Search - 2023

 
 
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi comments on use of the death penalty at a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on Nov. 14.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 27, 2024

Two years pass since Japan's last execution, amid calls for abolition

Between 2012 and 2021, the average period from the finalization of a death sentence to its execution was about seven years and nine months.
Kunihiko Katsuta (back) is taken to Hyogo Prefectural Police's Tatsuno police station on Wednesday after he was rearrested for a murder that occurred in 2007.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 27, 2024

17-year-old murder case makes progress as Hyogo police rearrest suspect

The suspect, Kunihiko Katsuta, is serving an indefinite prison sentence for the 2004 murder of another girl in Okayama Prefecture.
Packages move along a conveyor belt at an Amazon warehouse
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 27, 2024

Japan investigating Amazon for allegedly bullying other businesses

Tactics allegedly employed by the retailer involve the squeezing of business partners in exchange for visibility.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah at Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 27, 2024

Biden hopes to parlay Lebanon cease-fire into a broader regional peace

With a deal to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the U.S. leader turns his attention back to halting the war in Gaza before leaving office.
Cafe N°_5's take on the Dubai chocolate craze that has been circulating on social media over the past few months is a mix of bitter and sweet.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 28, 2024

Tokyo’s take on that viral chocolate from Dubai

Scarce and pricey, Dubai chocolate is winning over Japanese fans thanks to a few flavor modifications.
Southern Lebanon near the country's border with Israel on Wednesday, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect
WORLD
Nov 28, 2024

Hezbollah faces long recovery, with thousands of fighters believed killed

One source said the Iran-backed group may have lost up to 4,000 people — well over 10 times the number killed in its monthlong 2006 war with Israel.
Nobuo Hara, the head of a group seeking to halt the No. 2 reactor at Tohoku Electric Power's Onagawa nuclear power plant, speaks at a news conference on Wednesday in Sendai after the Sendai High Court ruled against them.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2024

Court rejects request to halt restarted Onagawa nuclear reactor

A judge said there was "no concrete proof" that an incident that could not be handled under an established evacuation plan would occur.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen celebrates with his team after clinching the Formula One world drivers' title on Saturday in Las Vegas.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Nov 28, 2024

Verstappen switches focus to reboot defense of F1 teams' title

Just days after clinching the title with a measured drive to fifth in Las Vegas, the 27-year-old will return to the track hoping he can repeat his triumph from last year.
Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting battles Julia Szeremeta of Poland in the final of the women's 57-kilogram division at the Paris Olympics in August.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Nov 28, 2024

Taiwan Olympic boxing champion quits event after gender questions

Lin, who was embroiled in a gender row at the Paris Olympics, was due to compete in the World Boxing Cup Finals in Sheffield starting Wednesday.
Fentanyl pills found by officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration in New York on Oct. 4, 2022
WORLD / Politics
Nov 28, 2024

Trump places high-risk, high-reward bet on tariffs to stem fentanyl

The U.S. president-elect has vowed to impose tariffs on China and Mexico unless they stem the flow of fentanyl and migrants across the U.S. border.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during a G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro on Nov. 18.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2024

Japan to lean heavily on extra tax revenue to cover costs of extra budget

The extra budget will partly be funded by ¥3.83 trillion in higher-than-expected tax receipts and unused funds from the previous year.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te speaks during the annual Taiwan-EU investment forum in Taipei on Nov. 18.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 28, 2024

Taiwan president's plan to stop over in Hawaii and Guam angers Beijing

Lai Ching-te will depart Saturday for a visit to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau — the only Pacific island nations among Taiwan's 12 remaining allies.
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.
The Social Media Minimum Age bill sets Australia up as a test case for a growing number of governments which have legislated or said they plan to legislate an age restriction on social media amid concern about its mental health impact on young people.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 29, 2024

Australia passes social media ban for children under 16

The law forces tech giants to prevent minors from logging in or face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars.
Despite a range of backgrounds and culinary traditions, food served as the ultimate lingua franca for chefs touring Nagano Prefecture.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 1, 2024

Putting mountainous Nagano on a plate

Nagano’s natural bounty became the star attraction as chefs from Europe, Southeast Asia and Oceania showed off their chops with local ingredients.
Kumiko Shichijo provides tips on Japanese etiquette and manners on Instagram and says videos on gift-giving and hand towels have done particularly well.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Nov 29, 2024

Kumiko Shichijo: ‘Living abroad helped me appreciate Japanese etiquette’

Worried about committing a social faux pas while in Japan? This manners expert hopes to help you be your most polite while out and about.
The infrastructure ministry and environment ministry released a survey on levels of PFAS, potentially carcinogenic chemicals, found in drinking water supplied across Japan as of Sept. 30.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2024

No excessive levels of PFAS found in tap water across Japan

No drinking water suppliers nationwide had PFAS levels in excess of the limit of 50 nanograms per liter of tap water in fiscal 2024.
The industry ministry plans to provide aid of up to ¥70.5 billion to auto parts maker Denso and Fuji Electric for the joint production of power semiconductors.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2024

Denso and Fuji Electric to get government aid for power chips

Although Japanese companies have a large share of the global power semiconductor market, production volume per maker is smaller compared with European and U.S. peers.
Simona Halep speaks to the media after a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne on Feb. 9.
TENNIS
Nov 29, 2024

Simona Halep questions process after Iga Swiatek's one-month ban in doping case

Halep was provisionally suspended in October 2022 and later banned for four years.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump attends the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in June 2019.
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2024

Japan should prepare for tariff-loving Trump

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's focus on tariffs as a core economic strategy could disrupt global trade.
The European Central Bank has signaled the need for coordinated fiscal and monetary efforts, with expectations for rate cuts amid rising inflation.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2024

Winter is coming for the euro in more ways than one

The European Central Bank has signaled the need for coordinated fiscal and monetary efforts, with expectations for rate cuts amid rising inflation.
Electric candles at a memorial service for those who died from AIDS on the sidelines of the Japanese Society for AIDS Research conference on Thursday
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 29, 2024

Ahead of World AIDS Day, advocates call for an end to HIV stigma in Japan

While cases are relatively low in Japan, experts and stakeholders say the stigma often attached to patients needs to be addressed.
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.
Workers building a railway in front of Lusail Stadium in Doha in 2018
SOCCER
Nov 30, 2024

FIFA should pay workers injured building Qatar World Cup, internal report says

The report offered no specific dollar amount of compensation.
Rachel Accurso, in character as the internet personality Ms. Rachel, in New York on Nov. 4.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 30, 2024

Ms. Rachel’s improbable journey from toddler whisperer to holiday toy sensation

A series of toys depicting children’s YouTube sensation Ms. Rachel is quickly becoming one of the hottest holiday gifts.
Lower House member Hiroaki Tabata holds a news conference on Friday in Toyama.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 30, 2024

LDP member reportedly tried to hide membership scandal

Hiroaki Tabata admitted during a news conference Friday night that his office had signed people up for LDP membership without their consent.
Former chief of staff to the U.S. secretary of defense Kash Patel speaks during a campaign rally for former U.S. President Donald Trump in Las Vegas in October.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 1, 2024

Trump picks Kash Patel to head FBI

Patel has called for stripping the FBI of its intelligence-gathering role and purging anyone who refuses to support Trump's agenda.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail pledged that he would make it costly for countries to move away from the U.S. dollar. And he’s threatened to use tariffs to ensure they complied.
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2024

Trump demands ‘commitment’ from BRICS nations on using dollar

Backlash against the dollar’s dominance gained traction in 2022 when the U.S. led efforts to impose economic sanctions on Russia.
The mother of Israeli hostage Edan Alexander (L) hugs an organizer at a pro-Israel rally in New York on Oct. 6.
WORLD
Dec 1, 2024

Hamas releases video of U.S.-Israeli hostage in Gaza

Around half of the 101 foreign and Israeli hostages still held incommunicado in Gaza are believed to be alive.
A resident walks past destruction caused by Israeli bombardment in a neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday, a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2024

The Lebanon ceasefire can be leveraged for a broader deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already said he sees the ceasefire as a pause in which to increase pressure on Hamas in Gaza and to rearm.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building