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August 10, 2025
 

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Brian Hutto runs Craft Sake Shoten, a Yokohama shop he calls a hangout for 'real sake enthusiasts.'
LIFE / Food & Drink / Kanpai Culture
Feb 2, 2025

Sipping down the rabbit hole at Craft Sake Shoten

A chance encounter with sake evangelist John Gauntner led Brian Hutto to reinvent himself with sake as his new focus.
In addition to the commercial benefits from Ginza Sony Park's music-centered exhibition — such as promoting Sony's artists and products — there is a real effort to put music in focus.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 1, 2025

At the new Ginza Sony Park, listening is an art form

“Sony Park Exhibition 2025” features installations created in collaboration with six music artists: Vaundy, Yoasobi, Hitsujibungaku, Creepy Nuts, Babymonster and Kensuke Ushio.
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during a match against Nottingham Forest on Jan. 14.
SOCCER
Feb 1, 2025

Slot urges Salah to sign new Liverpool deal after Saudi links

Salah has been in sensational form this season but is out of contract in June, with speculation persisting that the Saudi Pro League could be a possible destination.
Many attribute the far right’s recent global rise to “anti-incumbency” bias, but this overlooks how the COVID-19 crisis fostered division and distrust, turning voters against their governments. 
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025

Confronting the pandemic’s toxic political legacy

Libertarian resentment over past restrictions and mandates is one thing; an abiding distrust of scientists is quite another.
Bollywood faced a challenging year in 2024, with box-office collections dropping significantly, leading to concerns about a return to lawlessness in Mumbai.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025

Bollywood’s dark past is threatening to return

When everything starts bombing for Bollywood, things take a sinister turn in Mumbai.
The Jackson State marching band performs at halftime of their game against South Carolina State at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Dec. 14, 2024.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 3, 2025

Dynamic Black marching bands are Super Bowl stalwarts

At least 13 Super Bowl halftime shows have included HBCU marching bands.
Taiwanese star Barbie Hsu, who was hugely popular across Asia for her leading role in the 2001 television drama "Meteor Garden," died from a respiratory illness during a family trip to Japan over the Lunar New Year holiday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Feb 3, 2025

Taiwan's 'Meteor Garden' star Barbie Hsu dies at 48

The actor, who rose to fame as the romantic lead in a 2001 television drama based on a manga series, died from a respiratory illness during a family holiday in Japan.
Beyonce accepts the Best Country Album award for genre-spanning record "Cowboy Carter," her first accolade of the big night.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Feb 3, 2025

In pictures: The Grammys 2025 moments to remember

It was a night for recognition of music's brightest talents but also for coming together after the tragedy of the LA wildfires.
A U.S. Marine provides water to Afghan families during the evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in August 2021.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2025

Abandoning Afghans who worked with us troops is shameful

The urgency is driven by a simple fact: The Afghans who helped us, along with their family members, are considered traitors by the ruling Taliban.
The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, also called the Chinese Six Companies, formed in San Francisco in 1882, was a unifying umbrella organization for immigrant associations, becoming one of the first such influential community advocacy groups in America.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025

America versus China, the troubling prequel

A forthcoming book details the horrific experience of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. in the 19th century. Is it an omen for the future?
French President Emmanuel Macron. Tech players from around the world will gather in France for an AI summit next week.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 4, 2025

France pitches AI summit as 'wake-up call' for Europe

Players from across the sector and representatives from 80 nations will gather in the French capital.
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi (left) describes a detail of a mawashi presented as a gift to French President Jacques Chirac at the Elysee Palace in 1999.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Feb 5, 2025

No Paris Syndrome for Japan’s national sport

Despite an up and down history, sumo and France remain amorous.
Japanese cellist Eru Matsumoto, South African flutist Wouter Kellerman and Indian American vocalist Chandrika Tandon won a Grammy on Sunday for their album “Triveni.”
CULTURE / Music
Feb 5, 2025

Japanese cellist Eru Matsumoto awarded Grammy for best new age album

Alongside South African flutist Wouter Kellerman and Indian American vocalist Chandrika Tandon, Matsumoto took home the accolade for the trio’s album “Triveni.”
A 45-year-old widow (Takako Matsu) repeatedly travels back in time to meet her future — and late — husband (Hokuto Matsumura) in “First Kiss.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2025

‘First Kiss’: Time-traveling romantic drama isn’t afraid of a few wrinkles

Ayuko Tsukahara’s high-concept love story has wit and wisdom to spare with an endearing screen couple at its center.
Naomi Osaka celebrates winning her second round match at the Australian Open over the Czech Republic's Karolina Muchova on Jan. 15.
TENNIS
Feb 6, 2025

Naomi Osaka on tennis, motherhood and being Japanese

Osaka returned to the tour a year ago and has had mixed results overall. But there are early signs in 2025 that she's starting to "get her pink back."
Although she’s unlucky in love, Shigusa (Kirara Inori, left) finds strength in expressing herself through art in “Kisspeptin Chronicles.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2025

‘Kisspeptin Chronicles’: Quirky rom-com dances through the pain of heartache

Shiika Okada’s debut feature has an autobiographical feel and a hopeful message about self-discovery despite romantic disappointments.
After gaining a record number of Oscar nominations for a foreign-language movie, "Emilia Perez" has become embroiled in scandal linked to past social media posts by star Karla Sofia Gascon.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 7, 2025

Oscars frontrunner 'Emilia Perez' suffers awards season crash

Actor Karla Sofia Gascon has seen her path to glory seriously compromised by her past social media posts about Islam, U.S. anti-racism protests and even the Oscars themselves.
Visitors pack Bourbon Street on Saturday ahead of the NFL's Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, in New Orleans, Louisiana,
WORLD
Feb 9, 2025

Super Bowl parade celebrates fact that New Orleans is 'still in business'

New Orleans mixed celebration and remembrance with a Super Bowl parade ahead of the big game.
The new Nippon TV series “The Hot Spot” follows an alien superhero navigating rural Japanese life but focuses more on dialogue than splashy, action-packed plot points.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / Wide Angle
Feb 10, 2025

‘The Hot Spot’: Close encounters of the mundane kind

Japanese dramas have been taking bolder risks recently, and Bakarhythm’s new sci-fi series surprises by centering its high-concept ideas on trivial occurrences.
Giving out courtesy chocolates to coworkers on Valentine's Day is becoming obsolete.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 10, 2025

How giving chocolates on Valentine’s Day is evolving in Japan

One change is fewer people are handing out chocolates to others at work, which had been a widespread practice over the past few decades.
A set of miniature "hina" dolls from the late Edo Period (1603-1868), collected by hina furnishings researcher Yumiko Kawauchi
CULTURE
Feb 10, 2025

Miniatures bring hidden worlds to life at Tokyo cultural site

A set of dolls from the late Edo Period is among the items on display on the premises of Hotel Gajoen Tokyo.
U.S. President Donald Trump (right) and Russian President Vladimir Putin talk during a bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Osaka in 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 11, 2025

Russia seen playing hardball with Trump on Ukraine peace discussions

Donald Trump, who has repeatedly stated he wants to end the war in Ukraine, said he thought he was making progress, though he has not shared how he hopes to end the conflict.
Al Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring his team's third goal against Al Fayah in Riyadh on Friday.
SOCCER
Feb 11, 2025

Ronaldo reaches deal with Al Nassr to extend contract, official says

Ronaldo turned 40 last week, with his current contract due to end in June 2025.
Travel officials from the Middle East experience test cutting for Japanese swords in Setouchi, Okayama Prefecture, in January.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2025

Government touts exchanges with nations participating in Osaka Expo

Local governments expect their plans to boost youth exchanges, accelerate overseas expansion and promote tourism.
The entrance to Walt Disney studios in Burbank, California
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 12, 2025

Disney softens diversity criteria used to determine manager pay

Disney is the latest company to soften its focus on diversity, equity and inclusion amid a growing backlash against such policies by mostly conservative groups.
Netflix series “Asura,” directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, is a remake of a classic TV drama (known as “Like Asura” in English), created by Kuniko Mukoda and broadcast by NHK between 1979 and 1980.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Feb 12, 2025

The different faces of ‘Asura’ through the generations

While Hirokazu Kore-eda’s new series meticulously remakes a classic NHK drama, this reinterpretation tweaks the story to give its female characters more agency.
A YPG fighter holds a notebook with an image of Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, in Al Hasakah, Syria, on Dec. 21.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 12, 2025

Turkey seeks historic peace with Kurds in a shifting Middle East

For the Turkish president, a peace deal would potentially win him enough support to change the constitution and extend his more than two decades in power.
A hapless rakugo comic storyteller, Tamon Saito (Tomizo Nobe, left), strikes up an unlikely relationship with a young comedian (Nagiko Tsuji) who wants to rip off his routine in “Laugh, Everyone!”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2025

'Laugh, Everyone!’: A wonky but endearing double act

Taichi Suzuki’s comedian buddy movie walks a fine line between funny and bleak.
In “Kanasando,” when Mika (Ruka Matsuda, left) returns to her hometown in Okinawa Prefecture, she starts to see her estranged father (Tadanobu Asano) in a new light as his health deteriorates.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2025

‘Kanasando’: Heartwarming homecoming inspires a change of heart

Tadanobu Asano shows a vulnerable side of his tough-guy image while playing a dementia-afflicted father reconnecting with his daughter in Toshiyuki Teruya’s film.
A "biohybrid" robot hand developed by a research team from the University of Tokyo and Waseda University
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 13, 2025

Japanese research team develops world’s largest 'biohybrid' robot hand

Lack of nutrients, necrosis and muscle fiber alignment issues have limited the scale of previous "biohybrid" systems.
U.S. backtracks on Japan tariff calculation, taking effective rate lower
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, said the U.S. made a clerical error in not including a “reciprocal” tariff rate ceiling for Japan in the trade deal.
Japan's inheritance tax is high, unforgiving and sometimes avoidable
The National Tax Agency at the Ministry of Finance, Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. Japanese tax authorities can bill foreign residents in Japan for assets inherited globally.
Japan starts survey on foreign nationals' unpaid resident taxes
In the most recent regular session of parliament, problems were highlighted regarding some foreign workers leaving Japan without paying outstanding taxes after completing their stay periods.
How Pakistan shot down India's cutting-edge fighter using Chinese gear
An Indian Air Force pilot gets out of a Rafale fighter jet during its induction ceremony at an air force station in Ambala, India, September 2020.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person
Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
Cheer with caution: Expert advises sports fans have game plan for extreme heat
A Cardinals fan fans himself during the seventh inning of a game against the Pirates in St. Louis, Missouri, in June 2022.
Australia's warship selection signals Japanese defense industry's arrival
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Mogami-class frigate. Australia's selection of an upgraded version of the Mogami-class warship for its next frigate class could prove to be a watershed moment for Japan’s defense industry.
Japan's inheritance tax is high, unforgiving and sometimes avoidable
The National Tax Agency at the Ministry of Finance, Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. Japanese tax authorities can bill foreign residents in Japan for assets inherited globally.
Will the movement seeking Ishiba’s resignation succeed?
Liberal Democratic Party youth division head Yasutaka Nakasone (center) and other members speak to reporters in Tokyo on July 25.
Photographer Bleg Bayraktar is winning social media with politeness
A video on Bayraktar's Instagram account of the Belgian photographer approaching an elderly worker in Tokyo's Shibuya has gone viral, garnering almost 9 million views.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person
By Naoko Abe

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Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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