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The Kurama Fire Festival is one of Japan's most visceral 'matsuri' (festivals), but growing throngs of spectators could bring changes in the future.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 2, 2024

At Japan’s hottest festival, crowds threaten to smother the flames

Despite the growing throngs of attendees, it’s the smaller details of the Kurama Fire Festival that add up to more than the sum of its parts.
Held weekly at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward, Tatakai Tuesday brings together both local and visiting fighting game enthusiasts.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Nov 2, 2024

Blood, bruises and brotherhood at Tokyo’s fighting games club

Organizers Jonathan Metoyer and Andrew Fidelis started the events to 'replicate a sense of pressure you’d feel in competitive space.'
A study has found that people with childhood experiences that could potentially cause psychological trauma are more likely to abuse elderly people.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 1, 2024

Childhood trauma raises risk of elderly abuse, Japanese study finds

People with adverse childhood experiences, such as domestic violence and neglect, are up to 7.65 times more prone to verbally or physically abusing elderly people.
Max Verstappen sits in his car while preparing for the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Nov 1, 2024

Red Bull's Max Verstappen hits back at critics

The 27-year-old, who has not won in 10 races after dominating last season, said he listened to those who were objective and close to him and "not just there to stir."
People use umbrellas during a hot summer day in Ginza, Tokyo, in August.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 1, 2024

Extreme heat takes big toll on work and elderly mortality in Japan: report

The annual Lancet Countdown report says the world is facing elevated threats in 10 of 15 health indicators due to climate change.
Democratic Party for the People chief Yuichiro Tamaki’s personal YouTube channel has more than 326,000 subscribers, by far the highest number among party leaders.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 1, 2024

How Japan’s new kingmaker party won over young voters

The Democratic Party for the People's election gains can be traced to two different factors: its youth-oriented policies and skillful use of social media platforms.
Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2024

Japan’s potential kingmaker says BOJ shouldn’t hike before March

The central bank needs to closely examine the results of next year’s wage deal results before moving on policy again, Tamaki said.
A military medic checks on injured Ukrainian soldiers on a military evacuation train on Oct. 18.
WORLD
Nov 1, 2024

Russia speeds up advance in Ukraine as mood darkens in Kyiv

A gain of more than 200 square kilometers adds to territory taken in a grinding summer offensive that’s involved huge losses of Russian troops and equipment.
The Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani speaks to fans in English during a World Series victory celebration at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 2, 2024

Dodgers celebrate World Series win with long-awaited parade

Shohei Ohtani brought his brown-and-white dog, Decoy — a fan favorite — in an Ohtani jersey, for the celebrations, with the slugger offering a rare address in English.
In a June paper, six Chinese researchers from three institutions, including two under the People's Liberation Army's leading research body, the Academy of Military Science (AMS), detailed how they had used an early version of Meta's Llama as a base for what it calls "ChatBIT."
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 2, 2024

China researchers develop AI model for military use on back of Meta's Llama

The evidence was believed to be the first showing that Chinese military experts have been systematically trying to leverage the power of open-source LLMs.
The seaside town of Shika on the Noto Peninsula, where the local power provider, Hokuriku Electric, has been fighting for a decade to restart a nuclear power plant in the town’s center.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 2, 2024

Can quake-prone Japan ever embrace nuclear energy again?

The government, its makeup in flux after the LDP lost seats this week, will soon need to make decisions that will shape Japan's future nuclear policy.
An elderly woman lies on the floor of a classroom at an elementary school in Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki Prefecture, in March 2011 following the Great East Japan Earthquake earlier that month.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2024

Tokyo government looks to ensure everyone has a bed at evacuation centers

The capital hopes to improve living conditions at evacuation centers and boost its disaster response capability.
Search and rescue team members and a member of the Spanish Civil Guard look for bodies following flooding in Chiva, Spain, on Saturday.
WORLD
Nov 3, 2024

Amid flood cleanup in Spain, residents try to make sense of the disaster

Some blamed climate change, while others pointed toward politicians, who sounded the alarm only after the flood was already raging.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, addresses Iranian students in Tehran on Saturday.
WORLD
Nov 3, 2024

Iran’s supreme leader threatens Israel with ‘crushing response’ to strikes

After years of avoiding direct military clashes, Iran and Israel have been locked in an escalating cycle of retaliation that has drawn in their allies and proxies.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump with Elon Musk during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5
WORLD / Politics
Nov 4, 2024

Musk’s close ties with Trump give Xi a friend with influence

Elon Musk, who has donated more than $100 million to support Donald Trump, has extensive business interests in China.
Colombian Environment Minister and COP16 President, Susana Muhamad, attends the last plenary session of the COP16 Summit in Cali, Colombia, on Saturday.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Nov 4, 2024

U.N. nature summit ends in limbo as countries spar over funding

Notwithstanding the last-minute drama, the summit did achieve some of its goals.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a live interview with U.S. commentator Tucker Carlson in the finale of the Tucker Carlson Live Tour at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 4, 2024

Election falsehoods take off on Youtube as it looks the other way

The largest video platform has become a home for election conspiracy theories, half-truths and lies, which provide it with revenue.
Masaaki Iene (left) watches as an architect from a local support center checks the level of damage at his house in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Oct. 15 to see whether previous assessments carried out by local government officials were appropriate.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 4, 2024

Noto quake-hit areas question home damage assessments

Many have noted inconsistencies in assessments and discrepancies between the results and the actual situations.
A front page announcement for Hideki Yukawa's Nobel Prize win in the fields of physics informs readers of Japan's first-ever Nobel laureate.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Nov 4, 2024

Japan Times 1949: Yukawa wins Nobel award

Along with Japan receiving its first Nobel Prize 75 years ago, a lengthy write-up on the man who sought to kill the emperor appeared on our front pages.
Players gather for a baseball game at an unearthed and restored baseball field that had not seen a competition in 75 years, at the site of a Japanese internment camp in Manzanar, California, on Oct. 28.
JAPAN / History
Nov 4, 2024

In an internment camp, all they had was baseball. They’re back to play.

Before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, baseball was a source of connection between Japan and the United States.
Flags of the Khalistan separatist movement are seen on Sept. 20, 2023 at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, where Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot and killed in the parking lot three months earlier, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 4, 2024

Sikh activists see it as freedom. India calls it terrorism.

The cause to carve out a land called Khalistan from Punjab fizzled out decades ago, but the Indian government still frames the movement as a national security threat.
A person walks past residents' belongings covered in mud, following heavy rains that caused floods in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, on Monday.
WORLD
Nov 5, 2024

Troops reinforce rescue efforts in flood-hit Spain as anger grows

Public anger in Spain is mounting over the disaster that has killed at least 217 people, with dozens still unaccounted for.
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, who supports Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump, gestures as he speaks about voting during an America PAC Town Hall in Folsom, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 17.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 5, 2024

Elon Musk's pro-Trump group hand-picks $1 million voter giveaway winners, aide testifies

The hearing in the battleground state comes just one day before Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump square off.
Meta has long faced criticism from researchers, watchdog groups and lawmakers for not fostering a healthy information ecosystem during elections across the globe.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 5, 2024

Meta struggles to curb hate speech before U.S. vote, researchers say

The findings come as Meta has long faced criticism from researchers, watchdog groups, and lawmakers for not fostering a healthy information ecosystem.
Operators respond to telephone directory inquiries from Tokyo at a call center in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, in October 1997.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Nov 11, 2024

As NTT ends its Dial 104 service, Okinawa's call centers look elsewhere

Naha and Nago were home to Japan's biggest call center operations, receiving around 125,000 calls a day at their peak in 1999.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris concluded their presidential campaigns on Monday with closing arguments that mirrored, in tone and in substance, the competing visions they have offered a deeply divided nation.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 5, 2024

Harris and Trump conclude historic campaign with dueling rallies

Their closing arguments mirrored, in tone and in substance, the competing visions they have offered a deeply divided nation.
Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attends a press conference shortly after he was sacked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who cited a lack of trust, at the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 6, 2024

Netanyahu fires defense minister, jolting Israeli politics

After Yoav Gallant was fired, protesters in Israel blocked highways and lit bonfires on roads.
A parent pushes a baby stroller in Shanghai on April 2, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 6, 2024

China's latest cry for more babies may fall on deaf ears

Events aimed at encouraging couples to marry and have babies were criticized for being regressive, disparaging toward women, and reinforcing gender roles.
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk speaks during a rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 6, 2024

Elon Musk-led election falsehoods hang over vote as tally begins

Elon Musk has become Republican candidate Donald Trump’s most high-profile donor and supporter.
Singtel uncovered the breach of its network after detecting suspicious data traffic in a core back-end router and finding what it believed was sophisticated, and possibly state-sponsored, malware on it, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 6, 2024

Chinese group accused of hacking Singapore's Singtel in telecom attacks

The breach of Singtel, which has operations throughout Southeast Asia and Australia, was seen as a test run by China for further hacks against U.S. firms.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’