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Howard Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, gestures as he speaks during a rally for then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 27.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 21, 2024

Lutnick's China ties draw fire after Trump taps him for U.S. trade roles

The ties raise questions about whether Lutnick could be unduly influenced by Beijing when making decisions as U.S. trade representative and commerce secretary.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola celebrates with the trophy after his club clinched the Premier League in May this year.
SOCCER
Nov 22, 2024

Pep Guardiola signs two-year contract extension with Manchester City

Guardiola's decision means he will spend more than a decade at the club he joined in 2016 and has led to a dazzling array of silverware.
Best known as the home of Kuon Temple, Minobu, Yamanashi Prefecture, is a charming day trip from Tokyo with the potential for cultural verisimilitude.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 23, 2024

In rugged Yamanashi, a wild-goose chase for ‘real Japan’

Japan’s countryside certainly offers a different experience than its cities, but whether that makes it categorically superior is up for debate.
British-born Daniel Calvert earned his third Michelin star last month — a stunning achievement considering his restaurant, Sezanne, has only been open for just over three years.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 24, 2024

Tokyo’s newest three-star chef wants ‘harmony across every detail’

Daniel Calvert has managed to reach the pinnacle of the culinary world just three years after opening fine French dining restaurant Sezanne.
After almost a decade of traveling around the world, a working holiday during the 2019 ski season in Nozawa Onsen was to be Rowie Geraerts’ last hurrah before she settled down in Australia.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Nov 25, 2024

How a solo yoga teacher built a wellness community in the Japanese Alps

A budding entrepreneur from Australia, Rowie Geraerts has created Shizen Collective in Nozawa Onsen — a new home for herself, locals and visitors.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump greet each other at a campaign event in Duluth, Georgia, in October.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 23, 2024

Gaetz exit puts spotlight on other Trump nominees accused of sexual misconduct

Trump’s willingness to choose cabinet members with histories of alleged sexual misconduct threw his transition plans off course this week.
Emerging Gen Z J-pop group ME:I will perform on this year's "Kohaku Uta Gassen," national broadcaster NHK’s New Year's Eve spectacle.
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Nov 24, 2024

'Kohaku' still matters for J-pop bragging rights

The recently announced 2024 lineup underlines how capturing a year of J-pop in one broadcast bonanza is impossible these days.
The Grand Ring, a symbol of the 2025 World Expo in Osaka
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2024

Preparations for Osaka Expo well underway amid lack of excitement

Enthusiasm for the event has been muted, particularly after criticisms were raised over the venue's construction costs.
Sacks of untreated and shredded plastic waste, left unattended, collect at an inoperative recycling site in Asan, South Korea, on Nov. 19.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Nov 25, 2024

South Korea's mountain of plastic waste shows limits of recycling

Seoul says that it recycles 73% of its plastic waste, but environmentalists say the real number is about 27%.
Chung Suet-ying poses with the Best Leading Actress award for "The Way We Talk" at the 61st Golden Horse Awards in Taipei on Nov. 23.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 26, 2024

Chinese films about COVID-19 and gay romance win big at Taiwan awards

The Golden Horse awards are the Chinese-speaking world's version of the Oscars.
Eriko Nakamura (left) and Ryo Narita play star-crossed lovers in Shinzo Katayama’s hallucinatory romp through past and present, dreams and reality.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2024

The mind-bending melancholy of ‘Lust in the Rain’

Shinzo Katayama’s hallucinatory film boldly explores both the absurdities of wartime violence and the erotic psyche.
Aiku Kurotaki’s “Human 1” (2024) — and “Human 0” (2024) to the left — on display at Tokyo’s Som Gallery earlier this year.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 2024

‘From 0 to 1’: Aiku Kurotaki’s fabric of existence

The artist's wool sculptures play off the idea of string theory, which conceptualizes subatomic particles as infinitesimal strings vibrating in fixed patterns.
"Les Gouttes de Dieu" ("Drops of God") took home the award for best drama at the 52nd International Emmy Awards in New York on Monday. Starring Fleur Geffrier (left) and Tomohisa Yamashita, it's available on Hulu Japan, France Televisions and Apple+.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 26, 2024

French-Japanese series takes best drama at International Emmys

The joint French-Japanese-American production “Les Gouttes de Dieu” (“Drops of God”) is set in the world of wine and fine dining.
“What Divides Us" producer Cannon Hersey says his grandfather, who wrote about the aftermath of nuclear destruction in Hiroshima, never spoke about what he had seen while working with Japanese minister Kiyoshi Tanimoto to preserve the stories of survivors.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 27, 2024

‘What Divides Us’ producer honors grandfather’s Hiroshima reportage

The feature film centers on the bond between a Japanese minister and an American journalist who worked together to document the aftermath of nuclear destruction.
Keiichi Kaburagi (Ryusei Yokohama) goes on the run after being sentenced to death for a triple murder he insists he didn’t commit in Michihito Fujii’s “Faceless.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2024

‘Faceless’: Fugitive thriller turns a blind eye to hard truths

Michihiro Fujii’s latest offers stylistic flourishes while treading the familiar terrain of the fugitive film.
Hiroshi Kurosaki’s Netflix series “Beyond Goodbye” centers on a woman (Kasumi Arimura, left) who discovers her dead lover’s heart saved the life of a quiet pianist (Kentaro Sakaguchi).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Nov 29, 2024

Hiroshi Kurosaki looks beyond Japan for heart-wrenching drama

The director’s Netflix series relies on lush visuals and truths about love and loss to appeal to an overseas audience.
Customers enter Aeon's Shinagawa Seaside store in Tokyo for a Black Friday sale in 2022.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 29, 2024

Master this double negative to better express your Black Friday urges

What better time to learn how to say you can't resist a deal than on a weekend of discounted shopping.
A police officer directs traffic in front of a court in Hanoi.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 28, 2024

Rights group says Vietnam's imprisonment of Khmer monks violated religious freedom

A court in the southern province of Long An condemned the men to prison terms between two and six years.
Discovered in the 1930s, the Geisha coffee plant came to worldwide fame in the early 2000s and now represents some of the best coffee on the planet — Tokyo's top cafes included.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 30, 2024

The Geisha bean is the leading lady of Tokyo's coffee scene

Named for a region of Ethiopia (and not Japan’s kimono-clad performers), Geisha has become the crown jewel of Tokyo’s flourishing specialty coffee scene.
In an interview in Tokyo with the BBC that was published on Thursday, Fast Retailing CEO Tadashi Yanai said the company does not source cotton from China's Xinjiang region.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2024

Uniqlo criticized in China after CEO says retailer does not use Xinjiang cotton

Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing, said it does not source cotton from the region, which has faced allegations of forced labor.
Should Trump-o-phobes emulate Ellen DeGeneres, the comedian and ex-talk show host, who has apparently bolted for Britain to avoid the incoming administration?
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2024

Do you dislike Trump so much you’d quit the U.S. like Ellen?

DeGeneres’s escape from Trump may look like a political statement, but she’s not really a desperate pilgrim in reverse, risking all for new beginnings.
This combination of pictures shows rubble and the cross at the altar inside the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris a month after it sustained major fire, on May 15, 2019 (top), and the tabernacle designed by French artist and designer Guillaume Bardet in the heart of the cathedral on Friday.
WORLD
Nov 30, 2024

France shows off restored Notre Dame after 'impossible' restoration

Some 250 companies and hundreds of experts were brought in for restoration work costing hundreds of millions of euros.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te is welcomed aboard his aircraft by Ingrid Larson, managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan, upon arrival at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 1, 2024

China vows ‘resolute and forceful’ response as Taiwan leader visits Hawaii

The leader's “transit” comes ahead of visits to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau, three of the countries that still have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech in the Marshall Islands' parliament in Majuro on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 3, 2024

Taiwan's Lai kicks off Marshall Islands visit as China fumes

The trip follows a stopover in the U.S. during which he discussed "China's military threats" toward Taiwan with former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has, in rapid-fire fashion, named a spate of ideological warriors, conspiracy theorists and now even family members to senior government positions.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 3, 2024

Trump doubles down on defiance after collapse of Matt Gaetz selection

Trump, in rapid-fire fashion, has kept naming more ideological warriors, conspiracy theorists and now even family members to senior government positions.
Activated on Wednesday, U.S. Space Forces Japan — a component similar to the one established at South Korea’s Osan Air Base in 2022 — will operate out of Yokota Air Base in the city of Fussa, western Tokyo, with a staff of about 10.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Dec 4, 2024

U.S. Space Force launches first unit in Japan

The move is part of an effort to boost coordination and interoperability with its ally, including the Air Self-Defense Force’s own Space Operations Group
World Anti-Doping Agency Director-General Olivier Niggli speaks during the agency's symposium in Lausanne, Switzerland, in March.
OLYMPICS
Dec 4, 2024

Anti-doping agency froze out investigators who warned about China

The decision by WADA’s leaders to keep its own investigators in the dark raises new questions about WADA's response to possible doping by Chinese athletes.
The Cultural Affairs Agency in the city of Kyoto
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2024

Japan to use AI to tackle online manga and anime piracy

The Cultural Affairs Agency's plan will have AI scour the web for sites pirating manga books and anime, using an image and text detection system.
Tsutomu Hotta
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2024

Ex-prosecutor Hotta, who probed Lockheed scandal, dies at 90

He also helped decide how to distribute donations made to the Japanese Red Cross Society and the Central Community Chest of Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake.
“A Big Home” offers a sincere portrait of the vulnerable youth who live in more than 600 group homes across Japan.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2024

Vulnerable youth look for sense of belonging in ‘A Big Home’

Ryo Takebayashi’s documentary profiles the residents of a group home, but shies away from making emphatic statements about the circumstances that brought them there.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person