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A construction crane beyond an apartment building at dusk in the Prenzlauer Berg district in Berlin, in February.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 3, 2023

Europe’s great housing crisis is only getting started

With housing already tight, the situation threatens to weigh on growth and further stoke political tensions as shortages squeeze more and more voters.
People wearing sun protection gear amid a heat wave walk on a street in Beijing in July.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 3, 2023

Climate's 'Catch-22': Cutting pollution heats up the planet

The removal of air pollution may have had a greater effect on temperatures in some Chinese cities than the warming from greenhouse gases.
The Self-Defense Forces face numerous obstacles in meeting their recruitment targets: Demographics, private-sector competition and image and morale issues.
EDITORIALS
Nov 3, 2023

The SDF has a big problem: Filling its ranks

The Japanese government needs to take steps to address SDF recruitment challenges that put the nation's security at risk.
Palestinian Hamas militants take part in a rally marking the 31st anniversary of Hamas' founding, in Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip, in December 2018.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 4, 2023

How Hamas aims to trap Israel in Gaza quagmire

The militant group has prepared for a drawn-out war and believes it can hold up Israel's advance to force its archenemy to agree to a cease-fire.
The Gaza Strip is hit with an Israeli bombardment amid ongoing battles between the Israeli military and Palestinian Hamas militants on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 4, 2023

U.S. renews talk of Palestinian state, but prospects bleak

With Israel's campaign against Hamas raging, the United States has renewed calls to work toward a Palestinian state, but few expect success now after decades of failure.
Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah appears on a screen as he addresses his supporters during a ceremony to honor fighters killed in the recent fighting with Israel, in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 4, 2023

In high-stakes speech, Hezbollah leader stops short of call to expand Hamas war

Hassan Nasrallah said his powerful Lebanese militia had bogged down Israeli forces to help Hamas.
Blair Masters and Talisker Scott Hunter pose for a photo with their kei truck, nicknamed “KT,” outside Ebisu Circuit in Fukushima Prefecture.
LIFE / Travel / Longform
Nov 6, 2023

The little truck that could: A fresh way to tour Japan's north

Travelers have documented almost every corner of Japan. Perhaps a new kind of adventure would be doing those same journeys by different means.
A woman visits the grave of a soldier on the anniversary of his death at a cemetery in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 21.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 5, 2023

‘I am dreaming it will stop’: A deadlocked war tests Ukrainian morale

Morale is faltering as Ukraine’s army remains tied-up and amid fears that allied weaponry supplies will begin to dwindle, polls and interviews show.
 Tesla Model 3 vehicles at the company's factory in Shanghai in January 2020
BUSINESS
Nov 5, 2023

Cooling EV sales have Tesla, GM and Ford rethinking investments

While the battery-powered vehicle market is still expanding, the pace of growth has slowed considerably.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong attends an Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Jakarta in September.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 5, 2023

Singapore’s prime minister to step aside before next polls

Lee Hsien Loong has been leader for almost two decades and the People’s Action Party has long telegraphed a power transition.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in front of the White House in Washington on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2023

The global consequences of the Israel-Hamas war

The EU’s shambolic response to the Israel-Hamas war has made China’s forceful reaction all the more notable.
Survivors of a recent earthquake sit in front of a damaged house in Chiuri village at Jajarkot district on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 6, 2023

Relatives of Nepal quake victims cremate loved ones

Since the quake, thousands of buildings have collapsed or developed cracks making them uninhabitable.
Russian President Vladimir Putin marking Russia's Day of National Unity in Red Square in central Moscow, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 6, 2023

Putin’s move to secure Libya bases is new regional worry for U.S.

Such a move poses new threats to Washington and the EU, which are already occupied with Ukraine and the Kremlin's posturing in the Middle East.
Motosaburo Saito at the headquarters of Oji Holdings, a building that won the Wood Design Award
ESG CONSORTIUM
Nov 6, 2023

Old-growth paper company Oji renews forests, products, vision

Oji Holdings, Japan’s leading paper manufacturer, is also its largest corporate forest owner. It studies and develops paper products and related materials and is committed to the maintenance of healthy forests. In a recent interview with The Japan Times, the general manager of Oji’s department on...
The National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo's Ueno district
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 6, 2023

Japan's national science museum holds record crowdfunding campaign

The institution has raised ¥920 million through the 90-day campaign, with 57,000 members of the public chipping in.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he drew on the graphic of a bomb used to represent Iran's nuclear program as he addresses the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York in September 2012.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 6, 2023

Israeli minister's Gaza nuclear comments spotlight opaque arsenal

The country has long had a policy of ambiguity as to whether it has nuclear weapons, though it is widely believed to possess a sizable number.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 6, 2023

China and Australia agree to turn the page as tensions ease

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is seeking to mend relations between the trading partners after disputes in recent years.
Yogendra Puranik, the first person from India to win elected office in Japan, at the Indian cultural center he manages in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward in October 2022.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 6, 2023

Japan needs Indian migrants. How can it attract them?

India can help fill the domestic labor gap, but for migrants to succeed, Japan must embrace a genuinely intercultural approach.
Zero carbon energy accounts for 28% of Japan's grid, falling short of countries like Germany, whose share of clean energy generation reached 58% last year.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 6, 2023

How Japan became the land the energy transition forgot

Its symbol may be the rising sun, but a wholesale adoption of renewables by Japan is light years away, mired in bureaucratic and technical hurdles.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, in November last year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 7, 2023

Biden wins global vote of confidence over China's Xi, survey finds

A survey has found that nearly two-dozen countries are nearly three times more likely to the U.S. president more positively than the Chinese leader.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's approval ratings have dropped significantly with his economic stimulus package being met with disapproval.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 7, 2023

Kishida is so unpopular, he can't even give money away

Kishida has seen his popularity plummet as his tax rebate leaves residents with the impression that it’s just a cynical ploy to win votes.
New Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (left) and and his predecessor, Wen Jiabao (center), attend the 12th National People's Congress where Chinese President Xi Jinping was first elected in Beijing in March 2013.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2023

China's opaque politics and the Li Keqiang mystery

Li reportedly had bypass surgery and was taking drugs after a liver transplant, both of which would have increased the risk of a heart attack.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 7, 2023

Japan’s aging population to increase burden on nursing care costs

The average annual nursing care cost per capita is estimated to increase 75% to ¥235,000 in 2050 compared to 2019 levels, according to government data.
Tomihiro Tanaka, president of the Japan branch of the Unification Church also known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, bows his head in apology during a news conference on Tuesday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 7, 2023

Unification Church ready to set aside ¥10 billion fund for victims

The announcement was made as lawmakers contemplate measures to secure the church’s assets if the court decides to strip the group of its special status.
People wait for the arrival of a train going west, in Kherson, Ukraine, on Oct. 31.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 7, 2023

Ukraine’s secret plan to save a city trapped in purgatory

Since Russian troops were pushed out of the city of Kherson, they have bombed it relentlessly. Closely held river operations could change that.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 8, 2023

China and Australia agree to mend ties. But will this impact security?

As the two nations agree to put bygones behind them and boost communication, questions remain over how this will impact security tensions in the region.
SoftBank Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son. Son's trust in his own intuition may have made him unwilling to heed red flags and opposition from his advisers regarding investments in WeWork.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 8, 2023

WeWork saga cost Masayoshi Son $11.5 billion and his credibility

WeWork's bankruptcy filing caps a yearslong saga that revealed breathtaking flaws in the Japanese billionaire's investment style.
People stand outside an Apple Store in Shanghai as the new iPhone 15 officially goes on sale across China on Sept. 22.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 8, 2023

Apple postpones next year's iPhone and Mac software to fix bugs

Rather than adding new features, company engineers have now been tasked with fixing flaws and improving software performance, sources have said.
Wei Hsin-hsi and his wife pose for a picture outside their family’s temple that is located inside the proposed expansion area of an industrial park in the Longtan district of Taoyuan, in Taoyuan, Taiwan September 22, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 8, 2023

Taiwan's land squeeze pits advanced chips against ancestral temples

If TSMC shifts more production outside Taiwan, it could weaken the backbone of Taiwan's economy.
Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim speaks at a press conference during Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's official visit, at Putrajaya, Malaysia, on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 8, 2023

Malaysian PM shores up support at home with fiery anti-Israel views

Anwar Ibrahim has become Asia’s most outspoken leader against the war in Gaza and its backers in the U.S. and Europe.

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