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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.
Tesla Megapack batteries at the Victorian Big Battery site operated by Neoen in Moorabool, Victoria, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 18, 2025

Wild power-price swings are driving an Australian battery boom

A rooftop solar boom has aided the shift but also created midday power gluts, giving big batteries the chance to buy electricity cheaply and sell it back when prices rebound.
Muddied prospectors pan for gold in Manica province, Mozambique, near the Zimbabwe border, in 2010.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 20, 2025

Mozambique's illegal miners reap risky rewards but land suffers

Rivers around mining sites are polluted, and mercury has seeped into the soil, creating a nightmare for farmers.
Britain's Keely Hodgkinson after winning the women's 800m final in Lausanne, Switzerland on Wednesday
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Aug 21, 2025

Seville leaves Lyles trailing in Lausanne as Hodgkinson wins again

Seville stormed to victory over Lyles in London last month, and it was almost a carbon copy performance in Switzerland.
Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 22, 2025

From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past

One man’s experience traces the capital's arc from wartime devastation to modern megacity in a story of resilience and reinvention.
(Left) Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde (second from left), Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda (third from left) and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell pose for a picture during the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium in Moran, Wyoming, on Friday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 25, 2025

Central bankers fear being caught in Federal Reserve's storm

Politically motivated attacks on the Fed could spill over to the rest of the world.
The Burj Khalifa skyscraper (center left) and the Dubai skyline on Aug. 7
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2025

Less tax, more luxury: millionaires flock to Dubai

The tightly-policed UAE has molded itself into a magnet for the wealthy, offering economic and political stability with an easygoing business environment.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (right) and his daughter Kim Ju Ae attend a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone, in Wonsan, in North Korea, on June 24.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 28, 2025

How North Korea promotes Kim’s ‘Dear Daughter’ as a worthy heir

Kim Jong Un introduced his daughter to the world in November 2022 with a show of affection and menace, holding her hand in front of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during a joint news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2025

At Tokyo summit, India and Japan outline path forward for the coming decade

The leaders of the two countries outlined multiple areas of cooperation, including tech, the environment and health.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping walks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 3, 2025

Xi — joined by Kim and Putin — delivers stark warning at military parade

Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned in a speech that the world is facing a choice of war or peace, as his country marked 80 years since Japan’s defeat in World War II.
Redevelopment plans for Kawayu Onsen have hit some snags — an example of how bringing tourists back to declining rural communities is far from easy work.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 6, 2025

In rural Hokkaido, the stops and starts of tourism revival on full display

A new luxury resort might halt the decline of Kawayu, but only if locals and businesses can agree on how to move forward.
A water-based solar farm operated by the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group on the outskirts of Jiaxing, China, in 2018
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Sep 9, 2025

China’s green push may cut global fossil use by 2030, says think tank

"China’s surge in renewables and whole-economy electrification is rapidly reshaping energy choices for the rest of the world," Ember said.
U.S. President Donald Trump salutes the troops during the U.S. Army’s 250th Birthday parade in Washington on June 14, which coincided with his 79th birthday. Trump 2.0 is reshaping global alliances with new defense and diplomatic strategies.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Sep 9, 2025

‘Trump Doctrine’ a fundamental challenge to allied unity

Many in traditional foreign-policy circles struggle to see the method in Trump’s pursuit of “strategic surprises.”
Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh in action during the final of the women's high jump event at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Sunday
MORE SPORTS
Sep 22, 2025

Ukraine must invest in young sporting talent, athletics chief says

Olha Saladukha, a former triple jumper who won world gold in 2011, said despite the war with Russia, Ukraine was looking to the future.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building