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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.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / Longform
Apr 28, 2025

If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami

Last year the government issued its first "megaquake" advisory. Ever since, those living in the areas it's expected to hit have been preparing for the worst.
Keiichi Uchida, a member of a team of Japanese doctors who performed a colostomy reversal surgery on the younger of a pair of Vietnamese conjoined twins 30 years ago, shows a postcard he received from his former patient, Nguyen Duc, in February in the city of Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2025

Japanese pediatrician recalls Vietnamese twin he operated on 30 years ago

The younger of a pair of conjoined twins — believed to have been affected by chemicals used by the U.S. during the Vietnam War — underwent colostomy reversal surgery in Japan.
Christophe Lemaire rides Admire Daytona, who was bred in Japan, during the UAE Derby at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai on April 5.
MORE SPORTS / Horse Racing
Apr 29, 2025

Could this be Japan’s year at the Kentucky Derby?

Japan has made great strides in thoroughbred racing, and many feel it is no longer a question of "if" a Japanese horse will win the event but "when."
Hiroshi Matsumoto, a professor at the University of Osaka who has performed autopsies on bodies suspected to have been involved in criminal cases, believes it's of the utmost importance to nurture people who can do such work.
JAPAN
May 2, 2025

Osaka institute nurtures forensic pathologists amid a low autopsy rate

Even though the number of forensic pathologists is on the rise, there were only 173 such people nationwide as of April last year, with nine prefectures having just one each.
Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Syed Asim Munir, speaks with troops in Jhelum, Punjab province, on Thursday. A deadly terrorist attack last month in Indian-administered Kashmir has sharply escalated tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan and raised fears of a broader conflict.
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2025

Kashmir terror attack pushes India and Pakistan to the brink of war

Indian police said that two of the three suspects were Pakistani nationals and identified them as “LeT terrorists.”
Rory McIlroy plays a shot during the third round of the Truist Championship golf tournament in Philadelphia on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
May 13, 2025

McIlroy looks to the future after post-Masters thrill ride

"I honestly could not be in a better place in my life professionally, personally, all of it," Rory McIlroy said.
Wang Chuanfu (center left), chairman and chief executive officer at BYD, waves to a humanoid robot at the Chery Automobile booth at the Shanghai Auto Show on April 24. China’s EV sector is touting big gains, but much of the hype rests on inflated range claims, shaky infrastructure and growing state support.
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2025

Why China’s EV claims aren’t as revolutionary as they seem

Companies once treated with benign neglect by Beijing are becoming major recipients of government funding.
SeaForest CEO Sam Elsom at the company's headquarters in Triabunna, Tasmania, on March 26
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 15, 2025

Australian seaweed farm tackles livestock burps to combat climate change

While far less abundant in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, methane is about 80 times more potent over a 20-year timescale at warming the planet.
Jhonattan Vegas, seen during the Byron Nelson tournament on May 4, leads the PGA Championship after one round.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
May 16, 2025

Jhonattan Vegas grabs first-round lead at PGA Championship

No other golfer representing Venezuela has ever been among the top 10 on the leaderboard at the end of any round of a major.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gives a keynote speech at Computex in Taipei on Monday.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2025

Nvidia CEO unveils new technologies to protect AI chip lead

Huang introduced a new RTX Pro Server system, which he said offered four times better performance than Nvidia’s former flagship H100 AI system with DeepSeek workloads.
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.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes