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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 27, 2022

Singapore debate on LGBTQ rights heats up in test for leaders

The fallout shows the new generation of leaders taking over will have their work cut out to control a divisive issue in the city-state's multicultural society.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Aug 4, 2022

What role should Japan play as the Russia-Ukraine war shakes the international order?

Executives of the Asia Pacific Initiative discuss the part Tokyo should play as Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches six months.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 3, 2022

Resources, support grow for Japan’s Muslims

Renewing focus on their faith and spiritual life, Muslim communities around the world have spent the past month fasting and praying during Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. The end of this period is marked with a joyous celebration known as Eid al-Fitr, which means “the Festival of...
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Apr 27, 2022

Japan is losing people, but is it all bad?

Staff writer Alex Martin joins to discuss Japan's declining population, and why one town in Saitama thinks it's not all bad news.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Mar 28, 2022

For some shrinking towns in Japan, depopulation isn't all bad news

For the first time, more than half of all municipalities in Japan will be designated by the government as wholly or partially underpopulated from April 1.
Japan Times
SATOYAMA CONSORTIUM
Mar 28, 2022

Tsukuba ‘bar’ guides both visitors and revitalization efforts

On the outskirts of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture, there is a homey place called Tamaribar, a play on words combining “tamariba” (“hangout”) and “bar.” It serves local delicacies, the kind that people eat everyday without noticing their value, like fresh eggs with locally grown rice. It also...
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 3, 2022

The game of life, reimagined for a superaging society

In Community Coping, players are tasked with preventing communities from collapsing by connecting troubled residents with the right experts.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 27, 2021

In Osaka, friends and strangers share a communal meal

Feeling hungry? Feeling lonely? The doors are open to you at Cocoroom, regardless of your nationality.
Kyoko Yafuso and her son Keiju Togei pose in front of their store in the Sunrise Naha shopping street.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Sep 4, 2023

Tired Naha shopping arcade evolves into city’s best dining spot

Until about 10 years ago, the central shopping arcade around the Heiwa-dori street in Naha was deserted, with most stores closed and few visitors.
Gigi Chao, vice chair of Cheuk Nang Holdings, in Hong Kong on July 19
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 31, 2023

More LGBTQ rights could help Asian financial hubs draw global talent

In Japan, the only Group of Seven nation without legal protection for same-sex unions, corporations are seen as a key driver for change.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi address a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington in June.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 1, 2023

Modi’s Hindu nationalism stokes tension in Indian diaspora

Canadian and U.S. universities have become battlegrounds for critics and defenders of Hindu nationalism, punctuated by threats of violence and even death.
A woman walks past newly unveiled lettering that references the Oct. 29 Itaewon crush in Seoul. A more fully developed memorial was later built to commemorate the event and the more than 150 people who lost their lives.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / Longform
Oct 27, 2023

One year on, Itaewon's scars remain

A year on from the Itaewon crush, foot traffic in the Seoul neighborhood is picking back up. But what the future of the area is still in doubt.
The midway in Springfield, Massachusetts, lit up at night. Framingham, Massachusetts mayor Charlie Sisitsky said its geothermal pilot project could more than halve emissions and cut energy consumption for some properties by up to 70%.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Nov 2, 2023

U.S. cities expand geothermal energy to whole neighborhoods

The U.S. federal government is to back 11 pilot geothermal projects.
Drag queens (from left) Trinity the Tuck, Manila Luzon and Kylie Sonique Love headlined the most recent edition of Opulence, Tokyo's fast-growing drag performance extravaganza.
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 10, 2023

The opulence of Manila Luzon

The Asian American drag queen who rose to stardom after a stint on "RuPaul's Drag Race" pays things forward with her Philippines-based show "Drag Den."
A view of the city of Ayodhya, India
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 18, 2023

Temple promised by BJP transforming Indian city but some miss out

Laborers are finalizing a $6 billion infrastructure facelift in Ayodhya that is igniting an economic boom and driving up land prices.
LGBTQ activists take part in a protest in Moscow.
WORLD / Society
Dec 21, 2023

LGBTQ+ Russians ask: Should I stay or should I go?

Rights activists fear the ruling could open the door to arrests and prosecutions.
Hideo Shimoju points to a possible site that his fellow neighbors may relocate to. Such relocations have happened before, but not preemptively.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / Longform
Feb 24, 2024

In disaster-prone Japan, some communities consider major moves

Rural communities are considering collective relocation as a means to deal with worsening climate disasters.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the international community is currently experiencing "gridlock" and suffering "colossal global dysfunction.”
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2024

No one wins in a lose-lose world

Fragmentation of the world economy could derail growth, especially in low-income countries, turning zero-sum thinking into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Motoki Taniguchi (left) and one of his clients, Maurice Shelton, hope their lawsuit can change alleged police practices involving stop-and-search.
PODCAST / deep dive
Mar 8, 2024

A lawsuit puts alleged racial profiling by police on trial in Japan

Three residents with foreign roots have filed a lawsuit claiming Japanese police target visible minorities. We discuss what they hope to achieve.
The Monrovia NSU Challenger bulk carrier transits the expanded canal through the Cocoli Locks of the Panama Canal in April 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mar 22, 2024

'We all need water': Panama's canal, and people, thirst for more

A severe drought last year caused water levels in Gatun Lake, which provides drinking water and is the main reservoir for the canal, to fall.
Smoke rises from Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, on March 17. Ending the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and deterring conflicts in the Indo-Pacific region is a key global goal.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Mar 31, 2024

How should Japan deal with Ukraine, Gaza and the Indo-Pacific region?

The power, institutions and values that underpin the international security order are being compromised worldwide.
Christian villagers walk inside a church on Feb. 28, 16 years after it was destroyed by a mob following the murder of a Hindu priest, in the village of Irpiguda in the Kandhamal district of India's Odisha state. With India's election on the horizon and Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi widely expected to win, many Christians fear they may once again become targets.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 26, 2024

Christians in India fearful as election looms, recalling past violence

In 2008, mobs targeted churches, prayer halls and Christian homes, killing over 100 people, sexually assaulting women and forcing thousands to flee.
High school students visit seawalls in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, on Thursday during a weeklong tour of areas hit by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in the prefecture.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 26, 2024

Students from wildfire-struck Hawaii learn about disaster recovery in Miyagi

The students visited four municipalities in Miyagi Prefecture to study their efforts to rebuild following the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami.
Mikuni Minato is not a town that has recently fallen on hard times — it's been that way for a century.
LIFE / Travel
May 7, 2024

48 hours in Mikuni Minato, Japan’s port town that time forgot

A trip to Mikuni Minato may not appeal to the average tourist, but well-traveled residents will find it fascinating.
Masayoshi Tani on June 12 visits his house in the Fukami district of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, which was destroyed and isolated by the Jan. 1 earthquake.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 1, 2024

Temporary housing brings relief to Noto quake survivors, but fears remain

The uncertainty of whether they can return to their original homes and rebuild takes a toll on survivors, many of whom who are elderly and living on pensions.
Qatari and French officers patrol on horseback down a street in central Paris on Friday, a week ahead of the opening ceremony for the Summer Olympics.
WORLD
Jul 20, 2024

France races to head off Islamic State group threat to Paris Olympics

The outreach comes in the wake of two major attacks this year that authorities say were carried out by Tajik members of the militant group.
Japan's new speed limit on narrow roads in residential areas will be set at 30 kph in September 2026.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Sep 17, 2024

Raising awareness key to Japan's new residential road speed limit

Violations of the speed limits will be punished by up to six months' imprisonment or a fine not exceeding ¥100,000.
Supporters of Donald Trump display a Trump flag at The National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, where Polish President Andrzej Duda attended mass and spoke at the monument dedication in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 22.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 30, 2024

Harris courts Polish-American voters in crucial U.S. states

In an election likely to be decided by a razor-thin margin in a handful of key states, Kamala Harris is seeking to appeal to the Polish-American community.
Rescue personnel search for missing people in debris after flooding along the Tsukada River Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Sept. 23.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 30, 2024

Lessons from Japan’s fight against floods as the climate changes

As climate change intensifies flood risk, Japan should rely more on adaptive and nature-based solutions to prepare for disasters like the recent deluge in Ishikawa.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past