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Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and other imperial family members attend the New Year's appearance at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Jan. 2, 2020.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2025

Japan lawmakers likely to put off decision on imperial family plan

Leaders of the House of Representatives have found it difficult to reach a conclusion before the current parliamentary session is set to end on June 22.
Detail of Takashi Murakami, “Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP” (2023-25)
CULTURE / Art
Jun 5, 2025

New Naoshima museum bets on Asia, not the West

The Naoshima New Museum of Art is Tadao Ando’s 10th contribution to the popular art islands.
United Nations Security Council members vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, at U.N. headquarters in New York on June Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 5, 2025

Anger as U.S. blocks Gaza ceasefire resolution at U.N. Security Council

It was the 15-member body's first vote on the situation since November, when the United States also blocked a text calling for an end to fighting.
Iryna Mudra (center), the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential administration, and others prepare for a photo shoot at an international peace conference at The Hague, Netherlands, in April last year.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 6, 2025

Ukraine hits out at Europe's payout from frozen Russian cash

Compensating private investors before victims of war sends the wrong signal, says Iryna Mudra, a deputy head of Ukraine's presidential administration.
A police car in Manila. Philippines authorities have detained the suspected leader of the "JP Dragon" crime ring based in the Southeast Asian country.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 6, 2025

Philippines detains leader of 'JP Dragon' crime ring

The criminal organization, which includes former Japanese gang members, allegedly worked with another Philippines-based fraud group led by a suspect known as "Luffy."
A Homeland Security vehicle is parked in front of the Fred D. Thompson Federal Building, housing the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, where Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported from Maryland to El Salvador by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, faces criminal charges, in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 7, 2025

Wrongly deported Salvadoran migrant arrested on return to U.S.

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was brought back to the United States from El Salvador and charged with trafficking undocumented migrants, Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the public during the inauguration of various projects at Katra, in Jammu and Kashmir, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 7, 2025

Modi to attend G7 summit in Canada in sign of warming ties

In a post on X, Modi said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney invited him to the G7 summit and he looks forward to their meeting.
The launch of Vayve Mobility Eva, India's first solar electric vehicle, at the New Delhi auto show in January. An uptick in SEV development and adoption could help least developed and small island states leapfrog to a cleaner transport sector.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 9, 2025

Solar EVs are a ray of hope for cutting emissions

Decarbonizing transport is key to cutting emissions in least developed and small island developing states, where travel demand is growing. Solar EVs offer a bright way forward.
A demonstrator holds a placard during a protest in front of the Israeli embassy in Athens on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 10, 2025

Israeli forces seize Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed that the activists be shown videos of atrocities committed during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes warms up before Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans last February. Flag football is set to debut at the 2028 Olympics — but if the NFL wants the sport to thrive globally, it should resist overshadowing it with high-profile pro players.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2025

NFL stars don’t belong on the Olympics' flag football field

If the NFL is really serious about growing football’s global footprint, it and its players should sit the Olympics out.
A criminal complaint was filed Tuesday against Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito and two others over the leak of private information relating to a whistleblower.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 10, 2025

Hyogo governor slapped with criminal complaint over information leak

The complaint also targeted former Vice Gov. Yasutaka Katayama and Chiaki Inomoto, former head of the prefecture's general affairs department.
Gen. Jennie Carignan, Canada’s Chief of the Defense Staff, attends an interview with The Japan Times on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2025

Japan ‘priority’ as Canada eyes bigger Asian footprint, military chief says

Ottawa's concerns about what it sees as growing challenges to the current world order are driving its Asia push.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said that an undercover investigation helped identify a suspect in an attempted scam case in the greater Tokyo area.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 10, 2025

New police method reveals shady part-time job suspect

It was the first time for police to detect a suspect under the investigation method introduced in January.
Japanese pension funds are moving to appoint chief investment officers with expertise to improve risk management and help make more effective market deals.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 10, 2025

Japanese pension funds holding $400 billion hire their first CIOs

Until recently, senior administrators often with limited experience doing deals in financial markets were responsible for making investment decisions.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., testifies before a Senate Committee in Washington, on May 14.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 11, 2025

Kennedy's firing of CDC panel undermines vaccine confidence, experts say

The firing of the vaccine committee comes weeks before a public meeting in which advisers were to vote on the 2025-26 COVID-19 vaccine boosters.
Under the new law, the Science Council of Japan will be positioned as a "representative organization for Japanese scientists at home and abroad," and the government will provide necessary financial support.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 12, 2025

Japan enacts law to turn Science Council into special entity

The new law for the council, which represents the country's scientific community, will come into effect in October 2026.
United Wa State Army (UWSA) soldiers march during a media display in Pansang, Wa territory in northeast Myanmar in 2016. The armed group controls one of the world's largest tin mines.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 12, 2025

China-backed militia secures control of new rare earth mines in Myanmar

Beijing is heavily reliant on Myanmar for the rare earth metals and oxides needed to produce magnets that power critical goods.
Voters in Tokyo listen to a speech by a candidate in Japan's Oct. 27, 2024 general election.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 13, 2025

Japan news media association pledges accurate news for elections

The statement says that social media platforms should take proactive measures against fake and false information on the internet.
U.S. President Donald Trump came into office promising to radically remake the U.S.-China trade relationship.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 13, 2025

For Trump, resolving U.S.-China trade fight comes at a cost

The back-and-forth to seal a deal with Beijing exposed that key U.S. industries are reliant on magnets largely sourced from China.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces the launch of a targeted military operation against Iran in a video statement on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 13, 2025

After years of waiting, Israel's Netanyahu finally makes his move on Iran

Iran once ridiculed Netanyahu as the boy who cried wolf for his constant warnings about Tehran's nuclear program, and his repeated threats to shut it down.
Guillaume Ollagnier, director general of strategic, security and disarmament affairs at the French Foreign Ministry, says that the global nonproliferation architecture should be further strengthened — lest a nuclear arms race erupt.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 15, 2025

France doubles down on opposition to new nuclear states, top official says

With Pyongyang and Beijing ramping up their nuclear capabilities, calls are growing louder in Seoul and elsewhere to develop their own nukes.
The oceans have absorbed most anthropogenic heat and carbon dioxide emissions since the start of industrialization. But their capacity to do so is not unlimited.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2025

The ocean is not just a carbon sink

Reducing the value of three-quarters of our planet to the singular role of carbon sink overlooks the ocean’s vast contributions to food security, cultural identity and economics.
Japan’s deepening corporate governance reforms and exit from more than a decade of deflation have rekindled global investor interest in the world’s fourth-largest economy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 16, 2025

Hedge funds reap cash from investors ‘starved’ of Japan exposure

Japan’s deepening corporate governance reforms and exit from more than a decade of deflation have rekindled global investor interest.
The skyline of Astana, Kazakhstan. Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting Kazakhstan for the third time since 2020, making the country of 20 million people one of his favorite destinations in the years after the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed his global travels.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 16, 2025

Xi visits Kazakhstan for talks with Central Asian leaders

The summit in the Kazakh capital Astana is taking place in parallel to the Group of Seven's event in Canada.
People lay flowers and candles at a makeshift memorial site in front of a school in Graz, southeastern Austria, on Thursday, a day after 11 people died in a school shooting.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / ANALYSIS
Jun 16, 2025

Killings at European schools fan concern U.S. problem is spreading

The spate of school shootings is increasing momentum for tougher gun and security laws as well as more policing of social media.
Members of the California National Guard stand outside a federal building in downtown Los Angeles on June 8. California Democrats have unified against the Trump administration’s use of federal troops to quell unrest and its deportation campaign, but the stance may backfire for the party nationally.
COMMENTARY
Jun 16, 2025

ICE protests in LA are forcing a tough choice on Democrats

As the rightward shift among voters in the last election made abundantly clear, the state’s politics don’t always translate to other parts of America.
Chinese aircraft carrier, the Liaoning. It crossed what is known as the second island chain, which links the Ogasawara Islands and the U.S. territory of Guam, on June 7.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2025

Japan suspects Chinese aircraft carriers conducted drills against U.S.

The two flattops may have conducted exercises for countering U.S. forces, with one playing the role of a U.S. aircraft carrier and the other practicing intercepting it.
A Ukrainian mother sits with her children near a refugee center in Sumy, Ukraine, on June 12.
WORLD
Jun 17, 2025

Stay or go? Ukrainian visa programs in U.K. leave refugees in limbo

Many Ukrainians who came to Britain on special visas from 2022 are running out of time.
European Council President Antَnio Costa (from left to right), Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Italian leader Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, U.S. President Donald Trump and leader Minister Keir Starmer pose for a family photo during the Group of Seven summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 18, 2025

Asia overshadowed as G7 struggles with crises and lack of unity

Mentions of China's growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific were conspicuously absent from the statements that emerged from the latest summit.
Jeremy Allaire, chief executive officer of Circle Internet Financial (center) celebrates during the company's initial public offering on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on June 5.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 18, 2025

A digital dollar is a trade war weapon, and Europe may be a primary target

Stablecoins could serve to entrench the existing tech and monetary order dominated by the U.S., as 95% of them are dollar-denominated. The euro commands less than 1%.

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.