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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks at an event in June.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 26, 2023

London’s mayor tries to unite a city divided by war in Gaza

The fighting between Israel and Hamas is shaking Muslim and Jewish people, who have lived side-by-side in London for generations.
Police officers block Wulumuqi Street in Shanghai on Nov. 27, 2022, amid protests over China's 'zero-COVID' policy.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 26, 2023

'Still suffocated': Mourning China's 'zero-COVID' protests a year on

Vigils for victims of a fire quickly morphed into calls to end zero-COVID measures — and in some cases, to topple Xi Jinping.
In Japan on a scholarship he fought hard for, Oscar Ruto found himself needing to take a break and headed into Tokyo for a weekend of partying.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 27, 2023

'I wasn't always an alcoholic … and then I was'

As the party season draws near, it's important to deal with yearend stress in healthier ways.
Yoshiko Koide sits in a classroom at Nagoya College where she teaches a Japanese-language observation seminar.
LIFE / Language / Longform
Nov 27, 2023

How a dictionary came to spark outrage among the web’s otaku

A project to create a reference book categorizing subcultures didn't seem to cause offense until it was packaged and sold as a dictionary.
Staff members work at a desk next to an exhibition for Shenzhen's metro carbon inclusion project, inside a subway station in Pingshan district of Shenzhen on Oct. 19.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / ANALYSIS
Nov 27, 2023

China turns to households in fight to slash carbon emissions

"Carbon inclusion" programs aim to help transform the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter into a carbon-neutral country by 2060.
Akina Shu has visited around 50 countries as a speaker and ambassador on the digital nomad lifestyle since 2020.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Nov 27, 2023

Japan is enticing for digital nomads, but visa hurdles remain

While the country does not offer a digital nomad visa, the government is working on introducing one sometime in 2024.
A man sings for customers touring the Erhai lake on a sightseeing bus in Dali, in China's Yunnan province.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 27, 2023

Chasing a different dream, China's tech nomads head for the hills

In the mountain town of Dali, former city-dwellers in search of a space for open discussion and exchange of ideas in authoritarian China find refuge.
A person walks past a COP28 sign in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 1.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 28, 2023

Biggest climate talks ever confront global chaos and record heat

Greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, and promises to cut pollution remain insufficient to take the risk of unmanageable warming off the table.
As technology and politics increasingly force society to determine truth from fiction, Merriam-Webster's dictionary has selected the word "authentic" as word of the year.
WORLD / Society
Nov 28, 2023

Merriam-Webster crowns 'authentic' as word of the year

The winner beat "deepfake," "rizz" and "coronation" for honors as the word that most often sent people to the dictionary.
Palestinians walk among the rubble, as they inspect houses destroyed in Israeli strikes amid the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel on Monday.
WORLD
Nov 28, 2023

Drones show how Israeli bombs turned Gaza into moonscape

Where schools, mosques and apartment blocks once stood are now covered with smoke and rubble.
Almost two years into the grinding war, Ukrainians are coming to terms with the prospect of a much longer and costlier conflict than they had hoped for, and one that some now acknowledge they're not guaranteed to win.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 28, 2023

Ukraine strains to bolster its army as war fatigue weighs

Ukrainians are coming to terms with the prospect of a much longer conflict than they had hoped for and one they may not win.
Yoko Huijs-Watanuki poses in the city of Fukuoka during a visit to Japan in October.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Dec 4, 2023

Oita woman helps Japanese Dutch, born in WWII, trace their roots

During the Pacific War the Japanese military occupied the Dutch East Indies, after taking the land from Dutch forces in 1942.
Dang Dinh Bach ran a law and sustainable development policy research center that provided legal aid before he was arrested for tax evasion in Vietnam in 2021. Bach refused to plead guilty and his wife says he has been assaulted in prison by police officers.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 29, 2023

Why Vietnam jailed the environmentalists it used to secure billions

The government has arrested several prominent environmentalists from organizations that shaped policies that helped secure funding.
Warren Buffett (left), CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and vice chairman Charlie Munger attend a shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, in May 2019. Munger died on Tuesday at the age of 99, according to U.S. media reports.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2023

After Munger's death, Berkshire Hathaway succession in focus

Berkshire has had a succession plan since at least 2006 when Buffett, then 75, told shareholders the company would be prepared for his departure.
University students attend a job fair. If Japanese companies continue hiring people based on the university they graduated from, acquiring extra qualifications or reskilling won't impact candidates' job prospects.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 29, 2023

Kishida’s stimulus package needs rethinking, not reskilling

The government aims to promote reskilling for nonregular workers to boost their job prospects, but this won't matter if hiring practices don't change.
Pages from a new Otaku Dictionary catalog the lexicons of Japan’s various subcultures.
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 30, 2023

A problematic otaku dictionary and the Japanese approach to sitting

An “Otaku Dictionary” has Japan’s subcultures upset at an attempt to define them.
LGBTQ activists gather outside Russia's Supreme Court building in Moscow on Thursday. The Supreme Court's banning of the "international LGBTQ+ social movement" resulted from a request from the justice ministry.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 1, 2023

Russia's Supreme Court bans LGBTQ movement and labels it as 'extremist'

The move forms part of a pattern of increasing restrictions in the country on expressions of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Tokyo Healthcare University professor Takayuki Mifune explains how he is trying to re-create bonito broth from 1,300 years ago.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Dec 4, 2023

The quest to re-create what the Japanese ate 1,300 years ago

Professor Takayuki Mifune and his team are hoping to understand, in minute detail, the culinary habits of our Japanese ancestors.
Areas highlighted in blue indicate regions where tsunami was forecast.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 3, 2023

Japan lifts tsunami warning after strong quake jolts Philippines

A powerful earthquake struck the southern Philippines late Saturday, followed by four major aftershocks that sent residents fleeing from coastal areas.
The government plans to raise the retirement age of drivers of privately owned cabs to 80, from 75 currently, as rural areas in particular suffer from an acute shortage of transportation for the elderly.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 4, 2023

Expanding labor shortage pushes Japan to find new ways to fill jobs

Companies have been forced to come up with new ways to find labor and keep their operations running smoothly, sometimes with novel ideas.
Rural China is now one place that is providing respite for young people. Zhang Boai, 20, joined a program that positions rural jobs not as stop-gaps but as lucrative commercial opportunities in their own right.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 4, 2023

China's graduates swap city dreams for farm life amid jobs crisis

As the world’s second-largest economy slows, young people are bearing the brunt of an unemployment crisis that’s leaving one of five of them jobless.
Yoshiaki Saito
ESG CONSORTIUM
Dec 4, 2023

How Nomura Research Institute cultivates local entrepreneurship

Creating a startup ecosystem is easier said than done, especially in rural areas.
Alaska Airlines has announced that it will buy Hawaiian Airlines for $1.9 billion, consolidating its position as the nation's fifth-largest carrier if it can attain regulatory approval.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 5, 2023

How Alaska Airlines’ CEO landed deal to buy Hawaiian Airlines

Ben Minicucci spent six months negotiating the purchase of Hawaiian Airlines in a bid to grow his company.
Pedestrians cross a street in the Zhongshan district of Taipei. Many voters on the island, especially those in their 20s and 30s, say they are weary of geopolitics and yearn for a campaign more focused on their needs at home.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 5, 2023

The wild card in Taiwan’s election: Frustrated young voters

Beyond geopolitics, they yearn for more focus on bread-and-butter issues such as rising housing costs, slow income growth and narrowing career prospects.
Eiko Takeuchi talks about a traffic jam during last winter’s heavy snow along National Route 8 in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, on Sept. 18.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Dec 11, 2023

Evacuation plans for nuclear incidents called into question

Effectiveness of preparations as a “last line of defense” to save residents in the event of a nuclear disaster are in doubt.
People wait to board trains at the Hongqiao railway station in Shanghai ahead of the National Day holiday on Sept. 28.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 7, 2023

China holds back from easing of Mao-era rules, in blow to economy

An internal passport system has largely tethered people's destinies to their place of origin since the 1950s.
A field study by elementary school students takes place in the Izawa River basin in Shiso, Hyogo Prefecture.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 24, 2023

Unveiling Shiso, a hidden gem of nature and coexistence

With 90% of its area covered by forest, the Hyogo city boasts picturesque streams and a bounty of access points to refreshing natural spring water.
A pharmacist holds a box of Novo Nordisk A/S Wegovy brand semaglutide medication.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 7, 2023

Can Wegovy fight alcoholism? For Big Pharma, this isn’t a priority

Reluctance underscores reasons why no new treatment has been approved for alcoholism in nearly 20 years.
PODCAST / deep dive
Dec 7, 2023

Feeling anxious? Wastewater, heat and Japan’s year in climate

In a year that saw Japan release 24,000 tons of wastewater (so far) from Fukushima No. 1 as the planet smashed heat records, it’s no wonder climate anxiety is on the rise. Mara Budgen joins us to break down the year in environment news, where we could see hope, and what we should be worried about....
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
WORLD / Politics
Dec 8, 2023

U.S. criticizes Israel on Gaza as civilian death toll mounts

Israel says it must wipe out the Hamas militant group and is doing everything possible to get civilians out of harm's way.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years