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Megumi Koiwai (left) found refuge in writing and storytelling that allowed her to reconcile with her heritage and upbringing.
COMMUNITY / Voices
Mar 24, 2025

A community of stories: Making space for reflection and dialogue in Tokyo and beyond

Through conversations with an international writing workshop, a writer of mixed heritage finds steadier footing and a sense of self.
Israeli soldiers work by military vehicles, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, near the border with Gaza, in Israel, on Feb. 15.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 21, 2025

In Israel, reservist burnout and little public appetite for more war in Gaza

A full-scale ground war against Hamas could prove more complicated amid waning public support, exhausted military reservists and political challenges.
Toyota's new research and development center in India will begin operations with a team of about 200 people in Bengaluru.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 21, 2025

Toyota’s new R&D unit signals its sharper India focus

The research facility comes after Toyota last year reorganized India to be the hub of its operations across the Middle East, East Asia and Oceania region.
An altar at the Aleph facility in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward featuring a photo of Shoko Asahara, the founder of Aum Shinrikyo and the alleged mastermind of the March 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2025

Thirty years later, Aum Shinrikyo’s horrors are ever-present

Subsequent revelations about the cult proved even more alarming than the 1995 assault. It became clear that the authorities had been worried about the group for some time.
The altar inside the Aum Shinrikyo  successor group Aleph's facility located in Tokyo's Adachi Ward, with a photo of former Aum Shinrikyo leader Chizuo Matsumoto displayed, in January
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2025

Aum Shinrikyo successors continue to gain new young members

Successor group Aleph's recruitment tactics are characterized by the concealment of its name and the use of conspiracy theories.
Firefighters douse the flames of a fire that broke out at a substation supplying power to Heathrow Airport in Hayes, England, on Friday.
WORLD
Mar 21, 2025

Heathrow closed after huge fire at power station, disrupting global flights

Travel experts say the disruption would extend far beyond Heathrow, the world's fifth-busiest airport.
Hamas gunmen stand guard at a funeral for a deputy military commander in the central Gaza Strip in February.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 22, 2025

Hamas studies U.S. 'bridge' proposal for truce as Israel escalates return to war

Israel has intensified a military onslaught to press the Palestinian militant group to free the remaining Israeli hostages.
San Francisco-based OpenAI sees the new studies as a way to get a better sense of how people interact with, and are affected by, its popular chatbot.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 22, 2025

OpenAI study finds links between ChatGPT use and loneliness

Those who spent more time typing or speaking with ChatGPT each day tended to report higher levels of emotional dependence on the chatbot.
Protesters outside a Tesla showroom in West Bloomfield, Michigan, on March 20.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 22, 2025

Tesla vandalism sparked by fury against Musk draws GOP ire

Caught in the middle are millions of customers whose electric vehicles increasingly are viewed as political symbols.
Kochi and Tottori prefectures, in collaboration with major airline ANA Holdings, will begin offering airfare discounts through the introduction of a flat-rate system as early as October for individuals based in multiple locations.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 23, 2025

Japan picks model projects to promote 'dual habitation'

The land ministry has selected 26 model projects to promote a lifestyle in which people divide their time between rural and urban areas.
Children play with trading cards featuring "local heroes" created by a local community council in the Saidosho district of Kawara, Fukuoka Prefecture, in January.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Apr 7, 2025

'Local hero' trading cards nudge children toward community activities

The cards, which feature real people, are helping to break the ice between children and adults in Kawara, Fukuoka Prefecture.
Federal officers carrying out U.S. immigration enforcement near Rockville, Maryland, prepare a Filipino man for transport to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office for processing on Feb. 6.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 24, 2025

Thousands of agents diverted to Trump immigration crackdown

U.S. federal agents who usually hunt down child abusers, money launderers, drug traffickers and tax evaders are now pursuing immigrants who live in the U.S. illegally.
Beniko, a former sex worker-turned professional photographer, browses though her new photo book in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, on Feb. 10. The 52-year-old has set out to visually document Japan's pleasure districts.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 30, 2025

Former sex worker records Tokyo's red-light history

"I can't make up for lost time, but I want to document the sex industry as part of history," says Beniko.
Students in South Korea sit the annual College Scholastic Ability Test. There is huge pressure on this exam, which determines young people's university choices and, in turn, their job and even marital prospects, leading to a heavy mental health burden.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2025

Entrance exam wars: A pressure cooker for South Korean youth

South Korea comes to a standstill on the day of the national university entrance exam. But so does students' possibility to determine their future paths beyond a mere test score.
Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip protest against Hamas and call for an end to the war with Israel on Wednesday.
WORLD
Mar 27, 2025

Hundreds stage Gaza protest against Hamas after conflict resumes

"It was a spontaneous rally against the war because people are tired and they have no place to go," said one witness.
“The Wakey Show” is NHK’s first new daily children’s program in three years, and it carries on the station’s storied past in youth-centric educational entertainment.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Mar 27, 2025

Rise and shine with ‘The Wakey Show’

Broadcaster NHK's first new daily children’s show in years puts puppets and positivity up front.
Palestinians protest against the Hamas militant group in northern Gaza on Wednesday.
WORLD
Mar 28, 2025

Militants warn against helping Israel with Gaza protests

Hundreds of Palestinians have rallied in recent days in north and central Gaza, some chanting "Hamas out," in a rare show of opposition to the group.
Shogo Yamaguchi shares his love of traditional Japanese culture with an audience of nearly 2 million YouTube subscribers.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 29, 2025

Shogo Yamaguchi: ‘Traditional culture thrives in a peaceful society’

The Kyoto-based content creator shares travel tips and reminisces on the path that led him to where he is today.
Medical workers treat a earthquake survivor on a bed in the compound of a hospital in Naypyitaw on Friday, after an earthquake in central Myanmar.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 29, 2025

Massive quake kills at least 150 in Myanmar and Thailand

The quake flattened buildings, downed bridges and cracked roads across swathes of Myanmar, and even demolished a 30-story skyscraper under construction in Bangkok.
A resident looks on next to a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Friday, after an earthquake rocked the country's central region.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 29, 2025

Myanmar quake toll passes 1,000 as rescuers dig for survivors

At least 1,007 people were killed and nearly 2,400 injured in Myanmar, with 30 more missing, the junta said in a statement.
Rescue teams work to save residents trapped under the rubble of the destroyed Sky Villa Condominium development building in Mandalay on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 30, 2025

Aid rushes into Myanmar after earthquake kills over 1,700

Critical infrastructure — including bridges, highways, airports and railways — across the country of 55 million lay damaged, slowing humanitarian efforts.
A pagoda that was damaged after a strong earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 30, 2025

A question in quake-wracked Myanmar: Does this augur the end of the junta?

The earthquake, known to have killed at least 1,000 and probably many more than that, struck a day after Myanmar’s military regime celebrated the country’s 80th Armed Forces Day.
Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Mar 31, 2025

The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan

A growing industry quietly erases the final traces of those who die alone, exposing deep societal fractures.
A woman cries while offering morning prayers to start the Eid al-Fitr festival in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Monday, three days after a powerful quake hit the Southeast Asian nation.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 31, 2025

Rescue hopes fading three days after deadly Myanmar quake

Intense heat, with temperatures reaching as high as 40 C, has exhausted rescue workers and accelerated body decomposition, which could complicate identification.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures during a news conference in 2021.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 31, 2025

Netanyahu offers Hamas leaders Gaza exit but demands group disarm

Hamas has expressed a willingness to relinquish Gaza's administration, but has warned its weapons are a "red line."
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 31, 2025

A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime

Since 2009, Ken Theriault has been keeping himself busy maintaining Costco's American charm and catering to the needs of the Japanese consumer as the wholesaler's boss in Japan.
People inspect the debris of a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Friday after an earthquake.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 1, 2025

Signs of life detected in quake-hit Bangkok skyscraper as overall death toll tops 2,000

Civil war in Myanmar is complicating efforts to reach those injured by the country's biggest quake in a century.
Damar Hamlin poses with students at The American School in Japan in Chofu, western Tokyo, on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Apr 1, 2025

NFL comeback star Damar Hamlin shares life-saving message in Tokyo

Hamlin’s comeback is bigger than football. It is also a vehicle for him to do something he has done his entire life — help others.
A surgical team attend to a patient suffering from black fungus in Rajasthan, India.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 2, 2025

Once-rare fungal diseases are killing millions in an unprepared world

An estimated 6.5 million people develop invasive fungal infections each year, with about 2.5 million deaths directly caused by them.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 2, 2025

A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers

Syndicates are increasingly targeting middle- to upper-class individuals from across the world through something as harmless as online video games.

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