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Singer-songwriter Mei Ehara confronted the pressure of creating her third album by taking inspiration from a literary device that merely serves as a trigger for a plot. The resulting album is “All About McGuffin.”
CULTURE / Music
Sep 12, 2025

Mei Ehara’s third album finds clarity in the noise

The Japanese singer-songwriter turns the concept of a McGuffin into her most direct work yet, sharpened by a U.S. tour with Faye Webster.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Swastika Jajoo (fourth from right) began attending the daily radio calisthenics routine at Sendai’s Kitasanbancho Park and struck up unexpected friendships with a group of elderly residents.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Sep 15, 2025

Calisthenic companions bridge cultures and generations

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a doctoral student in Sendai found friendship in unexpected places.
A chartered plane transporting South Korean workers who were detained in an immigration raid last week arrives at the Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 12, 2025

South Korean workers arrive home after U.S. detention

South Koreans made up the majority of the 475 people arrested at a Hyundai-LG battery factory site in the state of Georgia last week.
According to the latest survey conducted by the labor ministry, Japanese companies' employment rate of workers with disabilities was 2.4%.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 12, 2025

Japan firms facing challenge of employing more workers with disabilities

According to the latest survey conducted by the labor ministry, Japanese companies' employment rate of disabled people was 2.4%.
Palestinians transport their belongings as they evacuate Gaza City toward southern areas of the Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
WORLD
Sep 12, 2025

Palestinians displaced in Gaza return to a city under Israeli assault

Many are arriving to find no space for shelter, even in an area designated by Israel as a humanitarian zone.
A soldier on a tank waves an Israeli flag amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas near the Israel-Gaza border in January 2024. 
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2025

War responsibility across borders and generations

The Asia-Pacific War is often remembered for the culpability of leaders, but this overlooks the multitudes who filled the ranks below.
Juan Ansotegui walks on his property in Villalibado, a hamlet in the Odra-Pisuerga comarca of Burgos, Castile, Spain.
WORLD / Society
Sep 12, 2025

Spain wants to save rural areas — and it's finding creative ways to do it

Public and private actors are experimenting with ways to reverse demographic decline and save the centuries-old histories, traditions and cultures of Spain's rural communities.
Charlie Kirk, the right-wing influencer and founder of Turning Point USA, speaks in Chandler, Arizona, in November 2022.
WORLD / FOCUS
Sep 13, 2025

In America, Kirk's supporters still love guns, despite his violent death

"The fact that he's dead doesn't make me afraid of guns. It makes me afraid of people," one supporter said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves as he arrives to attend a signing ceremony for a framework agreement, aiming to speed up development in the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, a settlement in the occupied-West Bank, on Thursday.
WORLD
Sep 14, 2025

Netanyahu says killing Hamas leaders is route to ending Gaza war

Israel has ramped up efforts to seize control of Gaza City, telling residents to evacuate and blowing up buildings it said were being used by Hamas.
A billboard showing an image of U.S. President Donald Trump embracing prominent right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead by a single bullet while addressing a large crowd at Utah Valley University in the town of Orem on Wednesday, hangs on the side of a building in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
WORLD / FOCUS
Sep 14, 2025

Charlie Kirk's allies warn Americans: Mourn him properly or else

After the fatal shooting of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, U.S. Republicans have a warning for Americans: Mourn him respectfully or suffer the consequences.
Australia’s plan to ban under-16s from using social media, including YouTube, has reignited debate over how best to protect kids online.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 14, 2025

Banning teens from YouTube won’t keep them safe

Part of the reason YouTube’s inclusion has struck such a nerve is because it’s impossible to overstate how intertwined it has become with pop culture.
The estimated number of people age 65 or older in Japan stands at 36.19 million as of Monday, accounting for record 29.4% of the country's total population, according to the internal affairs ministry.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 16, 2025

Japan's elderly population down at around 36.2 million

The estimate, released ahead of Respect for the Aged Day on Monday, decreased for the first time in two years.
Displaced Palestinians move with their belongings southwards as smoke billows from Israeli strikes in Gaza City on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 15, 2025

Israel intensifies Gaza City bombing as Rubio arrives

Aid agencies say an Israeli takeover of Gaza City would be catastrophic for a population already facing widespread malnutrition.
Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Sep 15, 2025

Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’

Young Japanese are saying no to booze — and yes to mocktails, gaming and sober nights out. Breweries are pivoting to meet them.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio hold a joint news conference in Jerusalem on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 16, 2025

Rubio backs Israel in goal to eradicate Hamas as diplomacy falters

The top U.S. diplomat's support for Israel's new offensive on Gaza City has cast doubt on whether diplomacy would work to end nearly two years of war.
Artificial intelligence avatar Una will appear at the U.N. pavilion at Osaka Expo later this month as part of initiatives to combat climate change.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2025

Japan-backed AI avatar to promote climate action at expo

The anime-inspired female character, Una, was developed as part of climate initiatives supported by the Japanese government.
Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma attends the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in 2018. The billionaire entrepreneur recently returned to a hands-on role at Alibaba after spending years out of the public eye.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 16, 2025

Jack Ma returns with a vengeance to ‘Make Alibaba Great Again’

Ma resigned as chairman of Alibaba in 2019 and largely disappeared from the public eye in 2020 amid the Chinese government's crackdown on the tech sector.
Bedouins, many of whom were displaced by fighting in the Sweida region, receive donated bread in the village of Umm Walad, Syria, on July 28.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 16, 2025

Sectarian violence risks dividing Syria despite al-Sharaa's diplomacy

The country's Alawite, Christian and Druze minorities have voiced anger at the president's Islamist administration following outbreaks of sectarian violence.
Sweden's Armand Duplantis competes in the men's pole fault final during the World Athletics Championships at National Stadium in Tokyo on Monday.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Sep 16, 2025

Pole vault rivals in awe after Duplantis has another historic night in Tokyo

With fans and his fellow competitors looking on, ​Duplantis once again proved he has no equal — past or present — on Monday at Tokyo's National Stadium.
Smoke rises from Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip, after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border on Tuesday.
WORLD
Sep 17, 2025

Israel unleashes massive ground assault on Gaza City

A U.N. commission accused Israel of committing "genocide" in the Palestinian territory, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials had incited the crime.
A scientist looks at scans of grains at the Memory Centre at the Department of Readaptation and Geriatrics of the University Hospital (HUG) in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 6, 2023.
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Sep 17, 2025

Japan’s front-line researchers see bright path ahead for dementia treatment

Four scientists at the forefront of dementia research speak about what kind of future they envision for people with the condition.
A sign displays a temperature of 45 degrees Celsius in Thionville, northeastern France, on July 2.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 17, 2025

Climate change led to at least 16,500 heat deaths in Europe this summer

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent and the Mediterranean is a hot spot for climate change.
Itsumi Tanaka smiles as she is complimented during lunchtime at Grandma’s Cafe in the city of Fukuoka.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Sep 29, 2025

‘Grandma’s Cafe’ offers purpose and income for elderly

A company in Fukuoka Prefecture is operating unique eateries where elderly women, some with dementia, welcome guests with homestyle cooking.
Smoke billows skyward during an Israeli strike on the besieged Palestinian territory on Wednesday.
WORLD
Sep 18, 2025

Israel opens new route out of Gaza City as death toll passes 65,000

Many of those sheltering in the city are reluctant to follow Israel's orders to move south because of dangers along the way and fear of permanent displacement.
Kunio Yanagida, author of a nonfiction book about Typhoon Ida and the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, speaks at a symposium in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, on Sunday.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2025

80 years after bombing and typhoon, Hiroshima guide warns of double tragedy risk

Typhoon Ida killed 3,756 people in Japan, including atomic bomb survivors and specialist medics, just a month after the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
A U.S. flag flies at half mast in front of the White House on Sept. 11 in honor of Charlie Kirk, a right-wing activist who was fatally shot the previous day at an event at a university in Orem, Utah. The tragedy comes as the Trump administration shutters terrorism-prevention programs despite rising extremist violence.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2025

Why is Trump killing programs designed to prevent terrorism?

Political violence is rising worldwide while the Trump administration dismantles prevention programs, weakening U.S. security and global counterterrorism efforts.
Runners compete in the women's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Sep 19, 2025

Anti-doping work helping more countries medal in World Athletics, AIU chief says

The AIU is seen by many as the benchmark across all sport for fighting the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Tours are being offered in Tokyo using a shoulder-mounted robot equipped with a camera, speaker and microphone. The robot twitches its wing-like arms, which it can fold together as if in prayer when visiting a temple.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 19, 2025

Robot tour guides in Tokyo offer way for those with disabilities to work

OriHime, a robot remotely controlled by people with disabilities, is offering tours in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district.
A woman carries a portrait of a relative killed in clashes with security forces while joining a protest march moving toward the prime minister's office in Kathmandu on Sept. 13.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2025

Nepal’s Gen Z protests and humanity’s shared future

This is not Nepal's story alone. It is a reminder that the future isn’t inherited but forged by today’s youth.
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is considering increasing its stake in Jefferies Financial Group as the Japanese lender deepens ties with the U.S. investment bank.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 19, 2025

Sumitomo Mitsui mulls raising stake in Jefferies to 20%

The two firms are also in discussions to merge parts of their equities businesses in Japan, potentially through the establishment of a joint venture.

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