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Honda will provide a fleet of cars for athletes, officials and stakeholders, along with motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and other multipurpose vehicles during the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 3, 2025

Honda joins 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games as major partner

The carmaker will provide a fleet of cars for athletes, officials and stakeholders, along with motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and other multipurpose vehicles during the event.
The Fighters' Franmil Reyes celebrates after hitting a walk-off home run against the Marines on Sunday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jun 3, 2025

What you need to know ahead of NPB interleague play resuming

Since 2005, one constant has been Pa League dominance.
The year so far is only proving that Mrs. Green Apple is the biggest band in Japan. Their success also seems to be hinting at a change in the musical landscape more broadly.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 5, 2025

Six months into 2025, J-pop is having a full-on identity crisis (and a great time)

Halfway through 2025, J-pop is in flux — swinging between AI absurdity, idol nostalgia and viral sugar highs.
June is Pride Month, which means it’s the perfect time to get acquainted with how sexual minorities have been represented in Japanese fiction if you’re not familiar with these narratives already.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 11, 2025

Pride and prose: Novels that illuminate queer lives in Japan

From Yukio Mishima and Haruki Murakami to Li Kotomi and Akira Otani, dive into Japanese fiction’s LGBTQ+ narratives in honor of Pride Month.
Sweden's Armand Duplantis celebrates after setting a new world record of 6.28 meters in the men's pole vault at Stockholm Stadium in Sweden on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Jun 16, 2025

'Magical' Duplantis soars to pole vault world record in Stockholm

With victory in the event already guaranteed, Duplantis broke the world record for the 12th time as he sailed over the bar at the first attempt.
SoftBank Group has sold 21.5 million T-Mobile U.S. shares for $224 each in an unregistered overnight block sale.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 17, 2025

SoftBank raises $4.8 billion through T-Mobile share sale

The Japanese technology giant sold 21.5 million T-Mobile shares for $224 each in an unregistered overnight block sale.
The Tokyo District Court has issued an order to the government to pay ¥1.2 million ($8,300) in damages to two overstayers who got sick while they were held at a detention center.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 18, 2025

Government ordered to compensate overstayers who got sick in detention

The Tokyo District Court held the government responsible over the deterioration of health of the two men — one Iranian, the other Turkish — at an immigration detention facility.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son at Donald Trump's resort in Florida in December last year
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 20, 2025

Masayoshi Son pitches $1 trillion U.S. AI hub to TSMC and Trump team

Son envisions a version of the vast manufacturing hub of China’s Shenzhen that would bring back high-tech manufacturing to the U.S.
According to the education ministry survey for fiscal 2024, the English proficiency of public junior high school and senior high school students in Japan continues to improve.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2025

Japanese students' English proficiency keeps improving

The city of Saitama marked the highest figure for junior high school third graders with Grade 3 or higher Eiken levels, at 89.2%.
President of World Athletics Sebastian Coe speaks in Oslo on June 12.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Jun 24, 2025

It will be 'big and punchy': Athletics chief Coe looks to future

The World Championships arrive in September in Tokyo, and Coe describes them as "a massive moment."
The building housing the headquarters of Daiwa Securities Group in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 25, 2025

Daiwa plans $690 million real estate fund as Japan market booms

Daiwa will target Japanese rental housing and hotels, assets that tend to be better insulated from inflation compared with other sectors, at a time when consumer prices are rising.
Many recent video games, including Breath of the Wild and Planet of Lana, have borrowed from the pastoral aesthetic of Studio Ghibli films like “Princess Mononoke.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2025

Studio Ghibli’s majestic sensibility is drawing imitators

Forty years after the Japanese animation studio was founded, game creators are embracing its legacy of moral integrity.
Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Mei Semones incorporates Japanese lyrics into her music, which blends jazz and indie rock with bossa nova, math rock and a dash of early-1990s grunge, among other genres.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 26, 2025

Mei Semones is the rookie to remember at Fuji Rock

The singer-songwriter delivers her bilingual lyrics and artful blend of jazz and indie pop with quiet confidence.
Japan’s women’s flag football team at the 2025 International Bowl in Los Angeles in June. The sport is enjoying continued growth in the country.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jul 1, 2025

Flag football facing challenges and opportunities ahead

Growth of the sport is being seen in Japan and elsewhere, and some feel this could even benefit traditional gridiron.
The Federal Trade Commission has opened an in-depth investigation of SoftBank Group's acquisition of semiconductor designer Ampere Computing.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 2, 2025

SoftBank’s Ampere deal now faces a more in-depth review by FTC

SoftBank’s acquisition of semiconductor designer Ampere Computing is facing a potentially lengthy probe by the U.S. government.
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya explains his campaign promises in Tokyo on June 30 for the Upper House election.
COMMENTARY / Japan / From Party Leaders
Jul 4, 2025

Japan’s Do It Yourself Party: Who we are and where we are headed

Our core philosophy is “to protect Japan’s national interests and bring about harmony in the world.”
A street in Suttsu, Hokkaido, with a sign put up by an anti-nuclear organization. The small community is considering hosting a facility that would hold nuclear waste.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Jul 6, 2025

Ainu land rights in crosshairs as Hokkaido communities debate nuclear waste

Some scholars and activists are raising concerns that Indigenous voices are not being heard amid the debate over whether to host nuclear waste storage facilities.
A V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft arrives at the Ground Self-Defense Force's new camp in the city of Saga on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2025

GSDF begins Osprey deployment to new camp in southwestern Japan

The deployment of the tilt-rotor aircraft from Camp Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture to the new camp in Saga is scheduled to be completed by mid-August.
Mazda employees walk at the company's main plant in the town of Fuchu, Hiroshima Prefecture, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 18, 2025

Japan voters see little hope for tariff reprieve in carmaker Mazda's hometown

The economic engine of Hiroshima Prefecture faces U.S. tariffs of 25% on cars, a dispiriting prospect for an electorate already battling inflation.
Ichiro Suzuki will soon become the first Japanese player to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
BASEBALL
Jul 22, 2025

Induction of Ichiro has Cooperstown fretfully preparing

The star's entry into baseball's Hall of Fame could bring an influx of fans from far away.
Former Canada coach Bev Priestman during a Women's World Cup group match against the Republic of Ireland in Perth, Australia on July 26, 2023
SOCCER
Jul 30, 2025

'I didn't feel safe': Banned Canada coach explains move to New Zealand

Wellington Phoenix announced Wednesday that Priestman would take over as head coach of its women's team.
Japan's temperature soared to a record 41.2 degrees Celsius in Tanba, Hyogo Prefecture, on Wednesday, surpassing the previous high of 41.1 C.
JAPAN / Breaking
Jul 30, 2025

Japan marks highest-ever temperature of 41.2 C in Hyogo

The mercury hit the above-human temperature of 41.2 C in the city of Tanba, Hyogo Prefecture, as authorities urged people to take precautions to avoid heatstroke.
In “Stigmatized Properties: Possession,” Yahiro Kuwata (Shota Watanabe, left) is a steel worker from Fukuoka who moves to Tokyo to become a TV personality and ends up renting a haunted apartment.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 31, 2025

'Stigmatized Properties: Possession': Layered lead faces ghosts and show business

In the sequel to his 2020 haunted apartments horror, Hideo Nakata creates goose-pimply moments of terror with common paranormal phenomena.
People with children walk in the sun as the Japanese government issued a heatstroke alert due to a heat wave, in Tokyo, on Aug. 5
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 12, 2025

Heat waves pose serious health risks for pregnant women, study shows

The Tokyo team found that the risk of serious complications for pregnant women increases the day after a heat wave.
Sweden's Armand Duplantis clears the bar as he competes in the men's pole vault event of the Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix in Budapest on Tuesday.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Aug 13, 2025

Duplantis sets new pole vault world record of 6.29 meters

Sweden's Duplantis broke the world record for the 13th time as he soared over the bar at the second attempt.
Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura addresses a meeting of Osaka Ishin no Kai on July 30.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 13, 2025

Osaka governor eager to make another bid for metropolis plan

The plan, which has been rejected twice in referendums, would scrap the city of Osaka and reorganize it into special administrative districts under Osaka Prefecture.
A U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey aircraft flies over the island of Okinawa in March 2018.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 14, 2025

Precautionary Osprey landings signal safety, not alarm

Two precautionary V-22 Osprey landings in northern Honshu demonstrated the aircraft’s safety and its role in enhancing Japan’s rapid-deployment and island-defense capabilities.
Mercedes-Benz Japan opens its first 150-kilowatt fast-charging station in a park in Chiba in July.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Aug 25, 2025

Foreign EVs hit Japan alongside fast-charging network push

As Japanese automakers remain reluctant to shift away from popular hybrids, foreign rivals are challenging the status quo.
Naoya Inoue takes part in a training session ahead of his bout with Murodjon Akhmadaliev, in Yokohama on Tuesday.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Sep 3, 2025

Inoue says taunts 'missed the target' ahead of world title clash

The undefeated Inoue is facing one of the most dangerous opponents of his career when he takes on Akhmadaliev on Sept. 14 with all four belts on the line.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby is the latest overnight success to come from the world of Japanese video games — never mind it was originally released in 2021.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Sep 6, 2025

Racehorses, anime girls and gambling: Umamusume’s recipe for success

The latest overnight hit from Japan’s gaming world relies on a quirky mix of elements from the worlds of pop culture and sports.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight