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Pitcher Shohei Ohtani celebrates after he closed out the finals of the World Baseball Classic against the U.S. on March 21, 2023, in Miami.
BASEBALL
Jun 13, 2024

Baseball may have arrived in Japan in 1871, earlier than thought

An NPB historian has found that U.S. sailors may have had a baseball game with Japanese players in the early part of the Meiji Era (1868-1912) in Osaka.
Fire rages after a Russian missile strike in Kyiv on Jan. 2.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 13, 2024

Study details emissions resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine

The 175-million-metric-tons estimate the report gave was the equivalent to the annual emissions produced by 90 million cars.
Ukrainian fans attend a training session for the national team ahead of the start of Euro 2024, on Thursday in Wiesbaden, Germany.
SOCCER
Jun 14, 2024

Ukrainians in Germany rally to support team at Euros

More than 1,000 Ukrainians came out to cheer on the team at a public training session in the western city of Wiesbaden on Thursday ahead of the start of the tournament.
By April 2024, dengue fever cases in the Americas passed the total for the previous year.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 15, 2024

What's behind the post-COVID surge in communicable diseases?

Many regions have reported at least one infectious disease resurgence that’s at least ten times worse than the prepandemic baseline.
A person uses a tong with a camera and GPS system attached to pick up litter, part of an initiative to boost participation in collecting trash.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Jun 16, 2024

Japan’s gamified environment apps target a greener mindset

Government funding has helped drive a boom in environmental and social app development.
A welcome sign in Skegness, England, on Tuesday. Britain's last general election was all about leaving the European Union but this time around Brexit is hardly getting a mention.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 16, 2024

Why no one is talking about Brexit in the U.K. election

Brexit fatigue and barely healed scars from the divisive vote have the main parties largely avoiding the toxic issue before the July 4 poll.
The city of Fukuoka. The government plans to draw up guidelines for supporting midsize companies, many of which have headquarters outside big cities and are expected to play key roles in boosting regional economies.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 17, 2024

Japan to compile guidelines on supporting midsize firms

The guidelines will specify how support should be provided to such companies based on their management conditions.
Workers clear the oil slick using plastic bags on Sentosa island's Tanjong Beach in Singapore on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 17, 2024

Singapore works to clean up oil spill after tanker accident

Several beaches have been closed after a tidal current carried the oil from the site to an area more than 30 kilometers away, close to the city-state's airport.
A view of the Unit 4 reactor of Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China, in 2018
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2024

U.S. as many as 15 years behind China on nuclear power, report says

Beijing's state-backed technology approach and extensive financing give it the edge over its rival, the study by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation said.
A pianist undergoing a crisis of confidence (Taiga Kyomoto, right) falls in love with a mysterious fellow student (Kotone Furukawa) in Hayato Kawai’s “Secret: A Hidden Score.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 20, 2024

‘Secret: A Hidden Score:’ A romantic fantasia played far too straight

Japanese remake of Jay Chou’s 2007 hit love story is tighter, tidier and less fun.
Sena Ishikawa and Saki Anan, master’s students studying giant salamanders, wash off one that was caught before taking a DNA sample and implanting a tracking chip, at Kyoto University.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 18, 2024

A tale of two nearly extinct giant salamanders

While trying to save large amphibians native to Japan, herpetologists in the country unexpectedly found a way to potentially save an even bigger species in China.
Renho (left) and incumbent Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike are both pushing for child care policies in their campaign pledges for the Tokyo gubernatorial election next month.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 18, 2024

Koike and Renho take aim at Tokyo's declining birth rate

In unveiling their campaign manifestos, both gubernatorial contenders have pledged to bolster child-rearing policies.
A man affected by the scorching heat is helped by a member of the Saudi security forces as Muslim pilgrims arrive in Mina, near Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca, on June 16.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 20, 2024

Climate change threat hangs over Hajj as hundreds perish in heat

More than 500 people have died during this year's pilgrimage, according to a tally based on foreign ministry statements and sources.
A potato field in summer in Hokkaido. The prefecture is a significant source of food and produced 81% of Japan's potatoes in 2022.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Jun 24, 2024

Hokkaido's farmers look for a silver lining to climate change disruption

As the prefecture becomes warmer, it could produce more apples and sweet potatoes, agricultural cooperative officials say.
Is artificial intelligence the future of faith? Advanced algorithms might shape future religious beliefs much like technologies shaped our ancestors' spiritual practices and understandings.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2024

Can AI foster a global consciousness?

Is artificial intelligence the future of faith? Advanced algorithms might shape religious beliefs as technologies shaped our ancestors' spirituality.
Muslim pilgrims use umbrellas to shade themselves during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, on Saturday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 21, 2024

Deadly heat waves mark Northern Hemisphere's first day of summer

Record temperatures in recent days are suspected to have caused hundreds, possibly thousands, of deaths across Asia and Europe.
Dan Martin of Sankaku Nutrition helps busy professionals in the Tokyo area with their meal prep.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jun 21, 2024

Dan Martin: ‘Long-term sustainability is the key factor to any diet’

The “sankaku” (triangle) in Sankaku Nutrition stands for improving gut health, energy balance and sleep hygiene among expats with busy lives.
Despite mainstream media downplaying the significance, the rise of figures like France's Marine Le Pen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni indicates a normalization of the radical right.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2024

The specter of neo-fascism is haunting Europe

Despite mainstream media downplaying the significance, the rise of figures like Marine Le Pen and Giorgia Meloni indicates a normalization of the radical right.
Muslim pilgrims pray as sprinklers cool them down amid extremely hot weather during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Saudi Arabia, on June 16.
WORLD
Jun 24, 2024

Saudi Arabia says 1,301 deaths during Hajj were mostly unregistered pilgrims

Temperatures in Mecca this year climbed as high as 51.8 degrees Celsius, according to Saudi Arabia's national meteorological center.
Russian President Vladimir Putin lights a candle in memory of the victims of the Crocus City Hall attack, on the day of national mourning in a church at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on March 24.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 25, 2024

Dagestan shootings spotlight rising Islamist threat for Putin

The latest violence, with at least 20 killed in coordinated shootings in Russia's far south on Sunday, raises tough questions for its intelligence and security services.
Israeli police detain a protester as they they try to disperse ultra-Orthodox Jews blocking a highway during a protest against changes to the laws on the military draft from which the ultra-Orthodox community has traditionally been exempt, in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak on Thursday.
WORLD
Jun 26, 2024

Israel top court rules ultra-Orthodox men must serve in army

The decision on the politically charged issue comes as calls grow for ultra-Orthodox men, historically exempt from mandatory service, to enlist.
Emergency personnel and investigators examine the site of a deadly blaze that tore through a lithium battery factory owned by South Korean battery maker Aricell in Hwaseong on Tuesday, a day after the fire left 23 dead.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jun 26, 2024

Deadly fire exposes harsh conditions migrant workers face in South Korea

Foreign nationals do dirty, hazardous work, and advocates say the blaze that killed 23 at a battery plant shows that they need better protection.
A firefighter works in a rural area of Corumba, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil, on Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 27, 2024

'Breathing smoke': Brazil's Pantanal wetlands hit by record fires

In the first half of this year, satellites recorded more than 3,300 fires in the region.
Emperor Naruhito visits the Francis Crick Institute in London on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2024

Japan's Emperor Naruhito visits medical research center in London

Along with working to break down barriers between scientific disciplines to further disease research, the center also supports a number of U.K.-Japan partnerships.
Sports announcer Al Michaels during an event in 2015
OLYMPICS
Jun 27, 2024

NBC brings AI version of legendary broadcaster to Olympic coverage

Narration by Al Michaels generated using artificial intelligence will voice the recaps that will be personalized to individual viewers of NBC's Peacock streaming service.
China's then-defense chief Li Shangfu delivers a speech during the Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore on June 4, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 28, 2024

China ousts two ex-defense ministers from party over graft

The 24-man Politburo made the decision to oust Li Shangfu and his predecessor Wei Fenghe, who are said to have taken bribes.
In the future, more tour operators and sites of interest may start marketing themselves based on travelers' preferences to set their own schedules.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 29, 2024

When Japan travels, it doesn’t mind going it alone

Regardless of the destination, more tour operators and regions are leaning on “travel as a form of self-care.”
Japan’s Coco Yoshizawa participates in a Paris 2024 Olympic qualifier. This summer’s Olympics will be the first in which half of athletes are female.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2024

Paris Olympics’ gender equality boast has an asterisk

Paris 2024 will be the first Olympics where half of all athletes are female. But the gender gap remains wide among the ranks of coaches and needs to be tackled.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with steelworkers at United Steel Workers headquarters in Pittsburgh in April.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Jun 29, 2024

Biden and Trump battle for blue-collar voters as steel merger looms over vote

Just how many rank-and-file workers ignore union chiefs and vote for Donald Trump could have a decisive impact in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Estonian Prime Minister and newly nomiated EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas addresses a news conference at the end of the European Council summit at EU headquarters in Brussels on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 29, 2024

A lifetime fighting Putin’s aggression drives EU’s next diplomatic chief

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, the bloc's next foreign policy chief, will be charged with shaping its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan