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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 11, 2020

Should Tokyo ban TikTok and WeChat?

I had not used TikTok until yesterday. My niece in her mid-20s said she had stopped using the TikTok app — a Chinese-owned video-sharing social networking service — because it's best suited for teenagers. After downloading and trying the app for a while, I deleted it because she was right.
Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Jan 26, 2025

Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick

Discover the hometown of the Yoshiwara publisher who helped shape Japan’s artistic legacy and inspired NHK’s latest period drama.
Members of the media crowd the venue before the start of a news conference at Fuji TV's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Society / First person
Jan 28, 2025

Yelling and random tangents: What it was like covering Fuji TV's 10-hour presser

The once-in-a-lifetime news conference showed what would happen when the Japanese press was given total freedom with no time limits.
Lawyers representing Masako Akagi at a news conference in the city of Osaka on Thursday following an Osaka High Court ruling that revoked the Finance Ministry's decision not to disclose documents related to a document-tampering scandal
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 31, 2025

Court nixes Finance Ministry decision against document disclosure

The Finance Ministry has said that public disclosure in a document-tampering case would impede investigations.
A banner belonging to the "Alley of Angels" project displays images of children purportedly killed in conflict, at a demonstration of far-right groups in Frankfurt, Germany, on May 25, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 19, 2025

How a Moscow-linked exhibit tried to erode German support for Ukraine

Publicly, the exhibit’s organizers say they aren’t affiliated with any government and are driven by a desire to end the suffering.
Three Hyogo Prefectural Assembly members belonging to Nippon Ishin no Kai apologize Sunday for providing undisclosed and unconfirmed information to NHK Party head Takashi Tachibana.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 23, 2025

Hyogo assembly member offers to quit Nippon Ishin over probe data

The audio data and the document in question contain information supporting Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito's in his probe over alleged harassment.
An Apple store in Walnut Creek, California, on Monday. Apple Inc. Apple investors rejected a proposal to end the iPhone maker’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, but CEO Tim Cook some some adjustments may occur.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 26, 2025

Apple to keep DEI efforts, though some adjustments possible

The proposal to abolish DEI efforts came after competitors like Meta and Google have started winding down such programs.
Destroyed homes after the Palisades Fire near Los Angeles on Jan. 30
WORLD / Society
Mar 3, 2025

Fire danger in LA is all around, but signals to residents are mixed

There is a disparity between what data on the issue is freely available and the fuller data that private companies can pay to access.
Multibillionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk speaks via video link to an election campaign rally for the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Halle, Germany, on Jan. 26.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 5, 2025

Musk rallies the far right in Europe. Tesla is paying the price.

The multibillionaire's support for right-wing political parties could help boost his empire by cutting back regulations he thinks impede tech innovations.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2025

Scam hubs on Thai-Myanmar border still have up to 100,000 people, Thai police says

The main focus of Thai authorities currently is to help coordinate the return of scam center victims to their home countries.
U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Jack Reed (left) and co-chair Roger Wicker at Capitol Hill in Washington in April 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 28, 2025

U.S. senators from both parties urge formal probe of Signal chat attack plan

The Pentagon was asked to investigate the Trump administration's use of the Signal messaging app to discuss sensitive attack plans.
The words "This site has been hacked by RENEG4DE.COM" are displayed on the archived site of a rival video game cheating website on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 3, 2025

DOGE official at DOJ bragged about hacking and distributing pirated software

National security professionals were largely split on how seriously to take 33-year-old Christopher Stanley's past.
Palestinians mourn medics who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 31.
WORLD
Apr 7, 2025

Israeli military changes initial account of Gaza aid worker killings

Fifteen paramedics and emergency responders were shot dead on March 23 and buried in a shallow grave where their bodies were found a week later.
Demonstrators gather in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outside the agency's main campus in Atlanta on March 28.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 8, 2025

Volunteers on 'right side of history' fight Trump data purge

The Trump administration has gutted several federal agencies, fired tens of thousands of employees and altered or deleted thousands of government webpages since taking office.
A U.S. security report cites DeepSeek’s ties to Chinese government interests as "significant.”
WORLD / Politics
Apr 17, 2025

DeepSeek poses ‘profound’ security threat, U.S. house panel claims

The committee urged Nvidia to hand over information on sales of chips that the Chinese startup may have used to develop its breakthrough chatbot model.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on April 9.
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Apr 19, 2025

How AI is aiding Trump's immigration crackdown

The practice is raising fears that risks to accuracy and privacy could put almost anyone in danger of getting caught up in the crackdown.
Participants in Chinese hacking competitions are required to report their findings to the government first, according to a 2018 regulation.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 1, 2025

Chinese hacking competitions fuel the country’s broad cyber ambitions

Chinese hacking contests now serve national security, with vulnerabilities passed to the state, not fixed by tech makers.
Land at an address identified on the U.S. entity list, in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China, on Oct. 31, 2024.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 6, 2025

U.S. blacklist on China is riddled with errors and outdated details

Five former U.S. officials acknowledged difficulties in evaluating possible cases of mistaken identity and updating information on the entity list, due in part to limited staffing.
Officials from the 15 hotel companies had met once a month to exchange information about room occupancy rates, average room prices and room reservations, according to the FTC.
JAPAN
May 8, 2025

15 hotel operators in Tokyo warned over possible price-fixing

Officials from the 15 companies had met once a month to exchange information about room occupancy rates, average room prices and room reservations, according to the FTC.
The Upper House passed the active cyberdefense bill on Friday with majority support spanning the ruling bloc and the major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
JAPAN / Politics
May 16, 2025

Japan enacts active cyberdefense law

Through the law, the government aims to set up defenses against cyberattacks that are on par with or better than major Western countries.
People whose prime news sources are online platforms stood at 73%, far surpassing the 13% who chose newspapers, a government white paper showed on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2025

Almost three quarters of Japan looks online first for news, white paper reports

People whose primary news sources are online platforms stood at 73%, far surpassing the 13% who chose newspapers, according to the communications ministry.
Seven & I has sought to make a case for remaining independent and has enacted changes such as appointing a new CEO.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2025

Couche-Tard abandons $46 billion bid to acquire 7-Eleven operator

Seven & I stock, up more than 25% since Couche-Tard’s interest became public 11 months ago, will likely decline due to the withdrawn proposal.
Microsoft accused Chinese state-sponsored hackers of using flaws in its SharePoint document management software in a hacking campaign that has targeted businesses and government agencies around the world.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 23, 2025

Chinese hackers exploit Microsoft flaws with U.S. nuclear agency hit

The number of companies and agencies subjected to breaches as a result of exploits in the document-sharing software is mounting.
A screenshot of the National Police Agency's crime victim support portal website, Gyutto Channel
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 25, 2025

Police in Japan set up website to support crime victims

The website was created following comments that the previous information on support on the National Police Agency's homepage was difficult to understand.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte looks at military equipment on the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Mogami stealth frigate during a visit to the MSDF's naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in April.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 29, 2025

Japan and NATO to launch defense-industrial talks, top envoy says

The talks will aim to explore new areas of cooperation and facilitate coordination between the two sides’ defense and security industries.
Police officers ask a man to evacuate from an empty beach following a tsunami warning, in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2025

Japan on edge but prepared for tsunami after huge Kamchatka earthquake

Tsunami waves measuring up to 1.3 meters were observed off the Pacific coast of Japan, with authorities urging people in coastal areas to evacuate to higher ground.
Kimi Ozawa, who lost her husband in the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines jumbo jet, prays in front of his memorial marker on Tuesday in the village of Ueno, Gunma Prefecture.
JAPAN / History / FOCUS
Aug 12, 2025

Controversial theories continue to swirl around 1985 JAL jet crash

Some bereaved family members and critics who subscribe to the idea of possible SDF involvement say the initial probe left too many loose ends untied.
U.S. President Donald Trump makes an announcement regarding the Golden Dome missile defense shield in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in May.
WORLD
Aug 15, 2025

Trump’s Golden Dome still shrouded in mystery, even for its builders

Government officials told defense contractors last week they weren’t even allowed to mention the project by name.
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.
A total of 58 information systems at 12 Japanese government institutions have been found vulnerable to cyberattacks.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2025

12 Japan agencies found vulnerable to cyberattacks

The audit board's survey, conducted over the three years through fiscal 2023, covered 356 information systems at 40 government institutions, including ministries and agencies.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell