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Digital minister Taro Kono speaks during a news conference to announce his candidacy in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 26, 2024

Taro Kono joins contest for LDP presidency

Touting his international credentials, the digital minister put economic reform at the top of his agenda, pledging to cut publicly funded projects that are ineffective.
Remnants of the first Moji station complex are located near the current Mojiko Station in the city of Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 27, 2024

Kitakyushu clashes with academics over Meiji Era remains

The city wants to proceed with plans to build a five-story complex to house several aging public facilities on the site of the original Moji railway station.
Vladimir Putin arrives at Buyant-Ukhaa International Airport in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 3, 2024

Putin set to meet Mongolian president despite international arrest warrant

The visit is the first by Putin to a member state of the International Criminal Court since the warrant was issued over the abduction of children from Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh attend an official welcoming ceremony in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 4, 2024

Putin gets lavish welcome in Mongolia despite ICC warrant

An ICC arrest warrant against Putin obliges the court's 124 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to the Hague if he sets foot on their territory.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike poses with Liberal Democratic Party members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on July 8, following her win for a third term in the gubernatorial election the previous day.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 10, 2024

After Tokyo governor poll, eyes turn to 2025 assembly election

Both the Liberal Democratic Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan are under pressure to regroup ahead of the quadrennial metropolitan assembly election.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa announces her candidacy in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 11, 2024

Yoko Kamikawa banks on overseas experience in LDP leadership race

Her candidacy could increase attention on foreign policy questions in a race so far dominated by party reform and domestic economic issues.
Toshiko Hamanaka (left), the assistant secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo, and the organization's co-chair, Terumi Tanaka, during a news conference in Tokyo on Saturday, the day after the group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2024

Nihon Hidankyo members hope surprise Nobel win cements nuclear taboo

Senior members of the group noted that the Nobel committee chose Nihon Hidankyo at a time when the threat of nuclear war is becoming more intense.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends the East Asian Summit in Vientiane, Laos, on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 15, 2024

Ishiba openness to nuke ban treaty involvement puts pact in spotlight

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has said his government will “seriously consider” participating as an observer in a conference of signatories to the U.N. treaty.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a press conference at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 25, 2024

Spurred by shared grievances, BRICS group gathers pace

BRICS' first summit, with its new batch of members, showed clear signs of the group's growing weight.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, also president of the Liberal Democratic Party, places a paper rose on an LDP candidate's name to indicate their a victory in the Lower House election, with LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 30, 2024

Signs of revolt against Ishiba emerging within LDP

The ruling camp of the LDP and Komeito fell short of a majority in the House of Representatives in Sunday's election.
Members of the public listen as a candidate for the Hyogo gubernatorial election speaks in Kobe on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 31, 2024

Campaigning kicks off for Hyogo gubernatorial election

Former Gov. Motohiko Saito is among seven candidates in an election that follows months of stagnated governance after allegations of misconduct surfaced against him.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, walks on stage during a campaign rally at Huntington Place in Detroit on Oct. 18. President-elect Trump is not known for adherence to a disciplined and rigorous personnel selection process, but behind the scenes his advisers and allies have been preparing lists of candidates for the most important jobs in his administration.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 9, 2024

Trump weighs key personnel choices, schooled by his first-term experience

The president-elect held his first formal transition meetings and has been given lists of candidates, but is calling around to friends and allies for ideas.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump greets Sen. Marco Rubio during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Nov. 4. Trump is expected to name Rubio, a loyalist who Trump passed over as his vice presidential running mate, as secretary of state.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 12, 2024

Trump diplomacy and security picks likely to anger China but reassure Japan

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to select Sen. Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state and Rep. Mike Waltz to be national security adviser.
Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito (left) urged Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to resolve the slush funds scandal during their meeting on Saturday at the Prime Minister's Office.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 14, 2024

Upper House LDP members hope to face ethics panel over scandal

LDP lawmakers in the Lower House are generally opposed to such moves.
Princess Yuriko in May 2023
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2024

Princess Yuriko, sister-in-law of Emperor Showa, dies at 101

The oldest living member of the imperial family, Princess Yuriko died due to natural causes.
Tulsi Gabbard's nomination has raised alarm among the ranks of intelligence officers.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 15, 2024

Trump's choice of Gabbard as U.S. intelligence chief vexes spy world

Donald Trump’s nomination of Tulsi Gabbard is among several high-level picks that suggest he may be prioritizing personal allegiance over competence.
Pete Hegseth, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a Minnesota native, speaks at the Values Voter Summit in Washington in September 2009.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 16, 2024

How Trump's Pentagon pick Hegseth fell out of love with the U.S. military

Hegseth was flagged by a National Guard officer as a possible "insider threat" for having tattoos that suggested potential links to rightwing extremism.
Four candidates vying to lead Nippon Ishin no Kai — from left, former Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa, party Deputy Secretary-General Ryuna Kanemura, Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura and Lower House member Seiki Soramoto — gather for a stump speech in Osaka on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 18, 2024

Four candidates vie for leadership of Nippon Ishin no Kai

The leadership race follows the resignation of incumbent leader Nobuyuki Baba over the party's lackluster performance in the Oct. 27 general election.
Former Lower House member Masatoshi Akimoto (center) enters the Tokyo District Court in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 25, 2024

Former Japanese lawmaker Masatoshi Akimoto denies accepting bribes

Akimoto said that he received the payment in question, but added that the money was "neither a reward for a job nor a benefit."
Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun attends the opening ceremony of the Xiangshan Forum at the Beijing International Convention Center on Sept. 13. Dong is the third consecutive incumbent or former defense chief to be probed over alleged corruption.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 27, 2024

China defense minister being investigated for corruption, report says

The probe could undermine efforts to maintain military-to-military communications just months before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Myanmar's junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing presides over an army parade in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, in March 2021.
WORLD
Nov 27, 2024

ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for Myanmar military leader

Soldiers, police and Buddhist villagers are alleged by U.N. investigators to have razed hundreds of villages in the remote western Rakhine state.
The suffering of people with disabilities has been compounded by steep shortages in devices to aid them, including wheelchairs and hearing aids, and in damage to roads, sidewalks and homes with accessible features.
WORLD / Society
Dec 9, 2024

Gaza's disabled people face ‘impossible times’ of chaos and war

The war has forced most of Gaza’s roughly 2 million residents from their homes and has been particularly punishing for people with disabilities and their families.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte (right) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands at the official residence of the NATO secretary-general in Brussels on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 19, 2024

Europe's conundrum: How to fund defense spending

All potential options come with their own challenges, such as fiscal pressures, political resistance or funding costs.
A woman receives a COVID-19 vaccine in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in October.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 29, 2024

Meiji Seika Pharma files suit against lawmaker over 'unfounded' vaccine claims

CDP Lower House lawmaker Kazuhiro Haraguchi has said that the drugmaker's replicon vaccine is "akin to a biological weapon."
Voters take pictures and videos of a candidate campaigning for the Tokyo gubernatorial election in Tokyo's Chuo Ward in June.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 8, 2025

Japanese political parties struggling to use social media effectively

Social media proved to be a powerful campaign tool in 2024 elections, shocking political parties that had stuck to old-fashioned campaigns.
The message is clear: Many governments and authorities see encryption not as a human-rights safeguard, but as an obstacle.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2024

Will your encrypted messages remain private in Europe?

Governments and law-enforcement agencies have been increasingly eager to access encrypted communications, even if that means undermining public confidence in privacy protection.
Alberto "Beto" Carrasco" (center) and his compatriots in Namnam Space
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Jan 20, 2025

Namnam reborn: A queer, anarchist space resettles in Tokyo's Koenji

After previous incarnations in Shinjuku Ni-chome and Kawasaki, Namnam is bringing art, music and camaraderie to a new neighborhood.
Fuji TV President Koichi Minato speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2025

Fuji TV to launch probe after allegations of sexual misconduct

The move comes amid rising criticism over the broadcaster’s handling of alleged sexual misconduct by former SMAP member Masahiro Nakai.
An employee at an auto parts maker in Ota, Gunma Prefecture. The automotive industries, which give fewer days off than other sectors do, are falling behind in the recruitment of new workers.
BUSINESS
Jan 19, 2025

Japan auto unions aiming to get five more days off in 2025

The number of nonworking days in the automotive industries has not increased in recent years and lags behind other sectors.
A man walks pastthe ASEAN logo during the ASEAN foreign ministers' retreat in Langkawi, Malaysia, on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 19, 2025

Malaysia takes on ASEAN mantle but tempers expectations on Myanmar and South China Sea

Malaysia is committed to addressing regional issues, but expectations on Myanmar and disputes in the South China Sea should be measured, a top official said.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers