Search - 2018

 
 
President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a Saudi investment forum at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2025

Trump says U.S. to lift Syria sanctions as he secures $600 billion Saudi deal

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest customers for U.S. arms — part of a decadeslong arrangement where the kingdom delivers oil and the superpower provides security.
Japan's Takefusa Kubo competes for the ball with Luca de la Torre of the U.S. during a friendly in September 2022 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
SOCCER
May 14, 2025

U.S. to take on Japan in World Cup warmup

On Sept. 9, the Americans will play Japan at the home of the Columbus Crew in Ohio.
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng attends a meeting with global business leaders at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 28.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2025

China surrounded Xi aide with seasoned experts to seal U.S. deal

The crew engaging with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was on public display for the first time Sunday.
A model of the proposed Roshn Stadium inside a Saudi Arabia World Cup bid exhibition in Riyadh on Dec. 11
WORLD
May 14, 2025

Human Rights Watch warns of migrant worker deaths in Saudi Arabia

The NGO, which has studied nearly 50 cases of deaths in Saudi Arabia, said Saudi authorities had "failed to adequately protect workers from preventable deaths."
A uranium conversion facility in Iran. The country currently enriches uranium to 60% purity — far above the 3.67% limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90% needed for weapons-grade material.
WORLD / Politics
May 15, 2025

Top Iran aide says nuclear deal possible for sanctions relief

An adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran could accept far-reaching curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Morgan Stanley analysts estimate the top five makers of hearing aids hold roughly 99% of the global market, which they predict will be worth over $14 billion by next year rising from about $12 billion in 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 15, 2025

Trump’s tariffs spare Europe-dominated hearing aid industry

An ecosystem developed over more than a century has given three Danish companies and a Swiss rival a quasi-monopoly on the market for devices that help people hear better.
Starting in the early 1980s, shipping nuclear waste for storage on Orchid Island off the southeastern coast of Taiwan was standard practice.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
May 16, 2025

Final nuclear plant shutdown leaves Taiwan facing energy crunch

The shutdown takes place just as power demand is projected to rise 13% by the end of the decade, largely driven by data centers and chipmakers.
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures with a clenched fist as he prepares to board Air Force One in Abu Dhabi at the end of his Middle East tour on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
May 17, 2025

Trump reshapes U.S. Mideast policy. Can deals work instead?

The president proclaimed a decisive break with decades of U.S. interventionism, promising a new foreign policy based instead on the art of the deal.
Ousted FBI Director James Comey listens during a hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Capitol Hill in Washington in June 2017.
WORLD
May 17, 2025

Ex-FBI director James Comey meets with Secret Service over '8647' post

In U.S. slang, the number 86 can be used as a verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly. Trump is the 47th U.S. president.
Laurent Patouillet, the CEO and president of Agnes b. Japan, says the focus of its business is to remain independent, and evolve and adapt.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 18, 2025

Agnes b. Japan CEO hopes to evolve the brand with focus on sustainability

Laurent Patouillet, who has headed the brand's Japanese operations since 2018, believes there is more that it can do to be environmentally sustainable.
Some of the photos related to Aum Shinrikyo, taken by Seiichi Takeuchi, are displayed at an educational facility in Fujikawaguchiko in Yamanashi Prefecture.
JAPAN
May 18, 2025

1,400 photos donated to remember horrors of Aum Shinrikyo cult

Kamikuishiki resident Seiichi Takeuchi, 97, waged a battle against the group from the time the cult set up the base in the village's Fujigane district in 1989.
Unlike Silicon Valley, many Asian societies, due to their penchant for risk aversion, need more government support to boost early-stage deep-tech innovation.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2025

Government capital is not just 'silly money'

Unlike Silicon Valley's predominantly private-sector-driven ecosystem, many Asian societies exhibit greater risk aversion, necessitating proactive government involvement.
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.
A woman walks next to an anti-U.S. mural near the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran on May 11.
WORLD
May 19, 2025

Iran says it will keep enriching uranium, even with a deal

Iran currently enriches uranium to 60%, far above the 3.67% limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90% needed for a nuclear warhead.
USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center Chief Operating Officer Danny Zausner speaks during an event announcing plans for renovations to the tennis center and Arthur Ashe Stadium, in Manhattan, New York City, on Monday.
TENNIS
May 20, 2025

U.S. Open venue to undergo $800 million transformation

Work at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center will be completed by the 2027 U.S. Open.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 21, 2025

Iran faces U.S. without Plan B as nuclear red lines collide

Iran may turn to China and Russia as a "Plan B," but with Beijing's trade war with Washington, and Moscow distracted with its war in Ukraine, the backup plan seems shaky.
Detainees play outside during a media tour of the Port Isabel Detention Center, hosted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Harlingen Enforcement and Removal Operations, in Los Fresnos, Texas, on June 10, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
May 21, 2025

Deportations to South Sudan appear to violate court order, U.S. judge says

The development marked a new clash between the federal judiciary and U.S. President Donald Trump's administration in its efforts to implement mass deportations.
Although Japan's rate of cashless transactions remains relatively low compared with those of other countries, the share of such payments in personal consumption has surpassed 40% for the first time.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
May 21, 2025

Cashless payments top 40% of consumer spending in Japan

The country's cashless payment penetration remains low globally, with the risk of fraud and service interruptions due to natural disasters presenting hurdles to growth.
A female Osaka prosecutor in her 50s speaks about how she was sexually assaulted, at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 21, 2025

Female prosecutor says she experienced secondary victimization in rape case

The prosecutor said the prosecutors office where she worked turned a blind eye after she reported the case, and slanderous comments about her spread at work.
The Hokkaido East Trail links some of the northern prefecture's most striking national parks and landscapes.
LIFE / Travel
May 24, 2025

In search of untouched Japan? Meet Hokkaido’s newest hiking trail.

The 410-kilometer Hokkaido East Trail links three national parks as it winds through marshland, calderas and more.
Team Penske driver Will Power climbs into his car during practice for the Indianapolis 500 on Monday in Indianapolis, Indiana.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
May 23, 2025

Team Penske ready to move past scandal and focus on Indy 500

Team Penske fired three senior executives days before the Indy 500 after an illegally modified spec part was found on two of the team's cars.
The employment rate for March 2025 graduates of higher educational institutions stood at 98% as of April 1, the second highest on record, according to the data compiled jointly by the education and labor ministries.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 23, 2025

98% of new graduates in Japan are able to land jobs

The graduate employment rate is the second highest on record.
Princess Aiko will visit Laos in November, her first official visit overseas, according to the Imperial Household Agency.
JAPAN
May 23, 2025

Princess Aiko to visit Laos in November as first official foreign trip

Japan received an invitation from Laos this month as the two countries celebrate the 70th anniversary of their diplomatic relations this year.
Boeing 737 MAX fuselages atop rail cars at a train yard in Seattle last December
BUSINESS / Companies
May 24, 2025

Boeing agrees to resolve U.S. criminal case over 737 crashes

The settlement was disclosed in a federal court filing Friday, just weeks before a trial was set to start June 23 in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Harvard University shield "VERITAS" sits above a campus entrance gate at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, last month.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / FOCUS
May 24, 2025

Long advantageous, Harvard's China ties become a political liability

The ties have yielded major financial gifts, influence in international affairs and global prestige for the school.
A worker sorts plastic waste for recycling at Minato Resource Recycle Center in Tokyo in 2019. Japan has been criticized by environmental groups for its strategy on plastics, which is heavily reliant on recycling instead of reduction.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
May 25, 2025

Are microplastics hurting our fertility?

While a lot remains unknown about how microplastics affect our health, scientists in Japan and around the world broadly agree there's an urgent need to reduce plastic production.
Mateusz Urbanowicz’s recent book “Imaginary Storefronts” collects his illustrations of the mundane Japanese street scenes that have given him immense inspiration.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 31, 2025

Mateusz Urbanowicz: ‘Miyazaki inspired me to put the audience first’

The Polish artist and animator talks about how he came to Japan and the inspiration he draws from ordinary streets and storefronts.
More Chinese families are clustering in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward, a district renowned for having the finest educational environment in Japan.
JAPAN / Society
May 29, 2025

Chinese parents are fueling Tokyo’s education race

International schools in Tokyo are already witnessing an influx of children from the newly arrived, highly involved Chinese households.
Shipping containers at the port of Oakland, in California. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the U.S. will find other ways to impose tariffs if the current plan doesn't work.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 30, 2025

If trade court ruling stands, Trump seen shifting to other options for tariff assault

Legal and trade experts' advice to foreign governments, companies and other clients: Assume the tariffs will resume in one form or another.
Remains taken by researchers from Kyoto Imperial University, which is now Kyoto University, from a tomb in Okinawa Prefecture in the early 20th century have been returned, it was learned Thursday.
JAPAN
May 30, 2025

Okinawan remains looted in early Showa Era returned by Kyoto University

The remains had been taken from a tomb built in the middle ages in the Okinawan village of Nakijin.

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