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At many prominent Chinese universities, there are more graduate than undergraduate students. While a high level of educational attainment is seen as a measure to contrast youth unemployment, it may be compounding the problem instead.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Apr 11, 2025

Is China overproducing highly qualified talent?

Chinese universities are investing heavily in graduate education, but burgeoning ranks of highly qualified job seekers are struggling to find work and increasingly looking abroad.
The Bank of Japan's headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2025

Price expectations rise in Japan as tariffs cloud BOJ rate path

Households expect average annual inflation of 9.6% over the next five years, the highest since June 2006.
Palestinians wait to receive their portion of a hot meal at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday.
WORLD
Apr 13, 2025

Israel expands Gaza offensive and seizes key corridor

Officials said that the ongoing assault aims to pressure Hamas into freeing its remaining 58 hostages.
Overcrowded trains and a lack of legal consequences for groping in Japan have led to a rise in "chikan," or groping, which has been linked to a mental condition and compounded by cultural stigmas.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 13, 2025

'Chikan' incidents rise as Japan grapples with mental health and cultural challenges

The governments of the U.K. and Canada have warned their citizens traveling to Japan that they could experience inappropriate physical contact — or "chikan" — on crowded trains
Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, in China's Jiangsu province, in October 2010.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 14, 2025

China halts critical rare earth exports as trade war intensifies

The official crackdown is part of Beijing’s retaliation for President Donald Trump’s sharp increase in tariffs that started April 2.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore during an interview in Tokyo. The governor is in Japan on a four-day trade and investment mission.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 14, 2025

Maryland governor talks trains and trade while in Japan

Gov. Wes Moore said he believes the Northeast Maglev — which may use technology from Japan — could transform the region's economy.
This satellite image taken on March 25 shows three Chinese barges connected via extendable bridges in waters off Zhanjiang, in southern China's Guangdong province. Experts say the new barges could be used to land heavy equipment and thousands of personnel in a possible invasion of Taiwan.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 15, 2025

China’s new bridge-forming barges offer new options for Taiwan invasion

The ships can be linked up one behind the other to form a long, relocatable pier that extends from deeper waters nearly a kilometer out at sea onto a beach.
An Israeli tank maneuvers in the Gaza Strip, as seen from the Israeli side of the Gaza border, on April 7.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 17, 2025

Israel will keep Gaza buffer zone, minister says, as truce bid stalls

Israeli forces have carved out a broad "security zone" extending deep into Gaza, squeezing Palestinians into smaller areas in the south and along the coastline.
A green wireframe model covers an actor's lower face during the creation of a deepfake video in in London in 2019.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 17, 2025

They sold their likeness to AI companies — and regretted it

Scores have ended up with the unpleasant surprise of seeing themselves feature in deepfakes, dubious adverts or even political propaganda.
Pro-Yoon Suk Yeol supporters gather on the side of a road as they wait for the arrival of the former South Korean president outside the Central District Court in Seoul on Monday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 2025

New leadership in South Korea should stay the course on Japan ties

Democracy should be frustrating. It is intended to force compromise, a process that will inevitably be slow and exasperating.
Scott Bessent
WORLD / Politics
Apr 19, 2025

Bessent replaces acting IRS commissioner in power struggle with Musk

The move came hours after a report that Bessent approached President Donald Trump to complain that Musk had gone around him to get his pick appointed.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a U.S. Democrat from Massachusetts, speaks on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. Warren says a series of rash actions by the U.S. president are seeding uncertainty across the economy.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 21, 2025

Wall Street ‘cops are gone’ after Trump overhaul, Democratic senator warns

The moves to purge federal regulatory agencies would leave consumers and markets vulnerable to fraud and corruption, Sen. Elizabeth Warren says.
A man sprays paint graffiti against Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on a Tesla showroom in New York on Tuesday in this screen shot taken from video.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 23, 2025

Musk to reduce White House role as Tesla profits plunge

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he would cut back "significantly" the time he devotes to the Trump administration from next month.
A farmhand prunes trees on a 4-year-old cocoa plantation, replanted after swollen shoot disease, in Enchi, Ghana, on March 4.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 23, 2025

Cocoa crunch isn’t over yet as top growers struggle with supply

Africa’s cocoa heartland has long grappled with blight and aging trees, leaving farms vulnerable as severe weather hammered crops in recent years.
Piccolo is an excitable fellow with great enthusiasm for all activities.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Apr 24, 2025

A quirky cat with a larger-than-life personality

Piccolo is only 8 months old, but brings incredible energy and exuberance wherever he goes.
"The main message we have on monetary policy is that in times of heightened uncertainty, flexibility and data dependence become paramount,” said Nada Choueiri, the International Monetary Fund’s Japan mission chief, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 24, 2025

IMF urges BOJ flexibility on rates as tariffs dent outlook

Along with downgraded global growth projections, the IMF's forecast for Japan’s expansion in 2025 was trimmed by 0.5 percentage points to 0.6%.
Pope Francis' body is carried in a coffin to Saint Peter's Basilica, on the day of its translation, at the Vatican, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Apr 24, 2025

Thousands honor Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica

Mourners flood the Vatican to bid farewell to the late Pope Francis, whose funeral will be held Saturday, with world leaders set to attend.
An Environment Ministry survey found that PFAS in groundwater and river water exceeded the provisional standard at 242 locations nationwide.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2025

Potentially carcinogenic PFAS chemicals over standard at 242 sites in Japan

Japan banned the production and import of PFOS and PFOA, both of which are main components of PFAS, by 2021.
Pope Francis, a reformer known for his humility, inclusivity and focus on social justice, passed away at 88, leaving behind a divided church and a legacy of advocating for humanity's most vulnerable.
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2025

The Catholic church loses a lion

Francis’ spirit of inclusion should define who we are as human beings and his compassion should be the lodestar for action, both personal and political.
Pallbearers carry the coffin of Pope Francis at the end of the funeral ceremony in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican on Saturday.
WORLD
Apr 27, 2025

Francis laid to rest as 400,000 mourn pope 'with open heart'

The Vatican said 400,000 people packed St. Peter's Square and lined the streets of Rome for the funeral of the first Latin American leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pose for a photo during a signing ceremony following bilateral talks in Pyongyang last June.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 28, 2025

North Korea confirms troop deployment to Russia for first time

Leader Kim Jong Un called the move "a sacred mission to further consolidate as firm as a rock the traditional friendship and solidarity between the two countries."
Jera, the world's biggest liquefied natural gas buyer, sees U.S. President Donald Trump's pet project in Alaska one of the promising procurement sources.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 28, 2025

Japan’s top gas buyer mulls procuring LNG from Alaska export project

"We see Alaska as one of the promising procurement sources,” Naohiro Maekawa, an executive officer at Jera, said at a news conference on Monday.
Stopping superpollutants like methane, which is the most potent short-lived climate pollutant, offers a fast-track opportunity to slow warming and improve public health, yet global climate plans have only recently begun to target them explicitly.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2025

The world is waking up to the dangers of superpollutants

Cutting superpollutants like methane offers a fast way to slow warming and boost public health, but climate plans have only recently begun to target them.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney waves to supporters at a victory party in Ottawa on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 29, 2025

Carney's Liberals win Canada election defined by Trump

Following a campaign dominated by Trump's tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart "a new path forward."
Men load solar panels on a rickshaw at a market in Karachi, Pakistan, on March 26.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 30, 2025

Pakistan's solar revolution leaves its middle class behind

Solar made up over 14% of Pakistan's power supply last year, up from 4% in 2021.
Tetsuya Yamaguchi at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on April 8
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 30, 2025

How a Japanese fraud group ran scams from Southeast Asia

Police suspect that Tetsuya Yamaguchi, who was arrested on April 8 after being deported from Thailand, was involved in fraud totaling at least ¥3 billion ($21.1 million).
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has been a staunch advocate for constitutional reform.
JAPAN / Politics
May 3, 2025

Despite shifts in Japan's political landscape, constitutional revision still far off

Weak political leadership, traditional sensitivity around the issue, and new policy priorities have forestalled a larger debate over the Constitution.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with his partner Jodie Haydon (right) and his son Nathan Albanese (left) at the Labor Party election night event in Sydney on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 5, 2025

Albanese landslide offers rare chance to fix Australia’s economy

Albanese’s center-left government has the best chance in years to take the hard steps economists have called for to ignite growth.
Phillip Vincent (right), Japan CEO of Plug and Play, and Ma Jingqian, head of ventures, at Plug and Play's Tokyo office, last month
BUSINESS / Companies
May 5, 2025

Plug and Play wants to help Japanese startups go global

The Japanese government is aggressively supporting startups, and large companies are seeking more opportunities to bet on entrepreneurs.
Tigers slugger Teruaki Sato knocks in a run during Hanshin's win over the Swallows at Koshien Stadium on Friday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 6, 2025

Confident Hanshin slugger Teruaki Sato taking game to next level

Even with everything Sato, a three-time All-Star, has already accomplished, his start this year has some wondering if he has finally put everything together.

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