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Shigeru Ishiba speaks at a supporters meeting in Tokyo on Aug. 30.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 5, 2024

Taxes and political reform in focus in upcoming LDP campaign

The candidates’ recipes to put the economy back on track after decades of low growth are varied, with some emphasizing redistribution and others promising no tax hikes.
Nippon Steel has responded to the U.S. government concerns by saying it will invest billions of dollars to maintain and boost U.S. Steel facilities that otherwise would have been idled, "indisputably" allowing it to "maintain and potentially increase domestic steelmaking capacity in the United States."
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 6, 2024

U.S. fears Nippon Steel's bid for U.S. Steel could hit vital steel supply

The U.S. government is concerned that U.S. Steel would be less likely to seek tariffs on foreign steel importers if it is under the ownership of the Japanese steelmaker.
By 2018, the number of children registered for adoption had dropped to around 15,000, down from about 44,000 in 2009, according to official statistics.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 6, 2024

China stops foreign adoptions, ending a complicated chapter

The ban raises questions for many of the hundreds of families in the United States who were in the process of adopting children from China.
Bangladeshi military personnel stand guard at an empty police station in Dhaka on Aug. 9. The U.S. and Western nations have sacrificed democracy for geopolitics, evident in Bangladesh’s chaos and violence after the prime minister was recently forced from power.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 6, 2024

The Western world's stealthy assault on democracy

Elections alone — even if competitive — do not guarantee popular empowerment or adherence to constitutional rules, especially when the military holds decisive power.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan head Kenta Izumi announces he will run for reelection as party leader in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 6, 2024

Views on interparty cooperation set CDP leader candidates apart

Kenta Izumi, Yukio Edano and Yoshihiko Noda have all outlined different ideas on working with the Japanese Communist Party and Nippon Ishin no Kai.
Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi declares his candidacy in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 6, 2024

Shinjiro Koizumi promises immediate snap election if elected LDP president

The former environment minister said he will turn to the electorate to allow voters to judge his plan to transform Japan.
Sergei Kiriyenko, who is the first deputy head in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration, oversaw a yearslong Kremlin operation to meddle in U.S. elections and use disinformation to promote pro-Russian narratives online, according to a 277-page affidavit that U.S. officials unsealed Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 7, 2024

The evolution of Putin’s aide accused of gaming the U.S. election

The head of a Russian propaganda campaign that allegedly aimed to influence the upcoming U.S. elections began as a liberal politician.
Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, ahead of the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 7, 2024

U.S. opposition to Nippon Steel deal 'very unsettling,' PM hopeful Ishiba says

Some experts say blocking the deal could undermine U.S.-Japan cooperation on national security, and put the lie to the notion of "ally shoring."
Four members of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan who filed their candidacies for the main opposition party's Sept. 23 leadership election —  Lower House lawmaker Harumi Yoshida (left), current chief Kenta Izumi (second left), former party leader Yukio Edano (second right) and former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda — attend a joint news conference in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 7, 2024

Main opposition CDP kicks off leadership race

The candidates are former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, ex-party leader Yukio Edano, current chief Kenta Izumi and Lower House lawmaker Harumi Yoshida.
Flags of the Vatican and East Timor wave at the Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport ahead of Pope Francis' visit in Dili on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 8, 2024

Pope Francis visit keenly awaited in deeply Catholic East Timor

When Pope Francis touches down in the East Timorese capital of Dili this week he will be landing in a totally different nation to the one visited by his predecessor.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike poses with Liberal Democratic Party members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on July 8, following her win for a third term in the gubernatorial election the previous day.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 10, 2024

After Tokyo governor poll, eyes turn to 2025 assembly election

Both the Liberal Democratic Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan are under pressure to regroup ahead of the quadrennial metropolitan assembly election.
While there are similarities between the geopolitical competition involving the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, such as global rivalry and ideological divisions, key differences suggest the situation with China does not constitute a new Cold War.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2024

A new ‘Cold War’ with China might be the best hope for the future

The current situation is often described as "a new great game," a world in which our time and challenges result from the stirring of old empires.
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris shakes hands with former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 11, 2024

Harris rattles Trump in combative U.S. presidential debate

The Democratic vice president put her Republican rival on the defensive with a stream of attacks on abortion limits, his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes.
Vadim Morus, a Russian professional skater and trainer, practices for his performance in Belgrade, Serbia, on June 19.
WORLD / Society
Sep 11, 2024

A mini-Russia emerges in Serbia as thousands flee war

Russian-owned clubs, kindergartens and medical practices have sprung up in Belgrade, a city of less than two million people.
Pope Francis blesses a child during his visit to Dili, East Timor, on Tuesday. The pontiff's Asia-Pacific tour is a strategic step toward a larger goal: a visit to China, a country that could soon have the largest Christian population in the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2024

Pope Francis’ Asia trip is all about China

The Vatican is among 12 diplomatic allies Taiwan still has left. There are concerns these loyalties could shift as the Holy See attempts to improve ties with Beijing.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump stand together alongside other high-profile politicians during a Sept. 11 memorial service in New York City on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 12, 2024

A temporary truce as Harris, Trump and Biden mark 9/11

It is a sign of how traumatic 9/11 is as a national memory that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump would feel compelled to set aside their differences to mark the day.
Suntory Holdings CEO Takeshi Niinami speaks during a Reuters Newsmaker event in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 12, 2024

Seven & I takeover bid shows a shift in government, Suntory CEO says

The takeover bid has also left many CEOs in Japan nervous that their companies could be next.
Labor market reform will likely be a hot economic debate topic in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, the campaign of which kicked off on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 12, 2024

Labor market reform becoming hot topic in LDP leadership race

Candidates differ in how they intend to tackle labor market issues, especially on whether to give firms more flexibility in the dismissing of workers.
Candidates for Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party presidential election stand together onstage at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 15, 2024

LDP presidential hopefuls outline approach to U.S. and China concerns

The nine candidates jostled over the best way to resolve Nippon Steel's contentious bid for U.S. Steel, while also grappling with the Chinese military challenge.
Keiko Fujimori mourns near the casket of her father, former Peru President Alberto Fujimori, during his funeral service at a local cemetery in Lima on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 15, 2024

Peru bids farewell to polarizing ex-President Alberto Fujimori

For some, he was a hero, crushing insurgencies and bolstering the economy. For others, he was a power-hungry autocrat and flagrant human rights abuser.
The four candidates running in the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan's leadership race (left to right), Yukio Edano, Yoshihiko Noda, Harumi Yoshida and Kenta Izumi, hold a public debate in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 15, 2024

CDP leadership race a battle between old and new

On Sept. 23, two veterans face off against two younger challengers, including the incumbent and a lawmaker in her first term.
A display details the history of the gulag in Moscow in 2022. The gulag was the government agency in charge of the Soviet network of forced labor camps, a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union, reaching its peak during Josef Stalin's rule from the 1930s to the early 1950s.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 16, 2024

'Slave to fear': Ghosts of the gulag haunt modern Russia

When Russians started being arrested for opposing the Ukraine offensive, many felt the same kind of fear that victims of the Soviet gulags lived through.
The first season of 'Shogun' wraps up just prior to the 1600 Battle of Sekigahara, where Tokugawa Ieyasu (Yoshii Toranaga in the TV show) faced off against Ishida Mitsunari (Ishido Kazunari) to determine the new ruler of Japan.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 17, 2024

The real-world inspirations behind 'Shogun' are a shinkansen away

“Shogun” has cleaned up at the Emmys, so why not pack a bag and see the real history behind the award-winning show?
The lapse of the historic U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement, coupled with escalating tariffs and trade restrictions, has exacerbated economic tensions between the two countries and impacted global stability.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2024

Resetting U.S.-China economic relations

To address global challenges, active cooperation between the two economic powers is indispensable.
Attendees to the 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting at National Convention Center in Vientiane take a group photo on July 26. Southeast Asian nations are concerned about nuclear weapons but are more focused on regional security and stability.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2024

Southeast Asia untroubled by China’s nuclear modernization efforts

Southeast Asian nations are concerned about nuclear weapons but are more focused on regional security and stability.
Circle K owner Alimentation Couche-Tard’s initial $14.86-a-share proposal, seen as cheap at only 20% above Seven & I’s share price, may fail without a higher bid.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 19, 2024

How 7-Eleven can get a big price from Circle K

Alimentation Couche-Tard’s initial $14.86-a-share proposal, seen as cheap at only 20% above Seven & I’s share price, is unlikely to succeed without a higher bid.
Though none will yet say it openly, some in German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's party believe he should follow his idol U.S. President Joe Biden and step aside for a more charismatic champion.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 20, 2024

Far-right's fate in German regional vote could break or make Scholz

The vote in Brandenburg could trigger a party backlash against Olaf Scholz or, if his party holds the state, confirm him as their candidate for 2025.
Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, the 43-year-old son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, announces his candidacy for the Liberal Democratic Party presidency in Tokyo on Sept. 6.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 20, 2024

The second act of the Koizumi theater

Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi’s style and rhetoric echo those of his father, but there are key differences between the two men.
U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman attends the annual Pride march in Budapest on June 22.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2024

What does America stand for? The world no longer knows.

Pressman argues that Orban is miscalculating by betting on Trump’s return to power and warns of a shift in U.S.-Hungary relations if Kamala Harris becomes president.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the launching of the Ukraine Compact at the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington in July
WORLD / Politics
Sep 23, 2024

U.S. worries deepen as adversaries team up to challenge dominance

The moves by Russia, China, Iran and North Korea come despite facing some of the most sweeping sanctions the West has ever imposed.

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