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Spectators gather on South Padre Island to watch the planned launch of SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft from the company's Boca Chica launchpad, near Brownsville, Texas, on March 14.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2024

Musk's SpaceX is quick to build in Texas, slow to pay its bills

Unpaid bills and finger-pointing among contractors have led many construction-industry businesses to file liens against SpaceX properties.
Singapore's new prime minister, Lawrence Wong (left), shakes hands with his predecessor, Lee Hsien Loong, during the swearing-in ceremony at the Istana in Singapore on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 16, 2024

Singapore’s riches grew under its leader. So did discontent.

On Wednesday, the Southeast Asian country’s third prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, handed the reins to his deputy, the first leadership change in nearly 20 years.
The new era of U.S.-Japan cooperation exemplifies a successful public-private collaboration crucial for maintaining a competitive edge in global technology, especially amid geopolitical tensions with China.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 16, 2024

U.S.-Japan semiconductor alliance of the future

On the geopolitical side, the U.S.-Japan alliance is on one side of the equation, with China on the other and Taiwan in the middle.
Osaka Metropolitan University has reviewed its records and interviewed faculty members and students but has been unable to determine the whereabouts of two missing bottles of cyanide.
JAPAN / Society
May 16, 2024

Two bottles of cyanide go missing from Osaka university

A laboratory worker discovered the bottles of deadly compounds were missing during an inventory check on May 2.
SungWon Cho is a veteran with more than 10 years of experience portraying characters in anime, cartoons and video games.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
May 19, 2024

Want to be a voice actor? Stay 'true to the character'

“Most people think of just the cutscenes," SungWon Cho says, "but you end up voicing everything — the sounds a character makes when fighting, like battle cries, for example."
Edison just turned 15, which is hard to believe given the energy he has on his walks.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
May 20, 2024

After the Noto quake, Edison needs a new loving home

The fact that he used to be kept outside may be the reason behind why he loves nothing more than a warm blanket and a heater.
Philippine Coast Guard personnel work as the 97-meter coast guard multirole response vessel, the BRP Melchora Aquino, arrives from Japan at the international port in Manila in June 2020.
JAPAN / Politics
May 18, 2024

Philippines to buy five patrol boats from Japan amid South China Sea tensions

Deliveries of the just announced five ships are expected to take place between 2027 and 2028.
China Coast Guard vessels fire water cannons toward a Philippine resupply vessel as it made its way to the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea in March.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 19, 2024

Philippines replaces its military commander for disputed waters

Rear Adm. Alfonso Torres Jr. will replace Vice Adm. Alberto Carlos as chief of the Western Command on Palawan island.
As the Russo-Ukrainian war grinds into its third year, visas issued to first arrivals are approaching expiry just as the U.K. labor market cools and general interest in helping Ukrainians wanes.
WORLD / Society
May 19, 2024

Ukraine refugees face dwindling job opportunities in the U.K.

As the war enters its third year, the visas of first arrivals approach expiry just as the British labor market cools.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk and Indonesia's health minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, inaugurate the launch of the Starlink internet service in Bali's capital of Denpasar on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 19, 2024

Tycoon Musk launches Starlink in Indonesia

Millions of people in Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, are not currently hooked up to reliable internet services.
Ziya Us Salam (left), an associate editor of The Hindu, an English-language newspaper, prays at home with Shan Mohammad, a hafiz who teaches the Quran to one of his daughters, in Noida, India, just outside Delhi, on Aug. 27, 2023.
WORLD / Society
May 20, 2024

Strangers in their own land: Being Muslim in Modi’s India

The premier's rise to national power in 2014 swept a decades-old Hindu nationalist movement from the margins of Indian politics firmly to the center.
Kuniko Takahashi, whose 24-year-old son Kotaro has cerebral palsy, had not worked for about 30 years before she joined Cafe de Chill Mill in Sendai. She now happily tells her husband that she is going to work whenever he asks her about her plans.
JAPAN / Society
May 20, 2024

Sendai cafe offers work to families of children with medical needs

Staffers at the cafe work when their children are receiving care or attending schools for special educational needs.
People hold pictures of victims of the contaminated blood scandal, at a vigil to remember those that lost their lives, ahead of the release of the final report of the Infected Blood Inquiry, in London on Sunday.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 21, 2024

Probe into infected blood scandal slams U.K. state over ‘chilling’ cover-up

More than 30,000 people were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C in the U.K. in the 1970s and 1980s after receiving treatments with contaminated blood products.
Smoke rises in the distance as a burnt vehicle blocks a road near the Montravel area of Noumea, New Caledonia, on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 21, 2024

Australia and New Zealand send evacuation flights to New Caledonia

Australia and New Zealand said they will send government planes to New Caledonia on Tuesday to evacuate nationals from the French territory, which has experienced a week of deadly riots sparked by electoral changes by the French government in Paris.
Andre Hayato Saito’s latest short, “Amarela,” centers on a 14-year-old Japanese Brazilian girl (Melissa Uehara).
CULTURE / Film
May 21, 2024

Cannes nominee on being 'too Brazilian to be Japanese, too Japanese to be Brazilian’

Andre Hayato Saito's Palme d’Or-nominated short film, “Amarela,” is rooted in the director's own experiences with searching for a sense of belonging.
The modernization of Japan's defense strategy is not just about military capabilities, it is also about building consensus and fostering public understanding.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 21, 2024

The winding road to Japan's defense modernization

The government's efforts to engage the public on defense issues are crucial for building consensus and ensuring the sustainability of defense reforms.
New Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te speaks on stage during his inauguration ceremony outside the Presidential Office in Taipei on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 22, 2024

Japan protests Chinese envoy's 'inappropriate remarks' over Taiwan

Ambassador Wu Jianghao appeared to insinuate that the Japanese people would be “brought into the fire” of conflict over support for self-ruled Taiwan.
A missile is launched as North Korea conducts a test firing of a tactical ballistic missile on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 23, 2024

Japan underlines qualitative improvement of North Korean nukes

An early draft of Japan's annual defense white paper also expressed a strong sense of crisis over China's military over its activities around Taiwan.
Activists from Amnesty International gather in support of the Uyghurs at the Place du Capitole in Toulouse, on the sidelines of Chinese President Xi Jinping's two-day state visit to France on May 6.
WORLD / Politics
May 23, 2024

Uyghur group says facing Chinese 'repression' in France

The European Uyghur Institute said that acts of intimidation stepped up during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to France earlier this month.
Joe Biden’s tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other imports are more than symbolic — they are a signal that the U.S. won’t accept a surge of imports that could undermine crucial parts of his administration’s agenda.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2024

The U.S. is preparing for a second 'China shock'

The immediate impact of these tariffs will be small, because the United States currently imports very few of the affected goods from China.
Toshihiro Kinjo (center), a research support technician at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, inspects an audio recording device in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, on April 3 as Masako Ogasawara, a research support specialist at OIST, looks on.
PODCAST / deep dive
May 23, 2024

What does climate change sound like in Okinawa?

This week, Japan Times climate editor Chris Russell joins us to discuss what researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology are listening to.
Though he enjoyed making films when he was younger, Ryan Filiatrault wound up working a slew of other jobs before returning to his passion in his 30s.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 24, 2024

Ryan Filiatrault: 'Failure is an obstacle not a barrier. You can always get back on track.'

The Canadian filmmaker has taken a regimented approach to following his passion — and it has worked.
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech at the High Commissioner's residency in Noumea, New Caledonia, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 24, 2024

The colonial-era inequalities that fueled the New Caledonia crisis

The island territory is marked by deep disparities in education and employment, according to data and experts.
Mascara really needs a home where she can enjoy her golden years.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
May 27, 2024

Make some room in your heart for Mascara

Despite the hardships she’s overcome (and maybe because of them), Mascara really needs a home where she can enjoy her golden years.
A sticker advertising dogecoin in Hong Kong in 2022. Kabosu, the shiba inu rescue dog who became the face of the cryptocurrency, has died.
JAPAN
May 24, 2024

Shiba inu of dogecoin fame dies at 18

Kabosu “fell into a deep sleep this morning and passed away quietly,” owner Atsuko Sato posted on social media platform X.
British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak meets with veterans at a community breakfast in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, England, on Saturday during a party campaign event in the build-up to the U.K. general election on July 4.
WORLD / Politics
May 26, 2024

Sunak pledges mandatory national service in U.K. election ploy

Sunak is trying to set out a bold new agenda after he unexpectedly announced a general election on July 4.
A 2-megawatt solar farm in the city of Fukushima. “Megasolar” refers to farms with a minimum output of 1 MW of electricity — enough to power around 300 homes for a year.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
May 26, 2024

‘Megasolar’ is a dirty word in Japan. Where do solar projects go from here?

Vocal campaigns are pushing back against projects as dangerous eyesores, but "dual-use" approaches and community engagement may offer a solution.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te makes a speech during his visit to a military camp in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 26, 2024

After China drills, Taiwan president again offers talks

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said Sunday he was still open to working with China on building "mutual understanding and reconciliation."
Locals gather to help in the search effort after a landslide that hit in Papua New Guinea's Enga province on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 26, 2024

More than 670 estimated dead in Papua New Guinea landslide: U.N.

The unforgiving terrain, damaged roads and an outbreak of tribal violence nearby have seriously hamstrung efforts to get help into the disaster zone.
Richard Grenell speaks at a Donald Trump rally in Florence, Arizona, on Jan. 15, 2022.  Grenell has a good chance of landing a top foreign policy job in a second Trump administration — if not as secretary of state, which requires Senate confirmation, then perhaps as national security adviser, which does not.
WORLD / Politics
May 26, 2024

He threw ‘spaghetti at the wall’ for Trump. Now he’s after a top job.

If Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidency, Richard Grenell hopes to be secretary of state. But his work raises questions, even from his former boss.

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