Search - 2025

 
 
International Monetary Fund spokesperson Julie Kozack said any fiscal stimulus measures Japan takes to address economic shocks should be temporary and targeted at vulnerable households and companies, during a news conference on Thursday in Washington.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 25, 2025

IMF advises Japan to avoid broad tax cuts and handouts

Tackling inflation was a major campaign issue in the Upper House race, with opposition parties having called for reducing or abolishing the consumption tax.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri (right) and Lando Norris drive during the Formula One British Grand Prix at Silverstone, England, on July 6.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Jul 25, 2025

Formula 1's renewable energy shift drives 26% drop in carbon footprint

F1 said in a statement on Wednesday that it’s halfway toward achieving its minimum 50% reduction target, as set out in its "net zero by 2030” commitment. 
U.S. President Donald Trump (left) presents a document to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell while touring a construction project at the central bank in Washington on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 25, 2025

Trump says not ‘necessary’ to fire Powell after getting Fed tour

The visit to see the central bank's renovation project put Trump side-by-side with the central bank chief that he has regularly lambasted on social media.
Intel says it "will no longer move forward" with projects in Germany and Poland as part of a push to save billions of dollars.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 25, 2025

Intel posts higher revenue after trimming workforce

The U.S. chipmaker said it "will no longer move forward" with projects in Germany and Poland as part of measures to save billions of dollars.
"Simit," a Turkish bagel, is one of the Turkish-style breads found at Pide, a small bakery that also specializes in sourdough.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 27, 2025

Communal knead: A Turkish baker in Kamakura draws queues

Encouraged by the warmth of the local community, Burcu Alkurt opened Pide, a bakery that specializes in sourdough and a variety of Turkish and Nordic-style breads.
Browns quarterback Kenny Pickett looks to pass during training camp at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus in Berea, Ohio on Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jul 25, 2025

Kenny Pickett takes first-team reps as Browns may keep four quarterbacks

Joe Flacco did not take snaps in the full team work with rookie Dillon Gabriel lined up at QB with the second team and Shedeur Sanders sliding in behind him for third-team reps.
Japan’s ruling LDP-Komeito bloc lost big, smaller parties gained ground and the country now faces a more fractured, uncertain political future.
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2025

Voter revolt shatters Japan’s ruling coalition and empowers smaller parties

The big winners were smaller, newer parties on the right, Sanseito and the Democratic Party for the People.
The Liberal Democratic Party’s historic Upper House defeat leaves the party fragmented and searching for a capable leader who can reunite conservatives, modernize its appeal, deliver real policies and rebuild its internal power structure.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2025

Who will save the Liberal Democratic Party?

The LDP is now faced with two fundamental questions: what tasks must it accomplish to restore its political dominance and who is actually capable of accomplishing them?
Japan’s ruling coalition is weakening as rising populist parties like Sanseito gain support, raising concerns that Japan could shift toward unstable multiparty coalition politics similar to Israel’s fragmented Knesset.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2025

Is Japan drifting toward fragmented and ineffective politics?

In a system with many small parties, even minor players can hold the balance of power in forming coalitions.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters on Thursday at the Prime Minister's Office.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 25, 2025

Various tactics to force Ishiba out of power emerge within the LDP

The LDP has been thrown into a political power game between those who want Ishiba ousted immediately and those supporting him staying on.
Manhattan Beach on the California coast
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 25, 2025

‘Unprecedented’ ocean heat waves in 2023 suggest climate tipping point

The world’s oceans experienced a staggering amount of warming in 2023, as vast marine heat waves affected 96% of their surface.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo on Friday
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 26, 2025

'#Ishiba don't quit': Unlikely support grows for embattled PM

Despite Ishiba insisting that he has not discussed his resignation with members of his Liberal Democratic Party, multiple reports say that it is just a matter of time.
CC Sabathia plays in a celebrity softball game during MLB All-Star festivities in Atlanta on July 12.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 26, 2025

Sabathia and Ichiro lead intriguing Hall of Fame class into Cooperstown

While the presence of Ichiro will lend an international flavor to the festivities, the enshrinement of classic era candidates Allen and Parker will add layers of poignancy.
People from the first group of white South Africans granted refugee status for being deemed victims of racial discrimination under U.S. President Trump's Refugee plan, listen to welcoming remarks during a meet and greet event, at Dulles International Airport in Virginia in May.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 26, 2025

U.S. diplomats asked if nonwhites qualify for Trump's South African refugee program

The State Department said U.S. policy is to consider both Afrikaners and other racial minorities for resettlement, echoing guidance posted on its website.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers a speech at an event in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, on Friday afternoon.
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2025

Ishiba rules out joint document on U.S. tariffs as deal's details trickle out

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has faced criticism from the opposition as numerous details about the agreement remain unclear.
People detained by U.S. immigration forces are seen behind fences at the Desert View Annex at an ICE detention facility in Adelanto, California, on July 10.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Jul 27, 2025

Most ICE detainees have no criminal history as detention reaches record levels

Private prison corporations are set to benefit from the Trump administration's unprecedented deportation drive.
A supporter (center right) of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba holds up a placard reading "Don't quit Ishiba" as he takes part in a rally across the street from the Prime Minister's Office in central Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 27, 2025

Stay or go? Key events give Ishiba time to ponder his future.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has pledged to stay in office — in defiance of growing calls for him to step down after the LDP's poor showing in the Upper House election.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, promises a rent freeze that’s easy to deliver but it remains to be seen if it will solve the city’s deeper housing problems.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2025

Freezing rent is easy. Making NYC housing affordable isn’t.

Zohran Mamdani’s campaign pledge would be simple to put into effect but wouldn’t do much to solve the underlying problem.
A woman casts her vote during parliamentary elections in Qom, Iran, in March 2012. Regime change in the Islamic country is harder than many think, but it has the institutions needed for democracy if it happens.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2025

Iran is more prepared for democracy than many realize

Some commentators, like the economist Nouriel Roubini and the Stanford political scientist Abbas Milani, see regime change as plausible or imminent.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to punish Brazil with tariffs to protect former President Jair Bolsonaro is just one sign that the far right is shifting from rhetoric to real cross-border solidarity that undermines democratic norms.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2025

Trump is trying to build a far-right international alliance

There has been a lack of concrete solidarity among populist leaders. But Trump is changing that in his second term.
Tadej Pogacar, wearing the leader's yellow jersey, celebrates on the podium with his team after winning the Tour de France in Paris on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Cycling
Jul 28, 2025

Dominant Tadej Pogacar cruises to fourth Tour de France title

Pogacar, the defending champion, embarked from the start in Lille as clear favorite and won four stages along the way.
Peruvian police seized four tons of illegal mercury from Mexico bound for Bolivia, dealing a severe blow to criminal organizations linked to illegal gold mining, customs authorities reported on Thursday.
WORLD
Jul 28, 2025

Smuggled mercury shows extent of illegal Amazon gold mining

Record gold prices have encouraged a flourishing illegal mining trade that damages local nature and biodiversity and is raising significant health concerns.
Hajime Kawano and his family traveled from Japan to see Ichiro Suzuki be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, on Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 28, 2025

Ichiro's Hall of Fame induction becomes family affair for some fans

Some traveled from Japan to the United States to be part of Ichiro's big moment.
Prime Minister and Liberal Democratic Party President Shigeru Ishiba, flanked by LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama (left) and LDP Vice President Yoshihide Suga, speaks at a meeting of party lawmakers and executives at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 28, 2025

At LDP’s post-election meeting, calls intensify for Ishiba’s resignation

The prime minister apologized to his fellow party members over the loss of its majority in the Upper House, but remains determined to stay on.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, on June 30, 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 29, 2025

North Korea says Trump must drop denuclearization policy if he wants to meet Kim

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader, called personal ties between Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump "not bad.”
An advertisement for Louis Vuitton in Kuala Lumpur on Friday
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 29, 2025

U.S. tariffs to test pricing by luxury brands already paying for dramatic hikes

Estimates suggest big luxury companies already raised prices by 33% on average between 2019 and 2023.
Prolonged high prices for food and other goods have pushed down consumer sentiment and real wages, according to the Annual Report on the Japanese Economy and Public Finance for fiscal 2025.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 29, 2025

Japan should take all possible measures to raise wages, white paper says

Prolonged high prices for food and other goods have pushed down consumer sentiment and real wages, while predictions for continued price climbs have curbed consumption.
Photos of Nazca Line geoglyphs newly discovered by a team of researchers at Yamagata University, on Monday in the city of Osaka
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2025

Japanese researchers discover 248 Nazca Line geoglyphs in Peru

The team conducted field surveys on sites selected from aerial photographs using artificial intelligence.
“Yakyu / Baseball: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game” is set to remain on display in Cooperstown for at least five to 10 years — and possibly indefinitely.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 29, 2025

Behind the scenes at the Baseball Hall of Fame's new Yakyu/Baseball exhibit

The exhibit tells a sweeping, richly visual story about the deep and evolving connection between Japan and America’s shared national pastime.
Eighty percent of high school students in Japan expressed interest in wage rules, followed by working hour rules, at 79.5%, according to the results of a questionnaire survey released by the labor ministry on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2025

80% of high schoolers in Japan show interest in wages and labor systems

Civics classes were cited as good opportunities for high school students to learn about social security systems.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear