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Fans cheer during a friendly match between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Kiwoon Heroes ahead of the Major League Baseball Seoul Series in Seoul on Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 18, 2024

MLB brings Shohei Ohtani, season openers and big dreams to Seoul

With a set of stars from the region, 2024 is turning out to be baseball’s moment in Asia.
U.S. President Joe Biden (right) is welcomed to Israel by the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The relationship between the two leaders has since soured.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2024

Biden and Netanyahu are going from frenemies to enemies

President Biden has warned the Israeli prime minister about crossing a red line, but that may cause more trouble than good, as history teaches us.
A container ship passes at Keelung port in northern Taiwan in July 2010.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mar 18, 2024

Pressure builds for charge on shipping sector's CO2 emissions

At an International Maritime Organization meeting, 47 countries are supporting the imposition of a fee on each ton of greenhouse gas the industry produces.
An illustration of the planned Paris Games opening ceremony on the River Seine
OLYMPICS
Mar 20, 2024

Russians and Belarusians will not take part in Paris Games opening parade

The athletes from the two countries will be competing as independents without their flags and anthems following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Police officers monitor traffic on the streets from surveillance cameras in Buenos Aires in April 2020.
WORLD / Society
Mar 20, 2024

Reboot of Buenos Aires facial recognition plan fuels privacy fears

The system of 300 cameras linked to a national crime database was suspended two years ago after a court ruled it unconstitutional.
Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder & CEO of Inflection AI, at the Greylock Partners office in Menlo Park, California in May 2023. Suleyman, a co-founder of Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence lab, is leaving the startup he was running to lead Microsoft’s consumer AI business, in another sign of Microsoft’s aggressive plans for the technology.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 20, 2024

Microsoft deepens AI focus, hiring DeepMind co-founder for consumer tools

Over a year after unveiling an AI-enhanced Bing search, the company has made few gains in the search market, still dominated by Google.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to vote in Florida's primary election at a polling station at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 20, 2024

Trump again conditions U.S. help to NATO allies on paying their 'fair share'

The Republican presidential candidate reiterated his stance, saying that his harsh words are "a form of negotiation."
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, earlier this month.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2024

The zombification of American politics

Turning a party into an autocracy is a logical first step toward turning the country into one.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 21, 2024

Ohtani’s longtime interpreter fired amid illegal gambling allegations

ESPN reported that at least $4.5 million in wire transfers were sent to a bookmaking operation, which is under federal investigation.
Known in Hokkaido business circles as an internationalist due to his close ties with the United States and the International Olympics Committee, Yoshiro Ito headed dozens of Hokkaido and national organizations during his decadeslong career.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Mar 25, 2024

Hokkaido mourns Yoshiro Ito, promoter of Japan-U.S. ties

Ito was known in Hokkaido business circles as an internationalist due to his close ties with the United States.
Shizue Takahashi, a bereaved family member of the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system, offers a prayer at Kasumigaseki Station on Wednesday, the 29th anniversary of the attack.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 20, 2024

Japan marks 29th anniversary of Tokyo subway sarin attack

The Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult's sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system killed 14 people and injured more than 6,000.
Giant cut-outs of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other party leaders are positioned beside a road in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Feb. 25.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 21, 2024

Hardships and broken promises no hindrance for Modi in India's rural north

If India's prime minister earns a third term in office, it will be in spite of the state of the rural and farming economy — not because of it.
The Bank of Japan's recent decision to abandon negative interest rates is seen more as a symbolic shift.
COMMENTARY
Mar 21, 2024

BOJ finally ditches negative rates, but this is no liftoff

It's the end of an era for the Bank of Japan as negative interest rates are phased out.
Ukrainian rescuers gather outside of a residential building after a missile attack in Kyiv on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 22, 2024

In Putin's growing shadow, EU faces lack of consensus on arming Ukraine

Over two years into Moscow's war against its neighbor, Kyiv's troops are struggling to hold ground as Western deliveries of ammunition have faltered.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 22, 2024

ASDF lieutenant general suspended over workplace bullying

It is the first punitive action against an ASDF lieutenant general for harassment.
Mobile phones seized from an apartment room in Phnom Penh in relation to a special fraud case are shown at a police station in Saitama Prefecture in November.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 22, 2024

Arrests of 'tokuryū' gang members estimated to have topped 10,000

More than 10,000 members of so-called tokuryū criminal groups are believed to have been arrested in Japan in the three years through 2023, a National Police Agency (NPA) survey showed Thursday.
Smoke rises from Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, on March 17. Ending the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and deterring conflicts in the Indo-Pacific region is a key global goal.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Mar 31, 2024

How should Japan deal with Ukraine, Gaza and the Indo-Pacific region?

The power, institutions and values that underpin the international security order are being compromised worldwide.
Tsuneyasu Miyamoto speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Saturday.
SOCCER
Mar 24, 2024

Ex-Japan captain Miyamoto becomes youngest head of soccer association

Miyamoto, 47, is the youngest JFA president since the end of World War II, and the first JFA head to have played in the World Cup.
North Korea's Kim Song Nam, head of the International Department of the Workers' Party of Korea, and Cai Qi, head of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party, meet in Beijing on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 24, 2024

North Korea and China commit to bolster ties in high-level Beijing talks

A delegation led by senior North Korean official Kim Song Nam was among groups visiting regional countries last week.
People lay flowers at a makeshift memorial Saturday near the Crocus City Hall, a popular concert venue where more than 130 people were killed Friday night in an attack outside Moscow.
WORLD
Mar 24, 2024

Russia mourns victims of deadly concert hall attack as airstrikes rock Ukraine

A national day of mourning over the attack was declared as Russian forces unleashed a fresh large-scale missile barrage against Ukraine.
Rakuten Group's Rakuten Point is the most frequently used reward point service, according to a survey.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Mar 25, 2024

Race to expand corporate economic blocs heats up in Japan

Corporate groups are enticing customers with a variety of services, often bolstered by reward points, primarily geared toward shopping purposes.
Globally, the area covered by mines has doubled over the past three years, driven by demand for critical minerals, according to a 2023 study.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 25, 2024

For mineral-rich Philippines, green metals rush is a balancing act

The county has the world's fourth-largest copper reserves, fifth-biggest nickel deposits and is also rich in cobalt — which are important for clean energy.
Myanmar's junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who ousted the elected government in a coup on Feb. 1, 2021, presides over an army parade on Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on March 27, 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 25, 2024

Thailand starts aid deliveries to Myanmar under plan aimed at managing conflict

The first batch of 4,000 relief bags carrying rice, dried food, and other essentials for 20,000 people was delivered in a convoy by the Thai Red Cross.
Foreign trainees and local residents spend the night around an open fire in a mountain in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, after a strong quake hit the area on Jan. 1.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2024

Foreign trainees traumatized by Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula quake

The local fishing industry heavily depends on foreign trainees amid a shortage of fishers.
As of December 2022, the village of Zamami, Okinawa Prefecture, had in its stockpile six of the nine items listed in a survey as necessary for women and 10 of the 11 items listed as necessary for babies and infants, doing much better than other municipalities in the prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Apr 1, 2024

Municipalities push gender-inclusive disaster risk management

Some areas in Okinawa involve more women in decision-making and make an effort at stockpiling relevant items.
International bankers in Tokyo say their compensation remain a fraction of pay in other financial hubs despite booming markets in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 26, 2024

Bonuses at Japan's global banks underwhelm despite booming markets

Bonuses at international investment banks fell by about 10% on average in Tokyo for 2023, bankers and recruiters have said.
Sunao Takao (center) interprets as then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump talk prior to a working lunch at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 26, 2024

Japan tees up Abe's ex-interpreter to help chart course with Trump

Japanese officials are preparing to deploy the Harvard-educated bureaucrat to bolster engagement with the Republican candidate's campaign.
Smoke rises from the Gaza Strip during an explosion following an airstrike on Saturday. The war in Gaza has not stopped and Hamas has not freed anyone despite the adoption of a U.N. resolution on Monday demanding a cease-fire and the release of hostages.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 27, 2024

The U.N. Security Council demanded a Gaza cease-fire. What happens now?

While the U.S. did not veto the cease-fire resolution, its description of the text as "non-binding" sparked an uproar in the world body.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 27, 2024

Yen slides to 34-year low, heightening talk of intervention

Although the Bank of Japan hiked rates for the first time in 17 years last week, the yen’s weakness has persisted.
Joel Vaudreuil's "When Adam Changes" won the grand prix at this year's Niigata International Animation Film Festival, the largest festival devoted to feature-length animation in Asia.
CULTURE / Film / CULTURE SMASH
Mar 28, 2024

Niigata film festival showcases cutting-edge overseas talent

The six-day event dedicated to feature-length animation presented a lineup of stories that were psychologically rich and emotionally dark.

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