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A large snow sculpture representing the National Ainu Museum and Park in Sapporo in 2020. The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology's apology marks the first time that an academic society in Japan or abroad has apologized to the Ainu people, according to the Ainu Association of Hokkaido.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 5, 2024

Anthropology society apologizes to Ainu people over past actions

The apology comes comes after a series of lawsuits filed in the 2010s seeking the repatriation of Ainu remains excavated for research purposes.
LDP Upper House lawmaker Hiroshige Seko announces his exit from the party in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 5, 2024

Kishida sought scapegoats and allies with LDP reprimands, experts say

Despite Kishida’s hopes, however, the results are unlikely to raise his support rate or strengthen his position within the party.
Slovakian presidential candidate Peter Pellegrini speaks at his headquarters on the day the results of the country's presidential election are announced, in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 7, 2024

Pellegrini wins Slovakia presidential election, boosting pro-Russia PM

Slovak foreign policy has become more pro-Russian, with criminal law and media reforms that some see as weakening the rule of law.
Taiwan Air Force members at the Pingtung air base in Pingtung, Taiwan, on Jan. 30. Taiwan's president has promised to stick to the status quo concerning the island’s relations with China.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Apr 9, 2024

How to stop the dominoes of war from falling in East Asia

Conflicts elsewhere have implications for East Asia's powder kegs — the Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula.
Demonstrators protest against a government plan to increase the number of seats at medical schools in Seoul in March.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 8, 2024

Deaths amid doctor shortage fuel election angst in South Korea

A critical lack of doctors in South Korea has led to thousands of deaths as President Yoon Suk-yeol works to address the problem.  
Seth Fischer, founder and chief investment officer of Oasis Management, says the fund has been investing in Kao for over four years and engaging with it for nine months.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 8, 2024

Activist Oasis reveals 3% Kao stake in battle for change at Japan cosmetics firm

Kao is the world's second-largest cosmetics and sixth-largest personal care product firm by revenue.
The American and Japanese flags are posted on the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House in Washington in preparation for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's state visit to the United States this week.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 8, 2024

More investment is needed to strengthen U.S.-Japan collaboration

Despite the countries' shared challenges, investment in U.S.-Japan intellectual exchange programs and expertise building is at a historic low.
A U.N. conference on Afghanistan in Geneva in September 2021. In December last year, the U.N. decided to appoint a special envoy for Afghanistan, but the role hasn't been filled yet.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2024

Could a new U.N. envoy move the needle on Afghanistan?

If the Taliban refuse to dialogue with other Afghans, the U.N. should empower those outside of the group. The appointment of a special envoy could help.
NATO headquarters in Brussels. In attacking the transatlantic alliance, Trump fails to see that the grouping is key to safeguarding the United States' own interests.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 3, 2024

NATO is not a hegemonic burden

Trump is wrong in wrangling over NATO. Withdrawing from the alliance would hurt U.S. interests — without really reducing its military spending.
Author Hirotada Ototake declares his candidacy for the April 28 House of Representatives by-election in the Tokyo No. 15 constituency during a news conference in Tokyo Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 8, 2024

Japanese author Ototake to run in Lower House by-election

Ototake, who was born without arms or legs, says he wants to "help people in need through the power of politics."
Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour speaks with the media, accompanied by Yemen's Ambassador to the United Nations Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi and Algeria's Representative to the United Nations Amar Bendjama, at U.N. headquarters in New York on March 25.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 9, 2024

Security Council to decide within April on Palestine's U.N. membership bid

Palestinians have lobbied for years to gain full membership, which would amount to recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai speaks at a a news conference in Sendai on Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2024

Miyagi governor suggests scrapping national sports event

The annual event is hosted in rotation by the 47 prefectures.
Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Shane Bieber will spend this season off the pitch, after his team disclosed that he needed to undergo Tommy John surgery.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 9, 2024

MLB insiders 'pretty worried’ by rise in young pitchers' arm injuries

There is reason to believe it is getting even more challenging to keep pitchers healthy.
Sapporo had hoped the Winter Olympics, which the city had hosted in 1972, would return in 2030, but it was not meant to be.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Apr 15, 2024

Why Sapporo’s bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics and Paralympics failed

Part of the city's downfall in trying to secure the Games was, ironically, snow.
Pakistan finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb in Islamabad on March 22
WORLD / Politics
Apr 9, 2024

Pakistan’s finance minister leaves behind banker's life and pay to fix economy

The country has Asia’s fastest inflation, anemic growth and one of the lowest tax-collection rates in the world.
Harakado will open next Wednesday and aims to be a place where creators can gather.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 9, 2024

New Harajuku complex aims to become next cultural creators hub

The nine-story building — named Harakado — will open next Wednesday and is designed to be “a commercial complex where creators (can) gather.”
Vladimir Putin knows that if NATO member states are dragged back into policing a restive Balkans, they will be distracted from their focus on supporting Ukraine.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2024

Putin’s new front in the Ukraine war is in the Balkans

The Russian leader is pushing propaganda and religious strife in Kosovo and Bosnia to distract NATO from his illegal invasion.
Chinese President Xi Jinping applauds at the closing session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 11.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 10, 2024

Xi says nobody can stop 'family reunion' with Taiwan

Xi said that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are Chinese.
U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson steel mill in Braddock, Pennsylvania
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 11, 2024

How the U.S. Steel takeover became about Biden and swing states

The turmoil threatens to strain U.S. relations with Japan while underscoring how the politics of winning swing-state voters influences business.
A staff member attends to a dog at a day care center for pets operated by Peace Winds Japan in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2024

Nonprofit group provides vital pet care in quake-hit Ishikawa

Peace Winds Japan, based in Hiroshima, has been assisting with pet care in disaster-hit areas since the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake.
People walk under flags of China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Queen’s Road in Hong Kong in June 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 11, 2024

Hong Kong court jails first dual national under Beijing's security law

Joseph John, a 41-year-old Portuguese citizen, has been denied bail for over 16 months since he was arrested and charged in November 2022.
Tokyo-based artist valknee has stood out as part of a wave of underground acts eager to tear down genre walls.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 12, 2024

Four up-and-coming music acts to start spring off right

Give your algorithms a nudge to put you in the mood for warmer weather with acts such as valknee, Uilou, Cho Co Pa Co Cho Co Quin Quin and kinoue64.
Emperor Naruhito at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on Tuesday
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2024

Japan to launch full-scale talks over shrinking imperial family

Japan's ruling and opposition parties are set to start talks on measures to address the shrinking number of imperial family members.
Summer averages in eastern Hokkaido float in the high teens and low 20s, not necessitating widespread air conditioning usage in homes and businesses.
LIFE / Travel
Apr 12, 2024

Fear the impending heat? Escape to Kushiro, the land of no summer.

A once mighty fishing port, Kushiro now aims to capture the hearts of tourists seeking escape from sweltering urban jungles for a misty paradise.
There are cases in which families become so engrossed in caring for their children that they do not get adequate sleep and nutrition, according to a survey.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 12, 2024

Over 40% of Japan hospitals require family to stay with children, survey says

Some families become so engrossed in caring for their children that they jeopardize their own health, according to the survey.
Author Hirotada Ototake declares his candidacy for the April 28 House of Representatives by-election in the Tokyo No. 15 constituency during a news conference in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 12, 2024

LDP won't endorse author Hirotada Ototake in Tokyo by-election

The by-election for the lower chamber of parliament will be held to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of ex-LDP member Mito Kakizawa.
The departure hall at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. Now with inflation at its strongest in decades, Japanese are starting to realize that years of static wages leave many of them budgeting each month before their next pay check.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2024

Japan’s young workers head abroad as huge wage gap persists

The outflow is also a sign that many Japanese aren’t buying into the nation’s economic optimism as it exits from decades of deflation.
A street vendor flees from gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 13, 2024

Haiti decrees long-awaited transition council, but questions remain

The long-delayed move is intended as a first step in restoring security to the gang-ravaged Caribbean country.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, attends an event in Seoul on Thursday. He is one of the most polarizing political figures in South Korea with a fervent base of supporters on the left and a large block of opponents in the conservative camp.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 13, 2024

Indicted opposition leader is South Korea’s top contender for president in 2027

The victory of his party in Wednesday's parliamentary elections was quite a turnaround for Lee Jae-myung.
A protester demands the United Kingdom make reparations for slavery, outside the British High Commission, in Kingston, Jamaica, in March 2022.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2024

Slavery tribunal? Africa and Caribbean unite on reparations

A tribunal was proposed last year, and it has now gained traction within a broader slavery reparations movement.

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