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Former Australian player Fred Stolle (right) receives an award from French Tennis Federation President Jean Gachassin during the French Open in Paris in 2015.
TENNIS
Mar 6, 2025

Australian great 'Fiery' Fred Stolle dies at 86

Stolle was part of a golden generation of Australian players who dominated the men's game at the start of the professional era.
Rengo says its member unions have demanded an average wage increase of 6.09% this year, up from last year’s 5.85%.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 6, 2025

Japan’s biggest union group demands highest wage hike since 1993

Member unions of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation are seeking an average wage increase of 6.09% this year, up from last year’s 5.85%.
The weighted average of wage hikes demanded by 2,939 member unions of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, in this year's shuntō labor-management negotiations came to 6.09%, a Rengo survey showed Thursday.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2025

Japan pay hike demands top 6% for first time in 32 years

It is the first time in 32 years for the average wage hike request to exceed 6%, amid the soaring cost of living and labor shortages.
Antonio Costa, president of the European Council (left), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, arrive for a special European Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 7, 2025

EU leaders agree on defense surge and support Zelenskyy after U.S. aid freeze

The European Union's defense summit in Brussels took place amid fears that Russia, emboldened by its war in Ukraine, may attack an EU country next.
Couche-Tard has made clear that it wants to learn from Seven & I Holdings to improve its North America operation, and has ruled out going hostile in takeover talks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2025

Couche-Tard holds talks for sale of U.S. shops in Seven & I deal

The retailer last year proposed to purchase Seven & I Holdings for $18.19 per share, but so far hasn’t been able to enter negotiations with the firm.
Balboa Port, operated by Panama Ports Company, at the Panama Canal. Conglomerate CK Hutchison, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, has agreed to sell its ports network, including assets along the Panama Canal, to a U.S. consortium led by BlackRock.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 7, 2025

As Trump hails taking back of Panama Canal, Hong Kong Inc. walks tightrope

Firms in the former British colony are increasingly under pressure to shake off any connection with China amid tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Ai Narabayashi, a member of the editorial department of Iwanami Shoten, the publisher of dictionary "Kojien," speaks during an interview in Tokyo in February.  Narabayashi said the dictionary has the duty to record the Japanese language without hiding anything and accurately explain the meaning behind words and phrases.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 7, 2025

Why an iconic Japanese dictionary chooses to retain misogynistic words

Publisher Iwanami Shoten considers it a duty for its "Kojien" dictionary to record and accurately explain the meaning and background of words and phrases.
IPC President Andrew Parsons poses for photos before a news conference at the Milano Cortina 2026 Organising Committee headquarters in Milan, Italy.
PARALYMPICS
Mar 7, 2025

IPC chief tasks sports with setting own rules for transgender athletes

The Olympic Games and the Paralympics currently allow transgender athletes to compete.
As the U.S. under Donald Trump reassesses its commitment to Ukraine, countries worldwide, particularly in Europe and Asia, are reconsidering their defense policies and alliances with America. 
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2025

Europe braces for a post-American world. Is Japan ready?

A diplomatic posture that makes demands only of Ukraine and not Russia suggests, however, that Washington has taken sides.
Elon Musk departs the White House for the Capitol on the night of U.S. President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress, in Washington, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 8, 2025

Inside the explosive meeting where Trump officials clashed with Elon Musk

Simmering anger at the billionaire’s unchecked power spilled out in a remarkable Cabinet Room meeting. The president quickly moved to rein in Musk.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda attends a news conference on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 9, 2025

CDP leadership faces growing internal frustration

Due to the CDP's lackluster performance, a party source said, "We can't compete in (this summer's) House of Councilors election if we don't do anything."
A solar panel provides electricity in northern Gaza on Feb. 13. Israel’s energy minister said on Sunday that he was immediately cutting off electricity to the Gaza Strip as Israel tries to pressure Hamas amid talks over their fragile truce.
WORLD
Mar 10, 2025

Israel halts Gaza's electricity supply ahead of new truce talks

Israel's decision comes a week after it blocked all aid supplies to Gaza.
In the Japanese credit market, Change of Control covenants — which give bondholders certain rights to redeem the debt before maturity if the borrower has a significant change in ownership structure — have been very rarely seen, until now.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 10, 2025

Japan credit investors seek shield from M&A risks as deals boom

Change of Control clauses, which had been rare in Japan, are being increasingly sought by investors.
A heron flies over the bustling Ver-o-Peso market, in Belem, Para state, Brazil, near the site of the COP30 Summit, which will be held in November.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 10, 2025

BRICS' climate leadership aims hang on healing deep divides

Diverging national interests among BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — may also prove sticking points.
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Commander of Syrian Kurdish-led forces Mazloum Abdi shake hands, after Syria reached a deal to integrate the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces with state institutions, the Syrian presidency said on Monday, in Damascus, Syria.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 11, 2025

Kurdish-led SDF to join Syria's new state institutions, merging forces

Accord comes at critical moment after mass killings of Alawite minority members in western Syria threatens effort to unite country after 14 years of conflict.
South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun speaks during an interview on Feb. 27 in Seoul.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 11, 2025

South Korean lawmakers to visit Osaka Expo

Lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun said he will encourage South Koreans to visit Japan for the expo.
Many in Japan are increasingly concerned that under the Trump administration's shifting policies, the U.S. may no longer be a reliable ally, raising fears of a weakened security partnership amid rising threats from China and Russia.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 11, 2025

Japan reels from — and steels for — U.S. policy shifts

“What Japan has learned from the Ukraine war is that the era where we could rely entirely on the U.S. is over.”
Chinese leaders attend the second plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 11, 2025

DeepSeek-fueled AI fever injects new energy into China’s annual meeting

Communist Party cadres from different regions competed to market their locales as China’s next AI hub at the National People’s Congress seven-day gathering.
The entrance sign of the headquarters of the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) is pictured, on the outskirts of Vienna, Austria, on March 5, 2025. While the sports organization has faced accusations of working for Pyongyang, ITF has denied "any wrongdoing," insisting the federation promotes taekwondo worldwide.
MORE SPORTS / Taekwondo
Mar 11, 2025

The North Korea taekwondo supremo that Austria can't kick

Austria is trying to kick out Ri Yong Son, the North Korean head of the International Taekwon-Do Federation, who it suspects of funneling foreign currency to Pyongyang.
A sign featuring the logo of Germany's Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs And Climate Action, at the construction site of the Northvolt Drei EV battery gigafactory in Heide, Germany, on Oct. 15, 2024
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 12, 2025

If Europe builds the gigafactories, will an AI industry come?

The hope is that local firms like France's Mistral will use the factories to create AI models that operate in line with EU safety rules.
The U.S. Department of Education in Washington on March 6
WORLD / Politics
Mar 12, 2025

U.S. Education Department to cut half its staff ahead of planned elimination

The department oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and provides federal funding for needy districts.
A Toyota bZ4X battery electric vehicle on display at the company's showroom in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, in June 2024
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 12, 2025

Toyota sees potential risk to deal brokered with Tesla in Europe

Toyota and other carmakers that were planning to pool with Tesla for this year may need much less help than envisioned back in January.
A worker inspects a steel coil on the factory floor before Canada's Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney visits the ArcelorMittal Dofasco steel mill in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 13, 2025

Trump threatens further tariffs as EU and Canada retaliate against U.S. levies

The U.S. tariffs have rattled investor, consumer and business confidence and raised recession fears.
Supporters of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gather outside the The Hague Penitentiary Institution prison, which houses the International Criminal Court's (ICC) detention unit, in Scheveningen, Netherlands, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 13, 2025

Philippines’ Duterte is bound for ICC’s Hague jail with spartan cells and spiritual advisers

He will likely be confined to a 10-square-meter cell — little larger than a sedan — with off-white walls, a bed, desk, cupboard, sink and toilet.
Sources say a hui suo — a private club, which in Japan caters mainly to Chinese businesspeople — will soon open on the upper floors of the Moutai Building in the Ginza district of Tokyo.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 16, 2025

Private clubs quietly open in Tokyo for free-spending Chinese businesspeople

With the economy weak in China and opportunities harder to come by there, more wealthy individuals have been flocking to Japan.
Noor Abdalla, 28, wife of Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement looks at an ultrasound photograph in New York on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 13, 2025

Wife of student arrested in U.S. says she was naive to think he would be secure

Two days before U.S. agents came, her husband asked her if she knew what to do if immigration agents were at their door.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani poses with President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman at Ohtani's introductory news conference at Dodger Stadium on Dec. 14, 2023.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 13, 2025

Dodgers' Andrew Friedman hails team's growing Japan connection

“I think the atmosphere is going to be electric. ... I think it’s the closest I’ll ever get to traveling with the Beatles."
After multiple failed attempts, Emperor Go-Daigo (1288-1339) and his loyalists overthrew the Kamakura shogunate and restored imperial power — for a time.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Mar 15, 2025

Divine authority and mortal desires in the turbulent 14th century

The literary monk Kenko yearned for an “uncontaminated world,” even during the tumultuous rule of Emperor Go-Daigo, who toppled the shogunate and consolidated imperial power.
Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani arrives for practice on Friday at Tokyo Dome.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 14, 2025

Hype reaches fever pitch as Ohtani and the Dodgers get set for games in Tokyo

Shohei Ohtani talked about getting over jet lag and his excitement for the Tokyo Series as the Dodgers prepare to put on a show for Japanese fans.
A worker keeps a tally of wages Wednesday in Tokyo at the head office of UA Zensen, Japan's largest industrial trade union that represents workers mostly at small and medium-sized firms.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 14, 2025

Japan’s unions win largest pay hike in more than three decades

Some 760 affiliated unions under the trade union federation Rengo have so far secured an average pay gain of 5.46% in ongoing annual wage negotiations.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear