Search - i

 
 
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng attends a meeting with global business leaders at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 28.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2025

China surrounded Xi aide with seasoned experts to seal U.S. deal

The crew engaging with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was on public display for the first time Sunday.
Chinese military vehicles carrying DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles travel in Beijing's Tiananmen Square during a military parade in October 2019.
WORLD
May 14, 2025

U.S. warns of China missile threat ahead of 'Golden Dome' announcement

China may within a decade possess scores of orbiting missiles with nuclear payloads capable of quickly reaching the U.S., the Defense Intelligence Agency has said.
Masataka Yuhara, secretary-general of the Friends of Lee Teng Hui Association in Japan, which has been calling for "Taiwan" to be permitted as a place of origin in family registers.
JAPAN
May 14, 2025

Japan to recognize Taiwan as place of origin in family registration system

Residents of Taiwanese descent in Japan and their support groups have welcomed the change.
Thunder forward Jalen Williams (right) and guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander celebrate after a basket during Game 5 of Oklahoma City's series with the Nuggets.
BASKETBALL / NBA
May 14, 2025

Thunder storm past Nuggets late for 3-2 series lead

Down by nine with under nine minutes to go, the Thunder wound up outscoring the Nuggets 34-19 in the fourth quarter.
Aso serves as the head of the LDP's task force on Japan’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
JAPAN / Politics
May 14, 2025

Conservative heavyweights join forces in LDP panel on Indo-Pacific

The panel has prompted speculation it could serve as an occasion to coalesce support against the government in the upcoming months.
Panasonic may be poised to benefit from having factories in the U.S. as Tesla and others seek to reduce their reliance on Chinese battery-makers.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025

Panasonic CEO says battery plans align with slower EV demand

The supplier of lithium-ion batteries to Tesla is getting ready to start production at a second U.S.-based factory in Kansas, but has frozen plans for a third plant.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) watches as U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Syria's interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday.
WORLD
May 14, 2025

Trump meets Syrian president and urges him to establish ties with Israel

Trump urged Ahmad al-Sharaa to join the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020.
A few tweaks to the conversations you learn in your Japanese class will help you sound like a native when you step out the door.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 16, 2025

Closing the gap between what you learn and what you say in Japanese

When trying to sound natural in Japanese, sometimes you just need to know a single key word or phrase.
Calling themselves "Cheer Re-Man's" — a mash-up of "cheerleading" and "salaryman" — the group is made up of alumni from the elite Waseda University's male cheerleading squad.
JAPAN
May 15, 2025

Japanese 'salarymen' inspire with cheerleading acrobatics

The young men are all about spreading cheer through their eye-popping acrobatic performances, volunteering their weekends to entertain crowds.
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen speaks during a news conference ahead of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 13.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
May 15, 2025

FIA reduces penalty for swearing after driver backlash

Competitors in Formula One and rallying have been at loggerheads with FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem over a crackdown on bad language during events.
George Simion gestures while attending a presidential debate in Bucharest on May 8.
WORLD / Politics
May 15, 2025

MAGA goes east: Romania's presidential frontrunner rides hard-right wave

George Simion, a nationalist who campaigns to "Make Romania Great Again," opposes military aid to Ukraine and is critical of the EU's leadership.
Timberwolves forward Julius Randle holds the ball while being defended by the Warriors' Draymond Green in Game 5 of their Western Conference semifinal series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Wednesday.
BASKETBALL
May 15, 2025

Timberwolves finish off Warriors to reach Western Conference finals

The victory completed a 4-1 series triumph for the Timberwolves, who return to the Western Conference finals for the second straight season.
Mount Fuji fills the skyline above a bridge connecting stores at a popular outlet shopping center in the city of Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, in November 2024.
JAPAN / Society
May 15, 2025

Irresponsible climbing prompts debate over who should pay for Mount Fuji rescues

Rescue teams put themselves in grave danger, and the cost of flying a helicopter for a rescue can be up to between ¥600,000 and ¥800,000.
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
May 16, 2025

Peace breakthrough unlikely as Putin declines to meet Zelenskyy in Turkey

Hopes were further dented by U.S. President Donald Trump saying there would be no movement without a meeting between himself and Putin.
The Japanese economy flipped back into reverse in the first three months of the year, with consumption staying below its pre-pandemic level as inflation saps purchasing power.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 16, 2025

Japan’s economy shrank for the first time in a year before tariff jolt

The first contraction under Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba adds to concerns about the resilience of the economy before tariffs came into effect.
A tricolored calico cat (left) and a tortoiseshell cat. A Japanese research team has discovered a gene that determines the fur color patterns of the two breeds of cats.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 16, 2025

Japan team finds gene that determines calico cats' color patterns

Researchers led by Kyushu University professor Hiroyuki Sasaki found that the coloring was decided by the ARHGAP36 gene on the X chromosome.
Starting in the early 1980s, shipping nuclear waste for storage on Orchid Island off the southeastern coast of Taiwan was standard practice.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
May 16, 2025

Final nuclear plant shutdown leaves Taiwan facing energy crunch

The shutdown takes place just as power demand is projected to rise 13% by the end of the decade, largely driven by data centers and chipmakers.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino addresses the FIFA Congress in Luque, Paraguay, on Thursday.
SOCCER
May 16, 2025

Gianni Infantino's late arrival for FIFA Congress triggers backlash from UEFA

The FIFA Congress opened more than two hours later than planned after Infantino's flight landed late in Paraguay.
Ice calves off from the Perito Moreno glacier into the Lago Argentino (Argentine Lake), in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, near the city of El Calafate in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, on April 21
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 16, 2025

Huge ice falls at Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier stir awe and concern

Recently the size of the ice chunks breaking off — a process called "calving" — has been starting to alarm local guides and glaciologists.
A new U.S. citizen holds a U.S. flag after a naturalization ceremony in Boston on March 11.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2025

U.S. citizenship could soon look very different

Trump's vision tilts heavily toward the wealthy and well-to-do, with special shortcuts for them and barriers to entry for the rest.
Chief tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa and his delegation in the Oval Office of the White House in April. Since then, Japan's trade negotiations with the U.S. have produced no tangible results.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
May 16, 2025

Akazawa's dilemma: no tariff deal or a half-baked deal

Japan has realized the U.S. has no intention of seriously talking about duties on automobiles now.
With the weather warming up, there's no better time to make a bowl of chilled "surinagashi-jiru" (pureed soup).
LIFE / Food & Drink / Washoku Essentials
May 18, 2025

Flaunt your seasonal greens with Japan’s traditional pureed soup

Get the best flavor out of your peas and pods by simmering them in a dashi-based broth.
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures with a clenched fist as he prepares to board Air Force One in Abu Dhabi at the end of his Middle East tour on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
May 17, 2025

Trump reshapes U.S. Mideast policy. Can deals work instead?

The president proclaimed a decisive break with decades of U.S. interventionism, promising a new foreign policy based instead on the art of the deal.
Vocaloid idol Hatsune Miku and kabuki actor Nakamura Shido II first performed together in 2016. This month, they’re reviving the show for the Osaka World Expo.
CULTURE / Stage
May 17, 2025

Traditional performing arts are plugging into modern audiences

Noh and kabuki are getting an image update by teaming up with pop culture figures such as Vocaloid idol Hatsune Miku and DJ Ken Ishii.
Ousted FBI Director James Comey listens during a hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Capitol Hill in Washington in June 2017.
WORLD
May 17, 2025

Ex-FBI director James Comey meets with Secret Service over '8647' post

In U.S. slang, the number 86 can be used as a verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly. Trump is the 47th U.S. president.
Satoko Sodeno moves into temporary housing and arranges her belongings in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, on Saturday.
JAPAN
May 17, 2025

Iwate wildfire victims begin moving into temporary housing

Seven housing units were built on the grounds of a former elementary school in Ofunato's Akasaki district.
U.S. President Donald Trump will speak by phone with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Monday in an attempt to find a way out of the "BLOODBATH" in the Ukraine war, the American president said on social media.
WORLD / Politics
May 18, 2025

Trump says he will speak to Putin to end Ukraine 'bloodbath'

Kyiv said Russian negotiators have demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of all Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before any ceasefire deal.
A woman inspects damage from a tornado in London, Kentucky, on Saturday. More than 25 people have died after severe storms swept through the southern U.S. states of Missouri and Kentucky, officials and local media reports said.
WORLD
May 18, 2025

Severe storms and tornadoes kill more than 25 in south-central U.S.

More than 100,000 people have been left without power in Kentucky, and five counties have declared a state of emergency.
Austrian singer Johannes Pietsch, known as JJ, celebrates with the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest trophy after winning the grand final at the St. Jakobshalle arena in Basel, Switzerland, on Sunday.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
May 18, 2025

On a high: Austria's JJ wins Eurovision 2025

After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel on 357 and Estonia on 356.
Muneyuki Izawa, a chef at the Japanese ambassador's official residence in Phnom Penh, prepares Japanese cuisine dishes.
JAPAN
May 18, 2025

Japan working to improve treatment of 'culinary diplomats' in diplomatic missions

In July, the ministry will start accepting applications for chef positions under improved working conditions, with the improved treatment set to take effect next January.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear