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Ten-year-old Cupcake lost her home suddenly when her owner was hospitalized and took some time to adjust to her new circumstances.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
May 23, 2025

Tuxedo cat Cupcake is a special treat

At 10 years old, this cat is settled in her ways but shows sweetness over time.
Shinjiro Koizumi, Japan's newly appointed agriculture minister, arrives at the ministry building in Tokyo on Wednesday. He replaced Taku Eto, who quit after saying he’s never needed to buy rice, a comment that angered many people.
EDITORIALS
May 23, 2025

Rice price uproar intensifies ruling party's election fears

When the remarks triggered a predictable and understandable backlash, Eto explained that he was trying to make a joke.
After establishing Lagoon Brewery in 2021, Yosuke Tanaka began making export-only "nihonshu" (Japanese sake) and later, "craft sake," a new genre of sake that isn't bound by the rules of traditional sakemaking.
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 25, 2025

Brewed from rice, water and tomatoes: The growth of ‘craft sake’

Hampered yet inspired by the strict regulations for new brewers, a growing breed of sake producers are making the beverage on their own creative terms.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines President and CEO Takeshi Hashimoto speaks during an interview in Tokyo in April.
BUSINESS
May 23, 2025

Japanese gas tanker giant sees difficulty buying Chinese vessels

Washington has issued a flurry of measures since President Donald Trump took office aimed at curbing China’s maritime dominance and reviving its own flagging shipbuilding industry.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
WORLD
May 23, 2025

Netanyahu accuses France, Britain and Canada of 'emboldening' Hamas

The criticism was part of a fightback by the Israeli government against the increasingly heavy international pressure on it over the war in Gaza.
Requiring journalists to have escorts in much of the Pentagon building is the latest in a series of restrictions placed on the press by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.
WORLD / Politics
May 24, 2025

Trump administration puts new limits on reporters at Pentagon

The move is the latest in a series of restrictions placed on the press by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.
U.S. President Donald Trump says U.S. Steel will be "controlled by the United States, otherwise I wouldn’t make the deal” on what he called a "partnership" with Nippon Steel.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 26, 2025

Trump backing for Nippon Steel deal comes with big questions

The U.S. leader's unexpected announcement stopped short of explicitly endorsing Nippon Steel’s proposed takeover, instead asserting that U.S. Steel would "remain American.”
Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / Longform
May 26, 2025

Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?

Trees have long occupied a sacred place in Japanese culture. In the fast pace of the 21st century, however, they're increasingly losing out to progress.
Japan may offer cooperation on shipbuilding expertise and an Alaska natural gas project as part of trade talks with the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 26, 2025

Japan touts ships expertise and LNG investment, with tariff talks key

There is rising momentum in the negotiations as the U.S. tariffs threaten to drag Japan’s economy into a technical recession ahead of the Upper House election.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim speaks with the press as he waits to greet leaders before an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 26, 2025

ASEAN nations decry Trump tariffs at summit and seek to diversify trade

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim opened talks by saying that he had written to President Donald Trump seeking a U.S.-ASEAN meeting on the topic.
The Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance headquarters in Tokyo. Paper losses on Japanese bonds held by the company expanded to about ¥1.386 trillion ($9.7 billion) in the year ended March, compared with ¥161.4 billion a year earlier.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 26, 2025

Japan's biggest life insurers post $60 billion in unrealized bond losses

The paper losses on their domestic bond holdings in the last fiscal year underscore the risks they face as interest rates climb.
Jack Ma attends his company Alibaba Group's initial public offering at the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014. After a long absence from the public sphere, Ma recently attended a government-led private enterprises symposium in Beijing.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
May 26, 2025

Harnessing China’s tech giants: The case of Jack Ma

Alibaba founder Jack Ma's rehabilitation into public life signals China's intention to steer its tech entrepreneurs to do business with broader national interests in mind.
Britain's King Charles III reacts as he visits the Rideau Hall residence during a two-day visit in Ottawa on Monday.
WORLD
May 27, 2025

King Charles visits Canada to help send a message to Trump about its sovereignty

U.S. President Donald Trump has made repeated calls for Canada to become the 51st U.S. state.
Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York on May 23
BUSINESS / Tech
May 28, 2025

Apple reels from share selloff as Trump’s 25% tariff threat drives uncertainty

Some are skeptical the tariffs will come to pass, but any such measures would require Apple to absorb costs or raise prices, eroding demand.
A view of the construction site of BYD's electric vehicle factory at the Industrial Complex in the city of Camacari, in the state of Bahia, Brazil, on Jan. 9
BUSINESS / Companies
May 28, 2025

