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Sharp aims to focus its business resources on competitive fields by selling its Kameyama LCD plant to Hon Hai Precision Industry.
BUSINESS
May 13, 2025

Japan's Sharp to sell Kameyama LCD plant to Hon Hai

Sharp aims to focus its business resources on competitive fields by downsizing the LCD panel business, which has been operating in the red.
A humanoid robot walks as an employee conducts tests, on the production line at the AgiBot factory in Shanghai on March 20.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 13, 2025

China's AI-powered humanoid robots aim to transform manufacturing

Beijing is aiming for a new industrial revolution where many factory tasks would be performed by humanoid robots.
Yi Liu (right), one of 10 directors involved in Taiwanese television series "Zero Day," works on post-production with colorist Liang Yu Fang in Taipei on March 5.
CULTURE / Film
May 13, 2025

Taiwanese war drama 'wake-up call' to Chinese invasion threat

The on-screen chaos of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is the basis of a new Taiwanese television series called "Zero Day."
SoftBank Group reported net income of ¥517.18 billion ($3.5 billion) in its fiscal fourth quarter, helped by the Vision Fund, which swung to a profit of ¥26.1 billion.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025

SoftBank profit doubles as AI demand boosts chip sales and startups

The results come as SoftBank plans to invest $30 billion in OpenAI while leading a $100 billion foray into building AI hardware in the U.S.
FemUniti was founded in 2024 by Setsu Suzuki (right) and Meagan Ward (second from left) to empower women entrepreneurs and connect them to resources and opportunities.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
May 19, 2025

Detroit-Nagoya network empowers women-owned businesses around the world

Supporting women in business is a “blueprint for the future,” says the cofounder of femUniti — and she has the data to back it up.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and French President Emmanuel Macron at the AI Action Summit in Paris in February. The mood at the event was largely optimistic despite growing evidence that chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT are being used by malicious actors.
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2025

How much will we risk in the name of AI?

AI safety breaches are a very present danger. Evidence shows that leading chatbots are perpetuating Kremlin talking points, while many leaders tout optimism rather than concern.
Panasonic may be poised to benefit from having factories in the U.S. as Tesla and others seek to reduce their reliance on Chinese battery-makers.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025

Panasonic CEO says battery plans align with slower EV demand

The supplier of lithium-ion batteries to Tesla is getting ready to start production at a second U.S.-based factory in Kansas, but has frozen plans for a third plant.
Calling themselves "Cheer Re-Man's" — a mash-up of "cheerleading" and "salaryman" — the group is made up of alumni from the elite Waseda University's male cheerleading squad.
JAPAN
May 15, 2025

Japanese 'salarymen' inspire with cheerleading acrobatics

The young men are all about spreading cheer through their eye-popping acrobatic performances, volunteering their weekends to entertain crowds.
Rakuten Group's stock dropped after the Japanese e-commerce firm reported a 19th straight quarterly loss, fueling concerns about the financial drag from its ailing mobile business.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 15, 2025

Rakuten Group shares sink on worse-than-expected quarterly loss

The stock plunged as much as 10% in Tokyo on Thursday, its biggest intraday drop since April 7.
According to a survey, some 70% of children from Japanese households with an annual income of less than ¥3 million take no after-school private lessons.
JAPAN / Society
May 15, 2025

Children from low-income families take fewer after-school private lessons

The proportion of children who take after-school private lessons and the frequency of doing so are higher as household income increases, a survey shows.
A tricolored calico cat (left) and a tortoiseshell cat. A Japanese research team has discovered a gene that determines the fur color patterns of the two breeds of cats.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 16, 2025

Japan team finds gene that determines calico cats' color patterns

Researchers led by Kyushu University professor Hiroyuki Sasaki found that the coloring was decided by the ARHGAP36 gene on the X chromosome.
Starting in the early 1980s, shipping nuclear waste for storage on Orchid Island off the southeastern coast of Taiwan was standard practice.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
May 16, 2025

Final nuclear plant shutdown leaves Taiwan facing energy crunch

The shutdown takes place just as power demand is projected to rise 13% by the end of the decade, largely driven by data centers and chipmakers.
TDK will begin shipping its third iteration of silicon-anode batteries by the end of June, Chief Executive Officer Noboru Saito said.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2025

IPhone supplier TDK readies batteries geared for thin AI gadgets

TDK’s battery technology is helping the world’s biggest smartphone makers slim down their gadgets without shortening battery run times.
People shop inside a tax-free drug store at the Ameyoko shopping district in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 16, 2025

Emergency contraceptive pill may be approved for over-the-counter sales

In most cases, women in Japan must undergo a medical examination and obtain a prescription to access such pills.
Vocaloid idol Hatsune Miku and kabuki actor Nakamura Shido II first performed together in 2016. This month, they’re reviving the show for the Osaka World Expo.
CULTURE / Stage
May 17, 2025

Traditional performing arts are plugging into modern audiences

Noh and kabuki are getting an image update by teaming up with pop culture figures such as Vocaloid idol Hatsune Miku and DJ Ken Ishii.
A Mexican Navy training ship is seen near the Manhattan Bridge after it slammed into the nearby Brooklyn Bridge in New York on Saturday.
WORLD
May 18, 2025

Mexican Navy training ship crashes into Brooklyn Bridge, killing two

Nineteen others were injured after the ship lost power and hit the Brooklyn Bridge, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday.
Cantourage employees inspect and process cannabis flowers at the company's production site at an undisclosed location in Bavaria, southern Germany, on April 29.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 19, 2025

High times for German cannabis firm amid medical boom

Cantourage's revenue totaled €51.4 million ($57.5 million) last year, a 118% increase on 2023.
The Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested Masaki Natori, 45, president of an auto accessory sales company in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward, on suspicion of violating the unfair competition prevention law.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 20, 2025

Kanagawa man arrested for selling mopeds as battery bicycles in Tokyo

The man is suspected of selling some 1,000 mopeds between March 2022 and May this year by falsely labeling them as battery-assisted bicycles.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in parliament in Budapest on Tuesday. Critics have likened recent moves by the prime minister to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to crack down on domestic rivals.
WORLD / Politics
May 20, 2025

Viktor Orban tightens grip on freedoms in Hungary ahead of election next year

Over the past 15 years, the premier has expelled a university, overhauled the judiciary and whipped up propaganda campaigns against political opponents.
''A Minecraft Movie'' star Jack Black attends the films world premiere in London on March 30. Video-game adaptations like the movie are overtaking superhero films at the box office.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2025

Success of ‘Minecraft’ shows the future of movies is games

The big-screen feature from Warner Bros. Discovery, "A Minecraft Movie," has outearned every other U.S. movie so far in 2025.
The Dinorwig Power Station is nestled in the mountains of Llanberis, U.K. The power station is hidden away in the North Wales mountains and has been drained down as part of a £1 billion refurbishment program to extend the life of the plant.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
May 20, 2025

The U.K.’s clean power future relies on a 100-year-old technology

For years, water has rushed through Dinorwig’s subterranean tunnels to drive vast power turbines, but the channels currently lie empty — for the first time in four decades.
Onosato (left) battles Gonoyama on Day 6 of the Summer Basho. With Onosato on the cusp of promotion to yokozuna, there could soon be two titans at the top of the sport fighting for titles.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
May 21, 2025

Onosato’s march to yokozuna could usher in golden age for sumo

It's been 5½ years since two yokozuna battled head-to-head for an Emperor's Cup. With Onosato on the cusp of promotion, that streak could soon be over.
The white-tailed eagle's wintering grounds include Hokkaido, northern Honshu, the Russian coast, the southern Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
May 26, 2025

Eagle nest discovery sparks opposition to megasolar project

Groups want to put a stop to the project near eastern Hokkaido's Kushiro Wetlands National Park.
Ushers replace a European Union flag with a Ukrainian flag on the day of an EU leaders' special summit to discuss Ukraine and European defense in Brussels on March 6.
WORLD / Politics
May 22, 2025

'Massive sanctions': Can the EU do much more to punish Russia?

Diplomats say it is becoming increasingly difficult to agree on areas to hit Moscow, a task made even tougher by Russia-friendly Hungary.
Members of the group Misaskim clean blood off the ground where two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 23, 2025

Israeli embassy staff shooting suspect charged with murder

If convicted, Elias Rodriguez, 31, faces the possibility of the death penalty or life in prison.
U.S. President Donald Trump shows a copy of an article he said is about white South Africans who had been killed, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD
May 23, 2025

Trump's image of dead 'white farmers' did not come from footage of South Africa

The image U.S. President Donald Trump used was pulled from footage shot following deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN
May 23, 2025

Japan pledges immediate rice price cuts to stop shift to foreign brands

The government has been releasing some of its stockpiled rice since March but that has yet to translate to lower supermarket prices.
After last year’s controversy over using AI to write about 5% of her novel, Rie Qudan was asked by an advertising magazine to write a short story where she uses AI for 95% of it. The resulting short story, “Kage no ame” (“Rain Shadow”), was published March 25.  
CULTURE / Books
May 24, 2025

AI fiction is already here. Are humans ready?

Last year, Rie Qudan faced controversy after admitting that chatGPT wrote 5% of her novel. Now she’s published a story she only wrote 5% herself, leaving 95% to AI.
A supporter of ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol holds a placard during a gathering near the Seoul Central District Court in the capital, where Yoon had appeared earlier in the day for another hearing in his criminal trial, as he defends himself against insurrection charges over his declaration of martial law.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
May 24, 2025

Meet the 'Yoonies': ex-president's shadow looms over South Korean poll

Experts say the ousted leader's influence continues to loom over the election, as he drew extreme religious figures and right-wing YouTubers into mainstream politics.
Visitors walk along Nakamise-dori as they visit Sensoji temple in Tokyo's Asakusa district in March.
JAPAN
May 24, 2025

Travelers avoid trips to Japan over viral comic book’s quake prediction

Ryo Tatsuki, whom some claim predicted Japan’s 2011 earthquake, gives July 2025 as the date of the impending event in a 1999 graphic novel.

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Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear