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In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jul 21, 2025

The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan

AI chatbots are becoming stand-ins for pets and partners — offering comfort, connection and raising new concerns.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts a drone demonstration at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on July 10.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 21, 2025

Pentagon looks to unleash ‘military drone dominance’

U.S. defense chief Pete Hegseth has ordered the military to fast-track the adoption of a boosted number of small drones deployed across the force.
Peruvian chef Mitsuharu Tsumura’s restaurant Maido in Lima was named the best restaurant on the planet on June 19 by the influential “World's 50 Best Restaurants” list.
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2025

Why there isn’t a best chef in the world

Awards are one thing but the culinary universe has no real center. For that you can thank two chefs.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas speaks to The Japan Times at Europa House in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Wednesday, ahead of an EU-Japan summit.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 23, 2025

EU and Japan aim for deeper defense cooperation in high-tech arena

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says she sees "a lot of room for cooperation" with Tokyo, particularly in technology-driven areas.
A video screen shows images related to the Jeffrey Epstein files at Times Square in New York on Wednesday. Some Donald Trump supporters for years have fanned conspiracy theories about Epstein's clients and the circumstances of his 2019 death in prison.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 24, 2025

Trump was told he is in Epstein files, Wall Street Journal reports

The disclosure about U.S. President Donald Trump's appearance in the Justice Department's records on the case could deepen the political crisis surrounding his administration.
A Thai mobile artillery unit fires toward Cambodia on Friday in Surin, Thailand.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 25, 2025

Thailand warns of war with Cambodia as 138,000 flee fighting

The conflict is still considered "an armed clash involving heavy weaponry" currently, acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said.
Children play on the splash pad in Miami Beach, Florida, on Friday as the region came under an extreme heat warning.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / FOCUS
Jul 26, 2025

World court climate ruling: nonbinding but game changing

By saying that all countries were firmly bound to a swathe of legal obligations, experts say the ruling will influence climate decisions globally.
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.
Incredibly popular in summer, Japanese wind chimes are said to cool the mind by giving the wind a voice.
LIFE / Bilingual
Jul 31, 2025

A language built on the wind, from mountain gusts to wind chimes

A breeze is always appreciated in summer, and Japan’s rich wind vocabulary reflects a deep cultural connection to nature, poetry and everyday life.
A person records images of waves following a tsunami advisory generated by local authorities after an earthquake struck off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, prompting warnings and evacuations stretching across at the South Pacific, in Vina del Mar, Chile, on Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / EXPLAINER
Jul 31, 2025

Why did such a powerful earthquake produce such a weak tsunami?

Part of the reason the waves were weaker than anticipated may have to do with the size of the quake off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.
A staff inspects a distillation pot still at Suntory's new Osaka Spirits & Liqueurs Craft Distillery, which will focus on gin production and help Suntory capture a bigger slice of the fast-growing gin market.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 3, 2025

With a new distillery, Suntory makes a spirited move on gin market

Currently in operation, the high-tech facility in Osaka will open to the public next year with a focus on its popular Roku gin variants.
Radwimps lead singer Yojiro Noda threw himself into the rock band’s Green Stage performance ahead of headliner Vampire Weekend.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 4, 2025

Fuji Rock's weekend of surprises was one of its best yet

Thousands braved crowds and slow-moving lines, but unexpected guest appearances by Mariya Takeuchi and Atarashii Gakko! made this year’s event one of the all-time greats.
Palestinians leave a food distribution point run by the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) group with bags and wooden pallets, near the Netsarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday. Aid agencies have warned that Gaza's population is facing a catastrophic famine, triggered by Israeli restrictions on aid.
WORLD / FOCUS
Aug 4, 2025

Chaos, gangs, gunfire: Gaza aid fails to reach most in need

After images of malnourished children drew international outcry, aid has started to be delivered to the territory again, but international organizations say it's not enough.
A dog looks through the bars of a cage at the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control as the shelter struggles with overcrowding caused by pets abandoned during recent immigration raids, in Downey, California, on July 29.
WORLD / Society
Aug 6, 2025

Trump's immigration raids in LA affecting pets too

Dogs and cats are finding themselves in Los Angeles County's care centers after their owners get detained or deported.
In Kyoto, the former headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army's 16th Division is now the home of the Kyoto Seibo Gakuin school, one of the city's several remaining signs of World War II.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 7, 2025

Saved from the worst, Kyoto still bears scars of war

Contrary to popular belief, Japan’s ancient capital was not completely insulated from the consequences of war that devastated much of the country.
A Palestinian girl carries buckets of water in Gaza City on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Aug 7, 2025

