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Volunteers work at a Salvation Army mobile health clinic in Montreal on Sept. 22. Canada, despite being a wealthy nation, is gripped by a surge in homelessness that has seen thousands of people living in the streets after being priced out of real estate and rental markets.
WORLD / Society
Oct 5, 2023

Homelessness explodes in Canada as rents and housing prices soar

Researchers warn government data is vastly underestimating the number of homeless across the country.
Taiwan has become a hot spot that is capable of precipitating a military conflict between China and the United States, and possibly even a nuclear war.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2023

Applying Chinese wisdom to resolve the Taiwan issue

Some 70 years after the Chinese Civil war ended, do the winners of that war still think that violence is the way to achieve unification with Taiwan?
The Feels, a new kind of dating event for New York singles, fast-tracks intimacy by fusing mindfulness practices like meditation, unnaturally long eye contact and even feeling each other’s heartbeats.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 7, 2023

Out with speed dating, in with speed intimacy

The event, known as the Feels, fast-tracks intimacy through meditation, unnaturally long eye contact and even feeling each other’s heartbeats.
Over four days in September, Japan Soca Weekend brought together the Tokyo area's Caribbean community for dance parties, outdoor blowouts and a crowning Carnival festival on a racetrack in Chiba.
COMMUNITY / Issues
Oct 10, 2023

‘Peak happiness’ at the first Japan Caribbean Carnival

For Japan’s Caribbean community, Carnival provides a deep sense of community and offers a cure for homesickness.
British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer speaks to reporters in Wakefield, England, in 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 7, 2023

Britain's Keir Starmer plots painstaking path to power

Taking lessons from center-left parties in Australia and Germany, Starmer has imbued Labour with a cautious and methodical approach.
A woman takes her meal alone in Tokyo's Yanaka neighborhood. As the country ages, Japan's average caloric intake has been shrinking.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Oct 9, 2023

Downsizing dinner: Aging Japan is eating less

As older citizens' shrinking appetites lead to less on the plate, businesses are having to adjust to a new market.
Dendrobium orchids — highly sought after due to their use in traditional Chinese medicine — growing in the wild in Nepal.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Oct 8, 2023

The orchid obsession: How science and smuggling meet in a global trade

Love of the flowers has a dark side, with the desire for rare varieties underpinning a robust illegal trade believed to have wiped out entire species.
Soldiers stand near military vehicles as people protest against the military coup in Yangon in 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 10, 2023

Women and children among 29 killed at Myanmar refugee camp

An artillery strike hit a refugee camp near Myanmar's border with China, in one of the deadliest attacks on civilians since the return of military rule.
Most projections show the world will hit peak humanity in the 21st century as people choose to have smaller families and women gain power over their own reproduction.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2023

Don’t worry about global population collapse

While environmentalists have long warned of a planet with too many people, now some economists are warning of a future with too few.
A dove flies over the debris of houses destroyed in Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD
Oct 12, 2023

Gazans bombarded by Israel have no hope and no escape

The Palestinian territory, one of the most crowded places on Earth, has been under siege since Saturday in a near-constant bombardment.
A woman hands out pamphlets outside a voting center in central Sydney on Oct. 3. A coming referendum will decide whether to recognize Indigenous Australians in the Constitution.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2023

Australia’s First Nations vote is coming down to love against war

Australia was founded as a federation in 1901 without formal recognition of the continent’s Indigenous peoples.
The classic Japanese ghost story often features a vengeful female ghost.
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 12, 2023

[Rebroadcast] Japan’s got ghosts

This week we discuss a few horror movies before “Uncanny Japan” podcast host Thersa Matsuura tells a classic Japanese ghost story.
Sher Aqa, left, grieves over the body of his 12-year-old daughter, Roqia, during a funeral in the earthquake-ravaged village of Siaab, in Herat Province, Afghanistan, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Oct 12, 2023

‘The wrath of God’: Afghans mourn unimaginable loss from quake

Wails echoed across what was left of the village when the ambulance arrived. Inside was the body of a 12-year-old girl, Roqia. She had died in a nearby hospital Tuesday morning, days after a devastating earthquake hit this stretch of northwestern Afghanistan and sent her mud-brick home crashing down...
Palestinians flee following the Israeli army's warning to leave their homes and move south before an expected ground offensive, in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 14, 2023

Palestinians flee northern Gaza as Israel masses troops for assault

Israel announced overnight that it would temporarily guarantee the safety of Palestinians fleeing the area on two main roads.
Writer Baye McNeil (left) poses for a picture with Cameron Peagler, who organized the Black Gold event in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward.
COMMUNITY / Voices / Black Eye
Oct 16, 2023

An OG's tips for Japan: Create beauty and don't fake your smile

Speaking at Black Gold, an event aiming to connect the Black and Japanese communities, our columnist offered seven tips to enjoying life in Japan.
A ball of fire and smoke rises during an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 16, 2023

Gaza border crossing set to reopen before Israeli ground assault

Hundreds of metric tons of aid from several countries have been held up in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula for days, pending a deal for its safe delivery to Gaza.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen attends the launching ceremony of Narwhal, its first domestically built submarine, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Sept. 28.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 16, 2023

Fearing China, South Korea targets Taiwan navy submarine contractors

Seoul has avoided arming the island, even as its companies ink weapons deals with other Asian neighbors.
Children sit in the back of an ambulance at Shifa Hospital after hundreds of Palestinians were killed in an explosion at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza on Tuesday. Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other for the blast.
WORLD
Oct 18, 2023

Hundreds reported killed in blast at a Gaza hospital

Israel and Hamas traded blame for the tragedy, which inflamed the region just as U.S. President Joe Biden was set to arrive in Israel.
Obtaining dual nationality and having it uniformly recognized by authorities in Japan is no simple matter.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 19, 2023

When Japan's dual nationality ban meets a legal gray zone

Lawyer Yuri Kondo decided to naturalize as an American citizen. What followed was a mix of ambiguity and the feeling of a loss of identity.
BUSINESS / Tech / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Oct 23, 2023

Hokkaido waits to gauge impact from upcoming Rapidus chip plant

The nationally backed effort to revive Japan’s semiconductor industry has been called the region’s largest-ever development project.
Nurses and university students majoring in nursing hold up signs that read "Nurse act", during a protest against President Yoon Suk Yeol vetoing a nursing act that defines the roles and responsibilities of nurses, in Seoul on May 19.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 19, 2023

Why South Korea has so many protests, and what that means

Born during South Korea’s difficult march toward self-governance in the 1980s, protest rallies are a fixture of Asia’s most vibrant democracy.
Meiji University professor and cinema expert Lindsay Nelson writes about 
J-horror (Japanese horror) in her book, “Circulating Fear.”
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Oct 28, 2023

‘Horror has always been a vehicle to talk about social problems’

A J-horror expert gives her take on the essence of the genre and the cultural roots of its creative choices.
A woman takes her meal alone in Tokyo's Yanaka neighborhood. As the country ages, Japan's average caloric intake has been shrinking.
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 20, 2023

Table for one? What depopulation in Japan means for dinner.

As Japan’s population ages and more people find themselves isolated, solving their dietary needs is shaping the way the country feeds itself.
Kanata Kimoto had his womb and ovaries removed in Thailand when he was 24, so he could have his legal gender status changed. Now he questions whether such an invasive and costly procedure was necessary.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 22, 2023

Calls grow to abolish Japan's surgery requirement for gender change

Between 2004 and 2022, a total of 11,919 people had their gender changed through the law in Japan.
Kioxia Holdings has approached Japan Investment Corp. about making a capital infusion to support its merger with Western Digital and strengthen the combined company’s financial base, according to people familiar with the matter.
BUSINESS
Oct 20, 2023

Kioxia has approached JIC to back Western Digital deal: sources

Kioxia’s lenders are working toward submitting a commitment letter as soon as possible to help facilitate the agreement.
Palestinians inspect destruction from an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza, on Thursday. The Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel, has brought a new outpouring of support in the Arab world for the Palestinian quest for a state.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 21, 2023

Passion for Palestinian cause had faded, but Gaza violence reignited it

The Israeli bombardment of Gaza brought a new outpouring of support in the Arab world for the Palestinian quest for a state.
Lawyers Kazuyuki Minami (left) and Masafumi Yoshida (right) representing a transgender woman show off signs that say "unconstitutional" and "sent back" to a lower court, during a news conference Wednesday in Tokyo after a Supreme Court decision.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 25, 2023

Supreme Court hands down landmark decision on transgender rights

A law requiring sterilization surgery to change a person's legal gender has been declared “unconstitutional."
A banner at the entrance to Shibuya’s Center Street makes it clear this is no place for a party.
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 26, 2023

The specter of Itaewon has Shibuya spooked

One year on, Elizabeth Beattie joins us to discuss where Itaewon stands after its Halloween disaster, and what its legacy means for celebrations in Japan.
A woman walks past newly unveiled lettering that references the Oct. 29 Itaewon crush in Seoul. A more fully developed memorial was later built to commemorate the event and the more than 150 people who lost their lives.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / Longform
Oct 27, 2023

One year on, Itaewon's scars remain

A year on from the Itaewon crush, foot traffic in the Seoul neighborhood is picking back up. But what the future of the area is still in doubt.
The remains of the music festival near Israel's border with Gaza where Hamas militants opened fire on civilians.
WORLD
Oct 28, 2023

How the Hamas carnage unfolded on Israel's 'Black Shabbat'

The attack was meticulously planned for months right under the nose of Israel's vaunted military intelligence services.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’