Search - 2023

 
 
Liverpool's Wataru Endo celebrates after the club's win over Southampton in the League Cup quarterfinals on Thursday.
SOCCER
Dec 19, 2024

Liverpool gets back on track to reach League Cup semifinals

Rare goals from Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliott sent the 10-time League Cup winner into the last four for a record 20th time.
Warriors guard Stephen Curry drives past the Mavericks' Maxence Prosper during a game in San Francisco on Dec. 15.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Dec 19, 2024

Warriors lead way as average value of NBA team reaches $4.6 billion

Golden State is considered the second most valuable franchise in U.S. sports, trailing only the Dallas Cowboys.
Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of semiconductor company Micron, addresses Semicon India 2023, India’s annual semiconductor conference, held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat state. India is trying to boost domestic chip production, a strategic move for its industrial growth and economic security.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2024

India’s budding chip industry: A cause for cautious optimism

Amid the global "chip war," India has entered the fray as it tries to become a semiconductor leader, a move welcomed by those diversifying supply chains away from China.
Alice Weidel, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany, speaks during a vote of confidence at the Bundestag in Berlin on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 19, 2024

Scholz’s far-right rival puts Germany’s EU exit on the ballot

Alternative for Germany co-leader Alice Weidel says the bloc’s "socialist policy making” has "destroyed the market mechanism in Europe.”
Jasper Cheung, head of Amazon Japan (second from the left), which will enter the "furusato nozei" hometown donation intermediary business.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 19, 2024

Amazon Japan to enter 'furusato nōzei' business

Amazon aims to differentiate its service from other sites by delivering gifts as quickly as one day after donations are made.
A pedestrian shares the sidewalk with a food delivery robot in Los Angeles.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 31, 2024

The world needs a pro-human AI agenda

It is both technically feasible and socially desirable to have AI that complements workers, improves our information ecosystem, and strengthens democracy.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington on Nov. 13.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Dec 31, 2024

Will the second Trump boom go bust?

Trump is inheriting a strong economy, but he faces a more challenging economic landscape than he did in his first term.
Residential buildings under construction at China Evergrande Group's Riverside Palace development in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China, in November 2023
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 20, 2024

China’s economic rebound hangs on the fate of its richest cities

Preserving earning power in China was given fresh urgency as U.S. Presidential-elect Donald Trump says he will choke off critical Chinese exports.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Jan 5, 2025

'Guernica' is always with us

How do we account for the past year, almost nine decades after "Guernica," when all the boundaries of horror have been pulverized?
A soldier stops a car at a checkpoint in Bishnupur, Manipur, India, in April.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 20, 2024

Fighters from Myanmar's civil war exacerbate ethnic conflict in India

The conflict between Manipur's mostly Hindu Meitei community and the mainly Christian Kuki tribes is seen as one of India's biggest law-and-order failures.
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 20, 2024

Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns

The inspection follows a reported leak in August of water containing "forever chemicals" outside the U.S. base in western Tokyo.
China’s solar industry is seeking to emulate OPEC’s cartel model, but differences in technological innovation, market dynamics and centralized control by Beijing complicate such efforts.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2024

An OPEC for solar power isn’t going to work

Geological advantages are perpetual, but technological advantages can quickly become obsolete.
A pedestrian crossing in Tokyo's Ginza district. In an economic report released Friday, the government cut its assessment on corporate profits for the first time since March 2023.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 20, 2024

Japan says overall economy recovering, but cuts view on corporate profits

Among key economic areas, the government cut its assessment on corporate profits for the first time since March 2023 as the pace of its recovery was moderating.
Self-Defense Force members march in formation at Camp Asaka, which straddles Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture, during a ceremony on Nov. 9.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 21, 2024

Japan ready to improve working conditions for SDF members

Improving working conditions for the members "is a serious challenge" for his administration, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told a meeting of relevant Cabinet ministers.
People play pickleball in New York on Dec. 8.
TENNIS
Dec 21, 2024

Australian Open to provide platform for pickleball from 2025

Melbourne Park's Court 3 will transform into pickleball central from Jan. 24-26 next year, as an international field of players compete for top honors.
Oleksandr Usyk celebrates after beating Tyson Fury to retain his world heavyweight titles, on Saturday in Riyadh.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Dec 22, 2024

Ukraine's Usyk outpoints Fury to retain world heavyweight crowns

Giving up advantages in height, weight and reach to his much bigger opponent, Usyk fought superbly throughout.
The rise of TikTok has drawn intense scrutiny, particularly over its links to China.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Dec 22, 2024

One billion users, but controversies mount up for TikTok

In Washington, the platform has been accused of espionage, while the EU suspects it was used to sway Romania's presidential election in favor of a far-right candidate.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom stands with Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng at an event welcoming pandas to the San Diego Zoo on Aug. 8. American intelligence agencies have warned of influence operations targeting city halls and statehouses. But what's in it for Beijing?
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 22, 2024

As China seeks influence, it has a cuddly way into city hall: pandas

Records and interviews show that Beijing has used pandas as leverage to shape policy on Taiwan and to cultivate relationships with local U.S. politicians.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, casts his vote during an impeachment vote against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at the National Assembly in Seoul  Dec.14.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 22, 2024

A race to the Blue House or the jail house

Since the end of martial law in 1987, there have been eight democratically elected presidents — and all but two of those have either been impeached or imprisoned.
People walk through Vilnius, Lithuania, on Dec. 17. Lithuania’s national opera house had stopped showing Tchaikovsky’s 1892 masterpiece in solidarity with Ukraine over the war with Russia.
WORLD / Society
Dec 22, 2024

A cultural casualty of the war in Ukraine: ‘The Nutcracker’

Many in the art world oppose banning works on the basis of their nationality, believing that culture has the power to unite and should not be contaminated by politics.
Mourners pray during the funeral for Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Sunday.
WORLD
Dec 23, 2024

Order to evacuate Gaza hospital 'next to impossible' to obey: medics

The hospital is one of the few still partially functioning in the northern edge of Gaza, an area under intense Israeli military pressure for nearly three months.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo. Strategists are now feeling less optimistic on the yen’s outlook after Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda opened up the possibility of waiting longer for the next rate hike.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 23, 2024

Yen bulls retreat as Fed and BOJ dim hopes of quick narrowing of rate gap

Wide gaps in interest rates could bring back the yen carry trade, in which investors borrow in Japan and deploy the funds in higher-yielding markets.
People mourn over the graves of relatives who were killed after gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles in the Kurram tribal district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in Shalozan, Pakistan, on Nov. 22.
WORLD / Society
Dec 23, 2024

Terrorism roars back in Pakistan, 10 years after a campaign to end it

Violence has surged in northwestern Pakistan in the past few years, which experts attribute to the Taliban’s 2021 seizure of power in neighboring Afghanistan.
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani reacts to a standing ovation from fans after hitting his 50th home run of the season, against the Marlins in Miami on Sept. 19.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 23, 2024

For baseball fans, 2024 brought The Summer of Shohei Ohtani

The superstar was the center of attention for almost a full calendar year during a season straight out of a Hollywood movie.
Migrants seeking asylum gather near the border wall between the United States and Mexico after crossing a razor wire fence deployed to inhibit their crossing, as a member of the Texas National Guard escorts them on Dec. 19.
WORLD / Society
Dec 23, 2024

'Bless Donald Trump': Human smugglers cash in

"Coyotes," as they are known, are banking on a pickup in trade due to the president-elect's campaign promise to crack down on migrants once he takes office.
Israeli emergency responders inspect a crater at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed, in Tel Aviv early on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 23, 2024

Netanyahu vows to act with 'force' and 'determination' against Yemen's Houthis

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed to retaliate against Yemen's Houthi rebels after they fired a missile at Tel Aviv.
Film festivals around the world are giving space to AI-generated cinematic experiences, with Venice and Cannes among the heavy hitters with sections dedicated to "immersive" works, including those made using virtual and augmented reality.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 23, 2024

Asia’s film industry should balance AI with human creativity

AI is revolutionizing cinema. Japan and Asia as a whole are well-positioned to harness technology to empower storytelling while retaining film's essentially human nature.
A woman who was displaced by a flood shells cowpeas as she sits outside her shelter in Banki, in Maiduguri, Nigeria, in October.
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead
Jan 6, 2025

The uphill battle against poverty

After the pandemic years, when tens of millions of people were pushed into poverty, the need for a renewed effort is obvious.
A close up of EV batteries at the production unit of Inobat, a Slovakian battery maker in Voderady, Slovakia, on Dec. 11
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 23, 2024

After Northvolt, Europe's battery hopes heavily rely on China

The norm in the future may be joint ventures that rely on China's low-margin electric vehicle battery dominance.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries' Tokyo head office
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2024

Kawasaki Heavy's spending on SDF personnel found taxable

SDF submarine crew members have been wined, dined and given gift certificates by Kawasaki Heavy's Kobe Works, with the expenses reported as tax-deductible.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan