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You don't need an oven to make Kenji Morimoto's easy and delicious Miso Sticky Toffee Crepe Cake.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 20, 2025

In microbes we trust: Embracing the nature of fermented food

With simple, fuss-free recipes, Kenji Morimoto's debut cookbook effortlessly guides home cooks into the unpredictable but rewarding world of fermentation.
Canada’s Couche-Tard has abandoned its bid for Japan’s Seven & I, easing fears it would ruin the beloved convenient store experience, while giving the company a chance to refocus and strengthen its business.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 18, 2025

The bid for Japan’s 7-Eleven was doomed from the start

Seven & I ’s more measured response shows the company is ready to move on.
Venus Williams hits a volley as partner Hailey Baptiste looks on in their women's doubles match against Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue on Day 1 of the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington on Monday.
TENNIS
Jul 22, 2025

Venus Williams returns with doubles win at DC Open

The 45-year-old American joined compatriot Hailey Baptiste to defeat Canada's Eugenie Bouchard and U.S. teen Clervie Ngounoue.
Komeito head Tetsuo Saito speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 22, 2025

Upper House election confirms inexorable decline of voting blocs

Unaffiliated voters were the kingmakers in Sunday’s election.
Boys play football on a lawn on a smoggy morning in New Delhi, India, on Oct. 31, 2024.
SOCCER
Jul 25, 2025

Indian soccer 'hurt, scared' as domestic game hits fresh low

The men's national team is without a coach and the Indian Super League is in danger of collapsing over a dispute between the federation and its commercial partner.
An electronic board shows the broad Topix index hitting a record high on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 27, 2025

Japan investors brace for BOJ and earnings results after Trump-fueled rally

As the dust settles following the U.S.-Japan trade deal that sent markets on a wild ride, investors are questioning whether the rally was a sign of things to come.
Peruvian police seized four tons of illegal mercury from Mexico bound for Bolivia, dealing a severe blow to criminal organizations linked to illegal gold mining, customs authorities reported on Thursday.
WORLD
Jul 28, 2025

Smuggled mercury shows extent of illegal Amazon gold mining

Record gold prices have encouraged a flourishing illegal mining trade that damages local nature and biodiversity and is raising significant health concerns.
Nemah Hamouda holds a baby bottle while cradling her 3-month-old granddaughter, Muntaha, as she prepares to feed her amid a severe shortage of infant formula and rising malnutrition, in Gaza City, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Aug 1, 2025

'If the baby could speak, she would scream': the risky measures to feed small babies in Gaza

Infant formula is scarce after a plummet in aid access to Gaza and many women cannot breastfeed due to malnourishment.
Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Israel, on the border with the Gaza Strip, earlier this year.
WORLD
Aug 2, 2025

Israeli military intelligence goes back to basics with focus on spies, not tech

The agency is reviving an Arabic-language recruitment program for high school students and training all troops in Arabic and Islam.
Fred Kerley celebrates with his 100m bronze medal at the Stade de France at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
OLYMPICS / Athletics
Aug 13, 2025

Olympic medalist Kerley provisionally suspended for whereabouts failure

Kerley took 100m silver in Tokyo and bronze last year in Paris as well as the 2022 world 100m crown.
Rakuten Bank CEO Tomotaka Torin is interviewed in Tokyo last week.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 14, 2025

Rakuten Bank to refrain from JGB buying as more rate hikes seen

"We’re not going for any aggressive buying of JGBs until we’ve seen at least another rate hike or two,” CEO Tomotaka Torin said in an interview.
People walk past a time board at Hakata Station in Fukuoka. Luckily for those trying to catch a train, reading a clock is universal.
LIFE / Bilingual
Aug 15, 2025

Reading the Japanese clock: Are times a-changin'?

Learn how the Japanese tell time — from zero o’clock to 27 o’clock, and why 10 minutes "before" isn’t always clear.
Music instructor Ahmed Abu Amsha, 43, of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, conducts a lesson for Palestinian girls in Gaza City.
WORLD / Society
Aug 15, 2025

Gaza's young musicians sing and play in the ruins of war

Students in Gaza have continued music classes from displacement camps and shattered buildings even after Israel's bombardments forced them to abandon schools in the city.
An employee at a wholesaler puts a price tag on a package of sea urchins from Hokkaido at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 26, 2025

Warming seas add to food inflation woes as urchin rice bowls hit ¥18,000

Policymakers have mostly blamed rising food prices on the weak yen's upward pressure on import costs, but the effects of global warming now also loom as a risk.
An employee works at a bar in the City of Dreams, an integrated resort that includes Sri Lanka's first high end casino, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 26, 2025

Sri Lanka rolls the dice on casinos to power post-crisis tourism boom

The success of the casino strategy is crucial for President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who completes one year in office next month.
A revamped 3D diorama of the Chiran airfield and its surroundings is displayed at the Chiran Peace Museum in Minamikyushu, Kagoshima Prefecture, on July 31.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2025

Hometown donations program used to help preserve wartime memories in Japan

Initiatives are under way in some regions to keep the tragic history of World War II from fading by using digital technology to renovate exhibition facilities.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama attend the LDP’s plenary meeting in Tokyo on Aug. 8. Once dominant, the ruling party is now struggling to maintain control amid calls for Ishiba to step down.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 4, 2025

Dragging on the LDP’s political drama does little for Japan

From dominance to doubt, the ruling party struggles to maintain control.
Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen leave after a meeting with the French prime minister at the Hotel Matignon in Paris on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 4, 2025

French far-right accelerates recruitment drive with Macron government on brink

The far-right party is betting Emmanuel Macron's only path out of France's latest budget crisis will be to dissolve its deeply divided parliament.
Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful from the popemobile after a Mass for the canonization of Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint, in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, on Sunday.
WORLD
Sep 7, 2025

Huge crowds at the Vatican as teen becomes first millennial saint

Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Vatican Sunday as Pope Leo XIV proclaimed the Catholic Church's first millennial saint, an Italian teenager dubbed "God's Influencer."
Twenty-nine years have passed since the murder of Junko Kobayashi, then a fourth-year student at Sophia University, and the arson of her home. On Tuesday, her father, Kenji Kobayashi, called for information at the site of her former residence in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 9, 2025

29 years on, family still seeking clues in female student's murder

Junko Kobayashi, then a fourth-year university student, was days away from leaving to study in the United States when her body was found in the burned remains of her family home.
Singer-songwriter Mei Ehara confronted the pressure of creating her third album by taking inspiration from a literary device that merely serves as a trigger for a plot. The resulting album is “All About McGuffin.”
CULTURE / Music
Sep 12, 2025

Mei Ehara’s third album finds clarity in the noise

The Japanese singer-songwriter turns the concept of a McGuffin into her most direct work yet, sharpened by a U.S. tour with Faye Webster.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks at Lancaster House in London on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 16, 2025

Lack of successor keeps U.K.'s Starmer safe as Labour mulls his ouster

Plots against British leader Keir Starmer have dominated the headlines in Britain following the messy departures of key members of his government.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato takes part in an online meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers on Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2025

Japan pushes back on U.S. call for tariff hikes over Russian oil

Tokyo is cautious about joining efforts to raise tariffs on countries trading with Russia as Japan itself has continued importing LNG from its neighbor.
A scientist looks at scans of grains at the Memory Centre at the Department of Readaptation and Geriatrics of the University Hospital (HUG) in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 6, 2023.
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Sep 17, 2025

Japan’s front-line researchers see bright path ahead for dementia treatment

Four scientists at the forefront of dementia research speak about what kind of future they envision for people with the condition.
In “Ranshima Bound,” Yoshio (Tomoki Kimura, right) returns to his Hokkaido hometown with his supposed wife (Yuko Kii) when his estranged brother tells him their mother is in a coma.
CULTURE
Sep 19, 2025

‘Ranshima Bound’: Family fractures and buried truths collide in Hokkaido chill

Tomoki Kimura’s turn as a one-time punk rocker drifting through life grounds Kamada’s drama in rage, regret and reluctant tenderness.
ChatGPT owner OpenAI says it "actively works to identify and disrupt scam-related misuse of ChatGPT.”
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 19, 2025

ChatGPT was used ‘to help scammers do their thing’ at Asia fraud compound

Scammers used the artificial intelligence tool to craft convincing messages designed to trick people into parting with their money.
"Shake hands with Lima-chan," a statue that shares the name of the Peruvian capital looks in the direction of Peru, where a sister statue, "Sakura-chan," is located. Erected in Yokohama's Rinko Park in 1999, it commemorates Peruvian-Japanese friendship.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / Longform
Sep 22, 2025

The journey of Peru’s Nikkei: Finding identity in Japan

From sugar plantations in Peru to factory floors in Japan, the Nikkei story is one of migration, resilience and identity.
Packers defensive end Micah Parsons sacks Lions quarterback Jared Goff during the second half of their game in Green Bay on Sept. 7.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Sep 25, 2025

Cowboys and Packers try to downplay Micah Parsons' return to Dallas

Parsons had four double-digit sack seasons in four years in Dallas. He added 1½ in his first three games with the Packers.
Tomokazu Harimoto waits for China's Wang Chuqin to serve during the men's singles final at the WTT Champions Yokohama 2025 tournament on Aug. 11.
MORE SPORTS / Table tennis
Sep 26, 2025

Can Japan crack the China code in table tennis?

Japan has much more work to do if it is to be a proper rival for its neighbor.
The Kyoto International Entrepreneur Community brings together local and global professionals from a range of industries, backgrounds and ages and collaborates with government-sponsored entities and nonprofit organizations.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Sep 24, 2025

Stirred, not shaken: Kyoto business platform blends local and global

Since its launch in 2018, the Kyoto International Entrepreneur Community has amassed a diverse membership and built solid relationships with local organizations.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years