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The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is seen on the surface of the moon in an image released Jan. 25.
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 2, 2024

Japan’s historic moon landing was right on target

Japan made history last month when it became the fifth nation to soft land on the moon.
The Final Fantasy-inspired plate was supposed to arrive in Tokyo on Jan. 5, but the Noto craftsmen moved up the schedule to the day before the destructive Noto tremblor.
LIFE / Style & Design
Feb 3, 2024

Spared from Noto quake, Final Fantasy lacquerware inspires hope

A group committed to preserving local lacquerware hopes that the decorative plate will help turn the region's dire disaster recovery situation around.
It doesn't snow everywhere in Japan, but when it does, it falls in blankets that must be cleared away, sometimes through unexpected means.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 4, 2024

Rural Japan’s snow removal solutions range from cute to curious

Outside of Tokyo, cities that get a significant volume of snow tend to have better ways of dealing with it than the capital.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's core campaign team of a half-dozen aides is unswervingly loyal to their boss and chooses to stay mostly in the background.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 2, 2024

Inside Trump's election A-team: Lean, mean and largely unseen

A handful of distinctive figures have formed a tight, disciplined inner circle around the former U.S. president in his bid for the White House.
Migrants on a beach at sunrise after a failed attempt to cross the Channel to the U.K. on a small boat, in Sangatte, near Calais, France, in August 2023.
WORLD / Society
Feb 2, 2024

U.K. says migration likely to drive stronger population growth

While the trend will help boost the economy, it will also exacerbate a rift within Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s ruling Conservative Party.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 2, 2024

Mental health care urgently needed for Noto quake evacuees

People ranging from children to the elderly have complained of being unable to sleep.
People distribute bags of flour to Palestinians in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on behalf of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in November. The agency has come under fire after a few of its employees were accused of supporting terrorism.
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2024

Hold UNRWA accountable — but don’t harm those in need

Some 30,000 UNRWA employees serve 5 million people in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, with 13,000 of them working in Gaza alone.
Driveline Pacific Rim director Frank Minamino (second from right) poses with Lions pitcher Kaito Yoza (left) Hawks pitcher Shuta Ishikawa (second from left) and the Lions' Kona Takahashi.
BASEBALL
Feb 2, 2024

NPB pitchers embracing Driveline Baseball method

NPB players are working with Driveline Baseball in greater numbers.
Emperors sought eternal life for centuries, but scientists believe our physical bodies have limits. That's where technologists come in.
BUSINESS / Tech / Longform
Feb 3, 2024

The digital beyond: Is an eternal existence within grasp?

Immortality has been a dream for centuries, but scientists doubt its possibility. Can technologists and coders find a virtual path instead?
The Shika nuclear plant in Ishikawa Prefecture on Jan. 4, three days after a major earthquake struck the area.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2024

Nuclear emergency guidelines to be reviewed after Noto quake

Of the 11 national or prefectural roads in Ishikawa that would be used as evacuation routes in the area, seven suffered significant damage.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2024

170,000 SDF members sent to Noto quake areas over one month

SDF personnel rescued about 1,000 people, according to the Defense Ministry.
A majority of pollen allergy cases in Japan are caused by cedar trees, which cover 18% of Japan’s forests, due mostly to Japan’s forestation policy after World War II.
JAPAN / Science & Health / EXPLAINER
Feb 4, 2024

As hay fever season approaches, here’s what you need to know to prepare

Your eyes start itching, your nose keeps running and you can’t stop sneezing. It's nearly time for Japan's dreaded hay fever season.
Water jugs are filled at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Nov. 22.
WORLD
Feb 4, 2024

The 8 days that roiled the U.N.’s top agency in Gaza

UNRWA is the largest aid agency on the ground in Gaza, providing shelter to more than half the population and coordinating aid from Egypt and Israel.
Workers on a production line manufacturing false eyelashes at a workshop of Monsheery in Pingdu, China, in November
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 4, 2024

How North Korean eyelashes arrive in the West as 'made in China'

North Korea exported 1,680 tons of false eyelashes, beards and wigs to China in 2023, worth around $167 million.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / OUR PLANET
Feb 4, 2024

For Japan, earthquakes are an existential matter

The New Year's Day quake was a stark reminder of how Japan has been shaped by rumbling, grinding and often deadly convulsions and volcanic activity.
A man sits near the remains of burnt houses following the spread of wildfires in Vina del Mar, Chile, on Saturday.
WORLD
Feb 4, 2024

Wildfires threaten 2 Chilean cities, destroying 1,000 homes and killing 46

The disaster comes as Colombia battles its own blazes the mountains around Bogotá, in what officials say is the hottest January there in 30 years.
Smoke rises from inside Gaza on Sunday. Gaza health authorities, which do not differentiate between militants and civilians in their tallies, said on Sunday more than 27,300 Palestinians have been confirmed killed since the Israel-Hamas war began.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 5, 2024

Hamas hounds Israeli forces in main Gaza cities

There has been persistent fighting in Gaza City in the north of the densely populated enclave, and in Khan Younis to the south.
Prolonged factory deflation is threatening the survival of smaller Chinese exporters, who are locked in relentless price wars for shrinking business as higher interest rates abroad and rising trade protectionism squeeze demand.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Feb 5, 2024

China's small exporters threatened amid price wars and low demand

Producer prices have been falling for 15 straight months, crushing profit margins to the point where industrial output and jobs are now at risk.
Military vehicles carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles during a military parade in Beijing in 2019
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 5, 2024

Fear and ambition propel Xi’s nuclear acceleration

As China’s arsenal grows, its military looks to warheads as both defensive shield and potential sword — to intimidate and subjugate adversaries.
The aftermath of a wildfire in Villa Independencia, Valparaiso region, Chile on Sunday.
WORLD / Society
Feb 5, 2024

Forest fires kill 112 in Chile's worst disaster since 2010 earthquake

Hundreds of people are still missing, authorities say, stoking fears the death toll will keep climbing.
Many young people who feel neglected at home flock to the Toyoko area to find a community where they can fit in.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Feb 5, 2024

Toyoko Kids: The lonely street children of Tokyo

Bound together by shared neglect and marginalization, the group have formed a distinct, social media-linked youth subculture on the streets of Shinjuku.
Giant African snails are unpopular among local residents and are referred to as an alien species that shouldn’t be touched, as they damage crops and sometimes hosts rat lungworms.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 19, 2024

Giant African snails mark 90 years of history in Okinawa

The snails, one of the world’s largest of the kind, are native to East Africa, and their shells can grow to as high as 20 centimeters.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, attends a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2024

Zuckerberg’s apology isn’t enough to stop children being harmed

META's CEO apologized to the families of children abused via social media, but real regulation is needed for such harm to be avoided in the first place.
Britain's King Charles leaves the London Clinic with Britain's Queen Camilla after receiving treatment for an enlarged prostate, in London on Jan. 29.
WORLD
Feb 6, 2024

King Charles diagnosed with cancer just 18 months into his reign

Buckingham Palace said that the king would postpone public-facing duties while he undergoes treatment.
Palm trees in strong winds as the second and more powerful of two atmospheric river storms arrives to Santa Barbara, California, on Sunday
WORLD / Society
Feb 6, 2024

Pacific storm batters California with high winds, flooding and mudslides

The storm system, caused by dense moisture from the subtropical waters around Hawaii, is affecting areas that are home to some 35 million people.
Smoke rises over buildings in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip following Israeli bombardment on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2024

Palestinians hope Blinken visit hastens truce before Rafah strike

Blinken's meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman lasted about two hours.
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan during an interview at his residence in Lahore on May 18, 2023. His name may not be on the ballot, but Khan will be on the country's mind as Pakistan votes in an election on Feb. 8 that observers say is deeply flawed without his participation. The former international cricket star has been given three lengthy prison sentences in under a week and banned from politics for 10 years — officially excluding him from an election it never looked like he would allowed to contest.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2024

Days before Pakistan vote, former leader Imran Khan campaigns from jail

Khan's campaign involves use of generative AI technology to create audio footage of him reading speeches conveyed to lawyers from his prison cell.
Wall Street giants are endorsing India as the prime investment destination for the coming decade.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 6, 2024

Wall Street snubs China for India in a historic markets shift

India has vastly expanded infrastructure under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his bid to lure global capital and supply lines away from Beijing.
Police in riot gear stand guard next to a barricade near a fire outside the European Parliament in Brussels on Feb. 1 during a protest by farmers from Belgium and other EU countries over price pressures, taxes and green regulation.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2024

Green backlash looms over EU elections

Polls show that while a large majority of Europeans support action to fight climate change, a many are also worried about the cost of doing this.
A Palestinian woman walks with a child at Mar Elias refugee camp in Beirut on Jan. 29.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 6, 2024

UNRWA funding cuts put Lebanon's Palestinian refugees on alert

"It's difficult to imagine that Gazans will survive this crisis without UNRWA"

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan