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The Hong Kong skyline on Jan. 3, 2022. In 2018, Hong Kong received a record 65 million tourists. In 2023, it welcomed a little more than half that.
BUSINESS
Oct 17, 2024

Tourism has rebounded worldwide but not in Hong Kong.

The rebound of international travel to the city continues to lag far behind the tourist activity reported at most other Asian destinations.
Apple CEO Tim Cook
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 22, 2024

Apple CEO Tim Cook’s other job: Helping Nike turn things around

Cook has carved out a role as one of Nike’s closest outside advisers over the last 19 years and is the company’s lead independent director.
“Vote harassment” continues to be a significant barrier to women’s participation in politics, with only two prefectures having passed local ordinances aiming to eliminate the problem.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 24, 2024

1 in 4 female candidates face sexual harassment during campaigns

Despite a record 314 women running in Sunday's Lower House election, harassment continues to be a barrier to women's participation in politics.
Election administration staff count ballots for the general election at a ballot station in Tokyo on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 29, 2024

Japan marks third lowest general-election turnout in postwar history

Low turnout typically benefit political parties with organizational power, but the LDP and partner Komeito struggled Sunday despite having powerful support bases.
Appi Geothermal Energy's power plant in Hachimantai, Iwate Prefecture, began commercial operations in March.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 31, 2024

Geothermal power slowly gains steam in Japan

Development of the energy source has long stalled, partly because they tend to lie beneath national parks, which are protected for wildlife conservation.
Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 31, 2024

Trump factor bringing uncertainty to Asian firms' U.S. investment outlook

The former president has criticized the Inflation Reduction Act as a "scam” and the CHIPS and Science Act as a bad deal.
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump
WORLD / Politics
Nov 5, 2024

Panic buttons and SWAT teams: U.S. braces for election unrest

With Kamala Harris and Donald Trump deadlocked at the climax of the 2024 race, authorities are keen to reassure jittery Americans that their votes are secure.
Donald Trump is joined on stage by former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a campaign event in Duluth, Georgia, on Oct. 23.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2024

When the leftists embrace the far right

Do these political migrations reflect a mere opportunistic betrayal of principles or is something more complicated going on?
Susie Wiles, 67, will be the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff.
WORLD
Nov 8, 2024

Trump picks Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff

The low-key Wiles, 67, will be the first woman to serve in the post.
For some Americans, physical distance between them and their country in the immediate post-election period is the best thing they can do for their mental health.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 9, 2024

Americans are traveling abroad as a post-election salve

One woman who temporarily relocated to Mexico City wishes she had traveled even further to a place like Japan for even more distance from domestic politcal news.
Nissan’s filing said Suntera (Cayman) is the buyer of the 2.5% stake and listed Suntera as a trustee of ECM Master Fund.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 12, 2024

Nissan surges after firm linked to hedge fund takes 2.5% stake

The jump is a remarkable turnaround for Nissan’s stock, which plunged last week after the carmaker slashed jobs and said it would cut manufacturing capacity by a fifth.
The U.S. Capitol in Washington. The U.S. Constitution assigns to the Senate the power to confirm a president's nominees for life-tenured seats on the federal judiciary.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 13, 2024

U.S. Senate Democrats rush to confirm judges before Trump takes office

Democrats are on a crusade to confirm as many new federal judges nominated by U.S. President Joe Biden as possible.
A fund controlled by Effissimo Capital Management has taken a stake in Nissan Motor.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 13, 2024

Nissan enters new era of turmoil as Effissimo takes stake

The big question is whether CEO Makoto Uchida can deliver a turnaround or be forced to make more drastic changes by an influential outsider.
The Tokyo District Court has found Nagumi Osada, 27, guilty of sexually abusing seven girls between the ages of 3 and 6.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 14, 2024

Former day care center worker given 14-year term for child sex abuse

The man was found guilty of abusing seven girls between the ages of 3 and 6 at day care centers where he worked and of filming the acts over a period of two years.
South Korea's main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung arrives at a court in Seoul on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 15, 2024

South Korea opposition leader convicted of violating election law

"I will be appealing. Beginning with the basic facts, it is a conclusion that is difficult to accept," opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung said.
Members of the Indigenous People Association stage a protest to demand action on climate change, holding cutouts of U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the waters of Botafogo Bay, ahead of the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 17, 2024

Biden weighs fossil fuel finance curbs that could outlast Trump

Landing the deal is seen as essential to deliver on a promise Biden made during his first year in the White House.
Jimmy Lai, publisher of Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper, at his office in Hong Kong on Aug. 22, 2019. Accused of masterminding anti-government protests that swept across Hong Kong in 2019, Lai testified for the first time on Wednesday at his landmark national security trial.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 21, 2024

Apple Daily: The Hong Kong tabloid that dared to challenge China

Hong Kong's Apple Daily was once the city's most popular tabloid by punching up against the Chinese Communist Party. But Beijing had the last laugh.
Shizuo Aishima's son next to a photo of his father in March. Aishima was one of the executives of spray-dryer Ohkawara Kakohki arrested on charges of illegal exporting in 2020. The charges were later dropped by prosecutors.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 21, 2024

Ohkawara investigators referred to prosecutors over falsified documents

Executives at Ohkawara Kakohki were arrested in 2020 on suspicion of illegally exporting chemical machinery, but the charges were later dropped.
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 22, 2024

Nissan’s overly ambitious goals fuel investor and supplier distrust

Nissan’s latest outlook downgrade has shined a light on the Japanese carmaker’s tendency to overpromise and underdeliver.
A man walks past a gasoline station in Tokyo on Thursday.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Nov 24, 2024

How Japan can exit the fossil fuel subsidies it can’t seem to quit

While offering relief to low-income households, such measures encourage the continued use of the fossil fuels driving climate change.
Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Nov 25, 2024

Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat

The modern sauna experience is more than just taking a seat in some steam — whisking, aufguss shows and spectacle all play a part.
Special Counsel Jack Smith speaks at a news conference in Washington on Aug. 1, 2023. Smith on Monday asked a federal judge in Washington to formally dismiss the indictment charging President-elect Donald Trump with plotting to subvert the 2020 election.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 26, 2024

Judge tosses Trump 2020 election case after prosecutors' request

The request stems from Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
At the United Nations climate conference in Baku, rich nations found that efforts to reduce their own emissions and fund climate programs elsewhere in the world bought them little favor with developing countries most at risk of global warming.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2024

Clean power must offer more hope to beat fossil fuels

Wealthy nations must treat climate change as a genuine crisis, advocating for bold financing programs to enable poor nations to industrialize with clean energy.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump attends a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket, in Brownsville, Texas, on Nov. 19.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 27, 2024

Trump names trade envoy and top economic advisor to fill policy team

The U.S. president-elect named Jamieson Greer his trade representative and picked Kevin Hassett as his top economic adviser.
Ema Ryan Yamazaki’s “The Making of a Japanese” is an even-handed portrait of elementary school in Japan, where the citizens of tomorrow are forged.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2024

‘The Making of a Japanese’: A warm and engaging portrait of Japanese schoolchildren

Ema Ryan Yamazaki’s documentary is a candid and heartfelt glimpse of elementary school in Tokyo.
The Oita District Court sentenced a 23-year-old man to eight years in prison Thursday for causing a fatal crash in the city of Oita in 2021.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 28, 2024

Oita court sentences man to eight years in prison for dangerous driving

Initially filed as a case of negligent driving resulting in death, prosecutors later sought a dangerous driving charge, which carries harsher penalties.
The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo is a popular place to foster curiosity in the natural sciences.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Dec 2, 2024

Can Japan's scientific community rebound from a Nobel nosedive?

Shrinking funding and limited support spark fears for the country's scientific prowess moving forward.
Nissan Motor vehicles bound for shipment at the Nissan Oppama wharf in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 3, 2024

Nissan is awash in outdated models as car buyers look elsewhere

While Japan’s other major carmakers take six months or more to ship a new vehicle, many of Nissan’s most popular models can be delivered within a month or two.
An anti-regime fighter operates a truck-mounted gun as displaced Syrian Kurds drive vehicles loaded with their belongings along the Aleppo-Raqqa highway.
WORLD / FOCUS
Dec 3, 2024

Who are the former jihadis now holding Syria's Aleppo?

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) says it no longer has any links to al-Qaida, but it remains blacklisted by the United States and the European Union.
An image of active and defunct satellites in low Earth Orbit is seen on a Digantara terminal in Bengaluru, India, on Nov. 22.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 3, 2024

Global push for cooperation as space traffic crowds Earth's orbit

A United Nations panel on space traffic coordination called for a shared database of orbital objects as well as an international framework to track and manage them.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami