Search - 2022

 
 
Japan skateboarding national team coach Daisuke Hayakawa performs at a skateboard training area in Tokyo on June 12.
OLYMPICS / Skateboarding
Jul 2, 2024

Japan's skateboarding youth turn street culture into Olympic gold

National team coach Daisuke Hayakawa said that the number of skaters in Japan had tripled since the Tokyo Games.
The focus on artificial intelligence comes as the Self-Defense Forces grapple with concerns about recruitment and its abilities to harness the power of new technologies.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2024

Japan’s Defense Ministry unveils first basic policy on use of AI

The new policy comes as Japan looks to stave off a manpower shortage and keep pace with China and the U.S. on the technology’s military applications.
Economic security minister Sanae Takaichi speaks at a panel meeting on economic security information at the Prime Minister's Office last week.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 2, 2024

Takaichi gearing up for LDP presidential election this autumn

The economic security minister is set to deliver a speech in Tokyo on July 16, followed by ones in Miyagi on July 21, Okinawa on July 28 and in Hyogo on Aug. 3.
A firefighter in the aftermath of an attack in the Starokostiantyniv, Khmelnytskyi Region, Ukraine, on Aug. 6, 2023
WORLD / Politics
Jul 3, 2024

China can end Russia’s war in Ukraine with a phone call, Finland says

Finnish President Alexander Stubb's comments reflect growing frustration among Ukraine’s allies over China’s perceived support for Russia.
U.S. President Joe Biden departs after delivering remarks at the White House in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 3, 2024

Who could replace Biden if he withdraws from race?

While the possibility of his withdrawal remains unlikely, here is a look at the names being circulated.
Czech Republic's Marketa Vondrousova hits a backhand during her first-round defeat to Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro on Tuesday in London.
TENNIS
Jul 3, 2024

Defending champion Vondrousova out with a whimper as Djokovic cruises

The Czech sixth seed slumped to a 6-4, 6-2 defeat as her reign ended with a whimper and there was also crushing disappointment for two-time champion Andy Murray.
The Defense Ministry holds a lecture for military and police officials from Pacific island countries at the ministry on Friday as part of its security-related capacity-building support.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 3, 2024

Japan Defense Ministry boosting aid to Pacific island nations

Only three out of 14 Pacific island nations — Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga — have armed forces.
Mizuho Financial Group is seeking to develop its business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 3, 2024

Mizuho hires ex-OTPP executive Karen Frank as senior adviser for EMEA business

Her appointment will likely be announced in the coming days, sources said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.
Comedian Daisuke Muramoto has been shunned by the Japanese media for taking his act into political territory. Filmmaker Fumiari Hyuga traces his post-pandemic search for a place in show business in "I Am a Comedian."
CULTURE / Film
Jul 3, 2024

‘I Am a Comedian’: A documentary following Daisuke Muramoto’s rocky comedy journey

Documentarian Fumiari Hyuga captures the story of an uncouth Japanese comedian’s efforts to say what can’t be said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk shake hands as they attend a press conference in Warsaw on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 3, 2024

Scholz bets on closer Poland ties with France's future uncertain

The two will seek to maintain strong ties with France’s Emmanuel Macron irrespective of the parliamentary election results.
Plaintiffs of a series of lawsuits on forced sterilization and their lawyers hold banners saying "victory ruling" after the Supreme Court ruled in their favor in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 3, 2024

Japan's top court orders compensation for forced sterilization victims

The landmark ruling was made on the basis that the now-defunct eugenics law was unconstitutional.
Nikon's new microscope specialized for intracytoplasmic sperm injection, a fertility treatment
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 3, 2024

Nikon develops microscope for fertility treatment

The product reduces the number of operational steps involved in intracytoplasmic sperm injection by about 75%.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak campaigns at a Conservative Party general election campaign event at the National Army Museum in London on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 4, 2024

U.K. wipeout would leave Tories still divided, analysis shows

The Conservative Party that emerges from Thursday’s nationwide vote will likely retain a similar split between centrists and right-wingers as it had before.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 4, 2024

Putin meets Xi again as leaders hail ties

Since their last meeting in May, the Russian president has been strengthening his partnerships around Asia.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with China's President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states leaders' summit in Astana on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 4, 2024

How China and Russia compete, and cooperate, in Central Asia

Even as China has expanded its economic influence across Central Asia, it still faces challenges to its diplomacy from Russia.
A Vietnamese worker harvests tomatoes at a farm in Asahi, Chiba Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2024

Japan faces shortage of almost a million foreign workers in 2040

At the current pace, 5.91 million foreign people will be working in Japan in 2040
Russia isn’t a theocracy but Orthodox Christianity, the state religion, has become all-encompassing, with President Vladimir Putin claiming to have a divine mission.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2024

The demigods of populism

By claiming to represent the will of the divine, populist leaders like Putin, Modi, Erdogan — and even Trump — stake an otherworldly claim to political power.
Workers collect detritus after the Britain's Glastonbury Festival on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 4, 2024

Music festivals seek greener footprint

The world's top 1,000 DJs took 51,000 flights in 2019, equivalent to 35,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, according to climate group Clean Scene.
A man from North Africa (right) embraces his lawyer after a verdict was handed down by the Osaka District Court revoking a decision by immigration authorities not to grant him refugee status, in Osaka on Thursday.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 4, 2024

Osaka court recognizes gay African man as refugee

The court concluded that the plaintiff had been nearly killed by his family and could be harmed if he returns home.
After losing her family to a plane accident, Suzie (played by Rashida Jones) receives a posthumous gift from her husband in the form of a robot named Sunny (voiced by Joanna Sotomura).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 5, 2024

Rashida Jones uncovers an AI-fueled mystery in the AppleTV+ series 'Sunny'

Set in Kyoto, the story about a woman dealing with grief and an unexpected robot companion is a departure from the actor's comedic repertoire.
An exit poll predicting that the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer will win 410 seats in Britain's general election is projected onto BBC Broadcasting House in London on July 4, 2024. Labour is set for a landslide win in U.K. election, exit polls showed.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 5, 2024

U.K.'s Labour set to sweep into power with huge majority, exit poll shows

The result would give Labour a majority of 170 and would bring the curtain down on 14 years of increasingly tumultuous Conservative-led government.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, in Seoul on April 11
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 5, 2024

Man who stabbed South Korea opposition leader jailed for 15 years

The attack was condemned as an "act of terror" and a challenge to democracy by politicians.
Essentially ramen broken down into a few constituent parts, 'tsukemen' was the creation of a Tokyo chef in 1961.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 7, 2024

How Tokyo’s ‘deconstructed ramen’ became a national favorite

Like other twists on quintessential Japanese dishes, ‘tsukemen’ has a decidedly more modern origin than you might think.
American Gregorio Narvasa has gone from baking cookies in his spare to time to working with major Tokyo companies from his new Koenji shop.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 7, 2024

Koenji gets a new cookie shop. Its owner gets a community.

After several years of sharing his creations at pop-up events scattered across Tokyo, Gregorio Narvasa opened a physical bake shop in Koenji on April 20 of this year.
Municipalities across the country have been devising various ways to keep track of the whereabouts of individuals with dementia.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 5, 2024

Record 19,000 people with dementia reported missing in Japan in 2023

The figure is nearly twice that of a decade earlier, according to the National Police Agency.
Starting from September, foreign employees on a work visa must abide by a new points-based system to keep working in Singapore.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2024

Singapore is making life tougher for global talent

The city-state could lose its position as a global business hub if it keeps tightening the rules for overseas employees in a political bid to appease local residents.
Although air travel in Asia has picked up since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still below 2019 levels, with many passengers preferring to travel shorter distances.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2024

Asian airlines face a cold summer

Despite seemingly positive results, air travel in Asia hasn't returned to pre-pandemic levels, with many of the continent's travelers preferring to stay closer to home.
Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian, the reformist presidential candidate, waves after casting his vote in the country's presidential runoff election at a mosque in Tehran on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 6, 2024

Iran reformist Masoud Pezeshkian wins presidential election

Pezeshkian has pledged to open Iran to the world and deliver freedoms its people have yearned for.
U.S. President Joe Biden waves as he boards Air Force One prior to departure from Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin, o Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 6, 2024

Biden allies abroad think it’s untenable for him to stay on

Some officials are now saying that Biden should step aside for someone with a better shot at beating rival Donald Trump.
"Shogun" features Hiroyuki Sanada as the warlord Toranaga. The series is generating major buzz ahead of the announcement of Emmy nominations on July 17.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 6, 2024

All hail the era of Japan-themed prestige TV

With shows like "Shogun" and "Tokyo Vice" vying for Emmy nominations this month, it's safe to say the streamers are having a bit of a "Japan moment."

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