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Demonstrators rally to demand a big hike in minimum wages in Tokyo last week.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 25, 2024

Japan’s minimum wage set for record ¥50 hike in major boost

While the sharp increase will be a big boost for workers, smaller firms already struggling financially will be put under further stress.
Camera footage shows the Mogami River bursting its banks in Tozawa, Yamagata Prefecture, on Friday morning.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 26, 2024

One dead, three missing as heavy rain batters Tohoku

Record-breaking rainfall in Yamagata and Akita prefectures has led to floods, landslides and power disruptions.
Masanori Matsugawa, mayor of Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2024

Ginowan mayor dies on official trip to Tokyo

The 70-year-old mayor was found dead in his hotel room after failing to turn up at the hotel's lobby at a prearranged time.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  shows his book to Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the former president's private club and residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 27, 2024

Trump offers Israel's Netanyahu warm words after White House friction

It was as much as Netanyahu could have hoped for in making the trek to Florida after he gave a speech to Congress that was criticized by Democrats.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (left to right), U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Defense Minister Minoru Kihara prior their "two-plus-two" talks at the Iikura Guest House in Tokyo on Sunday
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 28, 2024

In historic move, U.S. to upgrade military command structure in Japan

The move — one of the most significant in the alliance's history — comes as Washington and Tokyo overhaul military ties in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks on Monday at the first meeting of a panel on eradicating discrimination and prejudice against people with disabilities.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 29, 2024

Japan to draw up plan to tackle discrimination against disabled people

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida revealed the government's intention to make the plan at the first meeting of a new panel on the issue.
Students in Bangladesh have faced a crackdown against protests demanding an end to the quota system for public jobs. Despite a scaling back of the system, more needs to be done to address their woes.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2024

An Arab Spring for Bangladesh?

Student protests in Bangladesh against the quota system for public jobs could help restore democracy by bringing down Prime Minister Hasina's violent rule.
Ursula von der Leyen has been president of the European Commission since 2019.
WORLD / Society
Jul 29, 2024

Global backsliding on gender parity puts EU ambitions at risk

Political expediency and institutional hurdles have complicated EU efforts to meet wide-ranging gender-parity goals.
The Bank of Japan building in Tokyo on March 18. With the BOJ’s policy tightening, the difficulty of managing the country’s debt payments is expected to become worse.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2024

Japan expects to hit primary balance goal in fiscal 2025

The government initially aimed to achieve the goal in fiscal year 2011 but kept pushing it back for over a decade.
Fuel prices are displayed on a board at a gas station in Tokyo in September 2023. Fighting high prices is among the priority policy measures encompassed by a special spending quota for the fiscal year from April 2025.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2024

Japan to create priority policy spending quota in fiscal 2025

Priority measures include strengthening the country's defense capabilities, raising its birthrate and expanding investments in carbon reduction.
Mourners carry coffins, during the funeral of children who were killed at a soccer pitch by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, on Monday.
WORLD
Jul 30, 2024

Don't bomb Beirut: U.S. leads push to rein in Israel's response

Washington is racing to avert a full-blown war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah.
Upper House lawmaker Muneo Suzuki speaks to reporters in Moscow on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 30, 2024

Pro-Moscow lawmaker Muneo Suzuki visits Russia again

The Upper House member defied the central government by flying to Moscow for talks with senior Russian officials.
Technicians assemble a component of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the CERN nuclear research facility in Cessy, France, in March 2007. International cooperation in science is essential for solving global challenges and maintaining innovation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2024

Geopolitics threatens science and societal progress

In this world, the prospect of greater controls or reduced international cooperation can only be damaging.
Forced sterilization plaintiff Sumiko Nishi at her home in Hino, western Tokyo, on Wednesday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 31, 2024

First settlement reached for forced sterilization plaintiff in Japan

The state has agreed to pay ¥16.5 million — the same amount awarded to plaintiffs in a related Supreme Court case.
Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 2, 2024

Motegi shows readiness to run in LDP presidential race, but hurdles remain

He faces three leadership hurdles: the disbandment of factions, low public popularity and even his current position as the secretary-general.
Road signs are tilted over a road damaged by the New Year's Day earthquake in Nishiaraya, Ishikawa Prefecture. A new report, part of a long-term assessment, was swiftly drawn up in response to the 7.6-magnitude quake that struck the Noto Peninsula area, so that coastal municipalities can improve their disaster reduction measures.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 3, 2024

Government reveals 25 offshore active faults on country's Sea of Japan side

The active faults are located off the coast stretching from the northern area of Hyogo Prefecture to the Joetsu area of Niigata Prefecture.
Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, during an event at the Buergenstock Resort in Stansstad near Lucerne, Switzerland, on June 15.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 3, 2024

Ukraine’s allies are worried about the power of Zelenskyy’s top aide

Some of Ukraine’s international backers are growing concerned about just how much decision making power Andriy Yermak has.
Takayuki Kobayashi has been elected to the Lower House four times and served in Cabinet posts, including as the country's first economic security minister.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 4, 2024

Some in LDP pushing Takayuki Kobayashi, 49, to enter leadership race

Could the youthful former economic security minister help convince voters that the party is making efforts to reform itself following a high-profile scandal?
Hundreds gathered near Beirut's port on Sunday to mark four years since a catastrophic blast (pictured), one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions, killed more than 220 people, injured at least 6,500 and devastated swaths of Lebanon's capital.
WORLD
Aug 5, 2024

Four years and no justice: Lebanon marks port blast anniversary

Nobody has been held responsible for the August 4, 2020 blast — one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions.
The 225-issue Nikkei stock average dropped more than 4,000 points on Monday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 5, 2024

Nikkei plunges by 12% as it registers largest-ever point fall

The drop exceeds the point fall recorded Oct. 20, 1987, the day after Black Monday in New York.
Ukrainian Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska (center left) and Justice Minister Ryuji Koizumi (center right) sign a memorandum of cooperation on judicial reforms and anti-corruption measures, in Kyiv on Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2024

Japan and Ukraine agree to cooperate on anti-corruption measures

The countries' two justice ministries will cooperate across fields such as judicial reform and the strengthening of judicial institutions via personnel training.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks at a news conference in the city of Hiroshima on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 6, 2024

Kishida quiet on running in LDP leadership race

The prime minister said that "The coming (LDP) presidential election is very important," and that "An open leadership race is desirable."
Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, speaks during an event at Earth Rider Brewery in Superior, Wisconsin, on Jan. 25.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 7, 2024

How Tim Walz pushed Minnesota toward aggressive climate policies

Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor tapped to become the Democratic vice presidential nominee, has accelerated his state’s embrace of clean energy and electric vehicles.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel (left) attends a U.S.-Japan ministerial meeting on extended deterrence in Tokyo on July 28.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 7, 2024

Top envoys to Japan set to skip Nagasaki A-bomb ceremony after Israel not invited

Nagasaki said it decided not to invite the Israeli ambassador on the basis of security concerns.
A tsunami advisory, shown in yellow, was issued following an earthquake in Kyushu on Tuesday afternoon.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2024

Tsunami advisory lifted after strong quake jolts Kyushu

The 7.1 magnitude quake, measuring a weak 7 on Japan's intensity scale, triggered small tsunami waves in some areas.
The Nagasaki Municipal Government, which is hosting the city's annual peace ceremony, said it did not extend an invitation to the Israeli ambassador due to security concerns.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2024

Nagasaki peace ceremony overshadowed by diplomatic wrangling

Ambassadors of Group of Seven countries are set to skip Friday’s ceremony after the city’s decision not to invite the Israeli envoy to Japan.
New Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar's ascension to power, combined with Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to a cease-fire unless the group capitulates, makes finding a resolution in Gaza difficult.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2024

New Hamas chief is an arsonist in a desert tinderbox

Yahya Sinwar fills a post that opened with the July 31 killing of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s politburo chairman, while on a visit to Tehran.
American Grant Holloway races to Olympic gold in the men's 110-meter hurdles final at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Thursday.
OLYMPICS / Athletics
Aug 9, 2024

American Holloway powers to elusive Games gold

Holloway finally added Olympic 110-meter hurdles gold to his sizeable trophy cabinet as Japan's Rachid Muratake finished fifth.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks to reporters at the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday following a major earthquake in the Kyushu region.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2024

Kyushu escapes major damage from magnitude 7.1 earthquake

The quake led to at least 13 injuries, with three residential buildings suffering damage.
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Explainer
Aug 9, 2024

Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?

How serious is the situation, and what should people do in the days to come? Here’s what you need to know.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?