Search - 2023

 
 
Australia captain Pat Cummins celebrates after the Cricket World Cup final in Ahmedabad, India, on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Cricket
Nov 20, 2023

Pat Cummins hails Australia's World Cup title as 'pinnacle in cricket'

The match was a personal triumph for Cummins, whose decision to field first was vindicated.
A wind turbine and an electricity pylon in Finedon, Britain. Developers can no longer use financial modeling that assumes gas power plants are used constantly throughout their 20-year-plus lifetime, analysts said.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 21, 2023

Giant batteries drain economics of gas power plants

Batteries that ensure stable power supply are becoming cheap enough to make developers abandon scores of projects for gas-fired generation worldwide.
With the 225-issue Nikkei stock average up by 28% this year and trading near its highest level since 1990, foreign investors who have plowed more than $35 billion into Japanese stocks in 2023 after years of shying away are seen as especially demanding.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 22, 2023

‘Tourist investors’ punish Japan’s earnings misses

Traders relatively new to the market with unrealistically high expectations have exited positions due to nervousness.
“Blue Giant,” a feature-length anime movie that centers on young men in Tokyo who aspire to become jazz stars, was so successful in Japan and overseas that director Yuzuru Tachikawa was given an even bigger budget to re-edit the film for a second screening in theaters across Japan.
CULTURE / Film / CULTURE SMASH
Nov 23, 2023

Sleeper hit anime 'Blue Giant' gets an encore

The surprise success of the big-budget feature about jazz warranted a re-edited version and a second life in theaters.
An Israeli soldier patrols near the border fence that separates the Gaza Strip and the Jewish state on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2023

There is only one way forward in Gaza

War in Gaza has galvanized calls for a long-term resolution, which must involve Israel and a Palestinian state existing side by side.
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 22, 2023

Things get warmer with Xi; Johnny’s get the cold shoulder

While Japan and China look to ease tensions, NHK makes things tense with a Johnny’s-less “Kohaku” announcement.
Sam Altman was reinstated as OpenAI CEO less than five days after his ouster.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 23, 2023

Altman is back at OpenAI, but questions remain over firing

One of the big issue for the organization is to what extent Altman can continue pursuing outside ventures.
A survey found that the number of children newly hospitalized for anorexia nervosa in Japan came to 183 in fiscal 2022, up around 60% from fiscal 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 24, 2023

Anorexia in children remained an issue three years into pandemic

Cases in fiscal 2022 were 40% higher than the level in fiscal 2019, before the pandemic.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin addresses his sentencing hearing and the judge after being convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in June 2021 in a still image taken from video.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Nov 25, 2023

Police officer who killed George Floyd stabbed in U.S. prison

The former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murdering Floyd during a 2020 arrest, survived the attack.
Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of the X social media platform, pauses during an event with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London on Nov. 2.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 25, 2023

X may lose up to $75 million in revenue as advertisers pull out

Scores of brands have pulled their ads after owner Elon Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 26, 2023

Japan, South Korea and China seek leaders' summit at 'earliest' time

The talks were seen as a steppingstone toward reviving the three-way summit, but progress on hammering out a specific date appeared elusive.
Ukrainian military members fire a howitzer at Russian forces in the Zaporizhzhia Region of Ukraine in December. Ukraine’s war effort is highly dependent on the U.S. and the other Western nations who comprise the country’s largest military and economic backers. 
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2023

The wars shaping the new world order

From Gaza to Urkaine to Taiwan, there is an unfolding geopolitical drama and global rebalancing among the great-powers.
Yoshiko Koide sits in a classroom at Nagoya College where she teaches a Japanese-language observation seminar.
LIFE / Language / Longform
Nov 27, 2023

How a dictionary came to spark outrage among the web’s otaku

A project to create a reference book categorizing subcultures didn't seem to cause offense until it was packaged and sold as a dictionary.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 27, 2023

Yoshinobu Yamamoto named to third straight Best Nine team

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the runaway choice as the best pitcher in the Pacific League on Monday, when the winners of NPB’s annual Best Nine awards were announced.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing celebrates on the podium with the trophy after winning the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Nov 28, 2023

Room for improvement for Red Bull? Rivals hope not

Red Bull will hope to defend its titles in 2024, when there will be a record 24 races, with an even better car.
A man walks through the Central Business District on a rainy day, in Beijing.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 28, 2023

West's de-risking starts to bite China's prospects

China is outwardly confident about growth despite a global economic slowdown
The buzz surrounding MediaTek casts a spotlight on growing competition between semiconductor firms that are exploiting the use of AI to grab a larger share of the smartphone business.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 28, 2023

AI chip boom fuels Taiwan firm’s 40% rally, beating Qualcomm

A five-month rally in MediaTek looks set to extend as booming demand for smartphones and a promising new AI chip brighten the company’s outlook.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center) waves to supporters during a road show as a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) election campaign ahead of the Telangana state assembly elections, in the city of Hyderabad on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 28, 2023

Hindu-Muslim tensions stoked online as India prepares to vote

During the BJP's rule over the past decade, party members and allies have been accused of inflammatory speech against Muslims.
As technology and politics increasingly force society to determine truth from fiction, Merriam-Webster's dictionary has selected the word "authentic" as word of the year.
WORLD / Society
Nov 28, 2023

Merriam-Webster crowns 'authentic' as word of the year

The winner beat "deepfake," "rizz" and "coronation" for honors as the word that most often sent people to the dictionary.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 29, 2023

Congenital syphilis cases set new annual record in Japan

Meanwhile, the overall number of syphilis cases in the country in 2023 came to 13,251 as of Nov. 19, topping the 2022 total of 13,228.
People in New York watch drones creating a 3D display outside the United Nations Headquarters calling attention to the Amazon rainforest and climate change.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Nov 29, 2023

Amazon rainforest destruction slows sharply year to date, report says

Destruction across the Amazon rainforest so far this year has slowed dramatically, down 55.8% from the same period a year ago.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after speaking to the United Nations in New York on Sept. 22
WORLD / Politics
Nov 29, 2023

Israel authorizes religious funding amid concern over cost of war

The government’s budget stance has drawn ire, with 300 prominent economists penning a joint letter urging cutbacks.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Nov 29, 2023

Kirishima takes Emperor’s Cup and yokozuna hopes from Takakeisho

As Takakeisho heads back to the starting line, Kirishima steps into the spotlight and will feature in most sumo-related content in the near term.
In 2022, MLB umpires wore FTX patches on their sleeves.
SOCCER
Nov 29, 2023

MLB and Formula 1 face fraud suits for promoting FTX

Investors’ lawyers sued MLB and the other entities in U.S. federal court in Miami on Monday.
Demonstrators protest outside India's consulate in Vancouver on Sept. 25, one a week after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the prospect of New Delhi's involvement in the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 30, 2023

Indian official was behind plot to assassinate Sikh American in U.S., DOJ says

The target has publicly advocated for the establishment of a sovereign state for Sikhs.
Pages from a new Otaku Dictionary catalog the lexicons of Japan’s various subcultures.
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 30, 2023

A problematic otaku dictionary and the Japanese approach to sitting

An “Otaku Dictionary” has Japan’s subcultures upset at an attempt to define them.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 1, 2023

Seiji Maehara's new party seen as move to join Nippon Ishin

The prominent lawmaker aims to achieve a change in government through a coalition of lawmakers other than those from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and president of COP28, speaks on the opening day of the U.N. climate conference in Dubai on Thursday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 1, 2023

COP28 opens with 'historic' launch of loss and damage fund

More monetary pledges are expected in the coming days
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2023

Japan falls out of top 10 in digital government rankings

The result reflects a series of problems with the country's My Number social security and tax identification cards.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 1, 2023

Japan’s 2023 buzzword of the year is all about winning

A.R.E — based on the Japanese word “are” (“that”) — took the top spot, after the Hanshin Tigers popularized the term as an indirect reference to victory.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami