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"It does exist as a card,” said Kato, speaking on a TV Tokyo program Friday, when asked if Japan’s stance of not selling U.S. Treasury holdings could be a negotiation tool.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 2, 2025

Japan’s Kato says U.S. Treasury holdings could be negotiation card

The comments come amid negotiations between Japan and the U.S. after President Donald Trump ramped up his global tariff campaign.
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson shoots over the Pistons' Dennis Schroder during the first half in Detroit on Thursday.
BASKETBALL / NBA
May 2, 2025

Jalen Brunson carries Knicks to series-clinching win over Pistons

Brunson drained a game-winning three-pointer with four seconds.
A carbon removal plant. Direct air capture and other technologies delivered less than 320,000 tons of carbon removal credits last year.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 2, 2025

Why investors are souring on this once red-hot climate tech

Venture capital funding of U.S.-based startups developing direct air capture (DAC) was down more than 60% in the first three months of 2025.
Donald Trump’s trade war and the dollar’s volatility are prompting Asia’s wealthy to reassess where they park their money, with Hong Kong and Singapore competing for capital as the U.S. loses its appeal as a financial haven.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2025

Trump’s trade war shakes dollar’s haven status and opens door for Asian financial hubs

Trump’s trade policies, even if substantially reversed, have sent a loud message to the Asian affluent classes.
Time Out Market Osaka, located in the basement of Grand Green Osaka's South Building, is the London-based media and hospitality business' first Asian edition of their food market.
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 4, 2025

More than a food court: Time Out Market curates Osaka’s best flavors

After whetting appetites in cities like New York and Dubai, Time Out Market, the food event of the eponymous magazine and media group, has opened its first Asian edition in Osaka.
A local resident takes his belongings out of a damaged residential building after a drone attack in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
May 3, 2025

Trump team has prepped options to pressure Russia to end war

People familiar with the matter cautioned that Trump has made no decision yet as diplomatic efforts were ongoing.
A seamstress at Kineya Tabi sews together split-toe "tabi" socks, once a major industry for the town of Gyoda, Saitama Prefecture.
LIFE / Style & Design
May 3, 2025

Japan’s ‘tabi’ sock mecca runs on thread and memories

At their peak in the early-20th century, Gyoda’s artisans churned out more than 84 million pairs of socks each year.
Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen celebrates after his goal against the Avalanche during the third period of Game 7 on Saturday in Dallas.
MORE SPORTS / Ice Hockey
May 4, 2025

Mikko Rantanen's third-period hat trick propels Stars past Avs in Game 7

Rantanen, who began the season with the Avalanche, added in assist as part of the Stars' rally from 2-0 down.
Jets forward Cole Perfetti (left) celebrates with his teammates after tying Game 7 with just under three seconds remaining in regulation on Sunday in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
MORE SPORTS / Ice Hockey
May 5, 2025

Jets cap comeback with double-OT win over Blues in Game 7

The Jets trailed by two late in the game but tied the contest with under 3 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime.
With the June 1 reform of imprisonment penalties, Japan will shift the main objective of imprisonment from punishment to preventing repeat offenses.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 5, 2025

Japanese prisons prepare for imprisonment penalty reform

Japan will shift the main objective of imprisonment from punishment to preventing repeat offenses.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar on the border with Thailand-Myanmar after a multinational crackdown on the compounds run by criminal gangs, operated by the Karen National Army in Myawaddy, Myanmar, on Feb. 26.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 6, 2025

U.S. puts sanctions on Myanmar warlord and militia linked to online scams

Saw Chit Thu is a central figure in a network of illicit and highly lucrative internet scam operations targeting Americans, the U.S. Treasury says.
The Trump administration has launched a full-scale federal "plastic patriotism" effort to eliminate paper straws, arguing they are ineffective, hazardous, more expensive and become soggy.
COMMENTARY / World
May 6, 2025

A world restored: The U.S. takes the offensive against paper straws

The Trump team has issued an executive order and a national strategy to rid the country of the pulpy, soggy mess of paper straws that torments too many of America's citizens.
Designated German Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union following a session of the German lower house of parliament to elect the new German chancellor, in Berlin on Tuesday
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2025

Germany's Friedrich Merz faces new vote for chancellor after surprise loss

The initial shock defeat dealt a heavy blow to Merz, who has vowed to restore stability in Berlin after half a year of political turmoil.
Smoke billows up at Sanaa Airport in Yemen after Israeli military warplanes struck the Houthi rebel-held capital on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 7, 2025

U.S. and Yemen's Houthis agree to ceasefire

The deal comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States would end attacks against the Houthis after the rebels agreed to stop harassing ships.
With the U.S. Capitol in the background, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to reporters after his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 7, 2025

Carney stresses Canada will never be for sale in first meeting with Trump

Overall, Carney termed the meeting as constructive, and said the two sides would start serious talks on a new relationship.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a FIFA Task Force meeting in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
SOCCER / World cup
May 7, 2025

Trump vows 'seamless' experience for 2026 World Cup fans

The World Tourism Forum Institute has said a mix of stringent U.S. immigration policies and global political tensions could "significantly affect" international arrivals.
Workers set up scaffolding at the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City on April 28 ahead of the conclave.
WORLD
May 7, 2025

Michelangelo meets James Bond: How Sistine Chapel conclave is kept secret

Various security measures are in place to prevent the transmitting of information, and cardinals will be in a protective envelope at all times.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 7, 2025

Trade barriers to China's AI market a 'tremendous loss,' NVidia CEO says

Jensen Huang has argued that tightening restrictions on his company that limit access to China, the biggest market for semiconductors, will hurt U.S. national security.
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 7, 2025

Ex-PM Kishida and Malaysian leader affirm cooperation

They also exchanged views on U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff measures, said Kishida, who visited Malaysia as Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's special envoy.
In a world where capital and rich individuals can cross borders freely, only international cooperation can ensure that multinational corporations and the superrich are fairly taxed.
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2025

America is becoming the world’s largest tax haven

Trump is turning the U.S. into a tax haven by weakening enforcement, deregulating crypto and abandoning international tax cooperation, favoring secrecy and the ultrarich.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a welcoming ceremony before their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
May 8, 2025

Xi meets Putin in Moscow as Ukraine reports truce violations

Xi told Putin that Beijing stood alongside Russia in the face of "hegemonic bullying" — a nod to the two countries' anti-U.S. stance.
Tatsumi Onose (right), who plays the part of Commodore Matthew Perry in Shimoda's Black Ship Festival, says the historical episode the event is based on should be remembered for its positives more than its negatives.
LIFE / Travel
May 8, 2025

Celebrating Japan’s defeat at Shimoda’s Black Ship Festival

Held this year from May 16 to 18, an event to the south of Tokyo turns a historical episode of national humiliation into a plain old good time.
Russian Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jets and MiG-29 fighter jets fly above Moscow during the general rehearsal of the Victory Day military parade on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 8, 2025

Putin's order for three-day truce with Ukraine enters into force

It was not immediately clear whether either side was observing the ceasefire.
Alpine's Flavio Briatore (right) and Jack Doohan are seen before qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
May 8, 2025

Alpine dealing with major shakeup as winds of change blow again

Pierre Gasly is now working with his fourth team boss at the Enstone factory.
Urgent diplomacy and restraint are needed to prevent further escalation between India and Pakistan, as both sides risk being pulled into a dangerous conflict with potential global consequences.
COMMENTARY / World
May 8, 2025

Can India and Pakistan step back from the brink?

India and Pakistan on many occasions have been on the brink of major conflict, yet have successfully climbed down.
Pakistan spent decades backing the Taliban as a tool to control Afghanistan and gain “strategic depth” against India. Now it has a monster it cannot control.
COMMENTARY / World
May 8, 2025

The Pakistan-Taliban divorce gets messy

With Afghanistan now serving not as a strategic asset for Pakistan, but as a grave liability, India must wait and watch how this drama on its western flank plays out.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump from a Jaguar Land Rover automobile manufacturing plant in the West Midlandson, U.K., on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
May 9, 2025

Starmer gets diplomatic win he needs, if not the economic boost

The framework the two leaders unveiled goes some way to reversing the worst impacts on the U.K. of U.S. tariffs.
Hoshoryu (right) practices against Kotozakura at Ryogoku Kokugikan on May 2.
SUMO
May 9, 2025

Hoshoryu dominates rivals in practice, but real test awaits at May Basho

Sumo is a sport where practice results are unreliable if taken as a predictor of future success.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s top tariff negotiator, speaks to the press on Friday. Japan and the United States are still discussing what to negotiate.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 9, 2025

Japan stuck at starting line in tariff talks with U.S. as U.K. inks deals

The U.S. has warned that comparing Japan with the U.K. was apples and oranges, and that getting over the line with many countries will be a slow and arduous process.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba meets with Vietnamese President Luong Cuong in Hanoi on April 28. Ishiba’s visit to Vietnam and the Philippines highlighted Japan’s enduring Indo-Pacific strategy amid rising regional uncertainty.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 8, 2025

Japan’s durable 'Free and Open Indo-Pacific' strategy brings stability

So while Ishiba’s visit to Southeast Asia may have just seemed like another round of trips during a holiday week, they were emblematic of something much more than that.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes