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A memorial stone listing the names of 183 people who lost their lives in the flooding accident at Chosei coal mine in the city of Ube in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1942, photographed in December
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2025

Survey to begin at western Japan site of 1942 undersea mine accident

The remains of 136 people from the Korean Peninsula and 47 Japanese nationals still lie in the flooded Chosei coal mine in Ube.
Katsumi Murakami, a Lawson convenience store owner in Kobe, talks about his experience in the 1995 earthquake and how convenience stores can serve a lifeline in times of disaster.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2025

Convenience stores' importance grew after Kobe earthquake, one owner says

The owner recalled handing out food from his Lawson convenience store following the 1995 earthquake and ensuring it was open for business three months later.
A prosecutor allegedly raped by her boss holds a news conference after submitting the petition on Monday in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 28, 2025

Petition filed to investigate alleged rape of Japan prosecutor

While the defendant initially apologized at the first hearing, his lawyer later said his client had thought there had been consent.
Swedish Coast Guard vessel KBV033 (right) and vessel Vezhen are anchored outside Karlskrona, Sweden, on Saturday.
WORLD
Jan 28, 2025

Sweden seizes ship suspected of sabotage in Baltic Sea

Sabotage has not been confirmed, but many policymakers suggest activity could be malicious.
A worker at a Kongo factory in Kashima, Kumamoto Prefecture, carefully processes an aluminum plate using a forming press.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Jan 28, 2025

Companies in Kyushu struggle to enter TSMC’s supply chain

One report shows that firms in the region make up less than 10% of Japanese companies doing business with TSMC or its unit in Japan.
A solar farm in Lennon, Michigan, in 2021. In an executive order, President Donald Trump pointedly excluded green technology like solar panels from his definition of energy.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 28, 2025

Citi analysts say Trump can’t reverse energy transition

Despite the Trump administration’s determination to shred Biden-era climate protections, there remains a "sense of optimism” that the energy transition will prevail.
Yusuke Yaguchi leaves the Nagano Chuo Police Station in the city of Nagano for his transfer to prosecutors Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 28, 2025

Nagano stabbing suspect altered appearance and hid before arrest

Authorities pieced together the suspect's movements using security footage and citizen tip-offs, ultimately tracking him down at his apartment 3 kilometers away from the scene.
Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate is illuminated with the inscription "WeRemember" on Saturday as part of the remembrance ceremonies for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
WORLD / Society
Jan 28, 2025

Auschwitz survivors warn of rising antisemitism at 80th anniversary of camp's liberation

More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, perished in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease at Auschwitz.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki told a news conference Tuesday that he wants recommendations on criteria for dangerous driving as soon as possible.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 28, 2025

Japan to set clearer standards for dangerous driving offenses

Under the current law, the criteria for applying a charge for dangerous driving, which can carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, are vague.
A worker drives past residential buildings under construction by Chinese real estate developer Vanke in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province. The indebted Chinese property developer warned on Monday that it incurred major losses in 2024, a filing at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 28, 2025

Rare China support shows Vanke may be too big to fail

The unusual support shows that Vanke holds a special place within China’s moribund property sector.
The government has nominated Waseda University professor Junko Koeda to join the Bank of Japan’s policy board at the end of March.
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2025

Ishiba’s government taps academic Koeda to join BOJ board

In 2022, Koeda argued in a column in the Nikkei newspaper that it’s important to look at the negative impact of prolonged ultralow interest rates.
U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that he was in talks with multiple people over buying TikTok and would likely have a decision on the popular app's future in 30 days.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 28, 2025

Trump says Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok

Microsoft emerged as a top bidder in 2020, but the talks soon collapsed, and a divestment push by Trump ended a few months later when his first term ended.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba answers questions during a Lower House plenary session on Monday. Ishiba needs to secure passage of the annual budget to demonstrate he can run policy effectively with his minority government.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 28, 2025

Japan's opposition DPP to block budget without higher tax allowance

The ruling LDP and Komeito are also negotiating with Nippon Ishin no Kai, who want the government to make school education free for all students.
Bushfires in Little Desert National Park in the Australian state of Victoria. Firefighters were scrambling Tuesday to control the blaze tearing through rural southeastern Australia, as stranded locals were warned it was "too late to leave" if they had not already fled.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 28, 2025

Fast-moving fires torch national parks in southeast Australia

Hotter temperatures are fueling increasingly severe natural disasters across Australia, researchers have found.
With Donald Trump's second term as U.S. president, Japan faces a new era in its relationship with the United States, requiring a shift from values-based diplomacy to a transactional approach.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 28, 2025

New era for U.S.-Japan depends on adapting to Trump’s America

The next four years will be more consequential and transactional for leaders in Tokyo as the Trump administration puts America first.
The findings on the alarming acceleration of warming have enormous ramifications for ocean health, as rising temperatures impact everything from coral reefs to fisheries.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 28, 2025

Oceans are warming faster and faster as the Earth traps more energy

The alarming acceleration helps explain why 2023 and 2024 saw unprecedented ocean temperatures — and more extreme storms.
Mayor Masanori Yamamoto of Kibichuo, Okayama Prefecture, announces the results of PFAS blood concentration tests on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2025

PFAS blood test results in Okayama Prefecture town exceed U.S. standards

The Kibichuo town government announced the results of its first blood tests after PFAS were detected at a water purification plant in the town.
Displaced Palestinians make their way back to their homes in northern Gaza on Tuesday.
WORLD
Jan 28, 2025

Palestinians return to Gaza City as mediators look ahead to next stage

Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, is a shell of the bustling, rough-edged urban center it was before the war.
Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute B. Egede attends a press conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Jan. 10.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 29, 2025

Greenlanders reject Trump with 85% majority against joining U.S.

Trump insists he wants to take over the world’s largest island for security reasons and has refused to rule out using force.
Underneath the praise, Washington, Wall Street and Silicon Valley are aligned in their view of DeepSeek as a key competitor to Meta’s Llama.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 29, 2025

DeepSeek tests Meta’s ambition for U.S. open-source AI dominance

Mark Zuckerberg has long championed Meta’s open-source approach to artificial intelligence software as key to ensuring U.S. dominance over China in AI.
Hoshoryu (front, second from left) celebrates after being promoted to yokozuna on Wednesday in Tokyo.
SUMO
Jan 29, 2025

Sumo’s newest yokozuna is all smiles — but major challenges await

For all the feel-good energy that has surrounded Hoshoryu the past few days, the Mongolian will need to take his sumo to another level if he is to last in the rank.
Members of the popular Japanese pop group SMAP, including scandal-plagued Masahiro Nakai (right), perform in Beijing in September 2011.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 29, 2025

A pop-star sex scandal shows the death throes of old Japan

As the leader of a now-defunct boy band SMAP, the 52-year-old Nakai has been a ubiquitous mainstay in Japanese life for decades.
A packed Fuji TV news conference on Monday in Tokyo
JAPAN / Media
Jan 29, 2025

Shukan Bunshun corrects article on scandal over former Fuji TV host

According to the correction, Masahiro Nakai was the one who invited the woman to the gathering, not the Fuji TV official.
Rock patterns formed by crystalized minerals along the Dead Sea shore near Kibbutz Ein Gedi in eastern Israel on Dec. 30. The Dead Sea, nestled where Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian territory meet, has famously been dying for years.
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 29, 2025

Dead Sea an 'ecological disaster,' but no one can agree how to fix it

Tackling cross-border environmental issues is no longer a priority for governments in the region.
A U.S. soldier walks past a razor wire-topped fence at the "Camp X-Ray" detention facility at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2014.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2025

Trump to prepare facility at Guantanamo for 30,000 migrants

U.S. border czar Tom Homan said the facility in Cuba would be used to hold the 'worst of the worst.'
The Vince Lombardi Trophy is displayed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 22.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jan 30, 2025

NFL enhances Super Bowl security after New Year's Day attack in New Orleans

The NFL is set to host the Super Bowl on Feb. 9, with the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles facing off at New Orleans' Superdome.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (right) and head coach Andy Reid will be looking for their fourth title in six seasons in this year's Super Bowl.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jan 30, 2025

Rob Gronkowski says Patriots' legacy secure as Chiefs chase history

Gronkowski said his former team's legacy is secure — for now.
Nippon Ishin no Kai leaders Hirofumi Yoshimura (left) and Seiji Maehara attend the party's executive meeting in the city of Osaka in December.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 30, 2025

Shared concerns could bring LDP and Nippon Ishin together on 2025 budget

Nippon Ishin's challenge is to get the LDP to secure free high school education and ensure support for the financially troubled Osaka Kansai Expo.
A school voucher supporter in Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday. U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed executive orders promoting parental choice in school selection and ending federal funding for curricula that he called the "indoctrination" of students in "anti-American" ideologies on race and gender.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2025

Trump issues orders to promote school choice, end 'anti-American' teaching

Trump and his allies say public schools teach white children to be ashamed of themselves and their ancestors over slavery and discrimination against people of color.
The koji room at Fukuwagura brewery in Mie Prefecture, where metals such as stainless steel, which are easy to manage for hygiene, are widely used
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jan 30, 2025

Japanese food makers step in to preserve sake breweries' legacy

The initiatives by food companies coincide with a growing recognition of traditional sake-making techniques.

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