Search - i

 
 
A man takes part in Tokyo’s Sanja Matsuri by helping to carry a "mikoshi" (portable shrine). Many Japanese festivals are open to foreign residents and tourists to participate in.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 19, 2025

Dancers, festivals and one very useful Japanese grammar point

From Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri to Tokyo’s Sumida fireworks, Japan’s summer festivals offer history, spectacle — and a chance to learn some vocabulary.
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd gives a speech during the 2017 Asia Game Changer Awards and Gala Dinner in Manhattan, New York, in November 2017.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 19, 2025

Australia confident issues raised in U.S. AUKUS review will be resolved

Australian Ambassador to the U.S. Kevin Rudd said his country is working with the Pentagon on the U.S. Defense Department's review of the AUKUS submarine project.
An employee at Yatsumeya Nishimura, an eel restaurant in Tokyo's Meguro Ward, grills eel on Saturday, this year's Day of Ox.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2025

Amid searing summer heat, eel restaurants draw crowds on Day of Ox

Japanese people have a tradition of eating nutritious grilled eels, believed to be good for restoring energy, on the midsummer Day of the Ox.
Germany midfielder Giovanna Hoffmann (center) and French defender Griedge Mbock Bathy (right) compete for the ball during their quarterfinal match on Saturday in Basel, Switzerland.
SOCCER
Jul 20, 2025

France's Euro 2025 run ended by familiar foe Germany

The loss came despite having a player advantage for most of the game, after Germany's Kathrin Hendrich was sent off early in the contest.
Russian hockey star Alex Ovechkin walks along a street in Moscow decorated in his honor on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Ice Hockey
Jul 20, 2025

Ovechkin calls for Russian return to global sports

The Washington Capitals superstar received a jubilant reception during his first trip home since setting the NHL's all-time scoring record.
Women and children arrange their containers as they line up at a standpipe, where incomplete water connections caused by USAID funding cuts to the NGO Mercy Corps have led to ongoing water shortages, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on June 16.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 20, 2025

Trump's funding cut stalls water projects, increasing risks for millions

The White House's decision to slash nearly all U.S. foreign aid projects has created new hazards for some of the people they were designed to benefit.
WNBA All-Stars Caitlin Clark (right) and Kelsey Plum prior to the All-Star Game in Indianapolis on Saturday.
BASKETBALL
Jul 20, 2025

Clark urges more pay for WNBA players as labor talks intensify

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert struck a positive tone with reporters, saying she felt a recent meeting with players had been productive.
A Dole Food Company worker rakes coffee cherries for them to dry at the company's Waialua coffee and cocoa farm on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, in November 2011.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 20, 2025

Trump tariffs spell trouble for Hawaii’s few coffee farmers

Coffee is more popular in the U.S. than even bottled water, with two-thirds of Americans drinking it every day.
A woman caresses a child's head as Palestinians wait at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday.
WORLD
Jul 20, 2025

Gaza civil defense says Israeli fire kills 39 near two aid centers

Deaths of people waiting for handouts in huge crowds near food points in Gaza have become a regular occurrence, with the territory's authorities frequently blaming Israeli fire.
Yukihiro Kaneko, a Panasonic research officer, shows a perovskite panel, through which the background can been seen, during an interview in Tokyo.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jul 20, 2025

Japan sees bright future for ultrathin and flexible solar panels

The government is offering generous incentives in order to reach Japan's target of having renewable energy cover up to 50% of electricity demand by 2040.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Jair Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago on March 7, 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

Brazil’s top court defies Trump and signals no retreat on Bolsonaro

After the U.S. threatened 50% tariffs on Brazil, a group of justices advocated for the court to issue a statement challenging President Donald Trump ’s assertion of a "Witch Hunt.”
American lawyer Alan Dershowitz returns to the courtroom for the criminal trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump after a short break at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on May 20, 2024.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 21, 2025

Former Epstein lawyer calls for release of additional materials

U.S. President Donald Trump has been under mounting pressure from his supporters to release more information related to the government's sex-trafficking probe into Jeffrey Epstein.
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya in Tokyo on Sunday night
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

‘Japanese First’ Sanseito emerges as powerful force after Upper House poll

The small rightwing populist party led by firebrand Sohei Kamiya won 14 seats in Sunday’s Upper House election.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks at the opening ceremony of the third China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing on July 16.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 21, 2025

Jensen Huang, AI visionary in a leather jacket

Big tech's appetite for Nvidia's graphics cards has catapulted the California chipmaker beyond $4 trillion in market valuation, the first company ever to surpass that mark.
Commanders helmets are seen on the field during training camp in Ashburn, Virginia, in July 2022.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jul 21, 2025

Trump threatens stadium deal unless Commanders revert to Redskins name

The NFL team dropped the name Redskins in 2020 after decades of criticism that it was a racial slur with links to the U.S. genocide of the Indigenous population.
Shipping containers at Barcelona port
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2025

EU to prepare retaliation plan as U.S. trade stance hardens

The overwhelming preference is to keep negotiations with Washington on track in a bid for an outcome to the impasse ahead of next month’s deadline.
Protesters hold a “Stand Up for Science” march in Sacramento, California, on March 7. Faced with deep budget cuts and political threats, scientists in the U.S. and Japan are realizing they must step out of the lab to defend science’s place in society.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 21, 2025

Scientists can’t stay in their ivory tower

Now is the time for scientists to return to society — not just as experts, but as engaged members of the public.
Chief tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa in Osaka on Saturday. On Monday, Akazawa flew to the United States for another round of tariff negotiations.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 21, 2025

Akazawa jets to Washington for tariff talks after historic election

If an agreement with the U.S. can't be reached before Aug. 1, the "reciprocal" tariff rate imposed by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump rises to 25%.
Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), speaks to the media in Tokyo on Sunday hours after voting closed for the Upper House election.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 21, 2025

CDP shows ‘modest’ outcome as Noda struggles to unite the opposition camp

There is speculation the opposition party might form a coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party and its partner Komeito to form a stable, centrist-oriented government.
Upper House votes being counted on Sunday. The Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition lost its majority in the upper chamber of parliament, but could still be effective in thwarting the opposition.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 21, 2025

Consumption tax cut not a given even after Upper House election

Political and economic realities suggest that opposition policies will not skate through.
Oliver Rowland of Team Nissan during qualifying for the ABB Formula E Series race at the Homestead Motor Speedway in Miami on April 12
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Jul 22, 2025

Rowland targets multiple titles after Formula E breakthrough

Rowland said his ambition for the future was to try to cement himself as one of the top drivers in the series.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the administration of President Donald Trump's priorities in tariff deals are not the inner workings of the Japanese government, but the American people.
BUSINESS
Jul 22, 2025

U.S. seeking best deal for Americans in talks with Japan, Bessent says

The treasury secretary said the inner workings of the Japanese government are not a priority, in an apparent check on Tokyo's aim to review U.S. automobile tariffs.
The Dragon Bravo Fire burns on the northern rim of the Grand Canyon as seen from Grandeur Point on the southern rim, in Arizona, on July 14.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 22, 2025

Trump staff cuts force firefighters to clean toilets, critics say

The U.S. is grappling with decade-high wildfire numbers this year.
A lack of clarity around fiscal and economic policies is likely to dim the global appeal of Japanese assets, analysts say.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 22, 2025

Japanese bonds remain vulnerable as unpopular Ishiba holds on

Benchmark 10-year bonds fell only slightly as trading resumed in Tokyo, pushing yields up by 1.5 basis points.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a news conference at Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday, a day after his coalition lost its Upper House majority.
COMMENTARY
Jul 22, 2025

Ishiba loses his ‘mandate from heaven’

After Sunday’s humiliation at the polls, whatever mandate from heaven Ishiba once commanded is lost.
Neacher Nazia Hussain (left) holds her child whilst teaching a class at a government school at Rajanpur district in southwestern Punjab province.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jul 22, 2025

Without papers: Ghost lives of millions of Pakistanis

Pakistan launched biometric identification cards in 2000 and registration is increasingly required in all aspects of formal life, especially in cities.
U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the entrance to the West Wing of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 23, 2025

U.S.-Philippines trade talks yield modest tariff shift after Trump-Marcos meeting

U.S. President Donald Trump announced a new 19% tariff rate for goods from the Philippines after what he said was a "beautiful visit" by the Philippine leader.
Fumiko Takayama speaks in the city of Chiba on May 20 about her experience of escaping two 1945 air raids on the city.
JAPAN / History
Jul 23, 2025

Woman recounts deadly U.S. bombings of Chiba 80 years ago

About 10 years ago, Fumiko Takayama, a former teacher, started to share her experience of having survived two separate war raids, noting that "there's nothing good about war."
Former Kings center Jonas Valanciunas (left) drives to the basket against Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley during the first half at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on April 6.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Jul 23, 2025

Jonas Valanciunas sets record straight: He will play for Nuggets

Denver acquired Valanciunas from the Sacramento Kings earlier this month but the 33-year-old Lithuanian center was more interested in playing overseas for Greek team Panathinaikos.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas speaks to The Japan Times at Europa House in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Wednesday, ahead of an EU-Japan summit.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 23, 2025

EU and Japan aim for deeper defense cooperation in high-tech arena

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says she sees "a lot of room for cooperation" with Tokyo, particularly in technology-driven areas.

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