Search - people

 
 
Saitama Gov. Motohiro Ono (right) and others call on users to stand still on the escalator in the city of Saitama in September.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 6, 2024

Stop walking on escalators, local Japanese authorities say

Prefectures and cities are using legislation or exploring other measures to discourage pedestrians from walking on escalators in the interest of safety.
Astronauts Ayu Yoneda (left) and Makoto Suwa at a news conference in Tokyo on Oct. 23
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2024

New Japanese astronauts see moon landing as real possibility

Under the Artemis international lunar exploration program, Yoneda and Suwa, may become the first Japanese to land on the moon as early as the late 2020s.
Unattended picket signs are piled up outside a Boeing facility in Seattle on Monday, after unionized workers voted to end their strike.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 6, 2024

Boeing CEO in battle to mend rifts after bitter strike ends

The strike exposed divides that run right through the company.
Seven & I Holdings' 46% stake in Seven Bank could raise around ¥30 billion by the end of the current fiscal year in February.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 6, 2024

Seven & I is said to plan reducing stake in banking unit to 38%

The retailer’s 46% stake in Seven Bank could raise around ¥30 billion by the end of the current fiscal year in February.
American voters in Tokyo gather at an election watch party, organized by Democrats Abroad Japan, at a British bar in Tokyo's Shimokitazawa district on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2024

American voters in Japan reflect divisions in home country

Several Republican voters said they believed Trump’s leadership could address the problems they are most concerned about, such as illegal immigration.
Republican Vice President-elect JD Vance (left) and President-elect Donald Trump speak during an election night event in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 7, 2024

JD Vance once compared Trump to Hitler. Now, he's his vice president-elect.

Trump and many of his allies see Vance's transformation as genuine, but detractors see his shift in views as a ploy to ascend the ranks of Republican politics.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, speaks during a party meeting in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 7, 2024

LDP lawmakers urge Ishiba to step down after budget passage next year

But neither the prime minister, nor LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama, said they would step down.
Students from Agatsuma’s butoh workshop, also part of Sumi-Yume, will be joining her and professional butoh dancer Tomoshi Shioya for this weekend’s shows.
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 8, 2024

Butoh dances to the sounds of Hokusai’s hometown

Performances of the avant-garde dance form are part of a program dedicated to the revered artist and celebrating the local community in Sumida Ward.
Toshiyuki Nishida performs at a rock concert held in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, in September 2011. Nishida appeared in many events and dramas filmed in Fukushima to help the prefecture recover in the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Nov 18, 2024

In his home prefecture of Fukushima, actor Toshiyuki Nishida lives on

Friends and others who knew him paid tribute to the late actor, who was well known for his folksy charm.
Sanwa Koutsu's Kuroko Taxi service has drivers dressed in traditional stagehand garb communicate with passengers only through gestures and written messages.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 9, 2024

The sound of silence: Japan's no-conversation services

“Constant social interaction can feel like torture for us introverts,” one customer says. "I think it’s a pretty smart business move."
Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Itsunori Onodera (right) and his Democratic Party for the People counterpart, Makoto Hamaguchi, meet in Tokyo on Friday to discuss policies their parties could potentially agree on.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 8, 2024

LDP between a rock and a hard place in struggle to get DPP support

The opposition party wants to raise the threshold for tax exemptions from the current ¥1.03 million ($6,740), a move that would cost the government tax revenues.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson speaks during the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Nov 9, 2024

Authorities probing bigoted text messages that spread alarm across U.S.

The messages urged recipients to report to a plantation to pick cotton, an offensive reference to past enslavement of Black people in the U.S.
U.S. President Joe Biden announces a preliminary agreement with Intel for a major CHIPS and Science Act award, during a visit to the Intel Ocotillo Campus, in Chandler, Arizona, in March.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Nov 9, 2024

Trump’s win sets off race to complete chip subsidy deals

The Biden administration is aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before President-elect Donald Trump enters the White House.
National Cancer Center Hospital building in Tokyo's Chuo Ward
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 9, 2024

Right-sided colon gets rid of cancer, Japanese researchers find

It has been known that colorectal cancer often occurs in the left-sided colorectum while the small intestine and the right colon are almost cancer-free.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, walks on stage during a campaign rally at Huntington Place in Detroit on Oct. 18. President-elect Trump is not known for adherence to a disciplined and rigorous personnel selection process, but behind the scenes his advisers and allies have been preparing lists of candidates for the most important jobs in his administration.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 9, 2024

Trump weighs key personnel choices, schooled by his first-term experience

The president-elect held his first formal transition meetings and has been given lists of candidates, but is calling around to friends and allies for ideas.
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of Batoulay in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon on Saturday.
WORLD
Nov 10, 2024

At least 40 killed as Israel pounds Lebanon, Lebanese officials say

Rescue operations were ongoing and other body parts retrieved in the aftermath of the attack would undergo DNA testing to identify them, the ministry added.
Elon Musk during a campaign event at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 27
WORLD / Politics
Nov 10, 2024

Silicon Valley’s Trump supporters envision ascendant startups and Vance 2028

The surge of GOP support and contributions set records in the largely left-leaning tech industry, splintering once-clubby relationships.
The Allied Occupation of Japan after World War II brought an end to the country’s brothels, which resulted in the Prostitution Prevention Law of 1956.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Oct 19, 2024

Edo Japan's morals pose a debate for the modern age

Can we judge what’s right or wrong across centuries? Edo’s morals of sacrifice and duty distinctly clash with our own modern ethics.
DPP leader Yuichiro Tamaki speaks to reporters on Monday at parliament.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 11, 2024

Head of key opposition DPP admits affair ahead of parliament vote for PM

Yuichiro Tamaki admitted to the affair after a tabloid reported on the relationship, jeopardizing his future in the party and any tie-ups with the LDP and Komeito.
Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
BUSINESS / Longform
Nov 11, 2024

A boom for business tourism in Japan?

Japan’s MICE sector is expanding rapidly, adapting with tech upgrades, flexible venues and sustainable initiatives as the Osaka Expo approaches.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes stage at an election night event in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 11, 2024

How a Trump presidency could lead to a purge at the Pentagon

During his campaign for reelection, Donald Trump vowed to purge the military of so-called woke generals. Now the question is how far will he go?
People farm in the Punakha valley, Bhutan, in 2017.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 11, 2024

Buddhist Bhutan to build 'mindfulness city' to create jobs and woo investment

The Gelephu Mindfulness City will lie in a special administrative region with separate rules and laws.
Sports motorbikes in various colors are sold at a Yamaha dealer in Chennai, India.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 11, 2024

Yamaha Motor targeting Generation Z in India

There is strong demand for motorcycles in the country of more than 1.4 billion people, and local automakers with cheap products command a sizable market share.
Pocky Day has grown into an informal annual tradition since its introduction in 1999, with stores across Japan offering special edition flavors and creative packaging to mark the occasion on Nov. 11.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 11, 2024

Pocky Day: Japan’s sweetest occasion

Since 1999, Nov. 11 has marked Pocky Day, the date being a nod to the stick-like shape of the beloved treat.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba votes to elect the prime minister at the Lower House in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 11, 2024

Ishiba holds on to PM role as tricky parliamentary session looms

Ishiba was forced into a runoff after no candidate for prime minister was able to secure a simple majority in the first round of voting.
A destroyed bridge in the town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Nov. 4
WORLD
Nov 12, 2024

Flood fears as Ukraine says Russian strike damages dam

Environmental groups have warned of Russia's invasion devastating Ukraine's nature
Sri Lanka's President and National People's Power party leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake addresses his party supporters during the last day of campaigning for the 17th Parliamentary Election in Piliyandala suburb in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 12, 2024

Sri Lanka's new president faces first parliament test

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake seeks to expand his three parliamentary seats to a house majority in elections on Thursday.
Two Harvard University students have adapted the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and computer software to create spectacles utilizing existing face recognition technology to identify people in real time.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 12, 2024

Are face-scanning smart glasses a problem or prophecy?

A hack by two Harvard University students raises concern about the unforeseen risks of artificial intelligence and mixing of existing technologies.
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with senior adviser Susie Wiles as he speaks, following early results from the 2024 U.S. presidential election in Palm Beach County Convention Center, in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Nov. 6.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 12, 2024

As Donald Trump staffs up for second term, only MAGA loyalists need apply

As advisers and allies of Republican President-elect Donald Trump search for personnel to staff his coming administration, one quality is absolutely paramount: unquestioning loyalty.
Global investment firms plan to beef up hiring in Japan, as deals surge on the domestic market.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 12, 2024

Global investment firms hunt for talent in Japan as deals boom

The hiring spree underscores the intensity of dealmaking in Japan, which has been a rare bright spot amid a slowdown in M&A deals globally over the last couple of years.

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’