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Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba answers questions at a session of the Upper House Budget Committee in Tokyo. Approval ratings for Ishiba's government have dropped sharply, polls showed Monday, as the leader faces a backlash for distributing gift vouchers to rookie lawmakers in his ruling party.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 17, 2025

Approval rates for Ishiba's Cabinet plunge amid gift voucher snafu

Polls conducted by several newspapers over the weekend show public support tumbling to record lows.
AMKK’s latest exhibition, “X-Ray Flowers,” is the culmination of seven years of work aided by CT technologists, who help with the highly specialized imaging techniques.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 21, 2025

Avant-garde botanists AMKK illuminate the inner worlds of flowers

The punk florists' latest exhibition immerses visitors in darkness, bathed only in the glow of X-rays and CT scans of plants and flowers.
Protesters take cover as Turkish riot police use tear gas amid clashes in Istanbul on Saturday over the arrest of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
WORLD
Mar 23, 2025

Vast crowds rally in Istanbul in support of arrested mayor

The demonstrations, which began in Istanbul on Wednesday, have since spread to more than 55 of Turkey's 81 provinces.
Officials of the National Public Safety Commission inspect the Kabukicho area of Shinjuku, Tokyo, in June 2024, as crimes committed by unscrupulous host clubs have surfaced.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Mar 24, 2025

Crimes by 'tokuryu' anonymous groups pose serious issue in Japan

Police have made capturing the ringleaders a top priority but are struggling in their investigations, largely due to the criminals' use of highly encrypted communication apps.
Masamichi Koike, head of global markets business at Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, says the Bank of Japan is likely to increase the policy rate to 1% this year as long as the U.S. economy doesn’t falter.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2025

Sumitomo Mitsui markets head sees BOJ rate at 30-year high

The Bank of Japan is likely to increase the policy rate to 1% this year from the current 0.5% as long as the U.S. economy doesn’t falter, said Masamichi Koike.
Nobuya Fukumoto (far left), a lawyer for the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, known as the Unification Church, is surrounded by the media at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday after it ordered the group to be stripped of its religious corporation status.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 25, 2025

Tokyo court strips Unification Church of religious corporation status

The order against the group, heavily criticized for its coercive tactics in soliciting donations, removes its tax-exempt status.
Increased reliance on AI and digital technology is weakening cognitive skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving, as people depend more on machines for tasks that once required mental effort.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2025

‘Use it or lose it’ — a grim mantra for the AI age

In sum, “excessive dependence on AI without concurrent cultivation of fundamental cognitive skills may lead to underutilization and subsequent loss of cognitive abilities.”
Women and babies at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to al-Fashir in North Darfur, Sudan, in January 2024
WORLD / Society
Mar 26, 2025

Sudan's RSF squeezing relief supplies as famine spreads, aid workers say

The move puts hundreds of thousands of people in the western region of Darfur at greater risk of starvation.
Nissan is set to roll out a number of new and refreshed models in fiscal 2025 and 2026 as it seeks to halt its financial free fall.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 26, 2025

Nissan’s next CEO says it needs partners and he’s open to Honda

Ivan Espinosa, who currently serves as Nissan’s chief planning officer, takes the helm at a critical time for the company.
Alysa Liu competes in the women’s short program during the World Figure Skating Championships at TD Garden in Boston on Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
Mar 27, 2025

Women's skating favorites falter as Liu leads at worlds

Three-time defending champion Kaori Sakamoto, trying to become the first woman in 65 years to capture four consecutive world crowns, was a disappointing fifth.
A firefighting helicopter carries water during an operation as a wildfire burns in Yeongyang, South Korea, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 28, 2025

South Korea hopes to use break in weather to contain deadly wildfires

At least 28 people have died and more than 45,000 hectares of largely forest land in the country's southeast have been charred or are burning.
Graduation ceremonies in Japan will usually include a performance of the Japanese national anthem, “Kimigayo.”
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 28, 2025

Attempting the classics: The world of waka poetry

The origins of this poetry style stretch back to at least the seventh century, when one of the emperor's wives composed it at court ceremonies.
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 1, 2025

Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses

The company is switching to paper cartons as a result of declining demand, environmental concerns and supply issues after its glass bottle supplier shut down.
Damar Hamlin poses with students at The American School in Japan in Chofu, western Tokyo, on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Apr 1, 2025

NFL comeback star Damar Hamlin shares life-saving message in Tokyo

Hamlin’s comeback is bigger than football. It is also a vehicle for him to do something he has done his entire life — help others.
A Buddhist monk walks past the damaged Mandalay Palace on Monday. The country's ruling military junta can repeat the mistakes of 17 years ago by blocking aid after Cyclone Nargis left 140,000 dead or allow urgent assistance to flow freely.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2025

The quake in Myanmar should force the junta’s hand

The ousted civilian administration initiated a two-week ceasefire in quake-hit areas to allow aid to reach victims. It doesn’t look like the junta will do the same.
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) address a news conference after bilateral talks on Thursday in Budapest.
WORLD
Apr 4, 2025

Israeli leader Netanyahu applauds Hungary's ICC exit on Budapest visit

Hungary has rejected the idea of arresting the Israeli prime minister and has called the warrant "brazen."
Emma Navarro hits a shot against Donna Vekic during their match in Indian Wells, California, on March 10.
TENNIS
Apr 4, 2025

Emma Navarro joins top players in asking Grand Slams for more compensation

Players at the lower levels often struggle due to a lack of steady sponsorship as well as expensive coaching, travel and accommodation.
Labor Party MP for Bennelong Jerome Laxale and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong pose for pictures with residents in Sydney in February.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 4, 2025

In a tight Australian election, a Chinese app could make a difference

Politicians are turning to Xiaohongshu, a Chinese lifestyle app also called RedNote, to appeal to Chinese communities who will be a crucial voting bloc.
Paris Saint-Germain's players throw coach Luis Enrique into the air as they celebrate winning the French league title in Paris on Saturday.
SOCCER
Apr 7, 2025

Paris Saint-Germain becomes stronger amid Luis Enrique's starless revolution

Having just clinched the Ligue 1 title, PSG moves on to a Champions League quarterfinal against Aston Villa in a buoyant mood.
One of two Chinese soldiers Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said were captured by Ukrainian forces in the country's Donetsk region is seen in this image released Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 9, 2025

In a first, Ukraine captures two Chinese nationals fighting for Russia

The Chinese men were taken captive during fighting on Ukrainian territory in the Donetsk region.
Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski celebrates after scoring his second goal against Dortmund during the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal in Barcelona on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Apr 10, 2025

Robert Lewandowski leads rout as Barcelona beats Dortmund in first leg

Barcelona is enjoying a superb 23-game unbeaten run across all competitions.
Margot Magniere and Theo Poyer returned to Japan after pandemic-era restrictions were lifted and decided to stay for a while.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 11, 2025

The band that turned a pandemic lockdown into a Tokyo dream

On “Grand Voyage,” French pop act Tapeworms tap into Japanese cultural nostalgia and picopop.
The U.K. government rushed urgent legislation through Parliament on Saturday to stop the Scunthorpe plant's blast furnaces from turning off.
WORLD
Apr 13, 2025

'Naive' to trust Chinese firm with British Steel, U.K. minister says

The government rushed urgent legislation through parliament on Saturday to stop the Scunthorpe plant's blast furnaces from turning off.
This satellite image taken on March 25 shows three Chinese barges connected via extendable bridges in waters off Zhanjiang, in southern China's Guangdong province. Experts say the new barges could be used to land heavy equipment and thousands of personnel in a possible invasion of Taiwan.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 15, 2025

China’s new bridge-forming barges offer new options for Taiwan invasion

The ships can be linked up one behind the other to form a long, relocatable pier that extends from deeper waters nearly a kilometer out at sea onto a beach.
American rapper Post Malone performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 13.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Apr 17, 2025

Music, revolution and Y2K: Coachella 2025 takeaways

Highlights from the California music festival included an appearance from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and an increase in leather pants.
While taking refuge on Mount Kasagi from the shogunate’s forces, Emperor Go-Daigo had a prophetic dream that eventually led him to secure the support of military strategist Kusunoki Masashige.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Apr 19, 2025

‘I scud before the autumn wind’: Emperor Go-Daigo’s fall from grace

The “Masukagami,” a 14th-century historical chronicle, offers a wrenching account of the emperor’s struggle for power — and eventual downfall.
People walk down a street in the red-light entertainment area of Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo on March 31.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 20, 2025

Social media helps fuel growing 'sex tourism' in Japan

Only certain sexual services are prohibited in Japan, and it is the sex workers — not their clients — who face fines or prison, if caught.
Barcelona defender Jules Kounde (right) celebrates alongside forward Lamine Yamal during the Copa del Rey final in Seville, Spain, on Saturday.
SOCCER
Apr 27, 2025

Barcelona sinks Real Madrid in extra time to win Copa del Rey title

Barca won a record-extending 32nd Spanish Cup title thanks to a stunning strike from French defender Jules Kounde.
Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks controls the ball while being guarded by forward Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs during the 2025 NBA All-Star Game in February.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Apr 30, 2025

NBA mulling All-Star Game change: USA vs. World

Silver said an international format is appealing because the game will air on NBC during the middle of that network's Winter Olympics coverage.
Armed Druze men stand at a checkpoint in Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, Syria, on Friday.
WORLD
May 1, 2025

Israel strikes Syria, saying it hit group that attacked Druze

Since Assad was ousted in December, Israel has seized ground in the southwest and vowed to protect the Druze.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji