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Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi holds a news conference Tuesday. The party has decided to hold its leadership election on Sept. 27.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 20, 2024

Is factional support still key for aspiring LDP presidential candidates?

Despite persistent claims the groups won't play any role in the September vote, factional ties remain strong to this day.
Visitors walk through the Hozomon Gate as they visit Sensoji temple in Tokyo earlier this month.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 21, 2024

Japan sees record number of visitors for second straight month

The estimated number of tourists visiting Japan surged 41.9% from a year earlier to 3,292,500 in July, hitting a second-straight monthly high.
European Union member flags are hoisted in front of the European Parliament building in Luxembourg. The country hosts key EU institutions and has recently concluded a working holiday visa program with Japan.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 22, 2024

Luxembourg opens door for Japanese working holiday visitors

The working holiday program is available to Japanese nationals between the ages of 18 and 30.
The introduction of a two-tier pricing system which charges foreign tourists more than local residents is being considered at Himeji Castle in Hyogo Prefecture.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2024

More Japan tourist hot spots consider two-tier pricing system

However, experts have warned that the system may lead to discrimination if it is not carefully thought out.
Okayama and Tottori prefectures are some of the least-visited regions in Japan among foreign tourists — which is why they offer such a welcome break from crowd-clogged cities like Tokyo and Kyoto.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 23, 2024

In Japan’s flyover country, 72 hours of hidden gems

Some of Japan’s least-visited prefectures among foreign tourists host opportunities for peace, quiet and rural beauty.
Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, head of Thailand's Department of Disease Control, speaks during a news conference following the suspected first case of the new, more dangerous strain of mpox in Bangkok on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Aug 23, 2024

Thailand confirms Asia’s first case of new mpox virus strain

The patient who tested positive for clade Ib was a European man who arrived in Bangkok last week from Africa.
A construction worker in Akasaka-Mitsuke, Tokyo, on Wednesday. High temperatures are projected to linger on past the summer.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2024

High temperatures expected to continue in Japan through October

The warm fall will follow what has already been a particularly hot summer, with July’s average temperature coming in at a record high for the month.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan attends a plenary session during the summit on peace in Ukraine, in Stansstad near Lucerne, Switzerland, in June.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 24, 2024

With election approaching, U.S. national security chief to visit China

During three days of talks starting Tuesday in Beijing, Jake Sullivan will discuss issues ranging from Taiwan to bilateral military talks.
U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 26, 2024

Powell’s pivot leaves traders debating size and path of rate cuts

Bond traders are now focusing in on bets over the size of the first U.S. interest rate reduction and the future path of easing.
A woman shows a health worker the mpox lesions on her child at the Munigi mpox treatment center in Nyiragongo territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 27, 2024

African scientists ‘working blindly’ to respond to fast-changing mpox strain

The numerous unknowns about the virus itself, its severity and how it is transmitting, is complicating the response.
Yoko Tawada's novella “Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel” is something of an intellectual love letter to a poet who greatly influenced the author.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 28, 2024

'Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel': Yoko Tawada's work defies comparison

The author's latest book to be translated into English is simply Tawadaesque: peerless, unique and incomparable.
Freed Israeli hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi talks on the phone after arriving for a checkup at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva. The Israeli military said its forces rescued Alkadi on Tuesday after a "complex operation."
WORLD
Aug 28, 2024

Israel rescues hostage taken on Oct. 7 from a Gaza tunnel

A 52-year-old Bedouin Arab Israeli from the town of Rahat was found by special forces in a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip.
Participants take part in a mystery-themed matchmaking event organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government at Jindai Botanical Gardens in Tokyo in March.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 28, 2024

Japan to support women moving from Tokyo to countryside for marriage

The plan is aimed at helping those interested in relocating at a time when the population of young women in the countryside is shrinking.
Japan is facing a pilot shortage, but hiring foreign pilots is not easy due to opposition from unions. Japanese carriers also typically pay less than airlines elsewhere.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 28, 2024

Pilot shortage threatens Japan’s goal for 60 million tourists

Falling short may mean missing out on lucrative tourism money as carriers simply can’t find the crew to fly the necessary number of planes.
A satellite image shows Typhoon Shanshan south of Kyushu on Wednesday afternoon
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2024

Typhoon Shanshan batters Kyushu ahead of likely landfall

Shanshan could make landfall later Thursday while still a very strong storm, and its slow movement means it will deliver dangerous impacts over a prolonged period.
Vehicles are stranded on flooded road on Thursday following heavy rains from Typhoon Shanshan in the city of Tamana, Kumamoto Prefecture.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2024

Heavy rain batters Japan after Typhoon Shanshan makes landfall in Kyushu

Later Thursday, Shanshan was downgraded to a severe tropical storm, but it was still bringing heavy rain and strong winds to the region and beyond.
Pope Francis arrives at the weekly general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 29, 2024

Pope Francis takes climate message to Southeast Asia on 12-day trip

It will be the longest trip yet by Pope Francis, who now regularly uses a wheelchair due to knee and back pain.
Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, Bangladesh's army chief, arrives at Dhaka International Airport to receive Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus on Aug. 8 to lead the country's interim government.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 29, 2024

Will Bangladesh go the way of Pakistan?

The Islamist resurgence poses a serious law-and-order challenge in Bangladesh, as it has long done in Pakistan.
A submerged area of Yufu, Oita Prefecture, on Thursday after Typhoon Shanshan dumped torrential rain throughout the Kyushu region.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2024

Alerts issued for Tokyo area cities as Shanshan crawls across Japan

Multiple rivers in and around Tokyo threatened to spill their banks as the storm brought torrential rain.
People sunbathe on a rock in Beirut's Ain al-Mreisseh seaside promenade on Aug. 2.
WORLD
Aug 30, 2024

The threat of war with Israel redefines ‘normal’ life in Beirut

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire along the border, exchanges that could spiral into a bigger, broader conflict involving global and regional powers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government, via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on Aug. 22.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 31, 2024

Kremlin says not worried Putin could be arrested in Mongolia

Putin will travel to Mongolia on Tuesday, his first trip to an ICC member since The Hague-based court issued a warrant for his arrest.
A shelf for emergency goods is seen almost empty at a hardware store in the city of Shizuoka on Aug. 9.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 1, 2024

20% take no action over Nankai Trough quake warning

The emergency information was lifted on Aug. 15 as there was no particular change in the state of the plate boundaries near where the quake is expected to occur.
Makoto Asai (right) works at his restaurant in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 1, 2024

Reconstruction demand aiding business recovery eight months after Noto quake

There is a long way to go before full-scale postdisaster reconstruction, with many businesses operating for shorter hours or at makeshift facilities.
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, parents of Hersh Goldberg Polin, speak at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 21.
WORLD
Sep 1, 2024

Israel recovers bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including an American captive

U.S. President Joe Biden, who has closely followed the fate of the hostages seized on Oct. 7, said the six included Israeli American Goldberg-Polin.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's US-2 amphibious plane
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2024

Japan to continue production of MSDF US-2 amphibious plane

The Defense Ministry has sought ¥21.9 billion ($150 million) for the acquisition of one US-2 aircraft in its fiscal 2025 budget request.
Japan head coach Hajime Moriyasu announces his squad for upcoming World Cup qualifying matches, on Aug. 29 in the city of Chiba.
SOCCER / World cup
Sep 4, 2024

Japan favored in next World Cup qualifying stage, but history gives pause

At this stage, the Samurai Blue lost 1-0 at home to Oman three years ago and also went down 2-1 to the UAE in front of their own fans ahead of the 2018 tournament.
Alimentation Couche-Tard’s bid to acquire Japan’s Seven & I Holdings has sparked discussions about Japan’s approach to foreign investment and whether rejecting or accepting the bid reflects an openness to international business.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 4, 2024

7-Eleven deserves more than shareholder supremacy

While Japan should consider investor interests, it should not forsake the broader social and community benefits that its businesses provide.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appears at a joint news conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 5, 2024

Cabinet shake-up suggests Zelenskyy is planning for ‘new phase of the war,’ analysts say

Observers say the reshuffle, which comes at a dynamic moment in the war, had been in the works for months.
Shigeru Ishiba speaks at a supporters meeting in Tokyo on Aug. 30.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 5, 2024

Taxes and political reform in focus in upcoming LDP campaign

The candidates’ recipes to put the economy back on track after decades of low growth are varied, with some emphasizing redistribution and others promising no tax hikes.
The oceanographic research vessel Mirai passes through the Diomede Islands, located at the center of the Bering Strait, on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2024

Japanese research vessel Mirai enters Arctic ocean

Mirai is on a month-long voyage to study environmental changes in the Arctic, which is believed to be warming faster than anywhere else on Earth.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji