Search - 2022

 
 
Serbia's Novak Djokovic plays a backhand return against France's Alexandre Muller during the U.S. Open tennis tournament men's singles first round match in New York on Monday.
TENNIS
Aug 29, 2023

Djokovic back on top after U.S. Open return as Swiatek advances

Djokovic shrugged off a late-night start on the Arthur Ashe Stadium to demolish France's Alexandre Muller 6-0, 6-2, 6-3 in just 1 hour 35 minutes.
Security personnel guard the BYD booth at the Auto Shanghai show in April 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 29, 2023

China's leading electric carmaker BYD triples half-year profit

This month the company became the first global manufacturer to pass the 5 million milestone in electric vehicle production.
Over the last decade, the attention given to falling income and wealth inequality has been tiny, creating a view of the issue that may be seriously out of date.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2023

We should concentrate on fighting poverty, not income inequality

Wealth inequality has recently gone down in the U.S. and the West, and the decline has been going on for the better part of the last decade.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 29, 2023

Hokkaido hit hard by China's ban on Japan seafood imports

Chinese demand for products like scallops and sea cucumbers provides a crucial source of revenue for the prefecture.
An employee removes an electric scooter by Tier sharing service from a street in Paris as an e-scooter ban is set to take effect in the French capital this week.
WORLD / Society
Aug 29, 2023

Paris blazes a trail by bidding adieu to rental electric scooters

Paris will on Friday become the first European capital to ban floating electric scooters from its streets, leaving fans desolate but relieving those who loathed their "nuisance" factor.
Kanji Matoba offers a prayer in front of a touch screen displaying a portrait of his late wife, at a columbarium in Sendai.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 4, 2023

New types of graves and services reflect changes in tradition

The COVID-19 pandemic made such services as grave visiting in place of families or ones using virtual reality technology take root.
France's scrum-half Antoine Dupont warms up ahead of a match between France and Australia near Paris on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Aug 30, 2023

Now or never for favorites France as Rugby World Cup hosts

France might be below Ireland and the Springboks in the world rankings but they have seldom been in such good form before a Rugby World Cup.
A farmer tries to beat out a fire in abandoned farming land amid a drought in Anamaduwa, Sri Lanka.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 30, 2023

Drought deals second blow as Sri Lanka struggles back from crisis

The southwest monsoon farmers rely on for the summer harvest was scant this year because of the El Nino weather pattern
The VinFast logo during an event in Los Angeles in November 2022
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 30, 2023

VinFast’s world-beating gain evokes memory of $400 billion crash

The last time a similar stock rose from relative obscurity to the one the world’s largest companies, it didn’t end well for investors.
An efficient, just-in-time strategy for manufacturing made Toyota’s production system famous.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 30, 2023

Toyota shuts factories, investors shrug. That’s resilience.

An efficient, just-in-time strategy for manufacturing made Toyota’s production system famous.
Kyoko Yafuso and her son Keiju Togei pose in front of their store in the Sunrise Naha shopping street.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Sep 4, 2023

Tired Naha shopping arcade evolves into city’s best dining spot

Until about 10 years ago, the central shopping arcade around the Heiwa-dori street in Naha was deserted, with most stores closed and few visitors.
Korean writer-director Kim Sung Hwan's "Iron Mask" took one of the two top awards at this year's Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) in South Korea.
CULTURE / Film / CULTURE SMASH
Aug 30, 2023

Does South Korea now have the edge over Japan when it comes to film?

While Korean cinema tackles universal topics, Japanese studios are content to navel-gaze.
A Toyota factory in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, in 2015. A computer system processing orders for vehicle parts for the company broke down Tuesday, forcing the closure of 14 assembly plants in Japan.
BUSINESS / EXPLAINER
Aug 30, 2023

What happened to shut down Toyota's production in Japan?

Disruption shut down a system at the core of Toyota's lean manufacturing process.
Kotonowaka surely has his eyes on eventually emulating his grandfather, former grand champion Kotozakura.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Aug 30, 2023

New sumo ranks highlight rise of next generation

Ahead of the autumn tournament in Tokyo, it's the up-and-coming wrestlers who are making waves.
The U.S. is expanding import restrictions for Nvidia AI chips to include some countries in the Middle East, the firm has said.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 31, 2023

U.S. curbs AI chip exports from Nvidia to parts of Middle East

A similar move announced last year signaled an escalation of the U.S. crackdown on China's technological capabilities.
A woman cooks in the old district of Kashgar, in China's Xinjiang region, in 2011.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 31, 2023

Amnesty calls for action on rights in China's Xinjiang region

Group says international community has "shied away from the kind of resolute steps needed to advance justice, truth and reparation for victims."
An aircraft drops flame retardant on burning vegetation in Sicily, Italy, on Sunday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 31, 2023

Climate change boosts risk of extreme wildfires 25%, study finds

In certain partly dry conditions, global warming pushed areas beyond key thresholds, making extreme fires much more likely
A supporter of the main opposition Kuomintang party shows their fingernails painted with the Taiwan flag, during the party's annual conference in New Taipei City, Taiwan, on July 23.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 31, 2023

Taiwan parties spar for young vote as high-stakes elections loom

The outcome of the closely watched January 2024 vote will set the tone for Taipei's tumultuous relationship with Beijing.
National Forest and Wild Fauna Service personnel check on a sea lion, amidst rising cases bird flu infections in Peru in February 2023.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 31, 2023

After racing across continents, bird flu threatens Antarctica

Unlike earlier versions of bird flu, H5N1 has also spread widely in wild birds and routinely spilled over into wild mammals.
Veteran broadcaster and DJ Peter Barakan has been a fixture in Japanese music media for decades. He is now in his third year as curator and namesake of Peter Barakan’s Music Film Festival, which kicks off in Tokyo today.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 1, 2023

Peter Barakan's Music Film Festival celebrates cinema and song

The three-week event kicks off its third edition with 31 films including documentaries, concert films and narrative films centered on music.
Rough guidelines on gifting cash at a Japanese wedding recommended between ¥10,000 and ¥50,000, depending on your own financial standing and your relationship to the married couple.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 2, 2023

The unwritten rules around cash at Asian weddings

Should a gift reflect the cost of your banquet meal? How do you put a numerical value on a friendship?
Bogdan Marynenko, 19-year-old construction worker, at Lazienki Park in Warsaw, Poland, on Aug. 2.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 1, 2023

'Don't belong there': the Ukrainians dodging the frontlines

Since the beginning of the war, authorities have detained 13,600 people trying to cross the border outside of checkpoints, a border guard spokesman said.
An Airbus A350 XWB passenger aircraft on the final assembly line at the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 1, 2023

Fake spare parts were supplied to fix top-selling jet engine

The spread of undocumented or potentially faked parts into the engine supply chain is rare and treated with utmost urgency in the industry.
Load and haul operations at Thungela's thermal coal mining operation, Isibonelo Colliery (formerly Anglo American), in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, in March 2019
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 1, 2023

Coal miners forced to insure themselves amid climate concerns

Dozens of insurers have announced restrictions on their cover for the coal industry, particularly for new projects
A farmer examines rice in a paddy near a farm house in Dhaka.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 1, 2023

First crops, now animals: Climate change hurts Bangladesh farmers

The country's coastal regions, which make up a third of all arable land, have been hit by worsening drought, heat and water scarcity.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 3, 2023

Why a movement for free school lunches is spreading across Japan

By the end of this year, most of Tokyo’s wards will have policies to make lunch free in some form.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Sep 1, 2023

Extended gasoline subsidy risks harming Japan's net-zero efforts

The politically tricky decision on ending the program could hamper the shift to EVs and efforts to reach climate change goals.
While the Korean War armistice analogy is imperfect, it may provide the best available lesson for ending the war in Ukraine.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2023

Ukraine’s future isn’t German or Israeli but Korean

The Ukraine crisis needs a resolution, even if it means accepting an armistice that doesn't provide a clear victory for any party involved.
At Beijing’s Jingshen Seafood Market, sales of Japanese maritime products are now banned — just as they are elsewhere in the country.
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2023

China is about to get a lesson in the limits of economic coercion

Most governments in Asia are relying on science to guide their responses to the Fukushima water release.
From June to August, Japan's weather agency recorded "considerably higher" average summer temperatures in "northern, eastern, and western Japan."
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2023

Record shattered as Japan sees hottest summer ever

From June to August, the weather agency recorded "considerably higher" average summer temperatures in "northern, eastern, and western Japan."

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