Brazil sues EV giant BYD over ‘slavery’ conditions at plant

Prosecutors said 220 Chinese workers were found in December in conditions "analogous to slavery” and described them as victims of human trafficking.
More Chinese families are clustering in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward, a district renowned for having the finest educational environment in Japan.
JAPAN / Society
May 29, 2025

Chinese parents are fueling Tokyo’s education race

International schools in Tokyo are already witnessing an influx of children from the newly arrived, highly involved Chinese households.
A Donald Trump 2024 campaign hat on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange
BUSINESS / Markets
May 29, 2025

'It’s called negotiation': Trump bristles at ‘TACO trade’ betting on him backing down

The acronym — which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out — was coined by a Financial Times columnist and has since been adopted by traders.
Australia is looking to regain control of the Port of Darwin from Landbridge Group, a Chinese company, without jeopardizing improved relations with Beijing.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 29, 2025

With Port of Darwin, Australia hopes to avoid a repeat of Panama Canal

Canberra is looking to regain control of the port from a Chinese company without jeopardizing improved relations with Beijing.
Shipping containers from China at the Port of Los Angeles, in San Pedro, California.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
May 30, 2025

Trump's tariff tally: $34 billion and counting, global companies say

Many companies said the erratic nature of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies has made it impossible to accurately estimate costs.
The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 30, 2025

Trump aims at Chinese students and tech in threat to truce with Xi

Just weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a "total reset” with China following a trade truce in Geneva, tensions are rising again between the world’s biggest economies.
A vehicle exits Shek Pik Prison after former leader of the Civil Human Rights Front, Jimmy Sham, served a four-year, three-month sentence for conspiracy to commit subversion in a landmark national security case, in Hong Kong, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
May 30, 2025

Second group of Hong Kong democrats freed after 4 years in jail

Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ+ activist Jimmy Sham, who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups.
Anime director Shunsuke Nakashige accepts the anime of the year award for “Solo Leveling” at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2025

Anime's big night out is getting bigger — and more surreal

The soft-power spectacle at Crunchyroll's awards ceremony in Tokyo underscores anime's expanding global influence.
South Korea's Yonsei University is one of the 12 teams that will compete in the first AUBL tournament in August.
BASKETBALL
May 30, 2025

League backed by Nets owner looks to raise profile of college basketball in Asia

The AUBL will holds its inaugural tournament in August.
Nippon Steel’s pursuit of U.S. Steel may succeed thanks to a U.S. veto-wielding golden share, but the high costs, political concessions and strategic risks suggest the deal could end up being a costly misstep.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 30, 2025

Stop the steel! Japan’s giving too much away in this deal.

Nippon Steel risks handcuffing itself giving Trump a golden share.
Serbia's Novak Djokovic prepares to serve during his third-round French Open match against Austria's Filip Misolic on Saturday in Paris.
TENNIS
Jun 1, 2025

Djokovic and Sinner flex muscles to reach French Open last 16 as Keys survives

Djokovic eased past Austrian qualifier Filip Misolic 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 on Court Philippe Chatrier to keep his quest for a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title on track.
A woman walks past a store in Seoul's Daerim neighborhood, home to thousands of ethnic Chinese. China has displaced longtime foe and former colonial power Japan in many South Koreans' minds as the country's most distrusted neighbor in recent years.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 2, 2025

China displaces old foe Japan in South Koreans' minds ahead of vote

Analysts say that a series of clashes between Beijing and Seoul in recent years over history, territory and defense are the root cause of the schism.
Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party's  candidate in South Korea's presidential election, speaks during his final campaign event in Seoul on Monday night ahead of Tuesday's vote.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 3, 2025

Lee Jae-myung projected to win South Korean presidential election

Lee, the front-runner in the race since campaigning began, secured 51.7% of the vote — a 12.4 percentage point lead over conservative rival Kim Moon-soo — according to exit polls.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called for a parliamentary confidence vote in a bid to demonstrate continuing support for his pro-EU government, after nationalist Karol Nawrocki won the Polish presidential election.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 3, 2025

Tusk calls confidence vote after nationalist wins Polish presidential election

European far-right leaders welcomed the election of Karol Nawrocki, a fan of U.S. President Donald Trump who has said he will oppose the government's progressive agenda.
Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association, speaks at the press briefing in New Delhi on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 3, 2025

Trade barriers and plane delivery delays challenge global airline growth

More people are flying than ever before after a post-pandemic passenger market recovery, but airline growth is being hampered.
A case in which two Japanese nationals were killed in China’s northeastern city of Dalian last month is still being investigated, with local police saying the incident arose from a business dispute between acquaintances.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 3, 2025

Two Japanese nationals killed in Dalian, China

Local police have told the Japanese consulate that the incident arose from a business dispute between acquaintances, and a Chinese national has been taken into custody.

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