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Lions players celebrate after a win over the Buffaloes on Wednesday at Belluna Dome in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Aug 25, 2024

A fight over free agency in NPB, with help from an American union

The union representing players in NPB is fighting to secure rights over players' images and give them the opportunity to make the jump to MLB sooner.
Rohingya refugees gather to mark the seventh anniversary of their fleeing from neighboring Myanmar to escape a military crackdown in 2017, during heavy monsoon rains in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 26, 2024

Rohingya demand end to violence on seventh anniversary of flight from Myanmar

More than a million Rohingya live in squalid camps in southern Bangladesh with little prospect of returning home.
Boxes of Joban-mono marine produce such as flounder are lined up at the Hisanohama fishing port in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Sep 2, 2024

Fukushima fishermen not in the clear yet

Challenges remain for the prefecture's fisheries industry a year after the release of treated water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant began.
The Panama Canal is Panama’s biggest source of revenue, bringing in nearly $5 billion last year.
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2024

Panama Canal eases limits that caused global shipping bottleneck

Last year’s El Nino caused a significant drop in rainfall and forced the canal to implement daily transit restrictions.
Japan is facing a pilot shortage, but hiring foreign pilots is not easy due to opposition from unions. Japanese carriers also typically pay less than airlines elsewhere.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 28, 2024

Pilot shortage threatens Japan’s goal for 60 million tourists

Falling short may mean missing out on lucrative tourism money as carriers simply can’t find the crew to fly the necessary number of planes.
Nicholas Tarasenko trains at Minato stable in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, on Tuesday. Tarasenko’s potential in sumo was made obvious when he won U18 gold in the 90-kg weight class at the 2023 Baruto Cup in Estonia despite being four years under the age limit and having only had a total of one hour of sumo training before the meet.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Aug 28, 2024

This English schoolboy has big dreams of becoming yokozuna — and more

Nicholas Tarasenko may only be 15 years old, but he is already making big plans for his burgeoning sumo career.
A map of western Japan shows the Nankai Trough and, to its north, the hypocentral region where the energy for an earthquake is thought to be building.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 30, 2024

Did you feel that? It may be time to refresh your disaster kits — and vocabulary.

Part of Japan got a scare when the first-ever megaquake alert was issued earlier this month, a reminder that knowing the right terms in a disaster is crucial.
Verdi took some time to warm up to ARK volunteers, but you'd never know to watch him now.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Sep 2, 2024

Verdi is looking for a home as affectionate as him

No wallflower, Verdi has proved himself a star among ARK personnel.
X owner Elon Musk speaks at the 27th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles in May.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 31, 2024

Brazil judge bans X as Elon Musk challenges top court’s orders

The platform's ban caps a monthslong feud between Musk and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is spearheading efforts to combat fake news.
Local miners collect small rocks as they mine for gold in Benguet province in the northern Philippines.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 1, 2024

Toxic, deadly, cheap: Life for women gold miners in the Philippines

One in three of the illegal mining workforce is female — and women are 90 times more at risk of dying on the job than men.
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, parents of Hersh Goldberg Polin, speak at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 21.
WORLD
Sep 1, 2024

Israel recovers bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including an American captive

U.S. President Joe Biden, who has closely followed the fate of the hostages seized on Oct. 7, said the six included Israeli American Goldberg-Polin.
The challenge for Australia’s Indigenous communities that dot a harsh, sprawling landmass is how to mesh their thousands of years of cultural traditions that guide everyday life with today’s economic realities.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2024

60,000 years of history is facing economic reality

Both big business and governments have a role to play to improve the lives of Australia’s First Nations citizens.
Myanmar Prime Minister and State Administrative Council Chairman Min Aung Hlaing said the census data collected from Oct. 1 to 15 will be used to hold a general election next year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 2, 2024

Myanmar junta announces census for promised 2025 election

Opponents say the census in the first half of October is a ploy by the junta to collect information from the people that they will use to terrorize them.
Patients wait for medical treatment in Incheon, South Korea, on April 23.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Sep 3, 2024

South Korea denies hospital emergency rooms collapsing as army doctors deployed

The government will send 15 military doctors to hard-hit emergency rooms and rotate 235 military and community doctors into troubled hospitals starting Sept. 9.
Masanori Murakami poses with a Willie Mays-themed clock during a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Monday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 3, 2024

The man who opened MLB's door to Japanese players

Masanori Murakami's time with the San Francisco Giants in the 1960s made him something of an accidental trailblazer.
Hiromi Kawakami’s “Under the Eye of the Big Bird” takes place in a future where humans have developed genetic mutations that allow them to read minds and have powers of prescience.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 3, 2024

'Under the Eye of the Big Bird': Hiromi Kawakami's speculative future sets civilization adrift

The author reimagines sexual reproduction, family ties and societal roles in a passionless world that is neither a dystopia nor an improvement on reality.
Mylene de Joya Garcia-Albano
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / The Big Questions
Sep 4, 2024

Philippine envoy highlights climate and smart farms

A native of the Philippine city of Davao, Mylene de Joya Garcia-Albano arrived in Tokyo in December 2022 as ambassador of the Philippines to Japan.
The future of 133-year-old remains, which lay buried beneath Kitakyushu for a century, is unclear amid the city's redevelopment plans.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2024

Global conservation body calls on Kitakyushu to halt redevelopment plans

The city said the project will proceed as planned as there are no alternative sites and further delays could threaten the provision of public services.
Fulton County voters cast their ballots during the Georgia primary at Morningside Presbyterian Church in Atlanta on May 21.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 5, 2024

U.S. voters targeted by Chinese influence online, researchers say

The messaging does not appear to favor one side of the political spectrum — either Democrats or Republicans.
Michie Hino, 77, works at an elderly care home in Chiba Prefecture. She is one of a growing number of senior Japanese citizens working into their 70s.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Sep 5, 2024

Working till your 70s — Japan's prospective gift to the world

A struggling pension system and the highest inflation in decades have led more Japanese people to delay retirement until their 70s or later to make ends meet.
Rakesh Tomar (right), an activist and founder of Hindu right-wing group Rudra Sena, speaks to people in Dehradun, the capital of the Indian state of Uttarakhand, on Aug. 6.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 6, 2024

India's far-right Hindus seek to drive Muslims out of 'holy land'

Much of the hatred last year was fueled by "love-jihad" conspiracies, claiming predatory Muslim men wanted to seduce Hindu women to convert them.
Bangladeshi military personnel stand guard at an empty police station in Dhaka on Aug. 9. The U.S. and Western nations have sacrificed democracy for geopolitics, evident in Bangladesh’s chaos and violence after the prime minister was recently forced from power.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 6, 2024

The Western world's stealthy assault on democracy

Elections alone — even if competitive — do not guarantee popular empowerment or adherence to constitutional rules, especially when the military holds decisive power.
Brazil's Indigenous Chief Raoni Metuktire at Igarape Park in the country's Para state in 2023
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 7, 2024

As the Amazon’s biggest champion approaches 100, he’s still fighting

The Amazon’s plight set the tone for Raoni Metuktire’s remarkable life, which has taken him out of Brazil’s central Mato Grosso state and all over the world.
 Atsushi Ukawa
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2024

Japanese bank seeks to help regional economy with bus business

The company is in talks with around 10 municipalities. Senshu Ikeda plans to expand operations possibly to neighboring Hyogo Prefecture.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro delivers a speech during a rally to celebrate the results of last month's presidential election, in Caracas on Aug. 28.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 9, 2024

Venezuela’s repression campaign gets Maduro what he wants, for now

While Nicolás Maduro has clung to power at all costs, the path he has chosen is also one of diplomatic and economic isolation.
A steel plant in Shanghai operated by Baoshan Iron & Steel. Nippon Steel said in July it will dissolve its joint venture with the Chinese firm.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 9, 2024

Japanese firms sour on China after long years of brushing off risks

Almost half of Japanese firms in China polled in a recent survey said they won’t spend more or will cut investment this year.
Asahidake in Daisetsuzan is located in the town of Higashikawa, Hokkaido, which ranked as the most comfortable municipality in 2024.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 9, 2024

Small Hokkaido town ranked most comfortable place to live in Japan

Higashikawa, a small town with a population of just 8,000, was rated highly due to its friendliness and safe environment.
California has ambitious climate policies. But the state should shift more green energy-related costs from electricity bills to taxes to promote fairness and sustainability.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2024

California's crushing power bills challenge its climate goals

California is incredible, but making it livable, what with its droughts, floods, fault-lines and wildfires, has never been cheap.
Ashwini Vaishnav (left), the Indian minister of electronics and information technology, and N. Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata Sons, take part in the foundation stone laying ceremony for India's first AI-enabled semiconductor fabrication facilities in Dholera, Gujarat, India, on March 13.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2024

Could India become an alternative to China in the ‘chip war’?

As decoupling from China gains traction, the U.S. and its allies are betting on India for supply chain restructuring and semiconductor development.
Redevelopment of the Meiji Jingu Gaien district has trees in the area marked according to their status — trees marked in red were to be cut down in the original plan while those in blue were to be transplanted. In the updated plan, trees marked in red will no longer be felled, and those in blue will remain where they are.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 9, 2024

Updated Meiji Jingu Gaien redevelopment plan to keep more trees

Fewer trees will be felled and more new ones planted, while construction will also take place further away from the park's iconic ginkgo trees.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight