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As Japan heads into summer elections, debate over the consumption tax has intensified, with opposition parties demanding cuts to ease pressure on households and the government defending the levy as essential amid rising debt and economic uncertainty.
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2025

Don’t overreact to the consumption tax debate

Economic uncertainty in combination with rising prices are squeezing the budgets of households, businesses and the government.
Agriculture minister Taku Eto has come under fire for saying at the weekend that he receives so much rice from his supporters that he has enough to sell it.
JAPAN / Politics
May 19, 2025

Amid rice shortage, farm minister comes under fire for saying he gets plenty

Agriculture minister Taku Eto reportedly said at a fundraiser that he gets so much rice from supporters, he has enough to sell it.
If tax exemptions are revised, small parcels containing products bought from Shein and PDD Holdings' Temu shipped into Japan could be subject to the country’s sales tax, which mostly stands at 10%.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 20, 2025

Japan considers taxing small parcels as Shein and Temu expand

An experts group has discussed problems related to existing exemptions, including concerns about the channel being a conduit for illegal drugs and counterfeit goods.
Agriculture minister Taku Eto (left), who resigned on Wednesday, and former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi
JAPAN / Politics
May 21, 2025

Shinjiro Koizumi takes farm ministry reins after predecessor's rice gaffe

Taku Eto resigned from the post after coming under fire for bragging about how much rice his supporters give him.
Tokyo Verdy Beleza players celebrate after being crowned WE League champions on Saturday at Ajinomoto Field Nishigaoka in Tokyo.
SOCCER
May 21, 2025

Tokyo Verdy Beleza hope to stay on top after long-awaited WE League triumph

The storied club earned its first league title of the professional era on the back of a formidable attack and consistent play throughout the year.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Japan has strongly urged Israel to provide a full explanation of the incident.
JAPAN
May 22, 2025

Tokyo lodges protest after Israel fires shots at diplomats in West Bank

The diplomats were inspecting a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin.
A supporter of ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol holds a placard during a gathering near the Seoul Central District Court in the capital, where Yoon had appeared earlier in the day for another hearing in his criminal trial, as he defends himself against insurrection charges over his declaration of martial law.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
May 24, 2025

Meet the 'Yoonies': ex-president's shadow looms over South Korean poll

Experts say the ousted leader's influence continues to loom over the election, as he drew extreme religious figures and right-wing YouTubers into mainstream politics.
Rescue workers transport people using a raft along a flooded street in Takeo, Saga Prefecture, in August 2021.
JAPAN / Society
May 24, 2025

Japan to create public-private network on disaster relief

The initiative aims to build a network that facilitates cooperation between local governments, companies and nonprofit organizations.
Women visit a stand during the 23rd international gold and jewellery exhibition in Kuwait City on May 21.
WORLD
May 26, 2025

Stateless overnight: Kuwait strips tens of thousands of citizenship

The mass revocations have been cast as part of a reformist agenda spearheaded by Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
A Palestinian woman carries a toddler as she walks amid the destruction following Israeli strikes in Jabalia's Saftawi neighborhood in the northern Gaza on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2025

Nothing civilized about Netanyahu's war in Gaza

The continued razing of Palestinian enclave following the killing of Israel Embassy staffers will only perpetuate the cycle of violence.
Children in Gaza City on May 21
WORLD
May 27, 2025

Israel-backed Gaza food plan starts amid dissent and delay

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it has begun distributing food to Palestinians in the war-ravaged territory and appointed a new executive director
Muhammad Yunus, the interim head of the Bangladeshi government, attends the 55th annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 27, 2025

Protests grip Bangladesh as pressure mounts on Yunus-led government

The Nobel peace laureate's caretaker government is attempting to guide the country through a fragile transition before holding a general election.
Israelis gather with flags by Damascus Gate, which leads to Jerusalem's Old City, as they mark Jerusalem Day on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
May 27, 2025

Far-right Israelis confront Palestinians and other Israelis in chaotic march

The large rally in Jerusalem marked Israel's capture of the city's east in the 1967 war.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi says the government will take the lead in reusing soil removed during decontamination work at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
JAPAN
May 27, 2025

Soil from Fukushima radiation decontamination to be reused in Tokyo

The soil will be reused within the grounds of central government agencies and the prime minister's office, in hope of promoting its reuse throughout the country.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at a meeting of the government's advisory Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on Monday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 27, 2025

Japan private sector backs 1% real wage growth per year over next five years

The plan was first mentioned by the government’s "new capitalism" panel earlier this month.
The leaders of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito bloc hold up a document on their agreement to reform the pension system in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 27, 2025

Coalition clears last hurdle of parliamentary session with pension bill

The agreement largely revolves around a plan to boost funding for the basic pension program, which provides coverage to all residents in Japan age 20 to 60.
Nippon Steel headquarters in Tokyo. The U.S. government is poised to receive a so-called golden share in U.S. Steel as a condition for approving Nippon Steel's proposed acquisition of the American company.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 28, 2025

Golden share fix proposed for knotty Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel deal

The plan would give the U.S. government a veto over certain company decisions.
Onosato celebrates winning the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on Sunday.
SUMO / Inside Sumo
May 28, 2025

Historic rise to yokozuna just the beginning for Onosato

There is a good argument to be made that Onosato is already the most widely decorated wrestler in sumo history.
Demonstrators hold signs during a protest in support of international students at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
May 28, 2025

Japanese universities urged to open doors to students blocked from Harvard

The education ministry has asked universities nationwide to support students affected by the White House's push against foreign enrollments at Harvard.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at the Regulatory Reform Promotion Council on Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office.
JAPAN
May 29, 2025

Japan may allow bus and railway firms to enter ride-hailing business

The council called for promoting ride-hailing services to address the nationwide transportation shortage and suggested a trial for bus and railway operators.
A seafood market in Beijing. China has agreed to lift a ban on Japanese seafood imports that has lasted for 21 months.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 30, 2025

China agrees to lift ban on Japanese seafood imports

The prohibition was imposed in response to the release of treated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into the ocean.
A government white paper on agriculture attributed the recent rice price hikes partly to some producers boosting direct sales to consumers and sales to nonconventional buyers.
JAPAN
May 30, 2025

Government blames rice price surges on procurement route changes

Rice prices at retailers soared because wholesalers had to buy at relatively high prices to supplement shortfalls, a white paper concluded.
Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump during a news conference at the White House on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
May 31, 2025

Musk vows to stay Trump's 'friend' in bizarre black-eyed farewell

As the world's richest person bowed out of his role, Trump hailed Musk's "incredible service" and handed him a golden key to the White House.
Elon Musk boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland in March. As Musk became one of Donald Trump's closest allies last year, he was also using drugs far more intensely than previously known, according to people familiar with his activities.
WORLD / Politics
May 31, 2025

On the Trump campaign trail, Elon Musk juggled drugs and family drama

Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use and also came as he dealt with personal drama related to his growing number of children.
After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jun 2, 2025

How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic

Labor shortages and shifting mindsets are driving younger Japanese workers to challenge the country’s traditional office culture.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (third from left) speaks at a Council for Gender Equality meeting held at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 3, 2025

Japan to promote women's startups as part of push to stop rural outflow

Seeing fewer job prospects for women in the countryside as a problem, the government will improve consulting systems for business startups in rural areas.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani meets with his U.S. counterpart, Pete Hegseth, at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 3, 2025

Why Japan isn’t panicking about Trump’s foreign policy

Hegseth’s SLD speech is the first extended statement about U.S. policy and it checked all the boxes.
Tokyo police declared that Japanese young men and women were simply "not accustomed to one another’s society" due to their cultural upbringing — and thus freewheeling dance venues and foreign customs needed to be reined in.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Jun 4, 2025

Japan Times 1925: Tokyo police impose curfew on ‘social dances’

In June 1925, concern over “the moral effects of the Western dancing” on Japanese youth led to restrictions on social venues.
Japan and the United States are aiming for a meeting between Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and President Donald Trump at the Group of Seven leaders summit on June 16 and 17.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 4, 2025

U.S. doubles steel and aluminum tariffs as Japan counts on a breakthrough

The United Kingdom is exempt from the higher rates because it struck an early trade deal with the United States.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (left) and agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi attend the first ministerial meeting on stable rice supply, held at the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2025

Ishiba seeks probe on high prices at first rice meeting

A key issue in future discussions at the ministerial council will be how to optimize rice distribution.

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped