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Toyota dealer Hiroshima Toyopet has installed air conditioners at all 30 of its maintenance facilities in Hiroshima Prefecture to ensure mechanics can work comfortably during the summer.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Dec 25, 2023

Hiroshima car dealers seek ways to attract mechanics

Since many people use their cars as a daily means of transportation, it is essential to secure a stable pool of mechanics.
An exhibition on marine life at COP28 in Dubai. The conversation around oceans and climate change was not the main focus of the conference, despite the key role oceans play in absorbing carbon.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2023

COP28, didn't the oceans deserve more attention?

Oceans are key to mitigating climate change and severely impacted by it. Yet they didn't take center stage at COP28 — though some progress was made.
Inspectors analyze saliva collected with test kits at SalivaTech.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Jan 8, 2024

Tohoku startup offers way to detect cancer early using saliva

SalivaTech's SalivaChecker is a test kit that provides high-precision analysis of around 10 types of salivary metabolites.
While harsh comments from older generations can sometimes be seen as rude, consider instead that they’re often trying to teach us something they hold on to.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 26, 2023

A survival guide for your first Japanese-style at-home New Year’s

Meeting your partner’s Japanese family for the New Year’s holidays? Here are some do’s and don’ts for an ‘oshōgatsu’ success story.
Watanabe has made shapes of (from left) a monkey, an elephant and a giraffe by folding oak leaves with his hands.
CULTURE / Art / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Jan 8, 2024

Kumamoto artist embodies re-evaluation of 'outsider art’ in Japan

Dubbed a "genius autistic paper cutout artist," Yoshihiro Watanabe's works are now being alongside those by trained artists.
As Japan's productivity declines due to the shrinking working-age population, policies that allow for everyone’s full participation in the labor force, especially women, are needed more than ever.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 29, 2023

A look back at Japan’s gender laws and fairness in 2023

Gender equality needs to improve to boost Japan’s prospects. What hits and missed opportunities will we remember from 2023?
Members meet for a United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine on July 17. Between the carnage in the Middle East and a permanent member of the Security Council waging a war of aggression against its neighbor, there is ample reason to doubt that a consensus on U.N. reform is reachable.
COMMENTARY / The Year Ahead
Dec 31, 2023

The outlook for multilateralism in 2024

What matters most in the coming year is whether global issues can still be addressed simultaneously and in unison.
In late 2023, a Chinese hacker group was blamed for an attack that compromised a Philippine government agency around the same time the two countries clashed in the South China Sea.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 8, 2024

Philippines turns to hackers amid Chinese cyberthreat

In a November report, a Chinese group known as Stately Taurus was blamed for an attack that had compromised a Philippine government agency for five days earlier in 2023.
Pupils at Moromi Elementary School in the city of Okinawa use PCs during class to compile information they gather from textbooks and the internet.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Jan 15, 2024

Tapping tech's potential, elementary school pushes proactive learning

Pupils, instead of teachers, take the lead in learning according to the goals that they themselves set at the Okinawa school.
Misao Shoji (center) speaks to executives of Lion Dor about the Omega Class, a new educational center she is launching in Aizuwakamatsu that targets "uniquely gifted children.” Lion Dor has offered a venue for the project free of charge.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jan 15, 2024

Fukushima educational project aims to nurture gifted children

Omega Class aims to provide a place of learning suited to each child, with local experts serving as volunteer instructors.
Tanaka takes part in a signing ceremony for the Japan-Uruguay Investment Agreement with Uruguay's Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Porto in 2015.
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Jan 23, 2024

Why positivity is an asset in a career of PR and diplomacy

Keiko Tanaka went from an office at Nissan to the ambassador's residence in Uruguay.
A woman who filed a suit claiming damages against her father but had her claim dismissed by the Hiroshima High Court in November has said she felt like she was being accused of making a complaint only when time had run out.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Jan 22, 2024

Passage of time gets in the way for victims of child sexual abuse

The woman, in her 40s, deemed it unfair that the perpetrator gets away scot-free because of the statute of limitation.
A worker carries a tray containing steamed kamaboko at a factory in Ise, Mie Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Jan 22, 2024

As costs rise, kamaboko producers struggle to stay afloat

Many have little choice but to raise the prices of their own products after having exhausted other measures.
Around 100 YouTube channels actively deny climate change, while also spreading videos attacking solutions such as wind and solar.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 17, 2024

Attacks on renewable energy are proliferating on YouTube

While videos espousing climate denial are declining across nearly 100 YouTube channels, videos attacking solutions such as wind and solar are growing.
Masanao Saito harvests his mikan tangerines with his grandson, Akihito Oyama, at his farm in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, on Dec. 8. Behind them are apple trees full of fruit.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Feb 5, 2024

How fruit farmers in Tohoku are coping with climate change

Last year, extreme heat dubbed the "boiling Earth" phenomenon hit the region’s agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries hard.
Gold badges distributed to Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly members after the April 2023 election. The prices for both types doubled from four years ago.
JAPAN / Politics / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Feb 19, 2024

Gold assembly badges worth millions of yen unreturned in Kyushu

Each elected member receives a new badge for every election and is supposed to return them on losing an election or retiring from politics.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 30, 2024

What the future holds for the Japanese Communist Party

After a decade of steadily declining seat counts in the Diet, the Japanese Communist Party has turned to its first-ever female leader.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is seen on the surface of the moon in an image released Jan. 25.
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 2, 2024

Japan’s historic moon landing was right on target

Japan made history last month when it became the fifth nation to soft land on the moon.
Giant African snails are unpopular among local residents and are referred to as an alien species that shouldn’t be touched, as they damage crops and sometimes hosts rat lungworms.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 19, 2024

Giant African snails mark 90 years of history in Okinawa

The snails, one of the world’s largest of the kind, are native to East Africa, and their shells can grow to as high as 20 centimeters.
Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi takes part in a training session in Chiba on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Feb 7, 2024

Anger over Messi’s behavior grows in China before Japan game

Many commentators in China have drawn comparisons between Messi’s behavior in Hong Kong and his demeanor in Japan.
While online influence campaigns are increasingly common as powerful people and governments around the world seek to manipulate public opinion, experts tracking such operations say China is one of the biggest sources of such drives alongside Russia and Iran.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 8, 2024

Chinese firm behind ‘news’ sites pushes pro-Beijing content globally, report says

Spread over websites in 30 countries, the propaganda material is interspersed with news aggregated from local news outlets and Chinese state media.
Copies of the Apple Daily newspaper, published by Next Digital Ltd., at the company's printing facility in Hong Kong on Nov. 5, 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 12, 2024

In Trump-Biden rematch, the only sure loser is China

Trump’s rhetoric may pressure Biden to take harsher measures in the run-up to election day — bad news for China’s economy and slumping stock market.
An anti-seismic reinforced building at the Keiju Medical Center in Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, suffered broken pipes and water leakage following a New Year's Day earthquake.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Mar 4, 2024

Hospitals in Japan slow to adopt seismic isolation in their buildings

Facilities severely hit by the New Year's Day quake have not been able to resume surgeries and other medical services.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the North Korean Ministry of National Defense on the occasion of the 76th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army, in Pyongyang in this picture released on Feb. 9.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

North Korean arms trade is China’s problem too: U.S. official

Jung Pak's comments reflect long-running frustration in Washington over China’s unwillingness to help influence Pyongyang’s behavior.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 18, 2024

‘Dictators do not go on vacation,’ Zelenskyy warns Washington and Europe

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on world leaders not to abandon his country saying that Russia would continue to test the international order.
Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic had a season-high 73 points in a single game. Scoring has risen across the NBA, but the league's commissioner, Adam Silver, says he isn't concerned.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Feb 18, 2024

NBA season's scoring surge doesn't worry Adam Silver

Speaking Saturday to reporters on the eve of the NBA All-Star Game, Silver said scoring was only about one point per game higher than last season.
Kites are flown over Rafah as smoke billows following Israeli bombardment on Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 21, 2024

Israel-Hamas war splits G20, risking paralysis at meeting

The group is so split on the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine that they may be forced to reduce the forum’s scope and avoid geopolitical issues.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Jerusalem on Feb. 18.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 24, 2024

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu issues first plan for postwar Gaza

The proposal, which calls for indefinite Israeli military control and buffer zones in the territory, was rejected by Palestinians.
Vitol, the world's biggest trader, has increased its total equity to $26 billion even after paying $5 billion in record dividends after earning $15 billion in 2022.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 26, 2024

Top global energy traders face multibillion cash quandary

Most trading houses, which are privately owned and controlled by their employees, disclose little about their cash position, equity or dividends.
Koichi Kondo plays the harmonica. Playing harmonica was like life itself for members of the Bluebird Band, according to his words.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Mar 4, 2024

Harmonica melodies of Hansen's disease patients live on

A band featuring the instrument was founded in 1953, at a time when prejudice against the disease was still strong

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past