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U.S. President Donald Trump's officials recently met with their Japanese and Dutch counterparts about restricting Tokyo Electron and ASML engineers from maintaining semiconductor gear in China, according to people familiar with the matter.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 25, 2025

Trump team seeks to toughen Biden’s chip controls over China

The move is an early indication the new U.S. president plans to expand efforts that began under Joe Biden to limit Beijing’s technological prowess.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at a news conference following the Group of 20 foreign ministers' meeting in Johannesburg on Feb. 20
JAPAN / FOCUS
Feb 26, 2025

Japan's soft power may hold key to African development as U.S. cuts aid

Businesses linked to Japanese food and anime, for example, may play an important role in investments to Africa from Japan.
Elon Musk holds up a chainsaw onstage during the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on Feb. 20.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 26, 2025

Musk's new ultimatum spurs fresh confusion among U.S. government workers

President Donald Trump said workers who did not respond would be "sort of semi-fired," adding to the uncertainty.
Lawyers advising in a racial profiling case speak during a news conference on Wednesday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 26, 2025

About 70% of foreign nationals questioned by police on the streets: survey

The survey was believed to be the first conducted comparing police questioning between foreign nationals and Japanese on the issue.
A 7-Eleven convenience store, operated by Seven & I Holdings, in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 26, 2025

Seven & I buyout talks stall over management control

The founding Ito family and Itochu have yet to reach consensus on the composition of the board of the post-buyout entity, sources said.
Jose Ando purposefully wrote his Akutagawa Prize-winning novel “Dtopia” to be accessible to an audience beyond Japan and to spark conversations about race, gender and the effects of modern entertainment.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 27, 2025

Jose Ando's rapid rise from first pages to the Akutagawa Prize

Just three years after dedicating himself to writing, the author won Japan's top literary award for his novel "Dtopia," which offers a fresh perspective on identity and diversity.
Daiwa House employees take part in a barrier-free workshop as part of its hiring system for people with disabilities.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2025

Daiwa House to boost disability employment

Daiwa House aims to increase the whole group's disability employment rate to 2.7% in the coming fiscal year.
The number of fatal bicycle accidents and those causing serious injury that were attributed to cyclists' mobile phone use totaled 28 in 2024, a record high. Similarly, the number of such accidents involving cars driven by drivers distracted by mobile phones rose to the highest on record, at 136 cases.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2025

Accidents caused by distracted drivers hit record high in 2024

A total of 136 fatal car accidents and those resulting in serious injury due to mobile phone use were recorded last year, the highest since at least 2007.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s populism and polarization will challenge American democracy, but constitutional limits, congressional dynamics and enduring pluralism will sustain it.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Feb 27, 2025

American democracy will weather the Trumpist storm

Despite Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, his populist nature makes constitutional collapse unlikely so long as pluralism in society endures.
Multinational victims of scam centers, who were trafficked into working in Myanmar and were sent to Thailand, queue for food at a shelter as they wait for their embassies to pick them up, in Tak province, Thailand, on Feb. 19.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2025

'Contemplated suicide': Ethiopians recount horror of Southeast Asia scam centers

The complexes have flourished across the region, often staffed by foreigners who are made to swindle people in what analysts say is a multibillion-dollar industry.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar, are stuck in limbo at a compound in Myawaddy, Myanmar, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal / EXPLAINER
Feb 28, 2025

Southeast Asia's latest scam center crackdown

Here's a look at why the crackdown is happening now and the broader implications for relations between China, Thailand and Myanmar.
Keio University in Tokyo's Minato Ward. The university's ethics committee has approved clinical research that would lead to the first uterine transplant procedure in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 28, 2025

Keio University ethics panel OKs uterus transplant clinical trial

The university will consider whether to carry out the research, which would be the first uterine transplant procedure in Japan.
A screen shows news footage of plane debris at the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane crashed in the Chinese city of Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in March 2022.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Feb 28, 2025

Air safety reporting under scrutiny as crashes lie unresolved

Almost half of 268 accidents involving fatalities or major damage between 2018 and the end of 2023 lack a final report.
The luxury Seven Stars in Kyushu train trades the hyper-efficiency of typical rail travel in Japan for a slower, more decadent version.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 1, 2025

Aboard Japan’s most luxurious train, the journey is the destination

For those with yen to burn, the Seven Stars in Kyushu is one of the most luxurious ways to experience some of southern Japan’s best hidden gems.
A screenshot from a video posted by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency on X on Friday shows firefighters trying to put out the fire in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2025

Wildfire in Iwate rages on as unusually dry weather continues

The size of the affected area has doubled in less than two days.
A sign directs people to a measles testing center in Gaines County, Texas, on Tuesday. A measles outbreak in West Texas and New Mexico is sparking fears of worsening public health crisis in the United States. 
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2025

Texas measles outbreak was entirely avoidable

"It’s more contagious than COVID, more contagious than the flu, more contagious than Ebola,” says Paul Offit, of Philadelphia's Vaccine Education Center.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Vice President JD Vance looks on in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday in Washington.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 1, 2025

How Trump and Zelenskyy’s Oval Office skirmish broke a deal

An account of a remarkable and heated Oval Office exchange that seems certain to color the course of world history for decades to come.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar are stuck in limbo at a compound in Myawaddy on Feb. 26.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 1, 2025

Some foreigners pulled out of Myanmar scam centers face struggle to get home

Hundreds of foreign nationals have little food, scant health care and filthy toilets in the remote camp they have been taken to, two detainees said.
Tsuyoshi Mizukoshi, owner of a pub in Nishiogi’s commercial area, is a community organizer who is rallying local residents against the road development plan.
COMMUNITY / Issues
Mar 3, 2025

Redevelopment and resistance in historic Nishiogikubo

Stakeholders in Suginami Ward have been fighting against a road development plan for some years — but economic forces are already transforming the neighborhood.
Shoppers walk through a shopping area in Shanghai. China's household spending is less than 40% of annual economic output, some 20 percentage points below the global average.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Mar 1, 2025

China urged to think big, go hard on reviving battered consumption

With China's consumer support focusing on subsidies rather than reforms, pressure is growing on Beijing for policies with a longer-term impact.
The minaret of a mosque is pictured next to destroyed buildings in the Khalidiya district in Homs on Feb. 10, 2025.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 2, 2025

'Total panic' as USAID cuts jobs from Syria to Haiti

In 2023, USAID spent $42 billion to support programs across 157 countries — ranging from malaria and HIV prevention to fighting starvation and helping those displaced by war.
The rapid collapse of the plan to take Seven & I private reflects how personal egos and domestic competitiveness ultimately outweighed the nationalistic desire to fend off Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard, whose pursuit of the Japanese retailer emerged last August.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 2, 2025

Seven & I and Nissan deal fallout leaves Japan companies vulnerable

The collapse of the deals means the companies are potentially even more vulnerable to foreign takeovers.
The government will raise the out-of-pocket expense cap for expensive medical treatments this August as planned, but will reconsider plans for further increases, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told parliament on Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 2, 2025

Japan to reconsider medical expense cap hike plan: Ishiba

The expense ceiling hike is slated to be conducted in three stages from this year to 2027.
The government plans to make it easier for urban workers to get side jobs in regional areas.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 2, 2025

Government to help regional firms hire urban workers for side jobs

The subsidies are part of a program that matches corporate workers with struggling small and midsize companies in regional areas.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office in Washington on Tuesday. The U.S. president just signed another executive order on Saturday designating English as the official language of the United States.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 2, 2025

Trump designates English as official language of U.S.

The White House published an executive order by Trump which says it is "long past time" that English is declared as the nation's official language.
Barbara Broccoli, whose family has been the longtime stewards of the James Bond franchise, worries that Amazon's control will turn it into mass-produced "content," prioritizing quantity over quality and undermining its cinematic prestige.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2025

Amazon wants to turn 'James Bond' into slop

Barbara Broccoli, a custodian of the "James Bond" franchise, told friends she doesn’t trust algorithm-centric Amazon with a character she helped to mythologize.
People gather by the rubble of destroyed buildings for a mass gathering for a communal iftar fast-breaking meal on the second day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the area of al-Dahduh in Gaza City's Tal al-Hawa district on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025

Israel blocks aid to devastated Gaza as truce's first phase ends

The decision came as talks on a truce extension appeared to hit an impasse, after the ceasefire's 42-day first phase drew to a close.
A Russian military vehicle heads toward Hmeimim air base in Latakia, Syria, on Dec. 15.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025

Russia gambles to keep military bases in post-Assad Syria

Syria's interim president wants to renegotiate the 49-year lease for one base and an indefinite lease for the other to secure better terms.
Shinsuke Kimura, head of the Recovery Support Center, talks about the group's activities during an interview in Tokyo last week.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2025

Nonprofit supporting victims of 1995 Tokyo sarin attack to disband

The Recovery Support Center was created as many victims complained of problems with their eyes even years after medical examinations began to be offered.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks in London on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025

Trump sees Zelenskyy as the problem, but Ukrainians stand by him

The more the U.S. President and his vice president squeeze Zelenskyy, the more Ukrainians rally to their leader's side.

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’