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Pedestrians in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York on Dec. 26, 2023
WORLD / Society
Sep 27, 2024

Chinese Americans face racism and mental health risks amid tensions

Survey respondents were presented with questions covering their experience of discrimination, political engagement and opinions on China-U.S. relations.
A Tokyo Electric Power Company employee uses a Geiger counter to check for radiation near storage tanks holding contaminated water at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in the towns of Okuma and Futaba in January 2020.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 27, 2024

Tepco's Fukushima decommissioning effort is challenging — but making progress

Tepco believes that diligent monitoring by it and the IAEA over the past year supports the conclusion that water discharges from the Fukushima No. 1 plant are safe.
Out of a total of 509,373 foreign technical trainees, 1.9% went missing in 2023, according to Immigration Services Agency data.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 27, 2024

Record number of technical trainees go missing in Japan in 2023

Of the total, 1,765 were Myanmar nationals who had fled conflict in their home country.
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.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, shake hands during a meeting on Friday in New York.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 28, 2024

On trip to U.S., Zelenskyy finds Ukraine’s fortunes tied to the election

A whirlwind week of top-level meetings failed to alleviate concerns in Kyiv that a Trump presidency could lead to a dramatic shift in American policy.
The “Fragment Shadow” exhibition by Shunichi Kasahara and Satoru Higa, in which people’s shadows were digitally re-created and manipulated.
JAPAN / Science & Health / OUR PLANET
Sep 29, 2024

Researchers in Japan look to art to mold the scientific process

From astrobiology to cybernetics, scientists are trying to use art not just for public outreach, but to shape research itself.
A woman holds a picture of Lebanon's Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, during a symbolic funeral in Basra, Iraq, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 30, 2024

Arab world split in reactions to killing of Hezbollah chief Nasrallah

Hassan Nasrallah, who led the powerful Shiite armed group for 32 years, made regional enemies beyond Israel and the West.
New members of the Metropolitan Police Department's (MPD) riot squad hold a drill in Tokyo on Thursday. The MPD plans to set up a section to specialize in the investigation of lone wolf terrorists.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 30, 2024

Tokyo police to set up specialist section for lone wolf terrorists

The section will form part of the Metropolitan Police Department's Public Security Bureau via a reorganization in April to strengthen information gathering.
According to a man seeking compensation through the courts for his forced hospitalization at a psychiatric ward, it was clear from his medical records that there was no need for him to stay in hospital from 1988.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 1, 2024

Plaintiff denied compensation for decadeslong stay at hospital

Plaintiff Tokio Ito, who is diagnosed with schizophrenia, claimed that he suffered emotional damage from the extremely long and involuntary stay.
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 6, 2024

Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law

A weak yen, robust inbound tourism and social media have shone a spotlight on a park in Tokyo where men gather in search of sex.
The deep-sea drilling vessel Chikyu is docked at the Port of Shimizu on Sept. 5 ahead of a 106-day expedition by researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 2, 2024

Japan's deep-sea vessel digs for answers to 2011 earthquake

In a hundred-day expedition, scientists aboard the Chikyu aim to piece together the earthquake's story and assess the potential for another temblor to be triggered.
Kim Sang-man’s “Uprising” has attracted significant attention ahead of its world premiere thanks largely to the involvement of  its producer Park Chan-wook, best-known for directing ultra-violent thrillers like 2003’s “Old Boy,” which played a key role in bringing South Korean cinema to the global forefront.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2024

Netflix war epic to open Asia's largest film festival

Streaming-only content has contributed to a significant surge in the global visibility of Korean and Korean diaspora stories.
Newly appointed industry minister Yoji Muto says there is no change to a government plan to safely restart nuclear power plants.
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2024

Japan to keep nuclear and boost renewables, new industry minister says

Yoji Muto says securing energy will be "the most important part of Japan's growth."
Students hold posters of Hassan Nasrallah, the assassinated chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah, during a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Oct 3, 2024

Iran's Khamenei warned Nasrallah of Israeli plot to kill him, sources say

Iran is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said.
Without Japanese outdoorsman George Masa, America might not have the Great Smoky Mountains National Park — so why do so many people in Japan not know he existed?
COMMUNITY / Issues
Oct 7, 2024

The forgotten Japanese naturalist who created a U.S. national park

George Masa was an enigmatic figure, but his contributions to preserving America's natural beauty are unassailable.
With his robust physique and loving spirit, Yukichi will make one lucky family very happy.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Oct 7, 2024

Yukichi was lost and found on the streets of Kyoto

With his adorable face, big round eyes, and healthy appetite, Yukichi will make a wonderful addition to a loving family.
Diego Garcia — the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago and the site of a major military base used by Britain and the United States — is seen in this undated image the U.S. Navy provided.
WORLD
Oct 4, 2024

U.K. cedes Chagos Island sovereignty to Mauritius and keeps air base

Britain's deal also could pave the way for people displaced decades ago to return home.
A protest against the Taliban’s decision to cancel the return of high school-aged girls to school in Kabul in 2022. Women and girls are banned from education in Afghanistan beyond the sixth grade.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 4, 2024

Japan shouldn’t work with the Taliban, not even to build schools

Japan's development aid to Afghanistan strengthens the Taliban. Instead, Tokyo should support those, like exiled Afghans, who defend democracy and human rights.
Men run for cover after an Israeli strike on the Mreijeh neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Oct 5, 2024

Countdown to Middle East war? How the region can step back from the brink

Brakes remain to halt a regional fall into a wider conflagration that would lock Israel and Tehran into escalating conflict and suck in other nations.
Police inspect the site where what appeared to be an unexploded bomb was found on Friday in Tokyo's Kita Ward.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2024

Possible dud shell found in residential area of Tokyo

Around 4:20 p.m. Friday, police received a call reporting that there is something that appears to be a dud shell at a construction site in the capital's Kita Ward.
Raymonde Desiree, a member of the Chagossian community living in Crawley, south of London.
WORLD / Society
Oct 5, 2024

Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate

Britain will transfer sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius, and many Chagossians are angry that they were not given a say in the islands' fate.
Aziz Ahmed talks about young language carers in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, on Sept. 18.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 5, 2024

Young language carer hopes to support others facing hardships in Japan

Aziz Ahmed came to Japan from Pakistan at the age of 9 and remembers the hardships he faced interpreting for family members who do not speak Japanese.
A damaged road in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 6, after a major earthquake struck the area on New Year's Day
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / OUR PLANET
Oct 6, 2024

Important tool or alarmism? Japan experts split on megaquake advisories.

Supporters say the advisories are about reducing risk, but critics see a system that isn’t based on science and one in which the cons outweigh the pros.
Debris covers part of Beirut's southern suburbs in the aftermath of Israeli strikes on Sunday.
WORLD
Oct 6, 2024

Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary

Israeli forces were on high alert ahead of Monday's anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack, which sparked the war.
Coffee house owner Vu Dinh Tu making coffee at a cafe in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sept. 30.
BUSINESS
Oct 7, 2024

Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution

Coffee has become a byword for creativity and self-expression among young entrepreneurs — though their parents may take some convincing.
Kuo Yu-jen, vice president of the Institute for National Policy Research, speaks in Taipei on Sept. 30.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 7, 2024

Taiwan welcomes Japan's security 'policy shift'

Of the Group of Seven major powers, Japan is the sixth country to have sailed through the Taiwan Strait.
Internal affairs minister Seiichiro Murakami speaks during an interview at the ministry in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 7, 2024

Japan's new internal affairs minister looks to boost regional revitalization

Seiichiro Murakami aims to increase the number of regional development cooperation volunteers from 7,200 to 10,000.
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (center right) and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol (center left) pose for pictures as Kim Jong-uk, Commissioner General of the Korea Coast Guard (left), and Ronnie Gil Gavan, Commandant of the Philippine Coast Guard, hold up signed agreements during a meeting at the Malacanang Palace in Manila on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 8, 2024

Philippines and South Korea upgrade ties to strategic partnership

They also signed agreements on coastguard cooperation and nuclear energy.
Local activists and tech workers protest against Google and Amazon's Project Nimbus contract with the Israeli military and government, outside the Google Cloud Next Conference in San Francisco, California, on August 29, 2023.
WORLD
Oct 8, 2024

Decoding the role Big Tech plays in the war in Gaza

The Israel-Hamas war has spotlighted how artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used on the battlefield.
Japan's has experienced a significant decline in global economic power, with its share of global gross domestic product dropping from 18% in the 1980s to an anticipated 3% by 2050.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 8, 2024

Japan needs more than mere economic strength

Japan, a country that has long relied on its economic prowess for international stature and standing, must change its perspective.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years