Search - 2022

 
 
Tourists line up to board the sightseeing ship Nijiiro Sakana-go at Misaki Port in Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, in June.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Aug 16, 2024

Japanese fishing communities aim to harness appeal

The Fisheries Agency plans to boost its sea industry promotion team to better support regional revitalization across Japan.
Efforts to hold the Kremlin accountable for the war in Ukraine have begun, with the International Criminal Court already issuing arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and others for unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children to Russia.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2024

The rule of law is coming for Putin

Though the ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes and genocide in Ukraine, it can't prosecute Russian leaders for aggression.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida poses for a group photo with other regional leaders prior to the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) leaders meeting in Tokyo in December.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 16, 2024

Japan's energy diplomacy reflects global divide over how to reach net zero

Japan’s focus should be on advancing truly innovative and effective renewable technologies, rather than prolonging fossil fuel use.
A tug boat assists a container ship to its berth in Long Beach, California, on June 17.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 19, 2024

Busiest U.S. ports absorb import surge nearing pandemic-era frenzy

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which account for roughly a third of all U.S. container imports, had their third-strongest month ever in July.
Alimentation Couche-Tard’s proposed acquisition of Seven & I Holdings, if successful, would be an extremely rare case of a foreign company's buyout of a major Japanese firm.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 20, 2024

Seven & I buyout would be a watershed moment for Japan takeovers

Until now, an attempt to acquire such a well-known Japanese business at such scale would have been dismissed as audacious and unlikely.
A drone view shows Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, on Aug. 11.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 22, 2024

Trump earns big from Florida golf resorts as his other businesses flag

The health of Donald Trump’s golf business is a bright spot at a precarious moment for the Trump Organization.
Jannik Sinner has been cleared to continue competing despite failing two doping tests this year.
TENNIS
Aug 22, 2024

Tennis players decry double standards after Jannik Sinner avoids doping ban

Some players have suggested that the Italian received preferential treatment.
Shoppers outside a Sephora store in Vancouver on Aug. 15
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 22, 2024

LVMH’s Sephora cuts around 10% of staff in China as its woes deepen

While Sephora has expanded to some 300 stores since entering China in 2005, the country is increasingly difficult for higher-end retailers to navigate.
Currently, the frequency of medical visits is checked using receipts of medical fees issued by medical institutions and pharmacies to health insurance program operators.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2024

Ministry to identify and support those who make frequent medical visits

The health ministry plans to carry out a model project for swiftly identifying welfare recipients who frequently visit the same medical institutions.
Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, head of Thailand's Department of Disease Control, speaks during a news conference following the suspected first case of the new, more dangerous strain of mpox in Bangkok on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Aug 23, 2024

Thailand confirms Asia’s first case of new mpox virus strain

The patient who tested positive for clade Ib was a European man who arrived in Bangkok last week from Africa.
Keiichi Tanaami died on Aug. 9 after a 60-year career as a Pop Art pioneer. He was 88.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 24, 2024

Remembering Keiichi Tanaami's surreal grotesqueries

The Pop Art pioneer passed away at age 88 on Aug. 9. His posthumous retrospective, “Adventures in Memory,” turns nightmare into fantasy.
Lufthansa Group decided to resume overflying Afghan airspace from early July, as airlines became concerned about the airspace in the Middle East.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2024

Airlines fly over Afghanistan as Middle East becomes the greater risk

Carriers mostly stopped transiting Afghanistan, which lies on major routes between Asia and Europe, when the Taliban took over and air traffic control services stopped.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses his country on its independence day on Saturday.
WORLD
Aug 24, 2024

Zelenskyy vows more 'retribution' against Russia in independence address

Zelenskyy also announced that 115 prisoners of war had been returned from Russia in a swap and thanked the United Arab Emirates for acting as an intermediary.
Novak Djokovic in action during the men's singles final at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 4.
TENNIS
Aug 25, 2024

Djokovic eyes Grand Slam records in U.S. Open defense

Djokovic can become the oldest U.S. Open champion of the Open era as he seeks to break a tie with Margaret Court and win a 25th major.
A monument of baseball legend Babe Ruth stands at Monument Park at Yankee Stadium on Feb. 25, 2009.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 26, 2024

Babe Ruth jersey sells for record-shattering price

The jersey sold for $24.1 million in an online auction.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius inspects Leopard II tanks that were due to be supplied to Ukraine at a military facility in Augustdorf, Germany, in February 2023.
COMMENTARY
Aug 27, 2024

Ukraine has a Germany problem again. Here’s how to fix it.

Kyiv’s Kursk operation was aimed less at the battlefield than at Berlin and other allies.
A woman shows a health worker the mpox lesions on her child at the Munigi mpox treatment center in Nyiragongo territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 27, 2024

African scientists ‘working blindly’ to respond to fast-changing mpox strain

The numerous unknowns about the virus itself, its severity and how it is transmitting, is complicating the response.
Lower House member Manabu Horii
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 28, 2024

Scandal-hit former LDP member Manabu Horii announces resignation as lawmaker

"I've ended up trampling on the trust placed on me by each vote, entirely due to my lack of law-abiding spirit. So I decided to quit," he said.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Pacific island leaders have agreed to establish up to four regional police training centers and a multinational crisis reaction force.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 28, 2024

Pacific island leaders 'endorse' joint policing plan

The policing plan is seen as an attempt to limit China's security role in the region amid Beijing's efforts to build Pacific influence.
A member of the Self-Defense Forces wipes away sweat as he conducts a search and rescue operation at a landslide site caused by heavy rain in Kumano, Hiroshima Prefecture, on July 11, 2018.
ENVIRONMENT / Boiling Point
Aug 29, 2024

Can Japan handle a heat wave and natural disaster at the same time?

Recent typhoons and the Nankai Trough megaquake alert have put the spotlight on how the country would deal with a dual disaster.
The government made it mandatory for companies to disclose their gender pay gap in 2022, but disclosure alone isn’t enough to improve the situation, data suggests.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 29, 2024

Disclosure rules fail to narrow Japan’s yawning gender pay gap

There has been little progress toward equality, with the highest-paying firms showing some of the biggest disparities.
A remote-controlled BurnBot RX1 prototype produces a containment line during a prescribed burn operation in Paicines, California, on Aug. 12.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 30, 2024

Robots are starting (good) fires in California

BurnBot's robot keeps combustion within its burning chamber, where propane torches and air blowers bring flame temperatures up to 1,000 degrees Celsius.
Former Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Megumi Hirose in the Upper House in April. She stepped down as lawmaker on Aug. 15.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 30, 2024

Ex-LDP lawmaker Hirose indicted over alleged pay fraud

She allegedly reported the wife of her public secretary as her second secretary although the wife did not perform any work in that capacity.
Job seekers crowd a job fair at Liberation Square in Shijiazhuang, China, in 2018.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Sep 2, 2024

New unproductive forces: the Chinese youth owning their unemployment

Urban youth unemployment for the roughly 100 million Chinese aged 16-24 spiked to 17.1% in July, a figure analysts say masks millions of rural unemployed.
The X account of Elon Musk in seen blocked on a mobile screen on Saturday after Brazil's telecommunications regulator suspended access to the X social network in the country to comply with an order from a judge who has been locked in a monthslong feud with the billionaire.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 2, 2024

Musk’s Starlink defies order to block X in Brazil

The move illustrates the sheer power of the billionaire and his business empire and how he leverages it to confront authorities and challenge laws he does not like.
Keisuke Yoshida, 42, is accused of killing his wife by poisoning her with methanol at their home in Tokyo’s Ota Ward between Jan. 14 and 15 in 2022.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 2, 2024

Ex-employee of Daiichi Sankyo denies poisoning his wife with methanol

Keisuke Yoshida, formerly a senior researcher at the pharmaceutical firm, said he had never thought of killing his wife.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2024

Australia firms should invest in Southeast Asia, foreign minister says

Southeast Asia is expected to be the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2040 with an expanding population.
Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara (left), Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong (center left), Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa (center right) and Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles gather for their two-plus-two meeting in Queenscliff, Australia, on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 5, 2024

Japan and Australia look to closer cooperation to deter China

The quasi-allies have committed to coordinate their national security policies “more closely than ever before.”
Uganda's Rebecca Cheptegei competes at the world championships in Budapest in August 2023.
OLYMPICS / Athletics
Sep 6, 2024

Outrage and sorrow at death of Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei

Cheptegei's murder was the latest horrific act of gender-based violence in the East African country, where activists have warned of a rising femicide epidemic.
An Nvidia Quantum-X800 InfiniBand Platform on display in Taipei on June 5
WORLD / Politics
Sep 6, 2024

U.S. targets China with quantum and chip-related export curbs

The rules cover all worldwide exports, but include exemptions for countries that implement similar measures.

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