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Supporters of former president Donald Trump pray during a benediction on the second day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 19, 2024

Unpacking America's puzzling election dynamics

If the Republican Party sacrifices the true interests of the U.S. and its allies in order to win the presidency, it will no longer be the Grand Old Party.
The general secretary of Vietnam's Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, in February 2021. Trong died on Friday at age 80, state media said.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 19, 2024

Vietnam's most powerful Communist Party leader dies

For months, Trong had appeared frail at public events or missed them outright and on Thursday his duties as party chief were taken over by President To Lam.
An aerial view on Monday of the Butler Farm Show grounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally on July 13.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Jul 20, 2024

From honor student to the gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump

Thomas Crooks was a brainy and quiet young man who built computers and won honors at school, impressing his teachers. Then he became a would-be assassin.
The No. 1 reactor building stands at Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co.'s Shin-Kori nuclear power plant in Ulsan, South Korea.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2024

South Korea edges ahead of rivals to build Europe’s nuclear reactors

A pair of projects in the Czech Republic could set up South Korea to build reactors for Western countries that are reconsidering nuclear energy.
One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jul 22, 2024

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Homeless influencers, fantasy boyfriends and bubble-era bars — Kabukicho seems to have it all.
Canada's Evan Dunfee poses as he celebrates winning bronze in the men's 50-kilometer race walk at the World Athletics Championships in Doha on Sept. 29, 2019.
OLYMPICS
Jul 23, 2024

Chilled athletes embrace strategies to beat Paris heat

In a warming world, heat acclimatization has moved rapidly from the fringes of sports science into the mainstream.
The number of residents in Tokyo as of Jan. 1 rose by 0.03% from a year before, data shows, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time in three years, while the country's other 46 prefectures saw their populations continue to decline.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 25, 2024

Japan's population continues to fall even as foreign resident count rises

The number of foreign residents in Japan rose by 329,535 from last year to 3,323,374.
Paris must complete its gold-medal transformation into something greater once the athletes have packed up and gone home.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2024

Paris Olympics can help unify a fractured city

As Paris prepares for the Olympics, it must also work towards a more cohesive and equitable regional future, striving to balance progress with social harmony.
More tourists than ever are guided around Japan based on the content they consume online, but can those same creators help direct them to less-populated areas of the country?
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Jul 29, 2024

Influencers helped cause overtourism. Can they help fix it?

“I don't want to use filters or put out content just for the sake of views and followers,” one content creator says. “I want to show people what the real Japan is.”
International Monetary Fund guidance on industrial policy must balance protection with market discipline and emphasize fiscal prudence.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2024

What fiscally sound industrial policy can do

Industrial policy can help countries cope with growing economic and political uncertainty. But the details matter.
Waves crash against the coast of Sansha town in Ningde, Fujian province, China, on Thursday as Typhoon Gaemi approaches.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 26, 2024

Climate change driving change in rainfall and fiercer typhoons

About 75% of the world's land area has seen a rise in "precipitation variability," or wider swings between wet and dry weather, scientists have found.
Leqembi, which was developed by U.S. multinational Biogen and Japanese-based Eisai, is the brand name of an active substance called lecanemab, which is used to treat adults with mild memory and cognitive problems resulting from the early stages of the common type of dementia.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 27, 2024

European medicines watchdog rejects Eisai's new Alzheimer's drug

The watchdog said the risks of side effects, including potential brain bleeding, outweighed the benefits.
Though some in the country rejected their wartime associations, the Japanese government made the Hinomaru flag and "Kimigayo" anthem official 25 years ago.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Aug 1, 2024

Japan Times 1999: Flag, anthem now official

After some controversy, the Hinomaru flag was made official alongside the country's national anthem, "Kimigayo."
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 30, 2024

Biden proposes ways to rein in 'extreme' Supreme Court

Immediate opposition voiced by Republicans in Congress to the proposals means they have little chance of enactment.
The Maersk Launcher, a ship chartered by The Metals Company, carries seabed samples from the remote Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean on June 7, 2021.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 30, 2024

The future of deep sea mining hinges on a contentious election

The vote will determine whether companies can begin strip-mining the world’s oceans for critical metals despite concerns about the impacts.
Members of the Romanian Olympic women's gymnastics team check their smartphones during a training session early last month.
OLYMPICS
Aug 2, 2024

Social media trolls beware: Olympic athletes have had enough

Online abuse has become such an issue that the Japanese Olympic Committee released a statement asking fans to mind their manners on the internet.
Formula E cars race during the Portland E-Prix in Oregon in June.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Aug 1, 2024

From race to road: Is Formula E fueling the future of green transport?

Formula E has helped hasten the development of technology for electric vehicles, making them easier to sell to consumers, but hurdles for EVs remain.
Road signs are tilted over a road damaged by the New Year's Day earthquake in Nishiaraya, Ishikawa Prefecture. A new report, part of a long-term assessment, was swiftly drawn up in response to the 7.6-magnitude quake that struck the Noto Peninsula area, so that coastal municipalities can improve their disaster reduction measures.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 3, 2024

Government reveals 25 offshore active faults on country's Sea of Japan side

The active faults are located off the coast stretching from the northern area of Hyogo Prefecture to the Joetsu area of Niigata Prefecture.
The dark side of artificial intelligence is that it could make deadly and low-cost bioweapons more accessible to nonstate actors.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2024

AI may save us, or may construct viruses to kill us

One reason biological weapons haven’t been much used is that they can boomerang. If Russia released a virus in Ukraine, it could spread to Russia.
The entrance gate of the SEG electronics market in Shenzhen, China, on June 27.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 5, 2024

With smugglers and front companies, China is skirting U.S. AI bans

The U.S. worries advanced semiconductors could help China develop superior weaponry, launch cyberattacks and make faster decisions on the battlefield.
Ngun Nei Par, the general manager at Ginshotei Awashima in Numata, Gunma Prefecture, graduated from a university in Myanmar with a degree in geography.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 6, 2024

Japan needs foreign workers, but it might not want them to stay long

Japanese politicians remain reluctant to create pathways for foreign workers, especially those in low-skill jobs, to stay indefinitely.
Sheikh Hasina, then the prime minister of Bangladesh, in her office in Dhaka on June 11, 2023
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 6, 2024

Swift downfall of iron-fisted Sheikh Hasina marks new era in Bangladesh

Hasina saw her 15-year rule as Bangladesh’s prime minister unravel over the course of a bloody weekend that left scores of people dead.
Children use a mobile shower, provided by the local government, amid extreme heat in metro Manila on May 2.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 6, 2024

From the Philippines to Mali, countries fail to count deaths from extreme heat

A lack of reliable data is undermining efforts to mitigate the risk of extreme heat and provide better protection for the most vulnerable.
American Quincy Hall crosses the line to win gold in the men's 400-meter sprint at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS / Athletics
Aug 8, 2024

Quincy Hall shows sheer grit to win Olympic 400-meter title

The 26-year-old lunged at the line to pip Britain's Matthew Hudson-Smith, who set a new European record of 43.44 seconds.
Avocados hang off a tree at an orchard in Tancitaro, Michoacan state, Mexico
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 7, 2024

Avocado goldrush links U.S. companies with Mexico's deforestation disaster

The U.S. demand for avocados divides communities in Mexico, where it is both a driver of economic growth and a catalyst for environmental crises.
Researchers have flagged that Elon Musk, who purchased Twitter (now X) in 2022 and is a vocal backer of Donald Trump, appears to be swaying voters by spreading falsehoods on his personal account.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 9, 2024

Musk's misleading election posts viewed 1.2 billion times, study says

Elon Musk, who purchased Twitter (now X) in 2022 for $44 billion, is facing growing scrutiny over his potential influence on voters.
Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
COMMUNITY / Issues / Longform
Aug 9, 2024

In search of the ‘Japanese dream’

You've likely heard of the American dream. In Japan, where no such concept exists, immigrants forge their own ideals.
Homes surrounded by floodwaters in Steinhatchee, Florida, after Hurricane Debby made landfall on Aug. 5.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 10, 2024

Clashing risk predictions cast doubt on black box climate models

Insurers and investors are using private modeling tools to make risk assessments, but they have major inconsistencies.
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Aug 11, 2024

Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom

For over half a century, Japan has been a sizable buyer of LNG, and its government, banks and energy companies have played a key role in continued investment.
Protesters countering the far right gather in London on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 12, 2024

White supremacists turn U.K. riots into online recruiting pitch

Using messaging app Telegram and social media platform X, they promote conspiracy theories and incite violence in their bid to lure new members.

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