Israeli military chief opposes Gaza war expansion, raising pressure on Netanyahu

Taking the rest of Gaza could trap the military in the territory and could lead to harm to the hostages being held there, the military chief warned.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump meet at the G20 summit in Osaka in 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 7, 2025

Trump could meet Putin over Ukraine as soon as next week, official says

Such a face-to-face meeting would be the first between a sitting U.S. and Russian president since Joe Biden met Vladimir Putin in Geneva in June 2021.
Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 8, 2025

The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person

At 17, Koichi Tagawa survived Nagasaki’s atomic blast and recording two months of grief, destruction and the loss of his mother in a diary he kept for life.
A cyclist looks at the Montreal skyline on Aug. 3 as a smoky haze from wildfires blankets the city.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 10, 2025

How Canadian wildfire smoke is jeopardizing health across North America

Canadian provinces have evacuated towns and struggled to contain the second-worst wildfire season in 30 years.
T-shirts with images of Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump are displayed for sale at a gift shop in central Moscow, Russia on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 14, 2025

Trump and Putin: A strained relationship

The upcoming meeting between the two leaders in Alaska comes amid tensions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and fruitless talks to end the conflict.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing. Nvidia, along with Advanced Micro Devices, has agreed to pay 15% of revenues from Chinese artificial intelligence chip sales to the U.S. government.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 14, 2025

Trump’s deal with Nvidia offers path forward in global trade war

The deal provides U.S. firms a path to enter the Chinese market despite various trade barriers.
The Parque da Cidade, the main venue for the COP30 summit, under construction in Belem, Brazil, on May 5.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 14, 2025

Lula’s plan for COP30 in Amazon risks becoming a logistical mess

With fewer than 100 days to go, Brazil is under fire from countries concerned about a shortage of hotel rooms and soaring accommodation costs.
A miner holds a sack of ore as it comes out a the mine shaft at the Rubaya coltan mine, near the town of Rubaya, which is controlled by M23 rebels, in eastern Congo on March 24.
WORLD
Aug 14, 2025

Inside the mine that feeds the tech world — and funds Congo’s rebels

The Congolese town of Rubaya produces around 15% of the world’s coltan, which is shipped thousands of kilometers away to Asia where it’s processed into tantalum.
A Pertamina fuel storage facility at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta in 2022
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 18, 2025

Indonesia’s ‘gasoline godfather’ targeted in $18 billion graft probe

Mohammad Riza Chalid is the most audacious target to date for the current administration, as it reshuffles its energy procurement and attempts to supercharge growth.
China’s massive scale, strong education system and competitive local governance have enabled it to reach the technological frontier and dominate high-tech manufacturing despite its low per capita gross domestic product.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2025

Demystifying the manufacturing success of China

The obvious question is how a country with such low per capita GDP has managed to reach the technological frontier in so many sectors.
Musical act Petalhead, comprised of Jaime Alise (left) and Riku Ogura, performs at More Than Music’s beachside event in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Aug 25, 2025

More Than Music makes space for creative communion

Since 2018, Tokyo-based duo Justin Sachs and Atsuko Sunaga have been organizing live shows and curating a community with shared passions.
U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean leader Lee Jae Myung attend a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 26, 2025

'Peacemaker’ Trump says he wants to meet North Korea’s Kim this year

The U.S. president said “big progress” was possible, during a summit with South Korean leader Lee Jae Myung in Washington that also focused on defense and trade issues.
U.S. military personnel stand guard in front of the New Grand Hotel where Gen. Douglas MacArthur stayed circa September 1945 in Yokohama.
JAPAN / History / Perspectives
Sep 1, 2025

How the Allied Occupation changed Japan: A love story

A wartime GI and a Japanese civilian fell in love during the Occupation, embodying the peace built after Japan’s surrender.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a reception at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 9.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 29, 2025

Russia eyes China trade revival as Putin prepares for Xi summit, sources say

"Ahead of the visit, officials on both sides are looking into ways to increase trade because the current numbers do not look good," one source said.
Headlining the second day of YouTube Music Weekend is Vocaloid artist Kikuo, who, with 1.46 million YouTube subscribers, is one of the most popular artists in the genre.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 29, 2025

YouTube Music Weekend is where Japan’s internet-born performers go global

YouTube's three-day weekend of online performances features a medley of Vocaloid, hyperpop, rock and pop artists in a supportive, cultural festival atmosphere.

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