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Natsumi Sakai, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s candidate and one of four female candidates running in the by-election, touts her experience as a cancer survivor and midwife as having prepared her to tackle issues that women currently face.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 25, 2024

Tokyo's Koto Ward by-election a race unlike any other

In a departure from boys' club politics, candidates including four women, a writer and an ex-martial artist are making their case for a seat in parliament.
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Destination Restaurants
Apr 26, 2024

Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past

Chef Ryohei Ikemi will open dinner with a warming soup featuring vegetables from Aomori's Lake Towada and close with a local Kyogoku apple gelato.
Snoopy watches people very closely, and when he’s out on walks he’ll keep his nose to the ground.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Apr 29, 2024

Snoopy is sniffing out his forever home

Whether it's racing around or chasing balls, Snoopy is one super-energetic pup.
Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
WORLD / Politics
Apr 26, 2024

Israel prepares forces as conflict with Hezbollah intensifies

Israeli forces have been exchanging cross-border fire with Hezbollah almost daily since October as the potential for an all-out war only grows.
The Oresundsverket natural gas-fired power plant, operated by Uniper, in Malmo, Sweden
WORLD / Politics
Apr 26, 2024

Sweden plans for worst-case scenario: War spreading in Europe

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has prompted Sweden to prepare for any possible contingency, including war coming to Europe.
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara (third from left) attends a ceremony last month for the Ground Self-Defense Force's systems communications and cyber school.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 26, 2024

The glitch in Japan's plans to bolster U.S. defense

Japan has suffered high-profile hacks in recent years that have elevated concerns over whether Tokyo can fully support its security partners.
The smartphone screen of a man in his 70s from the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture shows exchanges with a person claiming to be a woman from Taiwan discussing investment in gold.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / Regional Voices: Fukushima
May 6, 2024

Online predators seduce elderly victims into investment scams

Cases of people being swindled out of money show working-age people are also falling victim.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Friday
WORLD / Politics
Apr 26, 2024

Top U.S. and China diplomats talk tough amid warnings of new ‘downward spiral’

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi did not mince words when addressing a raft of contentious topics, including trade, Ukraine and Taiwan.
Paul Kraft
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / The Big Questions
Apr 29, 2024

JapanIQ consultancy eases entry to tough market

Kraft began his career at The Schwan Food Company, then moved to C.H. Robinson Worldwide before starting his consulting firm, JapanIQ, in 2023
Canadian singer Avril Lavigne attends the opening ceremony of Gap Flagship Ginza in Tokyo in 2011, three years before releasing her music video for the Japan-inspired track “Hello Kitty.”
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Apr 26, 2024

Avril Lavigne walked so today's influencer tourists could Mario Kart

Ten years ago, the pop star’s ‘Hello Kitty’ video drew outrage from the West, but she wouldn’t be the last visitor to use Tokyo as a backdrop for content.
Japan has entered an era of full-fledged population decline. If current trends remain unchanged, the nation's population is expected to decline by about half from 124 million in 2023 to 63 million by 2100.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 26, 2024

Japan’s shrinking population is a big problem for the nation

An expert panel sounds the alarm on the nation's declining birthrate and population crisis.
Police officers stand guard in front of the entrance to the venue of the so-called Palestine Conference in Berlin on April 12. Anger over Israeli aggression in Gaza is growing in the U.S. and in other parts of the world, including in the West.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2024

The world cannot just cancel Palestine

Germany and other Western governments are appropriating cancel culture to stop demonstrations against Israeli aggression, using antisemitism as a shield.
A young patient is evacuated from a hospital in Kyiv after reports that the building may have been targeted by Russian forces on Friday. Russia attacked railway facilities in three different regions across Ukraine on Thursday night and Friday morning, as the Russian defense minister vowed to step up strikes aimed at slowing the flow of critically needed American weapons and equipment to the front.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 27, 2024

Russia targets Ukraine railways as Western aid due to arrive

Kyiv warned that Moscow was looking to disrupt military supplies ahead of a fresh Russian offensive while Ukraine waits for new U.S. weapons deliveries.
Apple and OpenAI have begun discussing terms of a possible agreement on how some artificial intelligence features would be integrated into the next iPhone operating system, sources have said.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 27, 2024

Apple intensifies talks with OpenAI for iPhone generative AI features

The latest development comes about a month and a half before an Apple conference where it's poised to introduce new AI software and services.
The top leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, meets with the Iranian president in Tehran on March 27.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 27, 2024

