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INC-5 Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso (on screen) speaks during an open plenary session during the fifth session of the U.N. Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-5) in Busan, South Korea, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2024

Countries fail to reach agreement in U.N. plastic talks

Countries remained far apart on the basic scope of a treaty and could agree only to postpone key decisions and resume talks at a later date.
Although years have passed since the dramatic arrest and ouster of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn, Nissan remains mired in management upheaval.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 2, 2024

Nissan shares up after news that chief financial officer will step down

The stock gained as much as 1% in early morning trading, though the shares are still down almost 35% this year.
A tank, left behind by Syrian regime forces, is seen on the road leading to the town of Khan Sheikhun, in Idlib province, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2024

Syria's embattled Assad seeks to shore up support after Aleppo loss

For the first time since the civil war started more than a decade ago, the country's second city is out of control of Syrian regime forces, observers said.
Iraqi military equipment is transported towards the border with Syria on Monday.
WORLD
Dec 3, 2024

Iraqi fighters head to Syria to battle rebels but Lebanon's Hezbollah stays out, sources say

Syria's civil war had been frozen since 2020, with Assad in control of most territory and all major cities.
Anti-government fighters move past abandoned Syrian army military equipment and vehicles southeast of Aleppo on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 4, 2024

Syria rebels 'at gates' of central city Hama

The advance on Syria's fourth-largest city is buoyed by the group's lightning capture of swaths of the north in an offensive that ended four years of relative calm.
The departure of Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger opens the possibility of fresh deal talks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 4, 2024

Intel’s CEO departure opens door to new deal discussions

The CEO's departure is also an opportunity for suitors to take another look at acquiring some or all of Intel.
Saudi Arabia has executed 303 people this year according to a tally based on official figures.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 4, 2024

Saudi Arabia surpasses 300 executions in 2024

Saudi Arabia executed the third highest number of prisoners in the world in 2023 after China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.
Japanese creatives, athletes and activists saw their efforts recognized on the world stage in various ways this year. At the Oscars (left) Takashi Yamazaki and his team took a prize for “Godzilla Minus One,” while later in the year Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada (center) took Emmys for their work in “Shogun.” Shohei Ohtani (right) was arguably the biggest Japanese star of the year.
CULTURE / 2024 in Review
Dec 4, 2024

Japan's soft power soared to new heights in 2024

From Oscars and Emmys to a Nobel Peace Prize, it was a year of awards and triumphs in key cultural fields.
The fall of Aleppo in Syria to political chaos in Tbilisi, Georgia, and even recent events in Paris, give us a glimpse of a possible post-American new world disorder.
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2024

Welcome to the post-American new world disorder

From Aleppo in Syria, to Tbilisi, Georgia, and even Paris, last weekend gave us a glimpse of a possible post-American new world disorder.
Prosecutors said Tamotsu Shiiki, 58, had sex with a 12-year-old girl at a karaoke parlor on Aug. 20 after he approached her on the streets, well aware that she was underage.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 5, 2024

Former Nippon Ishin lawmaker pleads guilty to statutory rape

The lawmaker had approached her on the streets of the Kabukicho entertainment district in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on Aug. 20 and was aware she was underage.
Hiroshi Kagawa covered a total of 10 FIFA World Cup tournaments during his career, starting with the 1974 event in West Germany.
SOCCER
Dec 5, 2024

Pioneer soccer journalist Hiroshi Kagawa dies at 99

Kagawa covered a total of 10 FIFA World Cup tournaments, starting with the 1974 event in West Germany.
Rebel fighters hold weapons in front of the Hama governor's building after capturing the city during their advance across northern Syria on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 6, 2024

Syria rebels capture another key city in fresh blow to Assad

Hama lies about halfway between Aleppo, which opposition fighters captured in a shock attack on government-held territory last week, and Damascus.
Shareholders board a HondaJet for a sightseeing flight at Oita Airport in Kunisaki, Oita Prefecture, on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 8, 2024

HondaJet flies with shareholders aboard

Eight passengers, including shareholders chosen by lottery from 6,846 applicants for the shareholder benefit program and their families, enjoyed a 30-minute flight.
The United Nations once projected the world’s population would peak at 10.3 billion in the 2080s, but now expects 700 million fewer inhabitants by 2100.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2024

Why falling fertility is not a crisis

The current population decline mirrors past transitions like the industrial revolution, where smaller families fueled economic growth and innovation.
A woman waves a Syrian opposition flag as she celebrates at Umayyad Square in Damascus on Sunday as celebrations erupted around Syria after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus and declared President Bashar Assad had fled the country.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 9, 2024

Assad’s fall in Syria puts world on watch for more Middle East chaos

Multiple Arab and U.S. officials said that a power vacuum could now be dangerous, with memories of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya and Saddam Hussein in Iraq still fresh.
A variety of rice cookers at a home appliance store
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Dec 16, 2024

Companies rush to high-end rice cookers as consumer tastes change

Appliance-makers are working with rice growers to boost demand, as well as debuting products that focus on flavor and features.
Police officers reinvestigate a Tobu Tojo Line railroad crossing in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward on Dec. 27, 2023, after a man was fatally hit by a train weeks earlier.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 9, 2024

Tokyo police arrest four men on suspicion of staging colleague’s suicide

They allegedly coerced the 56-year-old victim into standing on railway tracks where he went on to be fatally struck by a train.
Jiro Hamasumi, an assistant secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo, speaks about radiation exposure in the womb in November in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2024

Youngest hibakusha determined to continue fight for nuclear abolition

Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize is "not the goal," said one hibakusha.
Dining habits have changed since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, with alcohol consumption experiencing a drop.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 9, 2024

Hundreds of izakaya going bust as prices rise and customers change

In the first 11 months of this year, 203 of these establishments went out of business, more than the entire year of 2020 when COVID-19 became a pandemic.
Abed, an asylum-seeker from the Syrian city of Raqqa uses his mobile phone to talk to a relative at the arrival center in Berlin's Reinickendorf district in October 2023.
WORLD
Dec 10, 2024

European countries suspend Syrian asylum decisions after Assad's fall

While Berlin and others said they were watching developments in the war-ravaged nation, Austria signaled it would soon deport refugees back to Syria.
A truck pulls the head of a toppled statue of late Syrian President Hafez Assad, the father of ousted-President Bashar Assad, through the streets of Hama on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2024

Assad’s fall shows Russia, Iran and Hamas made a bad bet

That’s not to say the Middle East is entering a bright new era of peace. The collapse of Assad’s regime could cause a revival of the Islamic State.
The $8.2 billion deal is the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese insurer to date and the second major transaction announced by Nippon Life this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 11, 2024

Nippon Life to buy Resolution in $8.2 billion deal as it pursues U.S. growth

The deal is the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese insurer to date and the second major transaction announced by Nippon Life this year.
A restaurant owner waits for customers at her empty restaurant in Seoul on Oct. 31.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 11, 2024

South Korea's fading nightlife signals shift in hard-drinking culture

The change has been driven by corporate Korea's slowdown on after-work drinking sessions, younger female workers' refusal to partake and inflation.
AE3803 (Mei Nagano, left) and U-1146 (Takeru Satoh) are the red and white blood cell protagonists of “Cells at Work!,” Hideki Takeuchi’s quirky film about the human body.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2024

‘Cells at Work!’: Cellular shenanigans make for a fantastic voyage

Spirited performances by Mei Nagano and Takeru Satoh bolster Hideki Takeuchi’s quirky and stylish film.
A liquefied natural gas plant operated by Sakhalin Energy in Sakhalin, Russia. Japan, the world's second biggest LNG buyer, depends on Russia for 9% of its LNG.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Dec 12, 2024

Rival supplies and depleting fields give Japan an exit from Russian gas

Japan, the world's second-biggest liquefied natural gas buyer, depends on Russia for 9% of its LNG.
Actor Sadao Abe accepts the 2024 U-Can New Word and Popular Phrase Award for ふてほど (futehodo), the abbreviated title for his series, “Futekisetsu nimo Hodo ga Aru!” (“Extremely Inappropriate!”).
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 12, 2024

How often do Japan's buzzwords make it into the vernacular?

We crown a new one every year, but trendy terms tend to disappear from public consciousness if they're related to pop culture.
Astros slugger Kyle Tucker (30) prior to a game against the Chicago White Sox in August
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 14, 2024

Cubs acquire star OF Kyle Tucker from Astros

In return, the Astros received infielder Isaac Paredes, right-handed pitcher Hayden Wesneski and third base prospect Cam Smith.
George Glass in July 2017
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 15, 2024

Trump reportedly eyeing businessman George Glass as envoy to Japan

Glass, who served as ambassador to Portugal under Trump's first administration, is one of the biggest fund donors who supported his comeback as U.S. president.
A damaged poster of Syria's ousted leader, Bashar Assad, in Aleppo on Nov. 30
WORLD / FOCUS
Dec 15, 2024

Assad's final hours in Syria: Deception, despair and flight

Hours before he fled to Moscow, Assad assured army and security chiefs that Russian support was on its way and urged ground forces to hold out.
Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Dec 16, 2024

The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition

A year after disaster devastated the region, brewers have turned to nationwide partnerships and new technologies to sustain their culture.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years