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Yoshiaki Nakano (center), head of the Mebuki residents’ association, comprising residents of the Moniwa No. 2 municipal-run housing complex in Sendai’s Taihaku Ward, addresses a board meeting on Feb. 2.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Mar 10, 2025

Public housing residents' associations in Sendai struggle to find leaders

Those age 65 and older account for 43.9% of the residents in such housing, 18.7 percentage points higher than the ratio of elderly in the city.
Japan Post Holdings plans to sell a stake in Japan Post Bank that could raise ¥630 billion ($4.2 billion).
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2025

Japan Post plans sale of $4.2 billion stake in banking unit

The company will sell as many as 416.1 million shares at a discount of 2% to 4% of the stock’s market price.
An immigration detention center in Bangkok. A group of Uyghurs were sent to China in accordance with international standards, Thailand's defense minister said, in Thailand's first confirmation of the deportation.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 28, 2025

Thailand sends 40 Uyghurs back to China after decade in detention

Rights experts warned that the Uyghurs were at risk of torture, ill-treatment and "irreparable harm" if returned.
A screen shows news footage of plane debris at the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane crashed in the Chinese city of Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in March 2022.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Feb 28, 2025

Air safety reporting under scrutiny as crashes lie unresolved

Almost half of 268 accidents involving fatalities or major damage between 2018 and the end of 2023 lack a final report.
Chef Kentaro Mura’s favorite way of serving snow crab is as shabu-shabu: The legs are lightly blanched in dashi, then the meat is removed and served with a generous scoop of crab tomalley.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Destination Restaurants
Mar 2, 2025

Toyama’s finest seafood underpins Ebitei Bekkan’s return to greatness

This "kaiseki" restaurant has been making up for lost time with a culinary flair that presents Toyama’s seafood tradition in a contemporary guise.
Lydia Ko poses with the trophy after winning the HSBC Women's Championship in Singapore on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Mar 2, 2025

Lydia Ko adds 'Asia's Major' to trophy haul with Singapore crown

Ko, a three-time major winner, started the final round with a one-shot lead over a tightly packed field.
The government plans to make it easier for urban workers to get side jobs in regional areas.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 2, 2025

Government to help regional firms hire urban workers for side jobs

The subsidies are part of a program that matches corporate workers with struggling small and midsize companies in regional areas.
Pedestrians commute through Shibuya Station in central Tokyo, an area that is almost never devoid of people.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Mar 3, 2025

As the rest of Japan shrinks, Tokyo grows

Women and young people are leading a migratory wave that the government is struggling to halt.
A Russian military vehicle heads toward Hmeimim air base in Latakia, Syria, on Dec. 15.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025

Russia gambles to keep military bases in post-Assad Syria

Syria's interim president wants to renegotiate the 49-year lease for one base and an indefinite lease for the other to secure better terms.
The Canadian unit of Japan Tobacco plans to record nearly ¥400 billion in loss allowances as sales expenses for the settlement.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 3, 2025

Canadian units of Japan Tobacco and others agree to settle litigation

For the settlement, the Canadian unit of Japan Tobacco plans to record nearly ¥400 billion in loss allowances as sales expenses.
Shiori Ito is the first Japanese director to have been nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature film. "Black Box Diaries," which tells the story of her quest for justice following her rape in 2015, hasn't been released in Japan.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 4, 2025

Can Shiori Ito’s documentary open Japan’s black box?

Concerns about footage in "Black Box Diaries" have stopped its release in Japan. But Shiori Ito's story needs to be brought to people’s attention — in all its harrowing details.
Carlos Alcaraz speaks to the media during a news conference in Indian Wells, California, on Tuesday.
TENNIS
Mar 5, 2025

Alcaraz chases third straight Indian Wells title

Carlos Alcaraz, coming off a quarterfinal defeat in the Qatar Open, is seeded second behind Germany's Alexander Zverev.
The yield on Japan’s 10-year note climbed 7 basis points to 1.5%, the highest since 2009.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 6, 2025

German bond rout goes global as yields surge in Japan

The yield on Japan’s 10-year note climbed 7 basis points to 1.5%, the highest since 2009.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino unveils Brazil as the winner of the bid to host the 2027 Women's World Cup at the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok on May 17, 2024.
SOCCER / Women's World cup
Mar 6, 2025

Japan shut out of bid process for hosting 2031 World Cup

Japan Football Association President Tsuneyasu Miyamoto said in an interview last year that Japan wanted to host the 2031 event to "raise the value of women's football here."
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks to members of Iran's air force in Tehran in February.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 8, 2025

Trump says he sent Iran leader letter urging nuclear talks

Trump said that while he isn’t ruling out a military intervention, he would "rather negotiate a deal.”
The British government and Fujitsu have agreed to begin talks on compensation for the Post Office scandal involving the Horizon accounting software developed by the Japanese company.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2025

Britain and Fujitsu to begin compensation talks over post office scandal

More than 700 people were indicted on embezzlement and other charges by 2015, but the issue was later found to stem from flaws in Fujitsu's software.
When Ukraine gets bulldozed into accepting a ceasefire on the capitulatory terms President Vladimir Putin might accept, Trump’s America will dismiss complaints from Kyiv as warmongering.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2025

Kyiv and Moscow are divided by a valley of lies

When Ukraine gets bulldozed into accepting a ceasefire on the capitulatory terms Putin might accept, Trump’s America will dismiss complaints from Kyiv as warmongering.
India, the world’s third-biggest emitter, wants to more than double clean-power capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030. That won't be easy.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Mar 10, 2025

Eyeing short-term savings, India’s utilities put green energy boom at risk

A federal auction model that helped the country add more than 130 gigawatts of renewables projects over the past decade is under threat of circumvention.
Junko Yagi, a professor at Iwate Medical University, speaks during an interview on Jan. 10 in the town of Yahaba, Iwate Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2025

Experts urge ongoing mental health care for families in 3/11 disaster areas

"Parents and children alike are carrying heavy emotional burdens," one expert said.
South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun speaks during an interview on Feb. 27 in Seoul.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 11, 2025

South Korean lawmakers to visit Osaka Expo

Lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun said he will encourage South Koreans to visit Japan for the expo.
Many in Japan are increasingly concerned that under the Trump administration's shifting policies, the U.S. may no longer be a reliable ally, raising fears of a weakened security partnership amid rising threats from China and Russia.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 11, 2025

Japan reels from — and steels for — U.S. policy shifts

“What Japan has learned from the Ukraine war is that the era where we could rely entirely on the U.S. is over.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) and national security adviser Mike Waltz speak with the media following meetings with a Ukrainian delegation on Ukraine-Russia peace talks, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 12, 2025

Ukraine-U.S. ceasefire proposal puts onus on Putin

The Russian president may attach his own set of conditions for ending the war with Ukraine that would be difficult for Kyiv and its European allies to accept.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who said he would do everything he could to reduce active nuclear reactors to close to zero, changed his stance once he became prime minister.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Mar 12, 2025

Government does about-face on nuclear policy 14 years after triple meltdown

The government cited the need to ensure stable electricity supplies and secure carbon-free energy sources.
An electronic dictionary section at a mass retailer in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in 2005
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 13, 2025

Electronic dictionary market shrinking in Japan

Sales of electric dictionaries are falling in Japan amid declining birthrates and widespread use of smartphone apps.
Kyoko Watanabe made a home for herself in Ishinomaki after moving there to participate in disaster relief efforts following 3/11, and now operates a business focused on the creative reuse of <i>akiya</i> (abandoned houses).
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 17, 2025

From abandoned houses to ‘creative communities’: An Ishinomaki entrepreneur's vision for rural Japan

Kyoko Watanabe moved to Miyagi Prefecture to help with disaster relief efforts following 3/11. She ended up building a company and a vision for revitalizing rural Japan.
A woman clutches an urn containing the ashes of a loved one during a funeral ceremony for victims of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, at a cemetery in Manila on Wednesday, the day after his arrest.
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 2025

Duterte may yet pay for his lawless war on drugs

According to the Philippine government, at least 6,252 people died “during anti-drug operations” since July 2016.
Professor Hu Shiyun of Kobe Gakuin University
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2025

Chinese professor returns to Japan after going missing in China

It is not known whether Hu Shiyun, who went missing after entering China in summer 2023, had been detained by Chinese authorities.
Mark Carney, Canada's incoming prime minister (center), during a swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Friday. Carney has been sworn in as Canada's 24th prime minister, bringing the former central banker to power in the middle of an explosive trade war with the U.S.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 15, 2025

Canada has a new prime minister with a very hard first assignment

Mark Carney steps into his role as U.S. President Donald Trump sets his sights on Canada’s sovereignty and keeps threatening more tariffs.
Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Mar 17, 2025

The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo

Thirty years after Aum Shinrikyo attacked Tokyo’s subways, the nation continues to prepare for the unthinkable.
Newcastle defender Dan Burn (center) celebrates with teammates after scoring the opening goal of the English League Cup final between Liverpool and Newcastle United at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.
SOCCER
Mar 17, 2025

Newcastle stuns Liverpool to end 56-year trophy drought

Eddie Howe's side made history at Wembley with a superb display that left the runaway Premier League leaders shell-shocked.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person