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Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 20, 2021

Extreme heat a clear and growing health issue, two studies find

One of the studies found that over 356,000 people died as a result of extreme heat in 2019, and that the toll was likely to rise in future years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 15, 2021

‘Soul Lanterns’ approaches Hiroshima's past with childlike curiosity and compassion

Shaw Kuzki's middle grade novel takes place 25 years after the atomic bombings, with middle schoolers seeking out memories of World War II from their community to reclaim their history.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 10, 2021

Geoengineering marks scientific gains in U.N. report on dire climate future

The technology involves large-scale interventions that shift the climate, generally with an aim of cooling the Earth.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 10, 2021

Once-in-50-year heat waves now happening every decade

Heat waves, droughts and torrential rains are set to become more frequent and extreme as the earth warms further, a U.N. climate science report says.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2021

Wuhan lab dispute obscures a more pressing problem

Senior Chinese officials acknowledge their country's “clear shortcomings” in its high-level biosafety labs in comparison with the U.S. and warned of insufficient operating funds.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2021

‘Immigrant Japan’: An expansive account of the migrant experience

In her book, Gracia Liu-Farrer judiciously covers the migrant experience and argues that Japan is becoming an 'immigrant country.'
Jay Rubin’s new translation of Haruki Murakami’s “End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland,” in part set in a walled city where inhabitants’ shadows are forcibly removed, speaks to the author’s quirky, exhaustive attention to detail when rendering his imaginative world on the page.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 16, 2024

Jay Rubin takes us back to Haruki Murakami's world

A new translation of “End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland” brings the fan favorite closer to the original Japanese text.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington on Nov. 13.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 31, 2024

Will the second Trump boom go bust?

Trump is inheriting a strong economy, but he faces a more challenging economic landscape than he did in his first term.
Here we go again, a Christmas marked by legal battles, evolving traditions, commercial influence, and debates over greetings.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2024

There is no war on Christmas. There are many.

As usual, our holiday cornucopia overfloweth with litigation.
World leaders meet at the United Nations in New York in September to adopt the Pact for the Future. One of its key annexes is the Global Digital Compact, a framework to secure an open and human-centered digital future for all.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2024

To serve humankind, AI must be shaped by U.N. values

The U.N.'s Global Digital Compact is the first universal agreement on the international governance of AI. It seeks to ensure an open and equitable digital future for all.
African tiger fish swim in the Okavango river in Botswana.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Jan 13, 2025

Study documents extinction threats to world's freshwater species

Threats to such species include pollution, dams and water extraction, agriculture and invasive species.
Akutagawa Prize winners (from left) Jose Ando, author of "Dtopia" and Yui Suzuki, author of "Goethe wa Subete o Itta," and Naoki Prize winner Shin Iyohara, author of "Ai o Tsugu Umi."
CULTURE / Books
Jan 15, 2025

Japan's most prestigious literary awards go to a trio of contemporary voices

Jose Ando and Yui Suzuki take home Akutagawa honors, while Shin Iyohara nabs the Naoki Prize.
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito in November in Kobe. Hideaki Takeuchi, a former Hyogo assemblyman who had taken part in investigations over workplace bullying allegations against Saito last year, died Saturday in an apparent suicide.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 20, 2025

Former Hyogo assemblyman found dead in apparent suicide

Hideaki Takeuchi, 50, had taken part in investigations over workplace bullying allegations made against Gov. Motohiko Saito last year.
Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Jan 26, 2025

Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick

Discover the hometown of the Yoshiwara publisher who helped shape Japan’s artistic legacy and inspired NHK’s latest period drama.
The Marquis de Sade’s original rolled manuscript called Le Rouleau de la Bastille of “Les 120 jours de Sodome ou l’ecole du libertinage” (“The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinage”) is displayed before being auctioned in Paris in November 2017. 
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2025

The Marquis de Sade’s guide to cancel culture

The Marquis de Sade’s legacy proves that even the most reviled figures can outlast cancellation.
A panoramic view of Earth taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS)
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 15, 2025

Was the emergence of intelligent life on Earth just a fluke? Some scientists think not.

Some scientists says that Homo sapiens may be the probable end result when a planet has a certain set of attributes that make it habitable.
Jose Ando purposefully wrote his Akutagawa Prize-winning novel “Dtopia” to be accessible to an audience beyond Japan and to spark conversations about race, gender and the effects of modern entertainment.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 27, 2025

Jose Ando's rapid rise from first pages to the Akutagawa Prize

Just three years after dedicating himself to writing, the author won Japan's top literary award for his novel "Dtopia," which offers a fresh perspective on identity and diversity.
An event marking World Obesity Day in Brussels on March 6, 2024. Without a serious change, researchers estimate that 3.8 billion adults will be overweight or obese in 15 years — or around 60% of the global adult population in 2050.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 4, 2025

60% of adults will be overweight or obese by 2050, study says

Data from 204 countries paints a grim picture of a major health challenge facing the world.
A monarch butterfly is seen at an enclosure at Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, in August 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Mar 7, 2025

Butterfly populations plummet by 22% in U.S. since turn of century

Studies in some other countries have documented declines at roughly the same rate as in the U.S. data.
The findings suggest that heat waves and rising temperatures from climate change could be chemically modifying people’s DNA and speeding up their biological aging.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 12, 2025

Extreme heat linked to accelerated aging in older adults, study finds

The analysis found that those living in areas prone to extreme heat showed more accelerated aging at a molecular level compared those who live elsewhere.
After multiple failed attempts, Emperor Go-Daigo (1288-1339) and his loyalists overthrew the Kamakura shogunate and restored imperial power — for a time.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Mar 15, 2025

Divine authority and mortal desires in the turbulent 14th century

The literary monk Kenko yearned for an “uncontaminated world,” even during the tumultuous rule of Emperor Go-Daigo, who toppled the shogunate and consolidated imperial power.
San Francisco-based OpenAI sees the new studies as a way to get a better sense of how people interact with, and are affected by, its popular chatbot.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 22, 2025

OpenAI study finds links between ChatGPT use and loneliness

Those who spent more time typing or speaking with ChatGPT each day tended to report higher levels of emotional dependence on the chatbot.
One of Vladimir Putin’s key conditions for ending the Ukraine conflict is a “complete cessation” of foreign military and intelligence assistance to Kyiv — in other words, stripping it naked of any ability to resist.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2025

I don’t believe a single word Trump and Putin say about Ukraine

One of Putin’s key conditions for ending the conflict: Cut all foreign aid and leave Ukraine defenseless.
Marine Le Pen’s embezzlement conviction and election ban intensify France’s political divide, challenge French President Emmanuel Macron’s government and set the stage for a far-right succession battle.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2025

Le Pen’s MAGA-style martyrdom is new risk in France

One big factor could complicate Le Pen’s pivot to MAGA martyrdom, however: The antics of Trump himself.
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 3, 2025

Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments

NHK's new four-episode miniseries, “After the Quake,” probes the ripple effects of past major disasters across Japanese society.
The Penghu Islands coast at low tide, located off the coast of Taiwan. Although the exact location is unknown, the fossilized mandible of a male Denisovan, an extinct archaic human, was discovered off the coast of this island.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Apr 11, 2025

Jawbone from Taiwan shows geographic reach of enigmatic archaic humans

Confirmed Denisovan fossils have been identified from only two other places — Denisova Cave in Russia and Baishiya Karst Cave in China's Gansu province.
Arunima Mazumdar, a New Delhi-based communications professional, began sharing her love of Japanese literature online in 2022. The platform has grown into a robust community known as Dokusha Book Club.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Apr 26, 2025

Arunima Mazumdar: ‘Japanese literature has a niche but deeply engaged readership in India’

The founder of Dokusha Book Club talks about why Indian readers love Japanese books and the community that she’s forged, online and offline.
On the surface, "Wildcat Dome" tells a personal story of damaged children — now adults — bound together by tragedy. Underneath, there’s a constant undercurrent of political consequence, invisible and pervasive like radioactive particles.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 26, 2025

‘Wildcat Dome’ challenges Japan's historical narratives

Prolific writer Yuko Tsushima explores themes of militarization, colonialism and occupation through the identities of mixed-race orphans in postwar Japan.
Polls show Generation Z men, influenced by economic and social crises like the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, have shifted right, favoring Republicans while Generation Z women have remained more liberal, supporting Democrats.
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2025

Gen Z is politically old before its time

For many years, both younger men and women have leaned decidedly left. No longer.
The consumption and investing habits of the world's richest 10% consume and invest has substantially increased the risk of deadly heat waves and drought around the world, according to new research.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 8, 2025

World's richest 10% caused two-thirds of global warming, study finds

How the rich consume and invest has substantially increased the risk of deadly heat waves and drought.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight