihonbashi area and plans to introduce it in other places as well.
A childhood snapshot of Shohei Ohtani and his mother, Kayoko, posted on MLB’s account on social media website X.
BASEBALL
Mar 7, 2024

'Sporting geniuses are made, not born': How to be an all-star sports parent

If you want your child to be a top 1% athlete like Shohei Ohtani, a good place to start is to take a look at what his parents did.
Since September 2022, Patagonia has allocated profits amounting to $71 million to environmental initiatives that include stopping a proposed mine in Alaska and conserving land in South America, as well as helping to elect pro-environment U.S. Democrats.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2024

The competitive edge of doing good in business

Are companies that give all profits to charity also doing good for their business? Some examples show they are, and that this model is worth pursuing.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs recently recommended that official romanization rules be switched from the Kunrei to Hepburn system.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 6, 2024

Romanization rules are changing. Why Kunrei won’t be missed.

Japan could soon change its romanization rules, opting for the more common Hepburn system. This would benefit Japanese people as much as foreigners.
A Bigmotor outlet in Tama, Tokyo, in September
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 6, 2024

Itochu announces turnaround support for Bigmotor

Itochu is considering investing ¥20 billion in a new company to take over Bigmotor's key assets.
In “Matched,” a dating app makes a wedding planner’s (Tao Tsuchiya, center) love life all the more difficult when it turns up a string of murders and a stalker.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 7, 2024

‘Matched’: Contrived thriller tries to make dating scarier

Clueless characters and a strained plot are hardly a perfect match in Eiji Uchida’s suspense film about murder and dating apps.
Managing Director of Cornerstone Recruitment Japan Director Matt Nicholls says a good recruiter has tenacity, drive and can handle the ups and downs of the job.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 9, 2024

Matt Nicholls: ‘People like having control over their earning potential’

A seasoned recruiter tells us why he's spent the last decade doing business in Japan and what he's learned from growing and leading multinational firms.
Chef Harutomo Hagi's self-named restaurant in Iwaki was selected as the 2023 Japan Times Destination Restaurant of the Year.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Destination Restaurants
Mar 10, 2024

Hagi: French restaurant leads Fukushima revival

The Japan Times’ 2023 Restaurant of the Year is a sterling example of Fukushima’s slow and steady post-disaster revival.
A march calling for gender equality in London in 2019. Women are still paid less than men for the same work, but real equality means more than just eliminating wage disparities.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2024

A zero gender pay gap is the goal. But what happens next?

Eliminating the gender pay gap is vital, but it isn't the be-all and end-all. So much more needs to be done to achieve true equality at work and beyond.

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