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The Arch of Independence in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Central Asia is shaking off its Soviet past, driven by economic momentum, demographic strength and strategic diplomacy, even as hurdles remain.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2025

Central Asia changes its playbook

In recent years, the five Central Asian countries have managed to rebuild their economies, stabilize their politics and deepen their engagement with the rest of the world.
The U.S. and the world will become unhealthier and vast numbers of children may die now that Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has pulled funding from the global vaccine program GAVI. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2025

RFK Jr. is playing with babies’ lives

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s cut to U.S. funding for GAVI risks lives globally and damages America’s international standing.
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends the EU-Japan summit in Brussels in July 2023. Economic cooperation between the EU, Japan and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership is showing promise but faces political and structural hurdles that could limit progress.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 8, 2025

EU-CPTPP talks highlight shared goals and stubborn obstacles

EU economic cooperation with Japan and the CPTPP shows promise but could face political and structural hurdles that limit progress.
Novak Djokovic plays a forehand return to Flavio Cobolli during their Wimbledon quarterfinal match on Wednesday.
TENNIS
Jul 10, 2025

History-chasing Djokovic sets up Wimbledon showdown with Sinner

In the women's draw, five-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek and former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic both reached the semi-finals for the first time.
Hong Kong-based crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff and Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization Eric Trump attend the TOKEN2049 conference in Dubai on May 1.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 14, 2025

Trump's $100 million crypto mystery man

A venture calling itself Aqua 1 Foundation announced last month it had bought $100 million worth of U.S. President Donald Trump’s World Liberty crypto tokens.
Kunashiri, one of the four islands seized by Russia in the last days of World War II, is visible from the Shiretoko Peninsula in northeastern Hokkaido.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Jul 22, 2025

Ex-residents of Russian-controlled islands off Hokkaido want grave-site visits resumed

Now in their advanced years, the former residents want the visits to be restored for them to honor their ancestors whose grave sites are located on the four islands.
Mahatma Gandhi led the Indian independence movement with an unshakable faith in nonviolence that arguably dovetailed with Zen philosophy in some respects.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Jul 19, 2025

Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence — and Zen?

The Indian nationalist’s beliefs hewed close to certain aspects of Zen thought, particularly his fearlessness in the face of death.
Rory McIlroy reacts on the 18th hole during the first round of The 153rd Open Championship golf tournament at Royal Portrush, Northern Ireland on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Jul 18, 2025

Packed British Open leaderboard as McIlroy scrambles to stay in touch

After early sunshine on the Dunluce Links, heavy rain and wind made conditions difficult for the players.
China's Shi Yuqi hits a return to France's Alex Lanier during the final of the Japan Open on Sunday in Tokyo.
MORE SPORTS / Badminton
Jul 20, 2025

Shi beats Lanier to win Japan Open badminton title

South Korea's An Se-young downed China's Wang Zhiyi 21-12, 21-10 in the women's final to capture an incredible sixth title in seven tournaments so far this year.
Hulk Hogan tears his shirt during a rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, at Madison Square Garden, in New York City on Oct. 27, 2024.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 25, 2025

Hulk Hogan, shirt-shredding superstar of pro wrestling, dies at 71

Hogan was the face of pro wrestling for decades, with his blond hair and horseshoe mustache, colorful bandannas and massive biceps, which he referred to as "24-inch pythons.”
Fuji Rock still excites Hitsujibungaku — (from left) bassist Yurika Kasai, lead singer and guitarist Moeka Shiotsuka and drummer Hiroa Fukuda —  even as its flock grows abroad.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 25, 2025

Hitsujibungaku’s pop-fueled rise to stardom

Rock trio Hitsujibungaku is set to make its fourth appearance at Fuji Rock this weekend on its most primetime stage yet — the White Stage right before headliner Haim.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang speaks during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 26, 2025

Chinese Premier Li Qiang takes aim at AI ‘monopoly’ as U.S. effort quickens

China will spearhead the creation of an international organization to jointly develop AI, the country’s No. 2 official said.
A technician works on the assembly line at a solar panel manufacturing hub on the outskirts of New Delhi last October.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Jul 27, 2025

Amid fossil fuel shift in U.S., hope emerges for India and Japan tie-up on solar

As the Trump administration shifts back to gas and coal, solar power stakeholders in Japan and India are seeking new ways to collaborate.
With tariffs at an 80-year high and the U.S. dollar behaving unpredictably, the Fed should hold off on cutting rates until there’s clear evidence that inflation remains under control.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2025

The Fed needs to tread carefully with this strange dollar

Given that range of possibilities, it’s prudent to wait for the data to tell the story, exactly as Fed Chair Jerome Powell is currently planning.
The Bishu Maru LNG tanker, owned by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, next to the Freeport LNG terminal in Texas
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Aug 3, 2025

How Trump is gaslighting on climate change — with Japan’s help

As the U.S. president ramps up high-polluting LNG projects, Japan is among the nations he's pressuring for investments. The economic case for the push, however, is far from clear.
Noah Lyles (left) defeats Kenny Bednarek to win the 200-meter final at the U.S. track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon, on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Aug 4, 2025

Noah Lyles' win over rival Kenny Bednarek in 200 ends with staredown and shove

Lyles, the reigning Olympic 100-meter champion, will attempt to defend both his 100 and 200 crowns at the world championships in Japan.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial stands as a powerful reminder of the human cost of war and the importance of deep compassion and empathy that can inspire efforts to build a more peaceful world.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 5, 2025

Nuclear destruction through the eyes of a 10-year-old

Still, I wasn’t sure how Max would react to the enormity of the human suffering that took place in Hiroshima.
Demonstrators protest U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Brazilian products at a rally outside the U.S. Consulate in Sao Paulo on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2025

Trump’s tariffs defy the doomsayers — so far

Despite nearly uniform predictions of doom and disaster, the global economy has largely ignored the Trump trade revolution.
A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 6, 2025

80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped

As a 7-year-old boy in Hiroshima, Howard Kakita was hoping to catch the vapor trail of a B-29 bomber. A sudden blast knocked him out.
Tokyo Electron's Kyushu head office in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture. Chip industry veterans say they see no clear reason for Tokyo Electron to engage in an act of intellectual property theft and risk its relationship with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chipmaker.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 8, 2025

TSMC trade secrets leak puts Tokyo Electron in hot seat

The Japanese supplier of chipmaking tools is struggling to address the potential fallout after a former employee was implicated in the case.
Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 8, 2025

The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person

At 17, Koichi Tagawa survived Nagasaki’s atomic blast and recording two months of grief, destruction and the loss of his mother in a diary he kept for life.
Kaoru Mitoma celebrates scoring Brighton's second goal against Chelsea in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Feb. 8.
SOCCER
Aug 12, 2025

Kaoru Mitoma looks to build on Premier League success with Brighton

No Japanese player will be more essential for their team’s Premier League ambitions than Kaoru Mitoma.
The World Energy refinery in Paramount, California
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Aug 12, 2025

The airline industry's dirty secret: Clean jet fuel failures

An analysis has found that the airline industry's plans to go green before regulators start penalizing them are little more than a pipe dream.
Shinto priests holding traditional umbrellas walk to the main shrine for a ritual to cleanse themselves during the annual Spring Festival at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in April 2016.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 13, 2025

Dispelling the myth of Yasukuni Shrine

The shrine has been a lightning rod — especially as it has been used by some of Japan's neighbors as a convenient means to shift attention away from their domestic issues.
Beniya Mukayu, a traditional "ryokan" inn located in Ishikawa Prefecture, considers itself at "the heart of onsen towns, local residents, farmers, fishermen, sake brewers and artisans" — all of which need new, sustainable methods of serving visitors to survive into the future.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 16, 2025

In preserving Japanese hospitality, ‘details are everything’

As part of a new UNESCO initiative, the elite Relais & Chateau hospitality group will empower its Japan-based members to preserve the country’s “omotenashi” culture.
The Japan Boxing Commission's safety protocols have been thrust into the spotlight following the deaths of Shigetoshi Kotari and Hiromasa Urakawa, who suffered fatal brain injuries while fighting on the same card on Aug. 2.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Aug 15, 2025

Recent deaths of Japanese boxers underline importance of emergency action plans

Such plans are crucial to minimize delays and increase a fighter’s chances of survival after sustaining a serious injury in the ring.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba lays a flower during the memorial service at the Nippon Budokan on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 15, 2025

As Japan marks 80 years since WWII surrender, Ishiba expresses remorse

The prime minister’s reflections about the war stood in contrast to those of his recent predecessors.
People take part in a silent prayer to pay their respects during a visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Friday, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2025

When did WWII end? One in 4 Japanese can’t say, survey shows

The online study, conducted in June, had 1,200 participants ranging from ages 10 and over.
Jamaica's Kishane Thompson (left) crosses the line to win the men's 100 meter final at the Silesia Diamond League meet in Chorzow, Poland, on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Aug 17, 2025

Thompson beats Lyles in Olympic final rematch in Silesia

Thompson blasted out of the blocks and never looked like being beaten while posting a time of 9.87 seconds, while Lyles ran strongly at the end.
Rintaro Sasaki hits a home run during a game against Duke at Stanford's Sunken Diamond on March 16.
BASEBALL
Aug 17, 2025

Top MLB prospect Rintaro Sasaki is committed to doing it 'the hard way'

The Stanford slugger could have taken an easier path with a quicker payday. Instead he's determined to blaze his own unique trail to the top of the sport.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers