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A strait-laced tax officer (Seiyo Uchino) teams up with a gang of con artists to take down a crooked property developer in “Angry Squad: Civil Servant and Seven Swindlers.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2024

‘Angry Squad’: A caper comedy with a lot of heart

The film’s two-hour running time breezes by as a strait-laced tax officer joins a colorful crew of con artists.
The Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 (right) is anchored while being monitored by a Danish naval patrol vessels in the sea of Kattegat, near Jutland, Denmark, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Nov 21, 2024

Chinese ship stirs suspicions after Baltic Sea cables damaged

The Yi Peng 3 bulk carrier was in the vicinity of fiber optic cables connecting several countries when they were damaged.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen (left) speaks with McLaren's Lando Norris after the sprint race during the weekend of the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo on Nov. 2.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Nov 21, 2024

Verstappen in sight of exclusive club of four-time F1 champions

Red Bull's three-time champion needs only to stay ahead of Lando Norris to secure the title.
Students at Fujinokuni Junior High School in the city of Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture, learn how to write postcards in Japanese.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Chubu
Dec 2, 2024

Night schools offer alternative route to completing compulsory education

More such schools are being set up, which would provide learning opportunities to those unable to complete junior high school education.
Kurdish people in Japan in 2015. A court injunction has banned acts that defame the Japan Kurdish Cultural Association and are disrespectful, such as putting up banner flags or handing out fliers with hate speech like “Refugees should go back to their home countries.”
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 22, 2024

Saitama court bans demonstrations over anti-Kurd hate speech

The individuals targeted by the injunction have said things like “Kurds should get out of Japan” at demos around the Japan Kurdish Cultural Association’s office.
The remains of the original Moji Station in Kitakyushu
JAPAN / Society
Nov 22, 2024

133-year-old Kyushu railway station remains to be partially preserved

Sections of the foundation of what used to be the locomotive shed — which experts believe is the most important element of the remains — will be kept.
This 6-year-old pug loves being held, snuggling with his favorite blanket, relaxing on a sofa and going for strolls.
COMMUNITY / ADOPT ME!
Nov 25, 2024

After some rough times, Tosca needs a home for Christmas

This 6-year-old pug loves being held, snuggling with his favorite blanket, relaxing on a sofa and going for strolls.
The Northvolt facility in Skelleftea, Sweden.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 23, 2024

Northvolt crisis may be make or break for Europe's EV battery ambitions

Europe's biggest hope for an electric vehicle battery champion filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday after talks for funding failed.
Health minister Takamaro Fukuoka in an interview last week
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2024

Government aims to ease care worker shortages through wage hikes

Staff shortages at care facilities are "very serious," Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Takamaro Fukuoka said.
Yisrael Medad, an activist and writer on Israel's political right, looks at a book in his home in the Israeli settlement Shilo, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Nov. 13.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 24, 2024

Israeli settlers set sights on Trump support for full control of West Bank

Settlers have celebrated Trump's nomination of a clutch of officials known for pro-Israel views.
An employee of Trex stands with bales of used plastic, which the company recycles into decking material.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Nov 25, 2024

Can the world unite to end the plastic pollution crisis?

The rising toll of plastic in the environment is impossible to ignore.
Taiwan celebrates with the trophy after beating Japan in the Premier12 final at Tokyo Dome on Sunday.
BASEBALL
Nov 25, 2024

Taiwan celebrates after team's victory over Japan in Premier12 final

Taiwan is not a global sporting powerhouse but baseball is hugely popular.
According to Similarweb, average monthly user numbers for Bluesky on Android in Japan quintupled in the 12 months to October.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 25, 2024

Bluesky is booming in Japan — mainly for reasons other than U.S. politics

Average monthly user numbers for Bluesky on Android in Japan quintupled in the 12 months to October, while figures for X were down over that time.
Plastic waste that manicurist Naomi Arimoto collected from the sand at a beach, is pictured at her nail salon in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Oct. 21.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2024

Japanese manicurist takes on plastic pollution, one nail at a time

Naomi Arimoto carefully sifts beach sand for tiny bits of plastic that she can mold into decorative tips to put on the false nails at her salon.
Aiku Kurotaki’s “Human 1” (2024) — and “Human 0” (2024) to the left — on display at Tokyo’s Som Gallery earlier this year.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 2024

‘From 0 to 1’: Aiku Kurotaki’s fabric of existence

The artist's wool sculptures play off the idea of string theory, which conceptualizes subatomic particles as infinitesimal strings vibrating in fixed patterns.
Investigators seize items after raiding a store in the city of Sakado, Saitama Prefecture, that is suspected to have been used by a Vietnamese theft ring as a collection point, on Wednesday. The store's signboard is partly blurred for privacy reasons.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 27, 2024

Police raid Vietnamese theft ring's collection points

The group, linked to crimes in at least 10 prefectures, is believed to have sent stolen items to Vietnam for resale.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah at Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 27, 2024

Biden hopes to parlay Lebanon cease-fire into a broader regional peace

With a deal to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the U.S. leader turns his attention back to halting the war in Gaza before leaving office.
Southern Lebanon near the country's border with Israel on Wednesday, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect
WORLD
Nov 28, 2024

Hezbollah faces long recovery, with thousands of fighters believed killed

One source said the Iran-backed group may have lost up to 4,000 people — well over 10 times the number killed in its monthlong 2006 war with Israel.
Vehicles pass in front of an Exxon service station in Bethesda, Maryland, on Monday. Material stolen from the company's critics in a hack-and-leak operation continues to be used today to counter litigation claiming the oil giant misled the public and its investors about the risks of climate change.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2024

Exxon lobbyist probed over hacked papers that disrupted climate lawsuits

The stolen material continues to be used today to counter litigation claiming the oil giant misled the public and its investors about the risks of climate change.
A statue of Konosuke Matsushita in the grounds of the Konosuke Matsushita Museum in Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2024

‘God of management’ comes back to life as an AI model

Panasonic icon Konosuke Matsushita is one of the most respected by the Japanese business community.
Former Olympus Chief Executive Stefan Kaufmann was indicted over alleged violations of law concerning controlled substances.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 28, 2024

Former Olympus CEO indicted on suspected violation of drug laws

Stefan Kaufmann was forced to resign last month after the allegation surfaced that he bought illegal drugs.
A police officer directs traffic in front of a court in Hanoi.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 28, 2024

Rights group says Vietnam's imprisonment of Khmer monks violated religious freedom

A court in the southern province of Long An condemned the men to prison terms between two and six years.
A stone pillar at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, on which the word "toilet" was spray-painted in May
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 29, 2024

Chinese man pleads guilty to role in vandalizing Yasukuni Shrine

Jiang Zhuojun said he assisted with the vandalizing to protest against Japan's discharging of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Tokyo police have arrested six Chinese nationals on suspicion of unlawful confinement and attempted extortion involving a 23-year-old exchange student who had become involved in a financial dispute over a yami baito, or a “dark” part-time job.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 29, 2024

Tokyo police arrest six Chinese nationals over yami baito scheme

The six people are being held on suspicion of unlawful confinement and attempted extortion involving a 23-year-old exchange student.
Drag queen Becca D’Bus plays Dido, the forlorn queen of Carthage, in a drag version of “Dido and Aeneas."
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 30, 2024

Divas and diversity: Opera meets drag in ‘Dido and Aeneas’

Becca D’Bus, one of Singapore’s most popular drag queens, and Tokyo’s voguers and queens team up for a grand show at the Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting.
Workers building a railway in front of Lusail Stadium in Doha in 2018
SOCCER
Nov 30, 2024

FIFA should pay workers injured building Qatar World Cup, internal report says

The report offered no specific dollar amount of compensation.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum delivers a speech during the inauguration of a family medicine unit in San Nicolas de los Garza, Nuevo Leon State, Mexico, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 1, 2024

Trump’s demand that Mexico stop migrants and drugs may never be met

Mexico's new leader must find ways to appease Trump while avoiding the perception that she easily bends to U.S. demands.
Timeleft uses an algorithm to match its users with five or six strangers in an effort to prompt “human connection” over dinner at a restaurant. It determines the attendees with the help of a simple personality quiz available when you sign up for the service.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Dec 2, 2024

Seven strangers and an algorithm: Can this new dinner app help you make friends?

An app called Timeleft hopes to combat big-city alienation through a simple meal with a diverse group of people.
A displaced woman packs up her family's belongings at a school turned into a shelter in Beirut on Nov. 27.
WORLD / Society
Dec 2, 2024

'We have a lost generation': Lebanon's education crisis

At least 500 public schools in Lebanon, roughly one in two in what is a badly underfunded sector, were converted into shelters in recent months to house people.
Jean-Pierre Charriton
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / The Big Questions
Dec 2, 2024

President of L’Oreal Japan leverages innovation

Entered L’Oreal in 1991, in charge of the Biotherme products. After a career path in many countries, he arrived in Japan in 2021.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan