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Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda (center) attends a monetary policy meeting at the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo on Jan. 23.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2024

'Golden opportunity': BOJ signals rate hike ahead with ramped-up exit talk

Central bank board members indicate that conditions allowing the termination of its negative rate policy are increasing.
A bottle of Bayer AG Roundup brand weedkiller concentrate
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024

Bayer faces billions in Roundup claims as legal strategy falls short

In the firm's biggest courtroom loss so far, a jury awarded $2.25 billion to a former user who blamed his cancer diagnosis on exposure to the herbicide.
Given that developing countries’ domestic markets are much smaller than that of the U.S., liberal trade policies play a larger role in driving their economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2024

Developing countries should reject American-style protectionism

America’s current industrial policy poses an existential threat to the multilateral trading system it worked so hard to build
The most relevant measure to gauge plastic bag use isn’t how many carriers get used, but how much material is consumed and how much pollution is produced in their making.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2024

Plastic bag bans have failed in every way except one

Reusable plastic bags need to be used 52 times before its environmental impact drops below that of a disposable one, according to a 2018 Danish study.
Rescue workers look for missing people in collapsed houses in the aftermath of the  earthquake that struck Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, and the surrounding areas on Jan. 1.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 30, 2024

No one left behind: Japan needs to work on its multicultural disaster response

The Noto earthquake has put into relief, once again, the need to cater disaster responses and preparedness to everyone, including foreigners.
Japan's Wataru Endo (right) and Bahrain's Mohamed Al-Hardan vie for the ball during their Asian Cup match in Doha on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Feb 1, 2024

Wataru Endo warns Japan about road ahead after reaching Asian Cup quarterfinals

Questions remain for Hajime Moriyasu's side, which was the tournament favorite but has yet to keep a clean sheet in four games in Qatar.
Mario Andretti is "devastated" that his team's bid to join Formula One was rejected on Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Feb 1, 2024

Formula One rejects Andretti's bid to join circuit

Racing legend Mario Andretti said he was devastated after learning his team's bid to join Formula One was rejected.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers his keynote address at the f8 Developers Conference in San Francisco in 2011.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024

Facebook, the social network old-timer, turns 20

"Facebook, when it launched, was revolutionary"
A woman makes a donation for people affected by the Noto Peninsula earthquake set up at Shinjuku's Keio Department Store's in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2024

¥17 billion raised for quake-hit Ishikawa

A committee made up of members of related organizations will decide how to allocate the funds, which will be distributed via local municipalities.
While this year will be a year of elections, with voting scheduled in more than 70 countries around the world, all eyes with be on who moves into the White House after November's U.S. presidential election.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Feb 8, 2024

Why the eyes of the world will be on the U.S. presidential election

The future of politics in the U.S., the world’s biggest military and economic power, could cast a giant shadow over international order.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was quick to play down the tensions, saying that the coalition was still intact.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 2, 2024

'Open warfare': Philippines' Marcos-Duterte alliance crumbles

The alliance between the two was always expected to collapse, but analysts are surprised by how soon the gloves have come off.
“Metallic Rouge” centers on android assassins on Mars and explores classic science fiction tropes like whether robots have souls.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Feb 4, 2024

You're spoiled for choice with new anime to watch this winter

From the fantasy series "Delicious in Dungeon" to the sci-fi offering "Metallic Rouge," nearly 50 new shows are airing this season.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2024

170,000 SDF members sent to Noto quake areas over one month

SDF personnel rescued about 1,000 people, according to the Defense Ministry.
MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will host the World Cup final on July 19, 2026.
SOCCER
Feb 5, 2024

New Jersey selected to host 2026 FIFA World Cup final

The 2026 World Cup final will be held at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, FIFA announced on Sunday.
Elon Musk said that the first human patient has received a brain implant from his startup Neuralink, but experts says his statements raised more questions than they answered about the trial.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 5, 2024

Want details on Musk's brain implant trial? You'll have to ask him

Neuralink does not have to divulge even basic details about its trial, including the facility where patients are being implanted.
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.
Ground Self-Defense Force troops participate in a joint military drill and demonstration with the U.S., British, Canadian, German and other countries' militaries in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, on Jan. 7.
COMMENTARY / Japan / EXPLAINER
Feb 5, 2024

The Rosetta Stone to decipher Japan's new security deals

Japan has already signed several agreements this year that, together with previous ones, form a dense web of security pacts — one worth untangling.
Analysts say the sentencing serves as a reminder of how fraught any improvement in relations will prove even after both Canberra and Beijing affirmed the need to bolster ties.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 6, 2024

Harsh sentence for Australian writer tests ties with China

The sentencing serves as a reminder of how fraught any improvement in relations will prove even after both nations affirmed the need to bolster ties.
Shipments from China to the U.S. are increasingly making a pit stop in third countries such as Vietnam and Mexico.
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2024

Biden wins U.S.-China trade war by Trump’s pet metric, but does it count?

Figures due Wednesday are set to show the U.S. deficit in goods trade with China in 2023 at its lowest annual level since 2010.
Seven & I Holdings CEO Ryuichi Isaka
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 7, 2024

Japan’s convenience stores can span the globe, 7-Eleven CEO says

Ryuichi Isaka believes Seven-Eleven Japan’s know-how in making cheap, high-quality food will drive growth overseas.
Disaster waste from a New Year's Day quake on the Noto Peninsula is carried into a temporary storage site in Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 15.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2024

2.44 million tons of waste likely generated by Noto quake

The volume of disaster waste is equivalent to that of ordinary waste generated in the prefecture over seven years.
Bank of Japan Deputy Gov. Shinichi Uchida says after the bank ends its negative rate policy, financial conditions will remain easy and any policy moves thereafter will occur at a gradual pace.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 8, 2024

BOJ's Uchida says sharp hikes unlikely after rates policy shift

Uchida was one of the architects of the bank's current policies and now works closely with Gov. Ueda as an influential member of the BOJ policy board.
In the quest for immortality, some researchers believe mind uploading will be our ticket to an eternal existence.
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 8, 2024

Japan’s take on immortality; problems in Palworld

As scientists and technologists attempt to tackle the problem of aging and death, we discuss Japanese ideas about immortality.
The “myahk,” a community currency implemented on Okinawa Prefecture’s Miyako Island in 2018, is intimately tied to local efforts for environmental preservation.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Feb 10, 2024

Japanese communities are creating currencies to educate and empower citizens

The yen will do when paying for things throughout the country. In some places, though, you may try paying with a coin that also helps reduce plastic waste.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un visits the Ministry of National Defense in Pyongyang to mark the 76th founding anniversary of the Korean People's Army on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 9, 2024

North Korea has legal right to destroy South at any time, Kim says

The North Korean leader said it was correct to label South Korea as the "primary enemy" as its "puppets” were bent on absorbing its neighbor.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes will be vying for his third Super Bowl title when Kansas City faces San Francisco in Las Vegas on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 9, 2024

Chiefs and 49ers ready for another Super Bowl showdown

The same two teams met in the Super Bowl four years ago.
Manchester City's Erling Haaland (right) and Everton's James Tarkowski vie for the ball during their match in Manchester on Saturday.
SOCCER
Feb 12, 2024

Manchester City gets stars back as club eyes more Champions League glory

Pep Guardiola's men head to FC Copenhagen for the first leg of their last 16 tie on Tuesday on the back of 10 consecutive wins in all competitions.
The tail of a BYD electric vehicle sports the company’s motto, “build your dreams,” at a dealership in Shenzhen, China, on Jan. 29.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 12, 2024

How China built BYD, its Tesla killer

BYD’s sales, over 80% of them in China, passed Tesla in worldwide sales of fully electric cars late last year.
Masahiro Inoue, incoming chief executive officer of Daihatsu Motor, during a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 13, 2024

Toyota replaces Daihatsu chief after safety scandal

Masahiro Inoue, the CEO of Toyota Latin America, will replace Soichiro Okudaira effective March 1.
U.S. President Joe Biden has presided over a growing economy and some foreign leaders have said after meeting him that he is sharp and focused in private meetings, but his age is still an issue that is posing a drag on his poll numbers.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Democrats bungle Joe Biden age concerns, some critics say

Their strategy so far has not quelled criticism or concerns about the U.S. president's fitness for the Oval Office.

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