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Experienced festivalgoers know it always rains at Fuji Rock. But don’t let that scare you away from a weekend of fun at one of Japan’s largest annual music events.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2024

Heading to Fuji Rock? Make sure to bring these essentials.

Before traveling to Niigata Prefecture for a weekend of music, check your bags for these handy items.
The number of residents in Tokyo as of Jan. 1 rose by 0.03% from a year before, data shows, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time in three years, while the country's other 46 prefectures saw their populations continue to decline.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 25, 2024

Japan's population continues to fall even as foreign resident count rises

The number of foreign residents in Japan rose by 329,535 from last year to 3,323,374.
Former President Donald Trump gets ready to take the stage shortly before the assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July, 13. Four U.S. presidents have been killed in office.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2024

The U.S. presidency is a deadly job — and always will be

Roughly a quarter of all U.S. presidents have been victims of serious assassination attempts — four of which ended in death.
King Charles and Queen Camilla of Britain attend a ceremony on June 25 to welcome Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako on a seven-day state visit to the U.K.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 24, 2024

The imperial visit that crowned Japan-U.K. friendship

Having overcome past tensions, Japanese-British relations are at their peak, as seen during Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako's state visit to the U.K. in June.
Green products must meet customer needs at competitive prices to succeed. If such technologies gain traction, both the planet and consumers will benefit.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2024

Going green doesn’t have to be a giant money suck

Green products must meet customer needs at competitive prices to succeed. If such technologies gain traction, both the planet and consumers will benefit.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 24, 2024

'Dark and sorrowful day': New Zealand PM promises reform after inquiry finds 200,000 abused in care

Nearly one in three children and vulnerable adults in care from 1950 to 2019 experienced some form of abuse, according to a public enquiry.
Rescuers paddle their boats along a flooded street in Manila on Wednesday amid heavy rains brought by Typhoon Gaemi.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 25, 2024

China braces for Typhoon Gaemi after it pounds Taiwan and Philippines

The typhoon was expected to approach China’s coast with winds of 129 kilometers per hour.
U.S. President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Wednesday, where he spoke about his decision to drop his Democratic presidential reelection bid.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2024

Biden says he's 'passing the torch' in speech from Oval office

He is the first incumbent president not to seek reelection since Lyndon Johnson in 1968.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2024

What the ‘extreme’ Project 2025 says and who wrote it

Recent polling shows there has been a dramatic uptick in awareness and negative views of Project 2025 since late June, when U.S. Democrats began emphasizing it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2024

Netanyahu sketches vague outline for postwar Gaza

Israeli leader also accused anti-Israel protesters as standing with Hamas, charging without evidence that they were backed by Iran
Tsuyoshi Ode, specially appointed professor at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, poses with a certificate for the school's hydrogen dueled ship during news conference on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2024

Japan certifies hydrogen-fueled ship for the first time

The ship requires three tanks of high-pressure hydrogen gas at room temperature and can sail some 75 kilometers in five hours at a speed of 8 knots per hour.
Nakazakicho may be just a few minutes outside the major commercial district of Umeda, but it certainly doesn't feel that way.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 27, 2024

The dancer keeping Osaka’s Nakazakicho indie

Nakazakicho’s transformation is more than the success story of a small neighborhood turning the tide against inner-city decay.
Japan is one of the great mushroom countries of the world, so it pays to know how to make the most of these morsels in your kitchen.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 28, 2024

‘Mushroom Gastronomy’ makes sense of Japan’s fungal diversity

“Mushroom Gastronomy” by mycological gourmand Krista Towns demystifies the world of fungi in Japan and abroad.
More tourists than ever are guided around Japan based on the content they consume online, but can those same creators help direct them to less-populated areas of the country?
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Jul 29, 2024

Influencers helped cause overtourism. Can they help fix it?

“I don't want to use filters or put out content just for the sake of views and followers,” one content creator says. “I want to show people what the real Japan is.”
Takeo Suzuki from the Pentax division of Ricoh Imaging demonstrates the Pentax 17 half-frame film camera at the Pentax Club House in Tokyo on June 28.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2024

New Japan film camera aimed at 'nostalgic' young fans

Japan's major camera brands stopped making analogue models in the 2000s, prompting sellers in big cities to refurbish old models for new analogue enthusiasts.
Devices used in a scam center in Manila that has been shut down by police. Scam centers have mushroomed across Southeast Asia, with crime syndicates luring, kidnapping or coercing workers into predatory online activity and raking in billions of dollars.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 25, 2024

Raid on Philippine gambling hub unravels elaborate scheme implicating mayor

The scandal has fueled calls for a ban on the online gambling industry over its links to financial scams, kidnapping, prostitution, human trafficking, torture and murder.
Norwegian and Australian players take part in a practice session ahead of the opening of the Paris Olympics at Eiffel Tower Stadium in Paris on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS
Jul 25, 2024

After joyless silence in Tokyo, Paris is ready to get the Olympic party started

No COVID-19 testing, no bubbles and no more locking out the fans. Paris marks a return to normal for an event that, like many, was brought to its knees by the pandemic.
American musician and visual artist Kim Gordon released her second solo album, “The Collective,” earlier this year, and it’s a bona fide banger.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 25, 2024

Ahead of her Fuji Rock set, Kim Gordon weighs in on punk and U.S. politics

The former Sonic Youth bassist, guitarist and vocalist is in Japan for the first time in over 10 years to promote her latest album, "The Collective."
Ukrainian artist Nikita Kadan’s “The Objects from Another Place,” erected at a former power station, was created in the likeness of structures that appeared in children’s playgrounds all over the former Soviet Union.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 27, 2024

Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale's quiet expansion of hyper-local art

The event’s ninth edition doesn’t offer new bangers, but its detailed installations in the verdant mountains of Niigata Prefecture still present a unique experience.
Gamers can play Assassin's Creed Shadows as either female assassin Naoe or Yasuke, a Black samurai.
LIFE / Digital
Jul 25, 2024

Assassin's Creed makers defend 'creative liberties' in Black samurai row

UbiSoft, the game's maker, said its Assassin's Creed games aren't meant to be perceived as factual representations of history or historical characters.
Israeli mobile artillery units stand near the Israel-Gaza border on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 26, 2024

Israel seeks changes to Gaza truce plan, complicating talks, sources say

Word of the new sticking points came as U.S. President Joe Biden pressed for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Migrants take part in an activity organized by the nongovernmental organization Proem-AID's Water Project to overcome the traumatic experience of a dangerous sea crossing, on Las Teresitas beach in Santa Cruz De Tenerife, Spain, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Society
Jul 26, 2024

Volunteers help migrants reverse water trauma in Spain's Canaries

Many migrants barely survived their crossing, and others lost family members or friends to the ocean.
Enea Almeida (right), chair of the Brazilian amnesty commission, shakes hands with the representative for Japanese immigrants on Thursday in Brasilia.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2024

Brazil issues apology for persecuting Japan immigrants during WWII

The apology aims to restore the dignity Japanese Brazilians lost due to the government's past atrocities, 79 years after the end of the war.
Camera footage shows the Mogami River bursting its banks in Tozawa, Yamagata Prefecture, on Friday morning.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 26, 2024

One dead, three missing as heavy rain batters Tohoku

Record-breaking rainfall in Yamagata and Akita prefectures has led to floods, landslides and power disruptions.
A vehicle carrying Kohei Iitsuka, suspected of killing his probation officer, leaves the Otsu Kita Police Station in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, on June 10.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 26, 2024

Justice Ministry to assign multiple volunteer probation officers to watch over offenders

Previously in Japan, one volunteer probation officer was assigned to watch over one individual, except in rare cases.
Kiyomitsu Nagai (right), head of Tsukui Yamayuri-en, and others offer a prayer before a memorial monument on Friday, the eighth anniversary of a knife attack at the prefectural care home for people with disabilities in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2024

Memorial ceremony held for 2016 care home attack victims

The memorial ceremony was attended by 89 people, including bereaved families, who offered a moment of silence for the victims and laid out flowers.
Japan's Shoko Miyata withdrew from the gymnastics team herself over her drinking and smoking, although it had already appeared as though the association was prepared to send her home from the team’s training camp in Monaco.
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Jul 26, 2024

Ahead of the Olympics, Japan is still talking about the gymnast who won't be there

At a time when sports fans in Japan are usually united in support of the nation's athletes, one issue is proving divisive: Shoko Miyata's withdrawal.
Beijing's push to integrate core socialist values into its chatbots highlights a significant challenge in China's bid to compete with the U.S. in AI development.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2024

What's wrong about ‘Chat XiPT’ is bigger than China

The difficulty of creating AI models infused with specific values will likely hurt China’s efforts to create chatbots as sophisticated as those in the U.S.
Flavor Flav is at the Paris Games as the hype man for the U.S. water polo team.
OLYMPICS
Jul 26, 2024

Hip-hop legend Flavor Flav relishes role as hype man for U.S. water polo team

The rapper is using his fame to help support the U.S. team.
Leqembi, which was developed by U.S. multinational Biogen and Japanese-based Eisai, is the brand name of an active substance called lecanemab, which is used to treat adults with mild memory and cognitive problems resulting from the early stages of the common type of dementia.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 27, 2024

European medicines watchdog rejects Eisai's new Alzheimer's drug

The watchdog said the risks of side effects, including potential brain bleeding, outweighed the benefits.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?