Search - 2021

 
 
Spain's Rafael Nadal hits a return against Austria's Dominic Thiem during his match in Brisbane on Jan. 2.
TENNIS
Jan 3, 2024

Nadal happy to win in return but says confidence still recovering

Nadal marked his singles comeback after hip surgery with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Austrian former world No. 3 Dominic Thiem.
Naomi Osaka leaves the court after losing her match against Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday in Brisbane.
TENNIS
Jan 3, 2024

Pliskova rallies to oust Osaka in Brisbane

Osaka had eased through her first tour match in 15 months on Monday but former world No. 1 Pliskova proved an altogether tougher prospect.
Books published by Tuttle Publishing on a bookshelf in Infinity Books in Tokyo's Sumida Ward on Saturday
CULTURE / Books
Jan 3, 2024

Asia publishing mainstay Tuttle rides new wave of interest in Japan

The back catalog of Tuttle, which traces its history in Japan to 1948, is in high demand, and it has even branched out to graphic novel versions of classic Asian literature.
Indian migrant women in Tokyo often face stifling social expectations. In contrast, they may feel empowered in more egalitarian societies like Berlin.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 3, 2024

How patriarchy perpetuates among Tokyo’s Indian migrants

Indian migrant women in Tokyo struggle to break free from the patriarchal structures they experienced back home. But in Berlin, a different picture emerges.
A general view of the Colorado Supreme Court in Denver, Colorado
WORLD / Politics
Jan 4, 2024

Trump takes Colorado ballot disqualification to U.S. Supreme Court

Trump has also appealed to a Maine state court a decision by that state's top election official barring him from the primary ballot.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Woodside, California, in November. After another year marked by great-power rivalries and rising security risks, the role of hegemonic, middling and rising powers has become more fluid than at any time since the end of the Cold War.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2024

The shape of power in 2024

Thinkers ponder whether the coming year will confirm that the world is quickly moving toward greater multipolarity or “nonalignment.”
Demonstrators hold signs protesting Jeffrey Epstein as he awaits arraignment in the Southern District of New York on charges of sex trafficking of minors in 2019. While Epstein died by suicide that same year in a Manhattan prison cell before he could stand trial, his crimes have continued to resonate across Wall Street.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 4, 2024

Confidential Jeffrey Epstein documents unsealed in New York

Many of the people whose names will be unsealed are already known to have associated with the disgraced financier, and some have been named in similar litigation as well.
Portugal's Joao Monteiro drives his South Racing CAN-AM ahead of the Dakar RAlly in Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Jan 4, 2024

Sharp-shooting Nasser Al-Attiyah takes aim at sixth Dakar title

A 425-strong colorful caravan made up of cars, bikes, quads and trucks sets out from Al-Ula on a treacherous 4,900-mile (7,886 kilometer) odyssey around Saudi Arabia.
JAPAN / First person
Jan 4, 2024

How Japan's violent New Year's quake felt in Toyama

What it feels like to be near a quake that shifts a house left and right, forward and backward.
A Ukrainian artillery unit operating a Swedish-made Archer self-propelled howitzer fires on Russian positions in the country's Donetsk region on Dec. 16.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2024

Russian revanchism must be defeated in Ukraine

The fact that Putin has violated numerous treaties would cast substantial doubt on the credibility of any deal.
Tsumugi-nen is artificial intelligence talent agency Pictoria's most popular AI Vtuber that has garnered thousands of fans through her content, including streaming for five days straight — something a human can not do.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 5, 2024

Is AI a friend or foe of the Japanese entertainment industry?

While proponents tap the technology's potential, others are worried about the possibility of losing their jobs.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump campaigns, in Sioux Center, Iowa, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 6, 2024

U.S. Supreme Court to hear Trump appeal of Colorado ballot disqualification

The case thrusts the court — whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump — into the effort to invalidate his bid to reclaim the White House.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a speech to mark the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol at a campaign event at Montgomery County Community College, in Blue Bell, near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 6, 2024

Biden says democracy on ballot as he makes case against Trump

Biden’s remarks Friday offered some of his sharpest warnings yet about the threat he says Trump poses to the country’s institutions.
NRA chief Wayne LaPierre speaks at the National Rifle Association annual convention in Indianapolis last April.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 6, 2024

Powerful NRA chief Wayne LaPierre resigns ahead of graft trial

LaPierre, 74, chief executive since 1991, steps down just as New York state Attorney General Letitia James brings a corruption trial against the NRA.
Spurs center Victor Wembanyama dunks during a game against the Grizzlies on Tuesday.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Jan 6, 2024

Victor Wembanyama sets course to become a basketball billionaire unlike any other

Known to fans as "Wemby,” Victor Wembanyama entered the NBA with a level of buzz unlike any player since LeBron James.
A screen next to a police station in the city of Okayama featuring a road safety campaign video in November.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2024

Japan sees rise in traffic deaths for first time in eight years

Japan still saw the third-lowest death toll on record, with data dating back to 1948.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers his Quad Fellowship Announcement as the leaders of the United States, India and Australia look on after meeting in Tokyo in May 2022.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 8, 2024

Dialogue can boost security where military deterrence can’t

Military buildup without dialogue is too risky — civil society actors in East Asia understand this better than their governments.
Office workers in the Central district in Hong Kong on Nov. 20
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 8, 2024

Hong Kong workers demand 6% raise to return to office fully

In a survey, 27% of people asked for a raise if their employers required them to work in the office five days a week.
Poland's Iga Swiatek serves against Germany's Angelique Kerber during their women's singles final match at the United Cup tennis event in Sydney on Sunday.
TENNIS
Jan 9, 2024

Swiatek tunes out the noise in search of first Australian Open title

The player got 2024 underway by winning all of her singles matches at the United Cup mixed team tournament, helping Poland to the final.
(From left) The Democratic Progressive Party's Lai Ching-te, who is also Taiwan's vice president, faces off against the main opposition Kuomintang's Hou Yu-ih and the Taiwan People's Party's Ko Wen-je on Saturday's presidential election.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 9, 2024

Close race emerges as Taiwan election enters final stretch

Expectations that front-runner Lai Ching-te would simply stroll to victory on Saturday have been dashed, with his polling lead having narrowed significantly.
Columbia University researchers have found that on average, bottled water contain 110,000 to 370,000 tiny plastic particles in each liter, 90% of them nanoplastics.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jan 9, 2024

Bottled water has more plastic particles than previously thought

The discovery of nanoplastics, which could not be detected until recently, suggests that health concerns linked to plastic pollution may be dramatically underestimated.
The Pilbara Minerals Pilgangoora lithium project in Port Hedland, Western Australia
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2024

Lithium’s promised land looks more like the old country

Two decades ago, Australia mined less than a fifth of the world’s lithium. In 2021, it dug more than every other country put together.
Voters wait in line outside a polling station during the last presidential and legislative elections, in Taipei in January 2020. Taiwan is one of only 53 political systems that require in-person voting.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 10, 2024

To protect election from China, Taiwan disenfranchises thousands of voters

In-person voting is hard to infiltrate, but it also deprives those who can't leave their posts or overseas Taiwanese unable to return from casting ballots.
Misao Shoji (center) speaks to executives of Lion Dor about the Omega Class, a new educational center she is launching in Aizuwakamatsu that targets "uniquely gifted children.” Lion Dor has offered a venue for the project free of charge.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jan 15, 2024

Fukushima educational project aims to nurture gifted children

Omega Class aims to provide a place of learning suited to each child, with local experts serving as volunteer instructors.
British lawmakers are calling for billions of dollars of government contracts with Fujitsu to be reexamined amid public outrage over the scandal, ignited by a hit TV drama aired last week.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 11, 2024

Japan tech firm Fujitsu in firing line over U.K. Post Office scandal

Its faulty software had resulted in hundreds of local post office managers being wrongly convicted for theft and false accounting between 1999 and 2005.
Naomi Osaka hits a return during her match against Karolina Pliskova on Jan. 3 in Brisbane
TENNIS
Jan 11, 2024

Osaka given tough assignment against Garcia in Grand Slam return

Osaka returns to Grand Slam tennis for the first time since 2022 and will play 16th-seeded Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia in a tricky opener.
The Bank of Japan is fully prepared to put an end to the world’s last negative interest rate, an ex-official has said.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 11, 2024

BOJ fully prepared to end negative rate, likely in April: ex-official

"They are just waiting for one last push from one or two economic data,” said former board member Makoto Sakurai.
Hyundai Motor's Casper mini sport utility vehicles on a production line at a factory in Gwangju, South Korea, in October 2021
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2024

A hidden hero will drive Korean trade closer to the U.S.

The U.S. is fast catching up to China as a destination for South Korean goods, lagging by just 1.4 percentage points last year.
Hiromi Uetake has future plans to turn some of the currently unused rooms of the former elementary school into taprooms for visiting customers.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 14, 2024

Craft beer’s hoppy road to the deep north

Beer drinkers in these occasionally frozen lands now enjoy flavors infused with deep stories and their home prefectures’ splendid natural beauty.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jan 15, 2024

All ¥500 coins that glitter are not gold

Twenty years on and the ¥2,000 note can almost certainly still be described as a “novelty" — what if the new ¥500 coin is destined for the same fate?

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji