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Designed by Kei Atsumi and Motoya Iizawa, "The Warp" was a 3D-printed tea pavilion with organic, twisting curves placed in downtown Dubai.
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 30, 2024

Far East meets Middle East at Dubai Design Week 2024

This year's Dubai Design Week functioned much like a portal between continents, philosophies and futures.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba arrives to deliver a policy address during a Lower House session in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 29, 2024

Japan earmarks extra ¥1.5 trillion for chips and AI this year

Japan is fighting to keep up in a global spending spree on cutting-edge tech led by China and the U.S.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leaves the Delta Hotel on his way to meet U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 30, 2024

Canada’s Justin Trudeau holds crucial meeting with Trump in Florida

Trudeau was the first Group of Seven leader to have a face-to-face meeting with Trump since the U.S. election.
Pete Hegseth, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be secretary of defense, speaks to reporters at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington on Nov. 21.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 30, 2024

Pete Hegseth’s mother accused her son of mistreating women for years

She said on Friday that she regretted the 2018 email and had apologized to him.
Miao Hua, China's director of the political affairs department of the Central Military Commission, disembarks his aircraft after arriving at Pyongyang International Airport on October 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 30, 2024

China probes top military official overseeing political loyalty

Beijing has abruptly suspended Miao Hua from the nation’s top military body led by Xi Jinping, ramping up a graft probe that’s roiling the upper echelons of the PLA.
Rachel Accurso, in character as the internet personality Ms. Rachel, in New York on Nov. 4.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 30, 2024

Ms. Rachel’s improbable journey from toddler whisperer to holiday toy sensation

A series of toys depicting children’s YouTube sensation Ms. Rachel is quickly becoming one of the hottest holiday gifts.
Timeleft uses an algorithm to match its users with five or six strangers in an effort to prompt “human connection” over dinner at a restaurant. It determines the attendees with the help of a simple personality quiz available when you sign up for the service.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Dec 2, 2024

Seven strangers and an algorithm: Can this new dinner app help you make friends?

An app called Timeleft hopes to combat big-city alienation through a simple meal with a diverse group of people.
Peter Westbrook became the first African American and Asian American to win an Olympic medal in fencing at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
OLYMPICS / Fencing
Dec 2, 2024

Trailblazing Olympic fencer Peter Westbrook dies at 72

Westbrook was the first first African American and Asian American to win a medal in fencing at the Summer Games
A brown bear in Hokkaido. In the city of Akita, a bear that attacked a supermarket employee over the weekend was captured in a box trap on Monday morning.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 2, 2024

Bear that attacked Akita supermarket employee captured

The animal, which attacked a 47-year-old male employee on Saturday morning, was captured in a box trap on Monday morning.
Chinese people's sentiment toward Japan is believed to be impacted by their use of social media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, as well as whether they have visited Japan.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 3, 2024

Nearly 90% in Japan and China have negative views of other

The proportion of Japanese respondents who said they had a negative view of China stood at 89.0%, down 3.2 percentage points from a year before.
Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, depart the First Street U.S. Courthouse in Los Angeles on Sept. 5.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 3, 2024

Biden's surprise pardon of son sparked by fears of new persecution

The president's move was panned by his Republican political opposition, but also by Democrats who say it threatens to undermine public trust in the rule of law.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda reiterated in an interview published Saturday that authorities will raise rates if the economy performs in line with projections.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 3, 2024

BOJ weighs case for first triple hike since Japan’s bubble burst

The last time the BOJ conducted three hikes in a single year was in 1989, with the third increase that year coming on Christmas Day.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he will "block" a planned takeover of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 3, 2024

Trump says will 'block' Nippon Steel from taking over U.S. Steel

Days after the U.S. election last month, Nippon Steel said it expected to close its takeover of the company before the end of the year.
The primary motivation for potentially adding Japan to the Five Eyes alliance is the considerable intelligence contributions the country could make concerning China, North Korea, Eastern Russia and East and Southeast Asia.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 30, 2024

If ever invited, should Japan make it 'Six Eyes'?

The primary motivation for potentially adding Japan to the alliance is the considerable intelligence contributions the country could make.
A demonstrator wearing a mask of President Yoon Suk Yeol dances near a line of police officers across the street from the main gate to the National Assembly building in Seoul on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2024

South Korea’s whirlwind stint in martial law jolts markets

The move sparked whiplash in the country’s foreign-traded assets and caught global markets off guard.
Protesters outside the National Assembly call for the impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 4, 2024

How the streets of Seoul responded to a martial law decree

South Koreans immediately took to the streets after President Yoon Suk Yeol shocked the nation with a late-night decree of martial law.
Vissel's Daiju Sasaki (center) fights off a defender during Kobe's Asian Champions League loss to Pohang Steelers on Tuesday in Pohang, South Korea.
SOCCER
Dec 4, 2024

Pohang clip Vissel's wings in Asian Champions League

Kobe racked up four wins and one draw from their opening five games but Vissel could not cope with a hungry Pohang side on Tuesday.
A line of police officers stand guard as protesters gather at the edge of Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul on Wednesday after President Yoon Suk Yeol formally lifted martial law earlier, six hours after having declared it.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 4, 2024

Yoon fights for political life as martial law repercussions reverberate

A coalition of lawmakers from six opposition parties on Wednesday submitted a motion to impeach the South Korean president, with a vote set for Friday or Saturday.
Naomi Watanabe, a comedian known for challenging gender and beauty norms in Japan's male-dominated comedy scene
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2024

BBC honors two Japanese in annual list of inspiring women

The theme this year was resilience, celebrating women who "are pushing for change and improving lives at community or global level."
People gather in Hyogo Prefecture on Nov. 17, an election day.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 4, 2024

Japan’s civic space status upgraded to highest tier

Japan is now ranked in the same category as nations such as Taiwan and Denmark, reflecting increased freedoms for civil society and peaceful protest.
Democratic Party for the People chief Yuichiro Tamaki speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 4, 2024

Tamaki suspended for three months as DPP leader following affair

An internal committee judged Tamaki’s conduct as having contravened the party’s ethics regulations and damaged its honor and trust.
Protesters call for the resignation of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol during a demonstration in Seoul on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 5, 2024

South Korean ruling party opposes Yoon impeachment as defense minister quits

The opposition Democratic Party planned to put up a vote in parliament to impeach Yoon at around 7 p.m. on Saturday, a party spokesperson said.
Royal Albert Hall in London will host a sumo tournament next year.
SUMO
Dec 5, 2024

Japan Sumo Association to hold tourney in London next year in rare overseas event

The announcement means the world's top professional sumo wrestlers will be competing in London for the first time since 1991.
Satoko Shisai
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Dec 15, 2024

Forging a career through digital transformation and mindset change

Backed by a strong belief in career ownership, Satoko Shisai built her own success at IBM Japan and Chugai.
The headquarters of the Bank of Japan in Tokyo
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2024

BOJ rate hike bets retreat as traders count down to key meeting

The predictions hardly budged even after one of the policy board’s most dovish members said he isn’t opposed to higher rates.
Many of the investors who stuck with cryptocurrency through its ups and downs, its scandals and scams, are now basking in an I-told-you-so glow.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 6, 2024

Bitcoin's true believers bask in I-told-you-so glow at $100,000

The milestone marks a spectacular comeback from a “crypto winter” two years ago in the wake of the collapse of the FTX exchange in a pile of fraud.
Yuta Takahashi (back center) with Sunao Tsuboi, former co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo (front, center), in December 2017
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2024

Japanese youth carries on message of prominent atomic bomb survivor

In giving Nihon Hidankyo the Nobel Peace Prize, the committee noted that "new generations in Japan are carrying forward the experience and the message of the witnesses."
A year-old film on Netflix titled "12.12: The Day" saw a spike in viewers after the political turmoil that hit South Korea this week.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 6, 2024

Korean coup movie hits No. 1 on Netflix after martial law chaos

The film depicts the events surrounding a Dec. 12, 1979, coup in South Korea, a theme also tackled in Han Kang's novel "Human Acts."
Vissel Kobe players celebrate after clinching the J1 league title for the second straight season, on Sunday at Noevir Stadium Kobe.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 8, 2024

Vissel Kobe defends J1 championship after roller-coaster title race

The defending champions cruised past Shonan Bellmare 3-0 at home thanks to goals from Taisei Miyashiro, Yoshinori Muto and Takahiro Ogihara.
Filipino housekeepers undergo training to work for a Japanese staffing company. By applying the same criteria when hiring overseas and local workers, Japanese firms tend to underutilize the unique skills that foreign nationals can bring.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 8, 2024

Firms should quit turning foreign workers into Japanese ones

Many foreign nationals struggle with the idiosyncrasies of Japan's employment system. Firms tend to assimilate overseas personnel rather than utilize their unique skills.

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