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The average wage hike rate among major Japanese firms this year hit 5% for the second straight year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 7, 2025

Major Japan firms set record with pay hikes above 5% for second year

This year's average raise of 5.39% was the second biggest since comparable data became available in 1976.
Japan faces a demographic crisis that threatens its research talent and must build a more inclusive and welcoming society to attract and keep world-class scientists amid rising nationalism and economic challenges.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 7, 2025

Japan gets serious about attracting world-class researchers

The stakes are high: Without a cultural shift, even the best-funded policies may fail to secure Japan’s future.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump meet at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires in December 2018. Xi is blending Maoist resolve with pragmatic diplomacy in his foreign policy.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Aug 8, 2025

Xi steals a page from Mao’s foreign-policy playbook

Xi foreign policy blends Maoist ideology, pragmatic statecraft and strategic patience as he advances anti-corruption efforts and selectively cooperates with the U.S.
Fumitake Fujita, who was elected as Nippon Ishin no Kai's co-leader, speaks at a party meeting Friday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 8, 2025

Nippon Ishin picks Fumitake Fujita for co-leader position

A former secretary-general, Fujita replaces Seiji Maehara, who resigned to take responsibility for the party’s underwhelming performance in July’s Upper House election.
Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki delivers a speech at a conference held by Mayors for Peace, a worldwide organization of city leaders, on Friday in the city of Nagasaki.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2025

Mayors for Peace start general conference in Nagasaki

The conference will discuss actions to be taken by 2029 and adopt a resolution on the abolition of nuclear weapons on the closing day.
A protest in solidarity with children in Gaza in Berlin
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Aug 9, 2025

As Gaza faces starvation, reluctant Germany starts to curb support for Israel

The shift reflects how Germany's support for Israel, rooted in its historical guilt over the Nazi Holocaust, is being tested like never before.
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah prior to a friendly on Aug. 4.
SOCCER
Aug 10, 2025

'Tell us how he died': Salah criticizes UEFA tribute to 'Palestinian Pele'

The Palestine Football Association said that al-Obeid, 41, was killed by an Israeli strike targeting civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Kunishige Kamamoto waves after a match commemorating his retirement in Tokyo in 1984.
SOCCER
Aug 10, 2025

Japanese soccer legend Kunishige Kamamoto dies at 81

Kamamoto scored a record 75 goals for the national team and was widely considered the greatest striker in Japanese soccer history.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a press conference in Jerusalem on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 11, 2025

Netanyahu defends Gaza plan condemned at home and abroad

Foreign powers are already upset about the hunger crisis besetting Palestinians in Gaza, while relatives of hostages are calling for a general strike to protest the latest plans.
Ichiro speaks during a ceremony to retire his number a T-Mobile Park in Seattle on Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 11, 2025

Mariners to honor Ichiro with statue at T-Mobile Park in 2026

The Seattle Mariners will unveil a statue of franchise legend Ichiro Suzuki at T-Mobile Park during the 2026 season.
Dalton Henry Stout, a member of the white nationalist group Aryan Freedom Network, conceals his identity during a portrait session in southern Oklahoma on May 5.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 11, 2025

American Nazis: The Aryan Freedom Network is riding high in Trump era

American neo-Nazis point to Trump’s rhetoric as driving a surge in interest and recruitment.
Wind turbines beyond an array of solar panels on the hillside in the Canical district of Madeira, Portugal, on Feb. 9, 2023. Renewables are now among the cheapest forms of electricity, especially after an energy crunch and the Ukraine war bolstered gas, oil and coal.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Aug 11, 2025

Hedge funds flip on green energy and start betting against oil

The outlook for solar and wind stocks is starting to improve.
Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer; Bob McGrew, an adviser at Thinking Machines Lab and OpenAI’s former chief research officer; Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technology officer; and Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s chief product officer at a military ceremony in Arlington, Va., in June 2025. The four current and former executives were pronounced lieutenant colonels in a new unit, Detachment 201, which will advise the Army on new technologies for potential combat.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 11, 2025

Silicon Valley is in its ‘hard tech’ era

Instead of the tap-to-pay apps of a decade ago like Clinkle and Bump, young companies are now making unmanned aerial drones stocked with AI-guided Barracuda cruise missiles.
Crystal Palace's Daichi Kamada (right) in action with Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai during the Community Shield match at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday
SOCCER
Aug 12, 2025

Crystal Palace loses appeal against Europa League demotion

Nottingham Forest, which finished seventh in the Premier League last season, will replace Palace in the Europa League.
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani reacts after hitting a foul ball against the Blue Jays during the ninth inning at Dodger Stadium on Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 12, 2025

Dodgers enter pivotal week, starting with series against Angels

The Angels swept a three-game series at Dodger Stadium in May, outscoring Dave Roberts' squad 23-15 in the process.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is trying to build solidarity across the BRICS club of major emerging nations, of which Brazil is a founding member along with Russia, China and India.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 12, 2025

Lula speaks with Xi after Modi and Putin amid standoff with Trump

Brazil's president is trying to build solidarity across the BRICS club of major emerging nations, of which Brazil is a founding member along with Russia, China and India.
Flags from the Pacific Islands countries wave on the breeze in Yaren, Nauru, on the last day of the 2018 Pacific Islands Forum.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 12, 2025

China, U.S. pledge funds for Pacific Islands ahead of meet they are barred from

The Solomon Islands, which hosts an annual leaders meeting for the region blocked 21 donor countries from attending after pressure from Beijing to exclude Taiwan.
Akio Kuroi holds a photograph of his father, Keijiro, as he speaks during an interview in Tokyo in April about how his father had changed after World War II.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 13, 2025

'War trauma' transformed caring father into a complete stranger

A growing number of family members of former Japanese servicemen are sharing their experiences, prompting the government to launch a survey to document such realities.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce during a preseason NFL game against the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday
MORE SPORTS / Football
Aug 13, 2025

Travis Kelce admits he 'slipped a little bit' given off-field pursuits

The certain future Pro Football Hall of Fame member says some of his celebrity activities have impacted his play.
Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura addresses a meeting of Osaka Ishin no Kai on July 30.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 13, 2025

Osaka governor eager to make another bid for metropolis plan

The plan, which has been rejected twice in referendums, would scrap the city of Osaka and reorganize it into special administrative districts under Osaka Prefecture.
Hideo Shimizu, 95, says he cannot forget seeing the prisoners' bloody wills scribbled on the walls of prison cells at Unit 731 in 1945.
JAPAN / History
Aug 13, 2025

The indelible memory of being a part of Unit 731

For 95-year-old Hideo Shimizu, the 4½ months he spent with the biological and chemical warfare unit of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army were just like yesterday.
Aid workers move bags of yellow lentils at an aid operation in Mekele, Ethiopia.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 14, 2025

U.S. court lets Trump block billions of dollars in foreign aid

The ruling is a big win for Trump’s efforts to dissolve USAID and withhold funding from programs that have fallen out of favor with his administration.
J-pop idol Kenshin Kamimura leaves the West Kowloon Law Courts on bail in Hong Kong on Wednesday, after he was found guilty of indecent assault of a woman who worked as his interpreter at a restaurant in Mong Kok district in March this year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 14, 2025

Japanese star convicted of indecent assault in Hong Kong

Kenshin Kamimura, a former member of the boy band ONE N' ONLY, harassed a woman who worked as his interpreter at a restaurant earlier this year.
An Apple store in New York
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 14, 2025

Apple plots expansion into AI robots, home security and smart displays

A tabletop robot that serves as a virtual companion, targeted for 2027, is the centerpiece of the AI strategy.
The Parque da Cidade, the main venue for the COP30 summit, under construction in Belem, Brazil, on May 5.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 14, 2025

Lula’s plan for COP30 in Amazon risks becoming a logistical mess

With fewer than 100 days to go, Brazil is under fire from countries concerned about a shortage of hotel rooms and soaring accommodation costs.
Beniya Mukayu, a traditional "ryokan" inn located in Ishikawa Prefecture, considers itself at "the heart of onsen towns, local residents, farmers, fishermen, sake brewers and artisans" — all of which need new, sustainable methods of serving visitors to survive into the future.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 16, 2025

In preserving Japanese hospitality, ‘details are everything’

As part of a new UNESCO initiative, the elite Relais & Chateau hospitality group will empower its Japan-based members to preserve the country’s “omotenashi” culture.
Criminals started hijacking online brokerage accounts in Japan and using them to drive up penny stocks around the world earlier this year.
BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2025

Japan brokers seek to identify hackers after fraud surges

Criminals started hijacking online brokerage accounts in Japan and using them to drive up penny stocks around the world earlier this year.
The Japan Boxing Commission's safety protocols have been thrust into the spotlight following the deaths of Shigetoshi Kotari and Hiromasa Urakawa, who suffered fatal brain injuries while fighting on the same card on Aug. 2.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Aug 15, 2025

Recent deaths of Japanese boxers underline importance of emergency action plans

Such plans are crucial to minimize delays and increase a fighter’s chances of survival after sustaining a serious injury in the ring.
U.S. National Guard members patrol at Union Station in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 16, 2025

Washington, D.C., police chief remains in command under White House deal

Trump administration lawyers conceded that Pamela Smith would remain in command of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 16, 2025

On anniversary of WWII's end, China urges Japan to make the 'right choice'

"Only by remembering the past can straying onto the wrong path again be avoided," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was quoted as saying.

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.