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JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 10, 2023

Kishida and Biden to 'set course' for alliance in first talks in Washington

Japan's new defense and security direction will play a key role in the talks, as Kishida is seeking Biden's strong endorsement of Tokyo's fresh strategy.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2025

Japan wary of taking another hit if Trump slaps tariffs on China

Policymakers, investors and economists are watching Trump’s trade policy amid fears that his threatened use of tariffs could batter global commerce.
Roki Sasaki pitches in a game against the Czech Republic during the World Baseball Classic in Tokyo on March 11, 2023, the 12th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
BASEBALL
Feb 4, 2025

Roki Sasaki's road to glory was paved by ache of a tragedy

Long before he became a pitching phenom and signed a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Roki Sasaki's life was marked by tragedy.
Naomi Osaka celebrates winning her second round match at the Australian Open over the Czech Republic's Karolina Muchova on Jan. 15.
TENNIS
Feb 6, 2025

Naomi Osaka on tennis, motherhood and being Japanese

Osaka returned to the tour a year ago and has had mixed results overall. But there are early signs in 2025 that she's starting to "get her pink back."
U.S. President Donald Trump made reference to Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who has competed as a woman, in a speech after signing an order on transgender participation in sports, calling her "a male boxer."
SPORTS
Feb 11, 2025

Trump order on transgender athletes clashes with international norms

There was no immediate outpouring of support from international organizations for the U.S. president's move.
The National Police Agency has been warning people that gambling on online casinos is illegal in Japan even if they are operating legally overseas.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 16, 2025

Police investigate comedians over alleged online casino gambling

Officials warn that online casinos are illegal in Japan even if they are operating legally overseas, but the number accused of using them continues to rise.
A Delta Air Lines plane sits upside down at Toronto Pearson Airport in Toronto, Ontario, on Monday.
WORLD
Feb 18, 2025

Delta plane flips upside down in Toronto crash, injuring 18

Three people on flight DL4819 from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport suffered critical injuries, among them a child.
Britain is the second country after the United States to launch a "two-plus-two" economic dialogue with Japan.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Japan and Britain to hold economic talks on March 7

Britain will be the second country after the United States to hold a "two-plus-two" dialogue with Japan.
“May You Have Delicious Meals” focuses on a trio of young office workers at the same workplace who have mixed feelings for food and each other.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 8, 2025

‘May You Have Delicious Meals’: The ugly taste of office and gender politics

The English-language debut of Junko Takase’s Akutagawa Prize-winning novel serves complex prose in translation by Morgan Giles.
The Ukedo Elementary School Ruins in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, in January. The Fukushima Prefectural Government offers training sessions for new prefectural government recruits to visit the school, the prefecture's sole preserved disaster-hit structure.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2025

14 years on, prefectural governments work to pass on lessons to new hires

Many prefectural officials who were involved in front-line operations in the immediate aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami are retiring.
A woman visits a grave in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, on Tuesday on the 14th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Populations in the hardest hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima are sharply falling.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2025

Post-disaster Tohoku struggles with population decline

The number of people aged 20 to 39 in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures fell by about 20% to 30% between 2010 and 2024.
Many in Japan are increasingly concerned that under the Trump administration's shifting policies, the U.S. may no longer be a reliable ally, raising fears of a weakened security partnership amid rising threats from China and Russia.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 11, 2025

Japan reels from — and steels for — U.S. policy shifts

“What Japan has learned from the Ukraine war is that the era where we could rely entirely on the U.S. is over.”
Nomura Holdings is moving to a new office in Dubai, with double the space at its previous location, and hiring in Singapore, to expand its wealth business.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 12, 2025

Nomura expands in Singapore and Dubai as global business turns profit

The Tokyo-based firm is seeking to more than double assets under management at the global unit to $60 billion, and expects its relationship manager headcount to grow by about 50.
Kyoko Watanabe made a home for herself in Ishinomaki after moving there to participate in disaster relief efforts following 3/11, and now operates a business focused on the creative reuse of <i>akiya</i> (abandoned houses).
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 17, 2025

From abandoned houses to ‘creative communities’: An Ishinomaki entrepreneur's vision for rural Japan

Kyoko Watanabe moved to Miyagi Prefecture to help with disaster relief efforts following 3/11. She ended up building a company and a vision for revitalizing rural Japan.
A crowd of tourists at Nishiki Market in the city of Kyoto. Gains in land prices have been helped by a surge in inbound tourism, which has boosted demand for hotels and shops.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 18, 2025

Japan's land prices rise at strongest pace in 34 years, government survey shows

Data shows recovery spreading to regional areas, thanks to sustained economic growth, in the latest sign of a pickup in the property market.
Osamu Murata (left), the acting chairman of nonprofit Ashinaga, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Wednesday. Ashinaga, which provides financial aid to children, conducted a survey among parents and guardians of recipients to determine the challenges they face.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 27, 2025

Japan’s single parents struggle to raise children, survey finds

Such households grapple with economic hardship, "time poverty" and social isolation, according to a nonprofit that provides financial aid to children.
The Hawks' Ryoya Kurihara fields a ball during spring camp in Miyazaki on March 7.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 27, 2025

Incumbent Hawks face fresh challenge from rising Fighters in Pacific League

Flamboyant manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo and his up-and-coming Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters may finally be ready to pose a challenge for the favored Hawks.
Yuki Tejima, who runs the Instagram account booknerdtokyo, hesitated to try her hand at literary translation until she won an award at the International Translation Contest.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 29, 2025

Yuki Tejima's metamorphosis from bookworm to literary translator

An Instagram “bookfluencer” and professional translator for over 10 years, Tejima’s love of books was, strangely enough, a hurdle to working in literary translation.
Rapidus is gearing up to mass produce semiconductors using 2-nanometer processes in 2027, which on paper would match Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 2, 2025

Rapidus begins pilot production of 2-nanometer chips in Hokkaido

The 2-year-old company aims to mass produce the next-generation semiconductors — vital for technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous driving — in 2027.
Wall Street stocks sank in early trading on Thursday, joining a global equity selloff after U.S. President Donald Trump's latest tariff announcement exacerbated worries about a trade war.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 4, 2025

S&P 500 suffers worst drop since COVID as tariffs rattle traders

The S&P 500 Index sank 4.8% — its biggest drop since June 2020 — to enter a technical correction again following a brutal global rout in markets from Tokyo to London.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs for Washington, at Palm Beach International Airport in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 7, 2025

Trump team rejects market fears, projecting defiance on tariffs

U.S. President Donald Trump’s top economic officials dismissed investors’ fears of inflation and recession, insisting a boom is on the horizon.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a news conference in Tokyo on April 1. The approval rating for Ishiba's Cabinet fell to 30.6% over the weekend, according to a JNN poll.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 7, 2025

Ishiba under pressure to take stronger stance against U.S. on tariffs

Some opposition leaders are urging the prime minister to rally his party around a strategy before speaking with the U.S. president, but others are eyeing his removal.
Nomura Orient International Securities has trimmed staffing by about two-thirds in its China wealth business over the past two years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2025

Nomura scaling back China wealth unit, shifting focus to brokerage and assets

Japan's biggest brokerage is currently seeking a new CEO for the securities business on the mainland.
Students practice dance during a project activity at Hotei Junior High School in Konan, Aichi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Apr 28, 2025

'Voluntary' school clubs face reform amid excessive burdens

Club activities have long been a standard part of junior high and high school life in Japan, but some schools now struggle to form teams.
Ado opened her Sunday night concert at the 2025 Osaka Expo with “Shin Jidai” (New Genesis)” after a rain-soaked lead-up to the show’s 7:45 p.m. start.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2025

Japan wanted a cultural do-over. Ado gave it one.

The 22-year-old J-pop singer cast a spell on the first weekend of the Osaka Expo
Kengo Kuma & Associates oversaw the construction of the Malaysia pavilion, which is encased in interwoven rows of bamboo that appear to ripple.
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 24, 2025

Built in a flash, Osaka Expo pavilions wrestle with sustainability

Architects of country pavilions speak on the challenges that shaped their design choices.
A group of lawyers representing a former journalist — who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a now-deceased secretary of a lawmaker — speak at a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday following a ruling that ordered the government to pay damages to her.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 25, 2025

Government ordered to pay over sexual assault by lawmaker's former aide

A Tokyo court ordered the ¥4.4 million ($30,850) payment to a former female journalist who was allegedly assaulted by the now-deceased government-paid secretary.
Sony is considering spinning off its semiconductor unit, sources say.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 29, 2025

Sony weighs chip spinoff that Dan Loeb called for years ago

The chip business makes industry-leading image sensors that go into cameras inside Apple and Xiaomi phones.
Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
May 5, 2025

A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan

How one artist is using history, culture and community spirit to revive a fading samurai legacy — and possibly reshape rural Japan’s future.
Akira Shimada, CEO of NTT, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2025

NTT to launch $16.5 billion tender offer for NTT data in AI push

Japan’s biggest telecom operator is launching a tender offer of ¥4,000 per share for all stock it doesn’t own in NTT Data.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan