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Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 13, 2023

WHO worried bird flu might adapt to humans 'more easily'

Since late 2021, Europe has been gripped by its worst-ever outbreak of bird flu, while North and South America have also experienced severe outbreaks.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2023

Commission to investigate Japan's Digital Agency over My Number card woes

The commission is considering taking the rare step of issuing administrative guidance to the agency over the issue, which has shaken public trust and sapped support for Kishida's Cabinet.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 3, 2023

A $30 billion disaster is just the tip of a deadly climate cycle

With monsoon season fast approaching, Pakistan is still reeling from severe flooding that killed over 1,700 and displaced 8 million.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 30, 2023

Jumbo problem: Sri Lanka's battle with plastic pollution

The island's unprecedented economic crisis means there has been a pile-up of trash because of a shortage of fuel for garbage trucks.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / Gymnastics
Jun 29, 2023

Star gymnast Simone Biles may return to competition in August

Biles dazzled at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where she won gold in team, all-around, vault and floor exercise and bronze in balance beam, but withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 23, 2023

Vienna holds on to title of most liveable city as Osaka places highest in Japan

As upended lives from the pandemic return to normal, education, health and cultural facilities are improving, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s index.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 20, 2023

How COVID’s bitter divisions tarnished a liberal icon

In a part of the world where coronavirus restrictions lingered, Jacinda Ardern struggled to get beyond her association with pandemic policy.
TikTok is in a race to dominate e-commerce in Southeast Asia.
BUSINESS
Jul 24, 2023

TikTok steps up Southeast Asia presence amid e-commerce push

As the company intermingles social media and e-commerce, it is betting that this vision of shopping will knock aside rivals in the region.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 28, 2023

Kishida seeks reset as My Number woes hit approval ratings

The prime minister has embarked on a nationwide tour to listen to the concerns of local communities in an effort to expand his political reach and prop up his popular support.
Residents walk through misters during a heat wave in Phoenix, Arizona, on July 20.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 1, 2023

How urban heat islands add to the misery of heat waves

While grass or soil absorb less heat, asphalt and concrete can absorb as much as 95% of the sun's energy then send it back into the atmosphere.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 1, 2023

Japan panel endorses first domestically developed COVID vaccine

The shot is based on the original strain of the coronavirus, making it unlikely that it will be used in Japan or elsewhere.
Simone Biles performs on the balance beam during the U.S. Classic in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Gymnastics
Aug 6, 2023

Simone Biles wins U.S. Classic in return to gymnastics competition

The meet was the last chance to qualify for the U.S. nationals on Aug. 24-27 at San Jose, California.
A test event for the 2024 Summer Olympics' open swimming competition was scheduled to take place in Paris this weekend.
OLYMPICS
Aug 6, 2023

Paris Games swimming test in Seine canceled due to pollution

Heavy rains for the past week in Paris have caused sewers to overflow, polluting the Seine.
A camp of informal gold miners in Los Amigos, in the Madre de Dios region, Peru. The Peruvian government estimates that illegal miners dump about 180 metric tons of mercury in Madre de Dios annually.
WORLD
Aug 7, 2023

Gold mining in the Amazon poisoning scores of threatened species

Miners in southeast Peru use mercury to find gold — inadvertently contaminating hundreds of species native to the area.
A landscape worker from Mexico takes a break during a heat wave in Phoenix, Arizona, on July 27. A thermal camera registered surface temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius, with an air temperature of 42 C.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 8, 2023

Thermal camera captures record heat wave scorching Phoenix

The southwestern U.S. city has shattered its 1974 heat-wave record with temperatures above 43 degrees Celsius for 31 straight days.
Technical trainees from Vietnam work at a knitwear factory in the city of Mitsuke, Niigata Prefecture, in February 2019.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 6, 2023

Japan is bringing in more foreign nationals than you think

Japan isn’t an outlier when it comes to low fertility rates, merely a front-runner.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 13, 2023

Legislation on assisted reproductive technology delayed in Japan

Currently in Japan, the right of children born through fertility treatment to know their biological parents is not guaranteed
A trader on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on July 26
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 15, 2023

U.S. loss of AAA badge shows shift in views on government debt

Fitch Ratings flagged not only U.S. governance but also higher rates driving up debt service costs, an aging population and rising health care spending.
The ocean has absorbed a whopping 90% of the warming that’s occurred in recent decades as a result of increasing greenhouse gases. Shipping is responsible for a large portion of those emissions, pumping out more than a billion tons in 2018.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 16, 2023

Shipping's quest for greener fuel runs into climate complications

Three-and-a-half years ago, a new rule was established to cut ships’ sulfur emissions. Yet some scientists have linked that to warmer ocean temperatures.
If you've come to the realization that divorce is the only way forward, there are a host of details about the Japanese marriage system to confirm before you're finally ready to cut ties.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Aug 21, 2023

Navigating the notorious gauntlet of divorce in Japan

Everyone wishes for “happily ever after” no matter where you’re from, but Japan recorded 1,671 bicultural divorces in 2021.
Washington is worried that Beijing’s struggles with high unemployment and an aging workforce make China “a ticking time bomb.”
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2023

America’s ‘new’ China narrative: A wounded dragon

The new China narrative is really about the West, its lead in technologies, the free market, wielding power and keeping all challengers at bay.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2023

China and Hong Kong to toughen import restrictions on Japan foods

Of Japan's exports of agricultural, forestry and fishery products and food items, 36% went to mainland China and Hong Kong in total in 2022.
Sushi made with fish imported from Japan at a Japanese supermarket in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2023

China's sushi fans flounder over Fukushima water release

Chinese sushi lovers have expressed reservations after Japan kicked off plans for the disposal of wastewater from the stricken Fukushima No. 1 plant.
A promotional poster for the film "Barbie" in Tokyo on Aug. 3
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 23, 2023

Why is the ‘Barbie’ movie bombing in Japanese theaters?

The fact that the movie's female empowerment theme won’t have a positive, lasting impact in Japan is a shame.
A Japanese doctor helps a non-Japanese patient check in at the front desk of a hospital.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 25, 2023

Let’s get clinical: Navigating a trip to a Japanese hospital

You don't need to be stressed out about your linguistic ability when you check into a Japanese hospital, so brush up on some terms beforehand.
A statue of Pokemon character Pikachu is seen during the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 26, 2023

Pokemon game that’s all about sleep hits 10 million downloads

Pokemon Go made billions of dollars getting people to roam the great outdoors. Now the company is trying to get people to go to bed.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 27, 2023

More tests show radiation levels of Fukushima seawater remain below limits

Tokyo hopes what it says is a transparent release of data will serve as a strong rebuttal to claims by Beijing that the discharge is dangerous.
National Forest and Wild Fauna Service personnel check on a sea lion, amidst rising cases bird flu infections in Peru in February 2023.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 31, 2023

After racing across continents, bird flu threatens Antarctica

Unlike earlier versions of bird flu, H5N1 has also spread widely in wild birds and routinely spilled over into wild mammals.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel talks to local fishermen on Thursday to show his support for the water discharge from the nearby Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 5, 2023

Fukushima water disposal is leadership opportunity for Japan

Some 1,000 storage tanks that hold the water are almost full and more tanks can’t be installed as they would interfere with the plant’s decommissioning.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past