Search - list

 
 
Mitsubishi Motors is unlikely to join Honda and Nissan's deal to create a holding company together, it was reported Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 24, 2025

Mitsubishi Motors won’t join Honda and Nissan tie-up, Yomiuri says

Mitsubishi Motors hasn’t made any announcements and is considering all options, a spokesperson for the company said.
Sara Saito competes at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in October last year.
TENNIS
Jan 24, 2025

Sara Saito’s journey from tennis courts in Gunma to promising WTA pro

The 18-year-old Saito, who has steadily risen up the WTA rankings, is the only teenager among the eight Japanese players in the top 200.
U.S. President Donald Trump attends an event about the economy at the Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 26, 2025

Trump’s frenzied debut delights base as thornier decisions await

The honeymoon is hardly assured to last, with the U.S. president so far avoiding drastic steps that would tempt backlash from his party, Wall Street or both.
Demonstrators raise placards bearing the names of hostages held captive in Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian militants, during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure their release, in front of the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 27, 2025

Israel’s ceasefire deals face test with Gaza refugee impasse

Israel’s agreements in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip came under strain from deadly violence and a dispute with Hamas over the fate of an Israeli hostage.
Nissan’s latest crisis surfaced in November when it reported a 94% drop in first-half net income.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 27, 2025

Nissan eyes cuts without resorting to plant closures, sources say

The carmaker will focus on reducing and consolidating existing production lines both in Japan and overseas to cut costs.
A worker drives past residential buildings under construction by Chinese real estate developer Vanke in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province. The indebted Chinese property developer warned on Monday that it incurred major losses in 2024, a filing at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 28, 2025

Rare China support shows Vanke may be too big to fail

The unusual support shows that Vanke holds a special place within China’s moribund property sector.
Chrystia Freeland, Canada's former finance minister and candidate for Liberal Party leader and prime minister, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Tuesday
WORLD / Politics
Jan 29, 2025

Trump threatens allies to send a message to China, Canada’s Freeland says

Freeland said a government led by her would hit the U.S. hard if Trump imposed tariffs.
A volunteer responds an incoming call at a suicide hotline center in Tokyo. While the number of people who killed themselves in Japan marked the second-lowest level since 2019, such deaths among elementary, junior high and high school students were at their highest level since records began in 1980.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 29, 2025

Suicides among school children in Japan at highest level since 1980

The total number of people who killed themselves in the country fell for the second straight year to the second-lowest level since 2019, the health ministry said.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni celebrates in the closing minutes of a victory over the Commanders in the NFC Championship game on Sunday in Philadelphia.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 29, 2025

Sirianni revisits painful defeat as he fine-tunes Super Bowl strategy

The Eagles let a 10-point halftime lead slip through their fingers two years ago as the Chiefs triumphed 38-35 at Super Bowl 57.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Toshihiro Kitamura said measures against U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women "will show the government's position more clearly," in relation to the Imperial House Law.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2025

Japan hits back at U.N. panel over imperial law review recommendation

The law allows only male descendants from the paternal line of the imperial family to become emperor.
The koji room at Fukuwagura brewery in Mie Prefecture, where metals such as stainless steel, which are easy to manage for hygiene, are widely used
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jan 30, 2025

Japanese food makers step in to preserve sake breweries' legacy

The initiatives by food companies coincide with a growing recognition of traditional sake-making techniques.
Workers construct an array of solar panels for a floating photovoltaic solar energy farm near Cottbus, Germany, in August 2024.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 30, 2025

Red tape and rare earths: EU 'compass' charts economic future

The publication of the "competitiveness compass" aims to mark a change of tack toward a more business-friendly Brussels.
An attendee records a virtual address by U.S. President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2025

Trump threats risk stretching Europe's fragile unity to breaking point

The European Commission urged member states in a private meeting last week to remain united, with some comparing the situation to the Brexit negotiations.
Winners Yevgenia Shishkova (front right) and Vadim Naumov (rear right) wave to fans during the medal ceremony at the NHK Trophy in Nagoya on Dec. 9, 1995. State-run news in Russia reported that the pair was on board a passenger plane that collided with a U.S. military helicopter in Washington on Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
Jan 30, 2025

World champion Russian skaters reportedly on plane involved in midair collision

Shishkova and Naumov won the world championship in pairs in 1994.
Lawyers representing Masako Akagi at a news conference in the city of Osaka on Thursday following an Osaka High Court ruling that revoked the Finance Ministry's decision not to disclose documents related to a document-tampering scandal
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 31, 2025

Court nixes Finance Ministry decision against document disclosure

The Finance Ministry has said that public disclosure in a document-tampering case would impede investigations.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference as Ottawa responded to U.S. President Donald Trump's order to impose tariffs on Canadian imports, in Ottawa on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 2, 2025

‘Complete betrayal’: Canada reels as Trump tariffs rattle major trading relationship

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking on a bitterly cold night in Ottawa, said Trump’s move left his government with no choice but to respond forcefully.
Motorcycles on display at the Honda pavilion at the Bangkok International Motor Show in Bangkok in March 2024
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 3, 2025

Honda’s motorcycle business is the gem in a messy Nissan union

Two-wheelers accounted for about 16% of Honda’s sales last fiscal year but an outsized 40% of its operating profit.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters Tuesday about the idea of revising the companies law to fully allow businesses to hold online-only shareholders' meetings.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2025

Japan to allow firms to hold online-only shareholder meetings

Online-only shareholders' meetings are currently permitted only in exceptional cases under the industrial competitiveness enhancement law.
The Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai on Jan. 20. China's Finance Ministry said it would impose levies of 15% for U.S. coal and LNG and 10% for crude oil, farm equipment and some autos.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 4, 2025

China hits back with tariffs on U.S. goods after Trump imposes new levies

Trump on Monday suspended his threat of 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada at the last minute, but there was no such reprieve for China.
DeepSeek’s AI breakthrough has shaken assumptions about China’s innovation, highlighted weaknesses in U.S. tech restrictions, and reinforced China’s push for self-sufficiency despite export controls.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2025

DeepSeek forces a rethink of China’s ability to innovate

The Trump administration hasn’t outlined a policy toward technology flows yet, but it ordered a review of export controls on day one.
Russian demand for Japanese grand pianos is always very high, a dealer has said.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 4, 2025

Smuggled grand pianos show Trump’s challenge in pressuring Putin

High-end Japanese pianos still make their way to Russia despite export ban, highlighting Tokyo's struggle to enforce sanctions.
A statue of the founder of the International Olympic Committee, Pierre de Coubertin, at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland
OLYMPICS
Feb 5, 2025

The closed-door battle to lead the Olympics

For such a consequential election, much of it is taking place in the dark, away from any form of public or private debate.
Japan remains mum on a position taken by U.S. President Donald Trump to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America."
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 5, 2025

Japan noncommittal on Trump's renaming of Gulf of Mexico

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi says the government will continue to monitor related developments, but avoided confirming which name it will actually follow.
Elon Musk has in two weeks created a new center of power in Washington as he executes U.S. President Donald Trump's cost-cutting initiative to reduce the size of the U.S. government.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2025

Musk creates new power base in Washington with takeover of U.S. agencies

Elon Musk has in two weeks created a new center of power in Washington as he executes Donald Trump's cost-cutting initiative to reduce the size of the U.S. government.
Nissan needed this deal a lot more than Honda as billions of dollars of debt due in the next year closes in.
COMMENTARY
Feb 6, 2025

Scrapping Honda deal would leave Nissan stranded

Nissan needed this deal a lot more than Honda. As billions of dollars of debt due in the next year close in, the former may get pushed into an even less favorable deal.
People line up outside an Apple store in Beijing.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 7, 2025

Apple’s China focus thrusts it into center of geopolitical fight

It counts China as its biggest manufacturing hub and the U.S. as its largest market, putting it at the center of an escalating geopolitical fight.
Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles helmets at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Wednesday, ahead of Super Bowl LIX
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 7, 2025

Chiefs eye first three-peat; Eagles out to avenge Super Bowl LVII loss

The Chiefs' run of good fortune has led to a sentiment among fans and media that someone else should get a turn.
People walk to attend a memorial ceremony for Salim Iskef, one of the victims of a mass shooting, at St. Mary's Church in Orebro, Sweden, on Thursday.
WORLD
Feb 7, 2025

Sweden reels from worst mass shooting as it mourns the dead

Police said people of different ages, genders and nationalities were among the victims.
Masako Akagi, wife of late Toshio Akagi, holds Toshio's picture and his glasses during a news conference in Osaka on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 7, 2025

Government accepts ruling backing disclosure of Moritomo documents

Moritomo Gakuen was once linked to the wife of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Demonstrators rally during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump and the actions he has taken in the first weeks of his presidency, in Washington, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 7, 2025

U.S. judge blocks Trump buyout program as 60,000 sign up to quit

The Trump administration is pressuring workers to leave their jobs in an unprecedented drive to overhaul the federal government.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan