Search - 2023

 
 
The preserved Atomic Bomb Dome is seen behind the Cenotaph for the victims of the atomic bombing at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park last October.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 28, 2025

Hiroshima and Nagasaki mayors invite Trump to visit on 80th anniversary of atomic bombing

The mayors emphasized Washington’s key role in reining in the proliferation of nuclear weapons as “tensions continue to worsen” across the globe.
Mayor Masanori Yamamoto of Kibichuo, Okayama Prefecture, announces the results of PFAS blood concentration tests on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2025

PFAS blood test results in Okayama Prefecture town exceed U.S. standards

The Kibichuo town government announced the results of its first blood tests after PFAS were detected at a water purification plant in the town.
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son has said the firm plans to invest $100 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 29, 2025

SoftBank in talks to lead $500 million AI robotics funding

The startup Skild is developing software that will allow robots to perform increasingly complicated tasks.
Protestors rally to oppose U.S. President Donald Trump's order to pause all federal grants and loans, in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 29, 2025

Trump’s spending halt spawns day of chaos before getting blocked

Trump's order seemed to touch on a wide swath of programs running the gamut from anti-poverty initiatives to medical research.
Smoke from the Hughes fire billows outside of Castaic, California, on Jan. 22
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 29, 2025

Climate change made Los Angeles 35% more primed to burn, scientists say

Greenhouse gas pollution raised temperatures, made drought more likely and extended the duration of fire season.
Underneath the praise, Washington, Wall Street and Silicon Valley are aligned in their view of DeepSeek as a key competitor to Meta’s Llama.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 29, 2025

DeepSeek tests Meta’s ambition for U.S. open-source AI dominance

Mark Zuckerberg has long championed Meta’s open-source approach to artificial intelligence software as key to ensuring U.S. dominance over China in AI.
Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy in action as he tees off on the eighth during the final round of the Dubai Desert Classic on Jan. 19.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 29, 2025

Rory McIlroy continues 'pivotal' year at Pebble Beach

Not only does McIlroy have his first TGL experience under his belt, he also began his season with a T4 finish at the Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour.
China's DeepSeek artificial intelligence app. The app’s success has shown China’s potential to surprise with even bigger breakthroughs.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 29, 2025

DeepSeek shows China playbook for even bigger U.S. shock on chips

The question now is how exactly the Hangzhou-founded company pulled it off — and what it means for American efforts to stay ahead of China in the tech race.
Shiori Ito (right) speaks outside the Tokyo District Court in December 2019 after hearing the ruling on a damages lawsuit by her, accusing a former TV reporter of rape.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 29, 2025

Japan #MeToo survivor says media are failing in wake of Fuji TV scandal

Despite several high-profile cases, Japan has never seen an outpouring of #MeToo allegations.
Fuji TV adviser Hisashi Hieda in 2005
JAPAN / Media
Jan 29, 2025

Who are the key figures involved in the growing Fuji TV scandal?

Koichi Minato, who resigned as president of Fuji TV on Monday, will be one focus of a third-party probe, given his executive role when the incident occurred.
The Deepseek and Alibaba app icons. Alibaba released a new version of its Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model on Wednesday, stating it surpasses the highly acclaimed DeepSeek-V3.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 30, 2025

Alibaba releases AI model it says surpasses DeepSeek-V3

The unusual timing of the release points to the pressure Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's meteoric rise in the past three weeks has placed on domestic competition.
A monument erected near Ulaanbaatar to remember Japanese nationals who died in Mongolia after being detained by the former Soviet Union during World War II
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2025

Japan's emperor and empress will likely visit Mongolia in July

This would be the couple's third overseas goodwill trip since the emperor's accession to the throne in 2019.
McLaren chief Zak Brown celebrates after driver Lando Norris' win in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Jan 30, 2025

McLaren boss envisions four-way battle for title during 2025 Formula One season

McLaren was crowned constructors' champion last season for the first time in 26 years
An ocean vista at a resort in Thailand on Dec. 26
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2025

'The White Lotus' is already driving a travel boom in Thailand

Ahead of the HBO show’s third season premiere, Thai tourism authorities, hoteliers and travel agents are readying for a surge in visitors.
Sea turtles in Amami Oshima, Kagoshima Prefecture. Their nesting activity has continued to decline in recent years.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 30, 2025

Amami Oshima sea turtle nesting declines to second-lowest level

Scientists believe declining populations may be a key factor and have warned that a long-term analysis is needed to assess the situation.
China-backed hackers are increasingly targeting critical U.S. infrastructure, including energy grids, telecom networks and government agencies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2025

Trump’s bigger China cyber threat isn’t TikTok

China-backed hackers are infiltrating U.S. critical infrastructure, telecom networks and government systems, exposing vulnerabilities that demand stronger cybersecurity measures.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin during a joint news conference in Helsinki on July 16, 2018
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2025

Analysts are skeptical about U.S. and Russia's nuclear talks

Moscow, in particular, seems to have no interest in reducing its arsenal of nuclear warheads as its invasion of Ukraine enters its fourth year next month.
Rakuten Group said it no longer plans to list its securities arm on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and will instead focus on deepening its partnership with Mizuho Securities.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 30, 2025

Rakuten scraps plan to list securities unit on Tokyo bourse

The Japanese e-commerce pioneer had planned an initial public offering for Rakuten Securities Holdings as part of a push to shore up finances.
Gensho Yasuda’s “Make a Girl” follows an inventor whose relationship with the robot girlfriend he builds becomes increasingly complicated as she develops an unexpected sense of independence.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2025

Indie animator Gensho Yasuda paves his own way with a DIY spirit

With “Make a Girl,” the young Japanese creator takes the leap from short videos to full-length films.
Players in Jakarta, Indonesia, take part in the “Red Light, Green Light” game from the Netflix series “Squid Game.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 30, 2025

'Cute and murderous': How the iconic killer doll in 'Squid Game' came to life

Young-hee, the innocent-looking robotic doll who has a deadly role in the mega-hit Netflix series, is partly inspired by the production designer's daughter.
A concept model of the Global Combat Air Program's fighter jet is displayed at the DSEI Japan defense show at Makuhari Messe in the city of Chiba in March 2023.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jan 31, 2025

Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss bringing Saudi Arabia into jet project

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said Italy is in favor of Saudi Arabia joining the joint development of a new sixth-generation fighter jet.
Fuji TV President Kenji Shimizu speaks to reporters at the company's headquarters in Tokyo on Thursday following a board meeting.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2025

Fuji TV expects ¥23 billion dent in revenue over Nakai scandal

The broadcaster, projecting its ad revenue to total ¥125.2 billion in the year through March, expects to fall into the red.
YouTuber Kazuki Nakata looks at his indoor farm at his home in Kawasaki on Monday. The 37-year-old now has nearly 90,000 subscribers eager to learn how to stretch out store-bought vegetables and grow new ones amid soaring produce prices.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2025

Japanese look for creative ways to fight soaring food prices

As the price of agricultural products has risen, Japanese have also been eating less of them.
According to the land ministry, damaged wastewater pipes caused 2,600 sinkholes in the year from April 2022, though most of them were less than 50 centimeters deep.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 31, 2025

Aging sewer systems could create sinkholes anywhere in Japan, experts warn

Damaged wastewater pipes caused 2,600 sinkholes in the nation in fiscal 2022.
Silicon Valley’s shock at DeepSeek exposes U.S. tech elites’ insularity and the unintended consequences of U.S. policies aimed at restricting China’s technological progress.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2025

Why Chinese tech keeps surprising the West

DeepSeek is the latest product from China to shock the U.S. tech broligarchy. It won’t be the last.
Billed as a “cultural bridge that connects Japan and Vietnam,” Tet Viet Saitama drew tens of thousands of attendees from across the Kanto region.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 2, 2025

Home away from home: My first time at a Tet festival in Japan

A longtime resident of Japan attends Saitama’s first public celebration of Vietnam’s most important holiday.
Nintendo Switch controllers for sale at a game shop in Tokyo on Jan. 16.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2025

Mario Kart may help Nintendo rally outlast flight from AI tech

The Mario Kart creator’s focus on success in games, while leveraging its intellectual property into movies and theme parks, makes it look like a safe bet for tech investors.
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as his defense chief, Pete Hegseth, speaks about the midair crash between a passenger jet and U.S. Army helicopter on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 1, 2025

Trump’s Pentagon sheds no-politics image in a major reversal

In a break with his predecessors, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has become a major driver in Trump’s agenda.
Institutional security officers stand during a ceremony to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the United States ceding control of the Panama Canal to the government of Panama in 1999, in Panama City on Dec. 31, 2024.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 1, 2025

Why the U.S. is claiming China’s presence violates the Panama neutrality treaty

U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to take back the waterway during his Jan. 20 inauguration speech, falsely claiming that China is operating it.
Trucks wait in line at the Zaragoza-Ysleta border crossing into the U.S. on Friday in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a day ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's order to impose tariffs on Mexican imports.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 2, 2025

Trump launches trade war with tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports and 10% on goods from China starting Tuesday.

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Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.