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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Apr 22, 2021

Hong Kong activists retreat as China-style justice comes to their city

On March 23, a Hong Kong High Court judge denied former Democratic Party lawmaker Andrew Wan’s bail appeal and sent him back to Lai Chi Kok prison.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 2021

‘Culture Gate’ brings top-flight artworks to Japan’s airports

Dozens of works are now on display in terminal buildings across Japan as part of a major media arts exhibition split between seven airports and one international cruise port.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 16, 2021

Tao Tsuchiya: Actress, singer, dancer … ninja?

The u2018Rurouni Kenshin' star follows her mother's advice of living life to the fullest.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 9, 2021

Outspoken and irascible, Prince Philip was a fierce defender of the crown

A blunt-speaking naval officer who as Queen Elizabeth's dutiful consort helped modernize the British monarchy, Prince Philip might be best remembered for his gruff public persona.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 20, 2021

The ex-Pfizer scientist who became an anti-vaccination hero

In recent months, Michael Yeadon has emerged as an unlikely hero of the so-called anti-vaxxers, whose adherents question the safety of many vaccines, including for the coronavirus.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 6, 2021

Repressing the urge to do something might be better for us all

The ultimate relaxation, says one magazine, is not idleness but suitable activity — doing what you want, which does take courage.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 27, 2021

'The Committed': Viet Thanh Nguyen writes unreliable narrators because he is one, too

Like his Pulitzer Prize-winning debut, 'The Sympathizer,” Viet Thanh Nguyen's new novel, 'The Committed,” hinges on questions about individual and collective identity and memory.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 19, 2021

NASA's astrobiology rover Perseverance makes historic Mars landing

Mission managers at NASA burst into applause, cheers and fist-bumps as radio beacons signaled that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 13, 2021

Chang-rae Lee's 'My Year Abroad' is about taking the plunge, even when it scares you

The Korean American author has always addressed the issue of race in his writing, but he explores the subject differently in his sixth novel.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 6, 2021

Finding the right measure of Olympic success in Japan

Does academic success lead to happiness? Weekly magazine Shukan Gendai offers a cautionary tale u2026
Masatoshi Asari is one of Japan’s foremost living authorities on cherry trees and their blossoms.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2025

The man who sent Japan's cherry blossoms out to the world

Masatoshi Asari's trees — symbols of peace and reconciliation — blossom in the U.K., U.S., Poland and China.
While taking refuge on Mount Kasagi from the shogunate’s forces, Emperor Go-Daigo had a prophetic dream that eventually led him to secure the support of military strategist Kusunoki Masashige.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Apr 19, 2025

‘I scud before the autumn wind’: Emperor Go-Daigo’s fall from grace

The “Masukagami,” a 14th-century historical chronicle, offers a wrenching account of the emperor’s struggle for power — and eventual downfall.
Demand for Japanese debt has risen since March as the Trump administration’s higher tariffs sparked a surge in market volatility.
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2025

Japan’s superlong bonds draw record foreign inflow on haven bid

Global funds bought a net ¥2.18 trillion of the nation’s debt with original maturities of more than 10 years.
Once known only by his first name, Sasuke Haraguchi scrapped the pretension of a crafted image for bare authenticity. He’s now an in-demand electronic producer and artist in his own right.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 25, 2025

Sasuke Haraguchi’s provocative soundtracks for digital natives

The 21-year-old electronic producer and artist taps into the chaotic nature of modern online life.
Pope Francis, a reformer known for his humility, inclusivity and focus on social justice, passed away at 88, leaving behind a divided church and a legacy of advocating for humanity's most vulnerable.
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2025

The Catholic church loses a lion

Francis’ spirit of inclusion should define who we are as human beings and his compassion should be the lodestar for action, both personal and political.
Since 2017, Kotomi Li has won some of Japan’s top literary awards and built a formidable career in the face of persistent online harassment. “Authors are tenacious creatures to begin with,” she says.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 5, 2025

Kotomi Li: 'I refuse to choose death'

The Taiwanese writer reflects on the importance of queer community, her ascent in Japan’s literary world and her ongoing battles against online harassment.
Since the 1990s, Parkinson's disease researchers have aimed to use stem cells to replace lost neurons, and they're now finding the right cues to turn them into dopamine-producing cells.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2025

Finally, a source of hope for Parkinson’s disease sufferers

The treatments were originally developed by a team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the other by researchers in Kyoto.
Fever guard Caitlin Clark reacts during the first quarter of a game against the Brazilian national team in Iowa City, Iowa, on Sunday.
BASKETBALL
May 9, 2025

Caitlin Clark entering second WNBA season with more experience and desire to win

Clark said there's no comparison between her rookie year and the upcoming season.
A small boat transits through the Bay of Balaklava near the Crimean Peninsula city of Sevastopol on the Black Sea coast. Plans to dump bundled biomass into the Black Sea have raised concerns about environmental risks.
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2025

Dumping biomass in the ocean is not a climate solution

Plans to dump bundled biomass into the Black Sea as part of a carbon-sequestration project have raised concerns about environmental risks.
Yields in Japan’s $7.8 trillion government debt market are now rising rapidly after years of moving at a glacial pace.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 16, 2025

Japan’s steep bond curve divides investors and challenges economy

Yields in the country’s $7.8 trillion government debt market are shifting higher at breakneck speed after years of moving at a glacial pace.
A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
May 19, 2025

That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb

A tragic accident in Saitama shows how aging pipes, soft soil and climate threats are straining the country’s infrastructure.
Ocean plastic pollution is a systemic crisis that cannot be solved by a few sustainability-minded citizens recycling but requires an economy-wide solution.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 19, 2025

The true cost of ocean plastic pollution

The problem of maritime plastic-waste pollution first became apparent in the 1970s. In the half-century since then, the problem has become ever more widespread, as scientific expeditions conducted by the Tara Ocean Foundation (of which I am executive director) have shown.
Former inmates work as trainees in the forestry industry in Nara Prefecture under the prefecture's fully funded rehabilitation program.
JAPAN / Society
May 20, 2025

Nara initiative offers second chances to former prison inmates

Since 2020, nine people have participated in a first-of-its-kind reintegration program, with job training, housing and life skills classes.
Drawn to tea ceremony while volunteering at a Japanese garden in Phoenix, Arizona, Michele Laudig (right) came to learn a “common language of movement and ritual” that brought her into new communities in New York City and Tokyo.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
May 26, 2025

A moving meditation: Finding serenity in tea ceremony across space and time

After an American writer ventured into the world of tea ceremony, its lessons transformed her relationship to Japan and brought her into communities bonded by movement and ritual.
Yuka Saso of Japan hits a tee shot at the first hole during the first round of The Chevron Championship golf tournament in The Woodlands, Texas, on Apr 24.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
May 28, 2025

Yuka Saso chasing third U.S. Women’s Open title at Erin Hills

The Philippines-born Japanese golfer is gearing up for the U.S. Women's Open this week at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, and she'll do so as the defending champion.
Elon Musk boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland in March. As Musk became one of Donald Trump's closest allies last year, he was also using drugs far more intensely than previously known, according to people familiar with his activities.
WORLD / Politics
May 31, 2025

On the Trump campaign trail, Elon Musk juggled drugs and family drama

Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use and also came as he dealt with personal drama related to his growing number of children.
Since moving to Tokyo from New York City in 2014, Hiraku Morilla has been promoting Keith Haring’s legacy in his professional life and advocating for the LGBTQ+ community.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jun 6, 2025

Hiraku Morilla: ‘Pride means respect for those who walked so we could run’

The New York-raised director of the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection reflects on his queer, multiracial identity and LGBTQ+ rights in Japan.
Former <i>yokozuna</i> Hakuho performs a ring-entering ceremony at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020.
SUMO / Inside Sumo
Jun 4, 2025

Hakuho’s departure highlights worrying sumo trend

Though many former yokozuna have exited over the past two decades, Hakuho’s resignation is the biggest blow to the Japan Sumo Association.
Detail of Takashi Murakami, “Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP” (2023-25)
CULTURE / Art
Jun 5, 2025

New Naoshima museum bets on Asia, not the West

The Naoshima New Museum of Art is Tadao Ando’s 10th contribution to the popular art islands.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years