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Outgoing German Finance Minister Christian Lindner receives his dismissal certificate after being sacked by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, following a coalition crisis in the government, in Berlin on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2024

Germany’s government puts itself out of its misery

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sacked his Finance Minister Christian Lindner over deep rifts within the government on how to revive Germany’s ailing economy.
Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal celebrates after closing out an inning during Detroit's playoff series with Cleveland last month.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 21, 2024

Braves' Chris Sale and Tigers' Tarik Skubal collect Cy Young honors

Both left-handers won the pitching Triple Crown and were the clear favorites in Cy Young Award voting.
The private equity landscape is rapidly changing in Japan, where more than $12 billion in such transactions have been announced this year, after reaching a record in 2023.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 22, 2024

KKR-Bain brawl worth $4 billion highlights Japan private equity boom

The saga shows how fast the private equity landscape is changing in Japan, where more than $12 billion in such transactions have been announced this year.
Brazil’s Rayssa Leal celebrates after winning the women's Street League Skateboarding competition on Saturday in Tokyo.
MORE SPORTS / Skateboarding
Nov 24, 2024

Rayssa Leal and Chloe Covell on Japan’s teen skaters: We are friends, not rivals

On Saturday, there were plenty of high-fives, fist bumps and hugs between “rivals” as Leal won Street League Skateboarding's Tokyo stop.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in Washington. Since former President Donald Trump’s election victory, investors have dumped stocks associated with high-profile environmental, social and governance (ESG) themes such as wind and solar.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 25, 2024

Trump victory forces ESG investors to regroup

Investment managers targeting climate change say it’s time to start speaking in terms that don’t alienate the millions of Americans who voted for the president-elect.
In 2022, the number of elderly people with dementia in Japan reached 4.43 million, according to data from the health ministry.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 28, 2024

Japan researchers develop a simple way to spot signs of Alzheimer's disease

The study showed that Alzheimer's disease can be predicted by identifying the "head-turning sign" in response to questions.
Brain adaptations during pregnancy may enhance efficiency rather than cause loss of function, similar to transformations seen during adolescence and menopause.
COMMENTARY
Nov 29, 2024

We’re finally starting to understand the pregnant brain

Brain adaptations during pregnancy may enhance efficiency rather than cause loss of function, similar to transformations seen during adolescence and menopause.
Many of the investors who stuck with cryptocurrency through its ups and downs, its scandals and scams, are now basking in an I-told-you-so glow.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 6, 2024

Bitcoin's true believers bask in I-told-you-so glow at $100,000

The milestone marks a spectacular comeback from a “crypto winter” two years ago in the wake of the collapse of the FTX exchange in a pile of fraud.
People walk around an outlet mall in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture. At stores across Japan, clerks use a form of polite language called "manyuaru keigo," literally, “manual honorifics,” named for the service manuals they study it from.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 6, 2024

Japan's honorific language can be challenging for native speakers, too

According to surveys, more than half of those in their teens, 20s and 30s, believe they cannot use "keigo," or honorific language, appropriately.
People in cities across Japan will pop into their local convenience store for any number of products they believe will help them with a night of drinking.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Dec 6, 2024

Hangover cures are everywhere in Japan — but do they work?

Japan’s suspect remedies make up 20% of the world’s market for hangover cures, but their success lies more in marketing than science.
Businessman George Glass has been selected by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to be the next ambassador to Japan.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 17, 2024

Trump picks businessman George Glass as Japan ambassador

Glass, who served as ambassador to Portugal during Trump's first administration, is known as one of the biggest fundraisers for his reelection bid.
Political reform bills clear the Upper House plenary session in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2024

Parliament wraps up, showing minority government's lack of control

Several concessions had to be made to the opposition before the ruling coalition could garner the support it needed to get its bills passed.
Lacquerware maker Takaho Shoji is trying to bring life back to his remote community in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, after a devastating earthquake and subsequent floods on New Year's Day of 2024.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 29, 2024

Japan's Wajima craftmakers see hope in disaster-hit region

Lacquerware makers are determined to bring life back to the remote community after a devastating New Year's Day earthquake, followed by severe floods.
Ami Yuasa won the B-Girl competition during the breaking event at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
OLYMPICS / Breaking
Jan 3, 2025

Breaking’s big year that wasn’t

Beyond music insiders or Olympic aficionados, most would struggle to recall the winners of the inaugural breaking competition at the Games.
Hiroyuki Sanada's overlooked Golden Globe and Emmy wins and the media's differing reactions to "Shogun" mirror the contrasting political and media responses to Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel, highlighting how local interests shape public perception in both cases.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 8, 2025

Media coverage and political tensions color reactions to Nippon Steel's U.S. acquisition

If the U.S. Steel issue continues to be exacerbated, it might yield short-term benefits for U.S. domestic politics, but it will ultimately hand a windfall to foreign competitors.
NHK’s latest taiga period drama, “Unbound,” centers on Tsutaya Juzaburo (Ryusei Yokohama), a commoner who becomes a successful bookseller and publisher.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 10, 2025

‘Unbound’ breaks NHK period drama tradition with a hero of the common folk

Public broadcaster NHK marks its 100th anniversary by flipping the script on its long-running period drama series.
Shinji Ishimaru announces details of his new regional party at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 15, 2025

With new regional party, Shinji Ishimaru touts rebirth

The former mayor of Akitakata in Hiroshima Prefecture aims to field candidates in July's Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election.
Webcam model Tania Rios looks at a computer screen in Soacha, near Bogota, Colombia, on Dec. 17. Unhealthy rooms, shared sex toys, excessive shifts, clients with degrading requests and harassment — for years silenced, webcam models are denouncing the abuses they have suffered in Colombia, a mecca of this multimillion dollar business.
WORLD / Society
Jan 28, 2025

Colombian 'webcam models' denounce abuse in online sex industry

Despite their clients being thousands of kilometers away, many webcam sex workers say they have suffered physical and emotional mistreatment.
"Uketsu" is a completely anonymous writer and YouTuber whose odd books — which blend mystery and horror — have become a smash-hit publishing phenomenon in Japan.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 7, 2025

'Uketsu': The internet phantom haunting Japan's bestseller lists

Anonymous author and YouTuber "Uketsu" deals in a quiet horror that has delighted millions of readers.
Arranging your dish in this checkerboard pattern is said to bring good luck, but if that holds true for eating this to start the year, what's stopping you from cooking in a bit of good fortune whenever you need it?
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 9, 2025

Some traditional Japanese culinary rules are meant to be broken

It might tick off Japanese cuisine purists, but there’s room on the table for classic new year ‘osechi ryōri’ dishes whenever you please.
Ishiba eats a mikan tangerine at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Jan. 22.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 7, 2025

A 'joyful' Japan? Ishiba's choice of slogan sparks the opposite feelings

Even members of Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party were not happy with the slogan.
U.S. President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Trump has frozen U.S. aid to South Africa, citing a law in the country that he alleges allows land to be seized from white farmers, despite Johannesburg's denials.
WORLD
Feb 9, 2025

Trump freezes all South African assistance as standoff escalates

South Africa’s Foreign Ministry expressed "great concern that the foundational premise of this order lacks factual accuracy,” in a statement Saturday.
Ancient trees and animals play crucial roles in ecosystems, carbon storage and even human health, yet their populations are dwindling due to deforestation, fishing and climate change.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2025

Who will speak for the trees?

A slew of scientific discoveries shows why we should protect not just 1,000-year-old trees but also 200-year-old whales, 400-year-old fish and 10,000-year-old sea sponges.
Yoko Suetsugu at Haco, her gallery in New York
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Mar 17, 2025

Sculptor connects Fukushima to U.S. through New York gallery

Yoko Suetsugu is aiming to launch a program inviting U.S. artists to hot springs in the city of Fukushima for a creative retreat.
Artificial intelligence is set to disrupt white-collar jobs, making it crucial for knowledge workers to embrace AI, develop backup plans and adapt to an evolving job market.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2025

How to hedge against AI stealing your job

"Knowledge workers" need a back-up plan as artificial intelligence keeps getting better.
The Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto during training at Tokyo Dome on Monday
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 17, 2025

How Yoshinobu Yamamoto rebounded after his disastrous MLB debut

Yamamoto is a different pitcher than he was a year ago when he was still adjusting to the transition from NPB to MLB.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton celebrates after winning the sprint race of the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Mar 22, 2025

Hamilton answers critics with first Ferrari win in China sprint

The seven-time world champion, starting from a surprise pole position, managed his tires superbly to take the race ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri.
U.S. President Donald Trump walks toward Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 23, 2025

Trump plans his tariff ‘Liberation Day’ with more targeted push

Trump is preparing a "Liberation Day” tariff announcement on April 2.
Relatives and friends of prominent Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who died after she was injured by a Russian missile strike in the city of Kramatorsk, attend her funeral in Kyiv on July 4, 2023.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2025

Contemplating victory and defeat in Ukraine

Ukrainians and their friends still cling to hope for victory — some are idealistic, others just fueled by anger.
Ryosei Akazawa (third from right), Japan's tariffs negotiator, in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent (second from right) and other senior government officials on Wednesday in Washington
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2025

Trump reiterates opposition to Nippon Steel’s purchase of U.S. Steel

Whether there is interplay between the tariff negotiations and the Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel deal has never been made clear.

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