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A voter casts a ballot at a polling station in Tokyo on Oct. 27. Last year, incumbents in every major country that held a national election lost that vote, the first time that has happened in almost 120 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2024

The world is ever more angry. That is not good.

Hostility toward existing leadership stems from the belief that lives aren't improving and future generations will have fewer opportunities than previous ones.
Photos taken from the same place but at different times in the Noto Peninsula towns of Wajima (left) and Suzu illustrate the progress made following the devastating earthquake that hit these areas of Ishikawa Prefecture on Jan. 1, 2024.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 1, 2025

A year after a deadly earthquake, Noto Peninsula still faces long road to recovery

Reconstruction remains a prolonged and complex ordeal for cities in the worst-hit areas, with recovery further hampered by torrential rains in September.
A birth notification document issued by Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Family registers, which record and certify citizens' familial relationships from birth to death, currently do not include the phonetic readings of names.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 2, 2025

Family registers to incorporate phonetic readings of names from end-May

Citizens who wish to register readings that differ from those listed on certificates of residence must notify municipal governments within a year.
A police officer enters a vehicle on Thursday at the location where a truck was driven into a crowd of New Year's Day revelers in New Orleans, Louisiana, a day earlier.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 3, 2025

Texas man behind New Orleans attack acted alone, FBI says

The suspect, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texan who once served in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Tonoike Sake Brewery has been gearing their brewery toward tourism since the late 1980s, attempting to lure tourists to the town of Mashiko.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 3, 2025

Traveling for sake's sake: The emergence of brewery tourism in Japan

While sake consumption has declined in Japan, breweries across the nation are taking advantage of a rise in overseas interest to promote themselves as tourist destinations.
Ami Yuasa won the B-Girl competition during the breaking event at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
OLYMPICS / Breaking
Jan 3, 2025

Breaking’s big year that wasn’t

Beyond music insiders or Olympic aficionados, most would struggle to recall the winners of the inaugural breaking competition at the Games.
Recovering Ukrainian soldiers pray at the Holy Cell of Saints Archangels Falakrou in Mount Athos, Greece
WORLD
Jan 4, 2025

Wounded Ukrainian soldiers find solace in Greek monasteries

They arrived with marks of war — one with a head scar, another with both legs amputated above the knee, and some with invisible mental wounds.
Hogwarts Castle at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, California. There are influential American works of fantasy like “The Wizard of Oz” and “American Gods,” but they lack the cohesive, enduring impact of European counterparts such as the “Harry Potter” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” series.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2025

America needs a 'Great American Fantasy'

There is a lack of a distinctly "Great American Fantasy" in literature and popular culture.
The headquarters of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China in Beijing in 2018
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 6, 2025

After year of big corruption crackdown, China promises more probes

Even the lowly "flies" and "ants" in China's vast bureaucracy will not be spared in the corruption fight, a state broadcaster television program showed Sunday.
Nissan's Ariya electric crossover sport utility vehicle on the production line at the company's plant in Kaminokawa, Tochigi Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 7, 2025

Japan’s carmakers vow closer ties to regain ground in China

Japan’s automakers are united in their struggle to regain ground they’ve lost to the flashy offerings that have turned China into a global EV superpower.
Security personnel walk on the road with buses blocking an entrance gate to protect impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol from a possible second arrest attempt by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials in Seoul on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 7, 2025

South Korea investigators get new warrant to arrest President Yoon

The former star prosecutor has refused questioning three times after his bungled Dec. 3 martial law decree plunged South Korea into political chaos.
Tokyo led the country's 47 prefectures with 146 traffic-related fatalities in 2024, followed by Aichi with 141 and Chiba with 131.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2025

Japan's traffic death toll falls to third-lowest in 2024

There were 2,663 traffic-related deaths in 2024. The government has a goal of lowering the annual toll below 2,000 by 2025.
Five years since COVID-19 started upending the world, the virus is still infecting and killing people across the globe — though at far lower levels than during the height of the pandemic.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 8, 2025

Is the world ready for the next pandemic?

While the U.N. health agency considers the world more prepared than it was when Covid hit, it warns we are still not nearly ready enough.
Terunofuji performs during a ceremony at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on Tuesday.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jan 8, 2025

Questions linger over Terunofuji's health ahead of year's first tournament

During the Yokozuna Deliberation Council's practice session on Monday, Terunofuji’s latent power, but also his physical decline, were on full display.
Prime Minister Shigeru (upper left), along with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders, takes a group photo during the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro in November.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 8, 2025

Japan PM struggles with both U.S. relations and China’s growing threats

Ishiba has to govern under the constant threat of a no-confidence vote that could see the opposition parties pull the rug out from under him if they ever choose to work together.
Japan’s ski resorts are popular with tourists and knowing some basic Japanese will help you navigate the slopes a lot easier.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 9, 2025

Japanese ski vocabulary: Hit the books before you hit the slopes

Knowing some basic terms will help you graduate from that linguistic bunny slope in no time.
The town of Ilulisat in Greenland in September 2021. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he would like to make Greenland part of the United States.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 9, 2025

Why is Trump interested in Greenland?

The U.S. president-elect has said control of the Arctic island is "an absolute necessity" for "purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World."
A lithium smelter in Yichun, Jiangxi province, China
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 9, 2025

Stubbornly resilient lithium supply remains hurdle to recovery

Lithium prices have plunged since late 2022 on oversupply and slower-than-expected growth in electric vehicle demand.
Rahm Emanuel professes that the biggest thing he has brought to the U.S.-Japan relationship might be a fresh injection of vitality.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 9, 2025

Emanuel leaves reform legacy amid historic shifts in U.S.-Japan alliance

The departing U.S. ambassador arguably oversaw the most consequential shift in the U.S.-Japan alliance in decades.
NHK’s latest taiga period drama, “Unbound,” centers on Tsutaya Juzaburo (Ryusei Yokohama), a commoner who becomes a successful bookseller and publisher.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 10, 2025

‘Unbound’ breaks NHK period drama tradition with a hero of the common folk

Public broadcaster NHK marks its 100th anniversary by flipping the script on its long-running period drama series.
Palestinians at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
WORLD
Jan 10, 2025

Gaza death toll 40% higher than recorded, peer-reviewed study estimates

New study used data from Gaza's health ministry, an online survey and social media obituaries to reach a best estimate of 64,260 deaths by June 30 last year.
The additional sanctions against Russia "are to contribute to international efforts for peace," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Friday at the Prime Minister's Office.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 10, 2025

Japan expands its sanctions against Russia

Japan will also ban the export of 335 more goods, including small motorcycles, to Russia starting on Jan. 23.
Kotozakura is in position to fight his way to a promotion to yokozuna going into the New Year Basho.
SUMO
Jan 10, 2025

Stage set for action-packed New Year Basho with yokozuna promotion battle

Few years in recent sumo history have begun with a landscape of possibilities as wide as 2025.
Rescue workers search a flooded area during the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, which caused severe floods at the Chikuma River, in the city of Nagano in October 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Jan 12, 2025

Disaster-hardened Japan faces enormous costs from climate change

The total cost in climate damages for the country through 2050 could amount to ¥952 trillion if more ambitious action isn't taken.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers a statement after meeting with the National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 13, 2025

Canada has counter-tariffs ready if Trump launches trade war, Trudeau says

Canada buys more U.S.-made goods than any other country, according to U.S. Commerce Department export data — about $320 billion in the first 11 months of last year.
A former cattle ranch is being reforested in Brazil's Amazon region on Dec. 11. Mombak, a young carbon credit company — with valuable contracts with the giants Google and Microsoft, and supported by the U.S. government — aims to repeat this move millions of times over.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 13, 2025

In Brazil, an Amazon reforestation project seeks to redeem carbon markets

By planting native species, Brazilian company Mombak hopes to restore credibility to a scandal-ridden carbon market at a crucial time for the warming planet.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange will soon require some companies to publish their financials in English in addition to Japanese.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 13, 2025

Japanese companies rush to up English-language disclosures in 2025

The Tokyo Stock Exchange requires Prime market companies to release financial statements and other key information simultaneously in English and Japanese from April.
Multiple fires cover the skyline with smoke in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS
Jan 14, 2025

Devastating LA fires prompt 2028 Olympics debate

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said that planning for the 2028 Olympics and the FIFA World Cup in 2026 is on track.
Cook Islands-registered oil tanker Eagle S is seen anchored near the Port of Kilpilahti in Porvoo, on the Gulf of Finland, on Monday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 14, 2025

Oil tanker crew were poised to cut more cables when caught, Finland says

The Eagle S vessel carrying Russian oil is suspected of damaging the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and four telecoms cables by dragging its anchor across the seabed.
The number of corporate bankruptcies with liabilities of ¥10 million or more in Japan last year marked the third consecutive year of increases as rising prices due to the yen's weakening and labor shortages caused business failures in a wide range of industries.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 14, 2025

Japan business failures top 10,000 in 2024, worst in 11 years

The annual figure marked the third consecutive year of increases as rising prices due to the yen's weakening and labor shortages caused business failures.

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