Hamas says it received Israel's response to its cease-fire proposal

After more than six months of war, negotiations remain deadlocked, with Hamas sticking to its demands that any agreement must end the conflict.
Ukrainian guards patrol a stretch of land on the border with Romania. New guidance carries a clear message to Ukrainian men abroad who may be avoiding the draft: You don’t get the benefit of state services if you don’t join the fight.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 27, 2024

Ukraine is denying consular services to men outside the country

The drive to bring fighting-age men back to Ukraine, or keep them from leaving, is part of a broader effort to enlist new soldiers urgently.
An estimated 835,200 people were due to travel through Narita Airport in Chiba Prefecture during the 11-day Golden Week period — about 77% of the number during the same period in 2019, before the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 27, 2024

Travelers flock to train stations and airports as Golden Week begins

Japan kicked off its Golden Week holidays, which run through May 6, on Saturday, with many people heading to resorts or their home towns.
Sakiyama elementary school in Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, in March .Over the past decade, the government has directed efforts toward policies designed to give young people incentives to base themselves in rural areas.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Apr 27, 2024

In Japan, regional revitalization fails to halt population decline

Efforts to revitalize rural areas through various incentives has yielded limited results as people continue to gravitate toward urban centers.
Birane Mbaye, one of the survivors of a disastrous attempt to reach Spain last year, sits on a wooden fishing boat at the shore of Fass Boye, Senegal.
WORLD / Society
Apr 27, 2024

African migrant disaster survivor haunted by weeks lost at sea

Birane Mbaye's memories of the voyage are hazy, but vivid nightmares about his friend still shock him awake at night, screaming.
A prisoner stands behind the door of a cell in the isolation section of the Villepinte detention center in Villepinte, near Paris.
WORLD / Society
Apr 27, 2024

Ahead of Olympics, a packed Paris prison braces for crowds of inmates

Many of the events are being held in Seine-Saint-Denis, which has the highest ratio of immigrants among France's departments and is also the poorest.
Some programmers are gearing up for what they expect to be an era of tighter controls after Russian President Vladimir Putin secured a mandate until at least 2030 with a landslide win at elections last month.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 27, 2024

Russian programmers play 'cat and mouse' game to outsmart censors

Some of them employing techniques learnt from Chinese hackers' efforts to evade the even more stringent 'Great Firewall' there.
Palestinians cover a body that was buried in a mass grave in the northern Gaza Strip.
WORLD / EXPLAINER
Apr 27, 2024

Mass graves in Gaza: what do we know?

The discovery of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals have triggered calls by the U.N. rights chief and others for an international investigation.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Friday
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 27, 2024

Japan party leaders make final pitches ahead of Sunday by-elections

The outcome of the Shimane by-election is expected to affect Kishida's grip on power and his strategy for a possible dissolution of the Lower House.
Palestinian children stand amid the debris of a house destroyed by overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2024

Some U.S. officials say Israel may be violating international law in Gaza

A joint submission from four U.S. bureaus raised "serious concern over non-compliance" with international humanitarian law.
A man, identified as Keith Siegel, 64, speaks in a video released Saturday by Hamas that appeared to show two Israeli hostages who have been held in the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in this screenshot.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2024

Hamas releases video of two hostages as it weighs cease-fire

The Palestinian militant group’s military wing posted a video showing American Israeli citizen Keith Siegel, 64, and Israeli Omri Miran, 47.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends a conference in Paris last June.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 28, 2024

Tesla CEO Elon Musk kicks off surprise trip to Beijing

Musk is seeking to meet senior Chinese officials in Beijing to discuss the rollout of Full-Self Driving software in China.
The departure lobby for domestic flights is crowded with travelers at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Saturday, the first day of this year's Golden Week holidays.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2024

Golden Week crowds greeted with high temperatures as holiday period kicks off

The mercury soared as millions of travelers were venturing to both international and domestic destinations.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2024

Biden jabs Trump in election-year roast at correspondents' dinner

The U.S. president used the annual black-tie event to chide his Republican rival Donald Trump for immaturity and poke fun at his own advanced age.
When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Apr 29, 2024

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

Among official records in Japan, the "koseki" is key to discovering where you came from. However, it's not without controversy.
At the State Department, an eight-person group informally known as "the firm” is taking steps to help embattled nations when China responds to political disputes with what the U.S. and its allies call "economic coercion."
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 29, 2024

U.S. ‘firm’ steps in when China is seen as a bully, not a partner

At the U.S. State Department, an eight-person group is taking steps to help nations when China responds to political disputes with "economic coercion."

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan