Search - 2023

 
 
Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitches against the Rockies in Denver on Sept. 28.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 3, 2024

Yoshinobu Yamamoto to start in Game 2 of NLDS for Dodgers

The 26-year-old from Japan went 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA in 18 starts.
The number of consultations from foreign visitors to Japan about problems related to accommodations and shopping is increasing.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 3, 2024

Consumer consultations by foreign visitors to Japan on the rise

The number of consultations from foreign visitors in fiscal 2023, which ended in March this year, stood at 227, up for the second straight year.
A gas station damaged by Hurricane Helene in Perry, Florida, on Sept. 27. Extreme weather and climate change are exposing the flaws in how we handle hazardous waste.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 3, 2024

Toxic waste is at the mercy of climate change

Among Hurricane Helene’s roster of disasters is a storm surge that deluged a retired nuclear power plant in Florida. While radioactive material there remains secure, according to operator Duke Energy, one of the plant’s industrial wastewater ponds overflowed amid the flood. With luck, any resulting...
A standard Chocozap location is small and unmanned, which has made it easy for Rizap to add locations amid a chronic labor shortage.
BUSINESS
Oct 20, 2024

Gyms in Japan offer laundry, karaoke and hair-removal machines

Chocozap's oddball gyms were created as an experiment during the coronavirus pandemic.
For one night in Tokyo last month, Daniel Calvert (left) and Quique Dacosta brought their wildly different culinary styles together into a remarkable service.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 6, 2024

A meeting of Michelin minds at Tokyo's Sezanne

Daniel Calvert says no to most requests for pop-ups at two-Michelin-starred Sezanne — except when the chance to work with three-starred Quique Dacosta came up.
The FIFA logo is seen during a news conference in February 2019.
SOCCER
Oct 4, 2024

FIFA defers decision on call to suspend Israel

The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) called for its Israeli counterpart to be suspended in May.
To preserve the integrity of the game in the legalized gambling era, Major League Baseball must double down and maintain its now posthumous ban on Pete Rose.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 4, 2024

Pete Rose fans are wrong: He's not worthy of the Hall of Fame

Backing down would undermine the league’s zero-tolerance stance and signal that "permanently ineligible" isn't always permanent.
Containers are stacked at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal (PMT) in Portsmouth, Virginia, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Oct 5, 2024

U.S. port strike throws spotlight on big union foe: automation

Companies view automation as a path to better profit while unions see it as a job-killer.
Three-month basis swaps for dollar-yen dropped to negative 53.5 basis points on Thursday, a level not seen since November 2023.
BUSINESS
Oct 5, 2024

Boom in samurai bond issuance drives up yen swap costs

Three-month basis swaps for dollar-yen dropped to negative 53.5 basis points on Thursday, a level not seen since November 2023.
A Class 4 railway crossing without alarms and circuit breakers in Kani City, Gifu Prefecture, in June 2018.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2024

Government looks to improve safety at Japan's dangerous railway crossings

The ministry will support the installation of manually operated gates and fences at crossings that do not have alarms or barriers.
HIF Global's Haru Oni clean hydrogen plant in Punta Arenas, Chile, last month
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / FOCUS
Oct 5, 2024

Latin America gears up for clean hydrogen boom but the road is not smooth

Government leaders expect a major boom for the region from clean hydrogen, produced using electricity from renewable sources that do not emit carbon.
Cameron Lew, who makes music under the name Ginger Root, recently released “Shinbangumi,” an album that was influenced by the glimmering pop echoes of Japan in the 1980s as well as the nerviness of Devo, the loose rock-pop of Hall & Oates and even Haruomi Hosono’s ’70s explorations of exotica.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 5, 2024

Ginger Root expands on effervescent retro sound

New release "Shinbangumi" comes after a whirlwind year for the American artist who blends glittering pop echoes of 1980s Japan with a mish-mash of Western influences.
An emergency shelter in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, set up in January after a powerful earthquake earlier that month. The central government plans to survey the level of stockpiles at temporary shelters around the country.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 6, 2024

Japanese government to survey stockpiles at designated shelters

The survey is expected to cover stocks of food, blankets, baby formula, paper diapers for infants and adults, portable toilets, toilet paper and sanitary products.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his dog, Dekopin, who delivered the ceremonial first pitch prior to a game against the Orioles on Aug. 28
MORE SPORTS
Oct 6, 2024

The furry performance-enhancers that are sweeping the world of sports

Athletes from Shohei Ohtani to Naomi Osaka are using dogs to reduce stress and help enhance performance before and during high-stakes competitions.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 6, 2024

Ishiba says LDP will not endorse some 'slush fund' lawmakers in general election

The new leader hinted that "a fair number of non-endorsements is likely" as the party looks to rebuild public trust that has eroded following the scandal.
A man walks past memorial pictures of hostages, most of whom were kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, in Tel Aviv on Sept. 4.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 7, 2024

Two ceremonies show Israel's conflicting narratives over Oct. 7

The distinction in tone for the ceremonies is at the heart of a public discourse over how to remember the darkest day in Israel's 76-year history.
A flag with the logo of the COP29 United Nations Climate Change Conference in front of the Baku Olympic Stadium, the venue of the summit, in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sept. 19
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 7, 2024

Environment takes center stage as global summits loom

The upcoming session isn't expected to break new ground but will take stock of progress since the last summit secured historic assurances for biodiversity.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes his visiting French counterpart,  Emmanuel Macron, in Washington in April 2018. European leaders, such as Macron, recognize the need to adapt to a new reality where globalization may no longer drive growth, especially if Trump wins the U.S. election.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2024

Trump-proofing Europe looks impossible

Global supply chain strengths turn into weaknesses in a fragmented world, with unreliable access to cheap energy, Chinese consumers and U.S. security.
Shinjuku Mayor Kenichi Yoshizumi (left) and Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Monday
JAPAN / Society
Oct 7, 2024

Tokyo mayors ask people to follow rules during Halloween

Shibuya and Shinjuku wards have each set an ordinance to prohibit drinking on the streets.
An Israeli police officer inspects the remains of a projectile after a rocket was fired from Lebanon and landed in Haifa, Israel, on Monday.
WORLD
Oct 7, 2024

Hezbollah strikes Israel on Gaza anniversary as fears of wider war grow

Hezbollah rockets hit Israel's third-largest city of Haifa, while Israeli media reported 10 people were injured in the country's north.
Tokyo Metro is seeking to raise at least ¥319.6 billion at a time when the nation’s equity market is showing signs of recovery.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 8, 2024

Tokyo Metro unveils range for biggest Japan IPO since 2018

The price range of ¥1,100 to ¥1,200 values the subway operator at between ¥639.1 billion and ¥697.2 billion.
Nobel Committee Secretary-General Thomas Perlmann speaks to the media in front of a picture of this year's laureates Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkum during the announcement of the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Monday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 7, 2024

U.S. pair wins Nobel in medicine for discovery of microRNA

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered the new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation.
Naomi Osaka in action during her last-16 match against Coco Gauff at the China Open in Beijing on Oct. 1
TENNIS
Oct 8, 2024

Naomi Osaka pulls out of Japan Open with back injury

Osaka's last WTA tournament appearance in Japan was a fleeting one, two years ago at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
New York Liberty forward Leonie Fiebich passes the ball to teammate Breanna Stewart against Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray during a 2024 WNBA semifinal game in Brooklyn, New York, on Sept. 29.
BASKETBALL
Oct 8, 2024

Liberty savors 'brick-by-brick' redemption story in WNBA

Their on-court success has been matched by huge gains in the ledger book, with average regular-season attendance of 12,729.
Japan's has experienced a significant decline in global economic power, with its share of global gross domestic product dropping from 18% in the 1980s to an anticipated 3% by 2050.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 8, 2024

Japan needs more than mere economic strength

Japan, a country that has long relied on its economic prowess for international stature and standing, must change its perspective.
Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, former chairman of publisher Kadokawa, said he is innocent of bribery allegations during his first trial hearing at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 8, 2024

Ex-Kadokawa chair pleads not guilty to bribing Tokyo Games executive

Fifteen people have been indicted over the Tokyo Games bribery scandal.
Commuters at Tokyo Station in July. In Tokyo, cases of mycoplasma pneumonia, characterized by prolonged cough and fever, rose to a record high of 2.96 per medical facility in the fourth week of September.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 8, 2024

Mycoplasma pneumonia cases reach record high in late September

The disease, which commonly affects children and is usually accompanied by a fever and cough, typically surges in the transition from fall to winter.
A screen shows the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics, U.S. physicist John J. Hopfield and Canadian-British computer scientist and cognitive psychologist Geoffrey E. Hinton, during the announcement at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Tuesday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 8, 2024

Pair win physics Nobel for machine learning breakthroughs

The two used tools from physics to develop methods that became the foundation of today’s powerful machine learning, the Nobel Foundation said.
Iwao Hakamata, together with his sister Hideko, speaks to his supporters on Sept. 29 in the city of Shizuoka after the Shizuoka District Court handed down a not-guilty verdict in a retrial of a 1966 quadruple murder case against him.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 8, 2024

Ex-boxer Iwao Hakamata finally exonerated over 1966 murder case

Prosecutors have decided not to appeal against the Shizuoka District Court's not-guilty verdict at the end of a rare retrial, his lawyers said.
Spainish midfielder Andres Iniesta celebrates after scoring the winning goal of the 2010 World Cup final against the Netherlands while revealing a shirt with a tribute to the late Espanyol captain Daniel Jarque, on July 11, 2010.
SOCCER
Oct 9, 2024

Spanish great Iniesta leaves indelible legacy after retirement

Admired and adored in Spain, even by fans of Barca's fiercest rivals, for many Iniesta will go down as the country's finest player.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami