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China’s Made in China 2025 program set an ambitious agenda, and a decade later, initial assessments conclude it had mixed success but maintain its goals will shape Chinese policy for years to come.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2025

Ten years of Made in China 2025 sees mixed success

MIC2025 set an ambitious agenda, and a decade later, early reviews say it has had mixed success but maintain that its goals will shape Chinese policy for years to come.
Paraguayan President Santiago Pena speaks during an interview with The Japan Times in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 23, 2025

As Taiwan looks to boost ‘unofficial ties,’ Paraguay’s leader offers facilitator role

Paraguayan President Santiago Pena stressed his government is “more than willing to support and be a strong ally” to Taiwan.
The container terminal at Bremerhaven port in Bremerhaven, Germany, on April 22
BUSINESS
May 26, 2025

Europe’s shipping bottlenecks expected to persist into July

"Port delays are stretching transit times, disrupting inventory planning and pushing shippers to carry extra stock," said maritime consultancy Drewry.
A Boeing 747 from Qatar at Palm Beach International Airport, following President Donald Trump’s tour of the plane, in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb. 15. The president and his family have profited from the White House more than any other occupant, normalizing activities that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations.
WORLD / Politics
May 26, 2025

As Trump family monetizes presidency, profits outstrip protests

The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking.
A member of Pakistan armed forces takes a selfie at the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar in Karachi in November.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
May 27, 2025

India and Pakistan's drone battles mark new arms race in Asia

The South Asian powers are now locked in a drones arms race, according to security officials, industry executives and analysts in both countries.
Elon Musk holds a chainsaw featuring a Spanish slogan that translates as  "Long live freedom, damn it" during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Feb. 20.
WORLD / Politics
May 29, 2025

Elon Musk leaving Trump administration, capping turbulent tenure

Musk's departure was quick and unceremonious, and he did not have a formal conversation with Trump before announcing his exit.
Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump during a news conference at the White House on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
May 31, 2025

Musk vows to stay Trump's 'friend' in bizarre black-eyed farewell

As the world's richest person bowed out of his role, Trump hailed Musk's "incredible service" and handed him a golden key to the White House.
The election of Lee Jae-myung signals South Korea’s leftward shift on energy policy, but despite his ambitious renewable plans, deep-rooted regulatory, financial and geographic challenges threaten to stall progress unless reforms are swift and systemic.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2025

South Korea's new president has a chance to clean up

Years of inertia and obstruction of the transition have left the country with a system plagued by high costs and the lowest renewable penetration among developed economies.
Vice president of events and exhibitions for Studio Ghibli, Kenichi Yoda (right), and director and Ghibli Park creative development manager, Goro Miyazaki (left), pose at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival before receiving an Honorary Palme d'Or.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2025

Studio Ghibli marks 40 years, but future looks uncertain

A look into the legacy of the beloved anime studio.
Demonstrators gather as members of the California National Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stand guard in response to protests against immigration sweeps in Los Angeles, California, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 11, 2025

Korean Americans criticize Donald Trump Jr. for 'reckless' social media post

They accused the U.S. president's son of mocking the current Los Angeles unrest by referencing 1992 riots in which members of the community reportedly opened fire on looters.
The tail of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane that crashed in Ahmedabad, India, on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 13, 2025

‘I got up and ran’: How one man survived the plane crash that killed 241

"Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise,” Ramesh Vishwaskumar said. "There were dead bodies around me. I got scared. I got up and ran."
China’s expanding military presence and frequent exercises around Taiwan and Japan require Tokyo to strengthen the country’s defenses and diplomatic efforts against Beijing’s aggression.
EDITORIALS
Jun 13, 2025

A belligerent China hones its tools of intimidation

Recent exercises underscore the ability of the People’s Liberation Army to project power ever farther from the country’s shores.
Part of Osaka Art and Design 2025, Maki Takato’s “Yokai Unity” is a collaboration with a Zen-Buddhist monk from Nara, whose hands in prayer were 3D-scanned for an inflatable sculpture.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 14, 2025

Osaka wants to show off its artistic talents

With the expo underway, the city is buzzing with people. The art scene is trying to catch some of that attention with a variety of events and initiatives this summer.
Rio Takeda banked roughly ¥265.7 million during the 2024 season in prize money on the back of a tour-high eight wins.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Jun 15, 2025

What gender pay gap? In Japanese golf, women are on par with men

Fan and sponsorship growth has players in the JLPGA making just as much as their male counterparts, a rarity in the male-dominated world of sports.
Leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, as well as the European Union all have something at stake at the Group of Seven Leaders’ Summit in Alberta, Canada.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 16, 2025

G7 leaders prepare for delicate dance with Trump at summit in Canada

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is seeking a trade deal with Trump on the sidelines of the summit, which would be a coup ahead of elections next month.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow in March. If U.S. President Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy meets Lukashenko, he would be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the authoritarian state in years.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 18, 2025

Trump's Ukraine envoy to meet Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko

Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg in private has portrayed the trip as a step that could help jump-start peace talks aimed at ending Russia's war against Ukraine.
Tsutomu Uchida has experimented with various cultivation techniques since he started growing avocados in Shizuoka Prefecture in October 2020.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Jun 22, 2025

As Japan warms, avocados emerge as an unlikely savior for farmers

In traditional mikan strongholds like Shizuoka, farmers are growing increasingly concerned about future production and seeing opportunities with avocados.
Smoke rises from an Israeli attack on an oil refinery in Tehran on June 15.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 22, 2025

Trump’s airstrikes on Iran leave oil market poised for surge

A recent rise in the price of oil is expected to restart on Monday after the U.S. assault dramatically raised the stakes in a region that accounts for a third of global oil output.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te finishes delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of Computex in Taipei on May 20.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 22, 2025

Taiwan is 'of course' a country, President Lai says in rebuke to China

China says the 1971 United Nations resolution, which took away Taipei's seat in the body and gave it to Beijing, is one of the legal bases of its claims.
Protesters, predominantly Houthi supporters, burn Israeli and U.S. flags as they demonstrate in solidarity with Palestinians and Iran, amid the Iran-Israel conflict, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Friday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 23, 2025

How a cornered Iran could wreak havoc on global oil trade

Iran has over the years threatened multiple times to shut the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow stretch of water through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply flows each day.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and his OpenAI counterpart, Sam Altman, attend an event to pitch AI for businesses in Tokyo in early February. The SoftBank founder is now proposing his most ambitious venture yet — a $1 trillion AI and robotics hub in Arizona.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 24, 2025

The magical thinking of Masa Son

The race to lead the world in AI-enabled robots is still in the early stages, but many signs point to China coming out on top.
Beachgoers wait in an underground bomb shelter after sirens sounded to warn of an incoming Iranian missile attack in Tel Aviv on June 20. Iran has found itself humbled after a ceasefire was declared but retains plenty of capacity to hit back.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 30, 2025

Israel emerges stronger from Iran war but risks blowback

Israel building military positions beyond its borders in Syria and Lebanon opened the country to risks of repercussions from regional partners wary of its assertiveness.
This digital visualization shows the small modular nuclear reactor being developed by Rolls-Royce SMR, which is set to be the first in the U.K. A widely cited IEA report says global data center electricity demand will more than double by 2030 to 945 TWh — more than Japan’s current total usage.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2025

Data centers and small reactors could change Asia’s nuclear dynamic

An estimated 402.74 million terabytes of data are created each day and storing and processing all that information creates virtual volcanoes.
F-35 aircraft on the deck of Britain's Prince of Wales aircraft carrier as it arrives at Marina Bay Cruise Center in Singapore on June 23
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2025

British F-35B fighters could soon land on a Japanese carrier

The latest British carrier deployment could see jets from the Prince of Wales vessel touch down on one of Japan's own de facto aircraft carriers.
Andriy Ilkiv, head of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Department of the National Police in Lviv Oblast, shows his prosthetic leg against the backdrop of the GCS-200 demining complex near the village of Zaliman, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on May 2.
WORLD
Jul 3, 2025

Demining Ukraine: from drones to risking it with a rake

The drones which have revolutionized the way war is fought in Ukraine may also now become a game-changer in demining the country.
A V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft arrives at the Ground Self-Defense Force's new camp in the city of Saga on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2025

GSDF begins Osprey deployment to new camp in southwestern Japan

The deployment of the tilt-rotor aircraft from Camp Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture to the new camp in Saga is scheduled to be completed by mid-August.
Poland's Iga Swiatek kisses with the winner's trophy, the Venus Rosewater Dish, on the thirteenth day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships on Saturday.
TENNIS
Jul 13, 2025

Unforgiving Swiatek crushes Anisimova 6-0 6-0 to win maiden Wimbledon crown

Already a U.S. Open champion and a four-times French Open winner, Swiatek becomes the youngest woman since Serena Williams in 2002 to lift major titles on all three surfaces.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son (left) with OpenAI chief Sam Altman via video link
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 16, 2025

Masayoshi Son and Sam Altman see no end to AI demand and scaling

The two business partners argued that advancing AI would lead to new jobs that are not yet imagined, and the advancement of robotics will help kickstart a "self-improvement” loop.
Newly appointed Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko attends a session of Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 18, 2025

Ukraine reshuffles Cabinet with wartime economy struggling

The reshuffle reflects Ukraine’s effort to spend more on its war effort and to strengthen sometimes strained relations with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Scottie Scheffler watches a shot on the 16th tee during his second round at the British Open on Friday at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Jul 19, 2025

Scottie Scheffler holds lead at midway point of British Open

Dodging rain at times, Scheffler shot a 7-under-par 64, moving into the top spot in his bid for a second major championship of the year.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight