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Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives at the Seoul High Prosecutor's Office to attend questioning as part of a probe into his botched attempt to declare martial law, in Seoul on June 28.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 7, 2025

South Korea investigators seek to arrest former president Yoon again

The detention warrant request was made on the grounds former President Yoon Suk Yeol might be a flight risk and might interfere with witnesses, local media said.
U.s. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore in June 2018. Trump approved a 2019 Navy SEAL operation to plant a listening device in North Korea, a mission that unraveled amid a series of mistakes and resulted in the SEALs killing North Korean civilians.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 6, 2025

How a top secret SEAL Team 6 mission into North Korea fell apart

The 2019 operation, greenlit by President Donald Trump, sought a strategic edge. It left unarmed North Koreans dead.
Visitors look at airborne weapons displayed at a booth of Aviation Industry Corporation of China at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Zhuhai Airshow, in Zhuhai, China, in November 2018.
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Oct 16, 2025

Russian training could help Chinese paratroopers play key role in a Taiwan invasion

Leaked documents indicate that Russia is training and equipping Chinese units to potentially airdrop onto the island to clear a path for follow-on forces.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Hong Kong's new chief executive, John Lee, take part in a swearing in ceremony to inaugurate the city's new government on July 1, 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2024

Hong Kong‘s choice: National security or a global role?

Hong Kong tries to maintain its international status and economic role amid challenges posed by China's National Security Law and other political developments.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 5, 2024

Japan's Immigration Agency sets new guidelines for visa overstayers

A legislative amendment will outline the new guidelines to improve transparency and allow individuals to directly apply for special permission to stay.
People queue for bread in front of a bakery that was partially destroyed in an Israeli strike, in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 3, 2023

Time running out to prevent Gaza 'genocide,' say rights experts

"We remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide," the U.N.-mandated experts said in a joint statement.
Deer that are kept in a fenced-off area in the city of Nara
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2024

Nara Prefecture to expand area for culling iconic deer

The prefectural panel will discuss culling methods and other details to draw up a new protection program in fiscal 2025.
The number of teachers in their 20s on leave due to mental conditions has risen, highlighting the need to reduce burdens on young teachers.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 17, 2024

Japan to boost support for young teachers to secure staff

The package addresses concerns about a decline in interest in teaching jobs among young people and aims to reduce teachers' overtime work to 20 hours per month.
Shoppers outside an office building in Beijing in August. China's overall public spending — which includes local governments — is shrinking, not growing. It contracted about 2% in the first seven months of 2024.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 12, 2024

China’s attempt to boost demand is stifled by wall of austerity

While finance chiefs in Beijing are testing new ways to boost the economy by encouraging demand, their counterparts in the provinces are in full belt-tightening mode.
Seven & I Holdings says it has agreed to jointly explore store sell-offs with Alimentation Couche-Tard to address antitrust concerns ahead of a potential merger.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 10, 2025

Shareholder pushes Seven & I to engage with Couche-Tard

The operator of 7-Eleven stores says that it is doing so, and has rebuffed Artisan Partners Asset Management’s assertions of conflicts of interest within the board.
The Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Tokyo police have arrested a number of suspects this month in connection with home improvement scams.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 17, 2025

Police issue warning over home improvement scams

Such scams use similar tactics to those employed by fraudsters who impersonate relatives or public agency officials over the phone to defraud victims of their money.
Egyptian wrestler Osunaarashi has some fun with children during a special Japan Sumo Association event in 2017.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jul 16, 2025

JSA’s 100th anniversary event is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for sumo fans

People in attendance for the celebration will get a chance to see the rare "sandangamae" performance and demonstrations of ancient sumo.
The city of Izumisano, in Osaka Prefecture, has successfully challenged a decision by the central government to cut special tax grants based on its revenues under the <i>furusato nōzei</i> (hometown tax donation) system.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 10, 2025

Government cuts to Izumisano's tax grants illegal, Osaka High Court rules

The city in Osaka Prefecture raised about ¥49.8 billion in donations in fiscal 2018, the most among the local governments under the hometown tax donation program.
Local government and law enforcement officials view the scene of an explosion that occurred during a Catholic mass in a gymnasium at Mindanao State University in Marawi, Philippines, on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2023

The Philippines is battling a resurgent Islamic State threat

The Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals may be driving a new security threat in the Philippines.
Yuki Kondo-Shah beside the U.S. Embassy where she works in London on Dec. 22. As U.S.-China tensions rise, national security employees with ties to Asia say U.S. counterintelligence officers wrongly regard them as potential spies and unfairly ban them from jobs.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2024

Asian American officials cite unfair treatment in China tensions

Federal employees say they are being blocked from jobs for security reasons because of their ties to Asia, even distant ones.
Misao Shoji (center) speaks to executives of Lion Dor about the Omega Class, a new educational center she is launching in Aizuwakamatsu that targets "uniquely gifted children.” Lion Dor has offered a venue for the project free of charge.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jan 15, 2024

Fukushima educational project aims to nurture gifted children

Omega Class aims to provide a place of learning suited to each child, with local experts serving as volunteer instructors.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in April 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 3, 2024

Alongside the Trump-Russia inquiry, a lesser-known look at Egyptian influence

The Justice Department investigated whether a Trump adviser was part of an Egyptian plan, never proven, to funnel $10 million to the 2016 Trump campaign.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's special adviser on business, Varun Chandra, used to run Hakluyt, a consultancy that does not disclose its clients.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 27, 2024

Starmer’s ‘business whisperer’ brings connections and complications from past

Varun Chandra‘s previous role in charge of a secretive consultancy introduces a complexity to a government that’s vowed to rebuild trust in public institutions.
Justice Minister Ryuji Koizumi speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Koizumi stressed that the granting of the special residency permits to children subjected to deportation orders was a one-time measure.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 27, 2024

Japan fine-tunes issuance of humanitarian visas

The move comes amid a near-tripling of technical intern trainees from Myanmar going missing from their programs in 2023.
Pro-Donald Trump protesters storm the U.S. Capitol amid clashes with police, during a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 3, 2024

Trump said ‘so what’ when told of Pence's peril on Jan. 6, U.S. prosecutors say

The government’s brief starts the next round of legal wrangling over whether the latest indictment can proceed.
Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura says he hopes the prefecture's new rule prohibiting older people from using ATMs while talking on phones becomes widely known and eventually accepted as common sense.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Apr 24, 2025

Osaka to ban older people from using ATMs while on the phone to help stop scams

While the ban does not include penalties, the Osaka prefectural government hopes to build public consensus to help prevent scams.
Amanda Anisimova celebrates after winning a point against Aryna Sabalenka during their semifinal match at Wimbledon in London on Thursday.
TENNIS
Jul 11, 2025

Amanda Anisimova proves doubters wrong by reaching Wimbledon final

Anisimova, seeded 13th, stunned world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win in a bruising semifinal.
Akira Ishii, a former Nippon Ishin no Kai Upper House lawmaker, is under investigation for alleged fraud involving secretarial pay.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 9, 2025

Prosecutors question former Nippon Ishin lawmaker over alleged fraud

Akira Ishii is suspected of having fraudulently reported a relative as being his public secretary and cheating the government of ¥8 million.
Han Hak-ja, the leader of the Unification Church, arrives at the special prosecutors' office for questioning over allegations, which she has denied, that she instructed the church to bribe the wife of ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol and a politician close to him, in Seoul on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 17, 2025

Unification Church head questioned in probe on South Korea's ex-first lady

Han Hak-ja was quizzed over her alleged involvement in bribing Kim Keon Hee, wife of ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
 Gerrymandered districts and attacks on voting rights are further threatening American democracy at the state and local levels.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2023

The local threat to American democracy

Through "preemption" measures, ballot and voting restrictions, gerrymandering and other schemes, America continues to be threatened by entrenched minority rule.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 14, 2023

Japan panel weighs raising overtime pay for teachers

The government is set to discuss an increase in overtime pay for teachers in a bid to compensate them for long working hours and attract new applicants.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been charged with conspiring to obstruct the results of the 2020 election.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 17, 2023

Musk accused of favoring Trump in battle with DOJ over tweets

The special counsel’s office argued that Twitter was asking for "special" treatment for Trump that wouldn’t be available to other users.
The labor ministry is planning to review the workers' accident compensation program to cover all freelancers commissioned to work for companies.
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2023

Japan to expand workers' accident compensation for freelancers

The measure is aimed at creating an environment in which freelancers can work with a sense of security.
Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza move southward as trucks carrying aid and fuel head toward north Gaza during a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, near Gaza City on Nov. 27.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jan 16, 2024

What the Hamas-Israel 'humanitarian pause' really meant

While many civilians have been victimized in the conflict, other countries have been at odds over calls for a break in the conflict.
Hiroshige Seko, former Liberal Democratic Party Upper House secretary-general, announces Thursday his intention to leave the LDP after receiving an official recommendation he do so following the party's political funds scandal.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 5, 2024

Five takeaways from the funding scandal punishments

Political compromise was involved in the LDP punishment process, with many politicians caught up in the scandal remaining in relatively good positions.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building