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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 15, 2023

China and Hong Kong resume high-speed rail link after three years of COVID curbs

The reopening of the high-speed rail services between Hong Kong and the mainland comes amid a massive wave of infections nationwide.
China’s economy shows signs of a possible recovery despite structural challenges and imperfect GDP data, but its future growth and global impact hinge on trade relations with the U.S. and how economic progress is measured.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2025

Taking GDP out of the China equation

There are problems with looking at China’s vitality through the GDP lens — the data is widely perceived to be finessed by officials
Shoya Narita, a physical education teacher at Obu Minami Junior High School, gives a lecture about water safety in a classroom.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Jul 22, 2025

Swimming lessons disappearing from Japan's public junior high schools

Aging pool facilities are prompting teachers to switch to giving classroom lectures on water safety.
One of the early exemplars of Chinese innovation is a cell therapy that has shown promise to potentially cure a deadly blood cancer.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 14, 2025

China biotech’s stunning advance is changing the world’s drug pipeline

The number of novel drugs in China entering into development ballooned to over 1,250 last year, far surpassing the European Union.
A freezer at a Japanese Red Cross Society blood center in Tokyo's Koto Ward lost power around 10:30 p.m. on May 11, rendering around 13,700 units of fresh frozen plasma blood unusable.
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2025

Freezer glitch affects blood products at Red Cross center in Tokyo

The incident did not affect deliveries of blood products to medical institutions, and the affected units will be used as materials for other products.
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.
Women and children arrange their containers as they line up at a standpipe, where incomplete water connections caused by USAID funding cuts to the NGO Mercy Corps have led to ongoing water shortages, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on June 16.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 20, 2025

Trump's funding cut stalls water projects, increasing risks for millions

The White House's decision to slash nearly all U.S. foreign aid projects has created new hazards for some of the people they were designed to benefit.
A woman caresses a child's head as Palestinians wait at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday.
WORLD
Jul 20, 2025

Gaza civil defense says Israeli fire kills 39 near two aid centers

Deaths of people waiting for handouts in huge crowds near food points in Gaza have become a regular occurrence, with the territory's authorities frequently blaming Israeli fire.
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.
A U.S. flag is reflected in the windows of the shuttered former offices of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington on Tuesday. Washington does not want any USAID-branded supplies to be rerouted elsewhere.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 24, 2025

U.S.-funded contraceptives for poor nations to be burned in France: sources

Washington has rejected offers from the United Nations and family planning organizations to buy or ship the supplies.
Palestinians carry aid supplies which entered Gaza through Israel in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, on Sunday.
WORLD
Jul 29, 2025

Gaza death toll hits 60,000 as global monitor demands action to avert famine

Famine is unfolding in Gaza and immediate action is needed to end fighting and allow unimpeded aid access, the hunger monitor said.
Storage tanks containing treated water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture in March 2021.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 30, 2025

Tepco ordered to pay ¥100 million in damages over 2011 disaster

Presiding Judge Masahiko Abe ordered the payment mainly as compensation for damage to property and consolation money.
Emissions rise from a smokestack at the Conesville Power Plant in Conesville, Ohio.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 1, 2025

How Trump-vetted scientists are trying to shred the climate consensus

A new report is part of an effort by the Trump administration to try to end the U.S. government’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases.
A worker fumigates for mosquitos on a rooftop sewer in Guangzhou, China, on July 30.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Aug 4, 2025

Hong Kong sees first mosquito-borne illness from China outbreak

Foshan, a city just 90 minutes away by high-speed train, has seen over 6,500 people affected in the past few weeks.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (center) chairs a meeting of a Cabinet session to discuss the issue of disarming Hezbollah at the presidential palace of Baabda, east of Beirut, on Aug. 5.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 6, 2025

Lebanon plans to disarm Hezbollah by year-end

The unprecedented move forms part of a November ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hezbollah following months of hostilities.
Japan faces a demographic crisis that threatens its research talent and must build a more inclusive and welcoming society to attract and keep world-class scientists amid rising nationalism and economic challenges.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 7, 2025

Japan gets serious about attracting world-class researchers

The stakes are high: Without a cultural shift, even the best-funded policies may fail to secure Japan’s future.
A Cardinals fan fans himself during the seventh inning of a game against the  Pirates in St. Louis, Missouri, in June 2022.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 7, 2025

Cheer with caution: Expert advises sports fans have game plan for extreme heat

The consequences of extreme heat exposure range from dehydration to heatstroke and even death.
Venus Williams hits a return against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro during the first round of the Cincinnati Open on Thursday.
TENNIS
Aug 8, 2025

Venus Williams falls in first round in Cincinnati

Williams, 45, was competing for the second time in three weeks after returning to the WTA tour in Washington in her first tournament in 16 months.
Water is sprayed to cool off Shiite pilgrims arriving from Iran via the Zurbatiyah crossing in Iraq's Wasit governorate on Wednesday. The pilgrims are on their way to the shrine city of Karbala.
WORLD
Aug 10, 2025

Over 600 pilgrims hospitalized due to chlorine gas leak in Iraq

In a brief statement, Iraq's health ministry said "621 cases of asphyxia have been recorded following a chlorine gas leak in Karbala".
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is looking to expand its presence in the market for debt swaps as a way for emerging countries to alleviate their debt burdens and put savings toward sustainable goals.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 13, 2025

MUFG in talks to arrange new debt swaps after $465 million deal

Japan’s biggest bank is looking to expand its presence in the market for debt swaps after helping to wrap up a deal for Cote d'Ivoire in December.
The streets of Tokyo's Ginza district in April. The number of foreign residents in Japan hit a record high at 3.76 million as of the end of last year, comprising just over 3% of the population.
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2025

Welcoming foreign residents benefits Japan, three quarters of economists say

Some highlighted the need to avoid conflating foreign nationals who may be in Japan temporarily with long-term foreign residents.
Dried cannabis confiscated by police shown to media in Tokyo on Wednesday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 15, 2025

Japan makes its biggest drug bust ever

Authorities have seized roughly a metric ton of dried cannabis smuggled by ship from Vietnam worth around ¥5.2 billion ($35.2 million).
A prison van believed to be carrying Jimmy Lai arrives at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts building for the closing submissions in the national security collusion trial of Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, in Hong Kong on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 18, 2025

Hong Kong democrat Jimmy Lai given heart monitor for final stretch of marathon trial

Lai's lawyer told the court last Friday that Lai had some episodes where he felt that he was collapsing and had heart "palpitations."
The sun sets over Gaza on Tuesday, as seen from the Israeli side of the border between Gaza and Israel. Mediators Egypt and Qatar have been pushing proposals to restart indirect talks between the sides on a U.S.-backed ceasefire plan.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 20, 2025

Israel weighs Hamas offer of 60-day Gaza truce and hostage release

Efforts to pause the fighting gained new momentum over the past week after Israel announced plans to seize control of Gaza City at the heart of the Palestinian enclave.
Chatbots are pivoting to the ad model and optimizing for eyeballs, just like social media did. And AI knows more about us than Google or Facebook ever did.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2025

Ads ruined social media. Now they’re coming to AI.

Imagine a person telling their AI they’re feeling depressed, and the system recommending some affordable holiday destinations or medication to address the problem.
Vanitha Anand Bhat, 43, who works with her husband, Raya Anand Bhat, 48, pours coconut oil into a plastic bottle inside their small coconut mill in Kochi, India, on July 23.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 21, 2025

Humble coconut oil turns into a luxury on rising demand, shrinking output

Output across major producer nations, from India to Southeast Asia, has been disrupted by lower rainfall and extended heat, as well as pests and disease.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance makes excellent use of stages dripping with atmosphere to punch up the feel of its tight combat mechanics.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Aug 25, 2025

Sega's ninja-themed Shinobi series is back from the dead

The long-running series hasn’t had a console release since 2003, but the new title is nearly enjoyable enough to make the wait worth it.
Begum, a 35-year-old mother of seven children, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Aug. 18. Begum will marry off one of her daughters after a funding shortage shuttered thousands of schools in the refugee camps.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 25, 2025

School closures push Rohingya refugee children into marriage and work

A funding crisis has led to the suspension of many Rohingya learning centers, leaving children to play in the mud or rain.
A screenshot from an AI-generated video showing what could happen to Tokyo if Mount Fuji erupted
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2025

Tokyo releases AI-generated video of Mount Fuji erupting

With Mount Fuji 100 kilometers away, the video from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government aims to inform Tokyoites about how an eruption could still seriously impact their lives.

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