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Magokoro Yoshihira (center) is the managing director of Yui Associates, which operates the neighborhood fixtures of Sanya Cafe and Juyoh Hotel. Yusuke Takahashi (left) met Yoshihira during a difficult period in his life and now works as the cafe’s chef. Nancy Anne (right) has worked for over 10 years at Juyoh Hotel and enjoys the multicultural environment.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Apr 28, 2025

Reclaiming Sanya, one meal at a time

Since 2018, Sanya Cafe has been building community in one of Tokyo’s most colorful — and infamous — neighborhoods.
The scallop carpaccio with strawberries is a harmonious blend of flavors and textures, and one of the standout recipes in "Umai: Recipes From a Japanese Home Kitchen."
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 26, 2025

A modern Japanese cookbook that is ‘a beautiful mess’

With an easygoing tone, Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares’ first cookbook is a vibrant Japanese culinary guide that speaks to a globalized generation.
Trafficking experts have raised concerns over how satellite internet technology may hamper efforts to crack down on scam centers in Asia.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Apr 25, 2025

Portable internet helps Asia scam centers bypass blackouts

Trafficking experts have raised concerns over how satellite internet technology may hamper efforts to crack down on scam centers.
Nomura is looking to deepen its foothold in its traditional Wall Street businesses by weighing a return to offering cash prime-brokerage services in the United States and Europe.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 25, 2025

Nomura weighs return to prime brokerage four years after Archegos

Prime brokerage, which involves banks lending cash and securities to hedge funds, has become an increasing money maker for Wall Street in recent years due to high equities prices.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with heads of municipal entities in Moscow on Monday. Moscow has insisted that Ukraine largely demilitarize as a condition to end the war.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 25, 2025

U.S. to demand Putin accept Ukraine’s right to military force

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia to raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, sources say.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a discussion on the employment ice age generation in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 25, 2025

‘Employment ice age generation’ returns to spotlight ahead of Upper House election

The generation, which graduated between 1993 and 2004, has long grappled with pay stagnation and irregular employment due to a tight labor market.
A young recruit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces participates in an exercise in the Kyiv region earlier this month.
WORLD
Apr 25, 2025

Cash bonus for a year fighting Russia? Inside Ukraine's youth recruitment drive

Two months after Ukraine launched a national drive to recruit young people to fight in its tired and aged armed forces for a year, fewer than 500 have signed contracts.
Katia Beeden, life coach and campaigner for white South Africans who want to apply for U.S. refugee status, speaks at her residence in Fish Hoek, Cape Town, South Africa, on Thursday.
WORLD / Society
Apr 25, 2025

U.S. eyes persecution claims as white South Africans seek resettlement

U.S. President Donald Trump issued a Feb. 7 executive order that called for the U.S. to resettle Afrikaner refugees.
Pope Francis, a reformer known for his humility, inclusivity and focus on social justice, passed away at 88, leaving behind a divided church and a legacy of advocating for humanity's most vulnerable.
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2025

The Catholic church loses a lion

Francis’ spirit of inclusion should define who we are as human beings and his compassion should be the lodestar for action, both personal and political.
Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Akio Toyoda after a meeting in Beijing last month
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 25, 2025

Toyota chairman proposes record buyout of its supplier at $42 billion valuation

The proposal values Toyota Industries, which makes looms for textiles as well as parts for Toyota’s cars, at a premium of 40% over its closing stock price on Friday.
U.S. President Donald Trump uses a cellphone aboard Marine One before it departs Leesburg Executive Airport in Leesburg, Virginia, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 26, 2025

U.S. officials adopt ‘organized’ framework to handle trade talks

Under the blueprint, U.S. negotiators will use a template that lays out common areas of concern to help guide the discussions.
World Bank Group President Ajay Banga speaks during an interview at the IMF-World Bank Group spring meetings at IMF headquarters in Washington on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 26, 2025

Developing countries should fast-track U.S. trade deals, World Bank chief says

"You need to negotiate trade systems with the U.S. at the earliest possible (opportunity)," Ajay Banga said. "If you delay, it hurts everyone."
A broken Buddha statue inside a damaged pagoda following a strong earthquake in Amarapura township, Myanmar, on April 4.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 26, 2025

Myanmar junta defies quake ceasefire to continue deadly attacks, data shows

The military launched at least 207 attacks, including 140 airstrikes and 24 artillery barrages, according to data from the U.N. Human Rights Office.
As in other cultures, when someone shares bad news in Japanese it’s best to respond with supportive words.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 26, 2025

How to bring up bad news in Japanese

A few grammatical structures can help you talk about being sick, but set phrases will come in handy when the illness is more severe.
Pallbearers carry the coffin of Pope Francis at the end of the funeral ceremony in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican on Saturday.
WORLD
Apr 27, 2025

Francis laid to rest as 400,000 mourn pope 'with open heart'

The Vatican said 400,000 people packed St. Peter's Square and lined the streets of Rome for the funeral of the first Latin American leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.
Pope Francis leads a prayer in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Dec. 31, 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 26, 2025

Pope Francis saw defending the climate as an urgent priority for the world

Pope Francis spoke and wrote often about climate change, telling oil and gas executives in 2018 that transitioning to clean energy was a "duty” to humanity.
AI-generated content — including those made using pictures of real people, which are known as “deepfakes” — is not explicitly covered under Japan's current legal framework, nor are human-drawn illustrations that depict child abuse.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 27, 2025

Japan struggles with gray zone of AI deepfakes exploiting children

AI-generated content is not explicitly covered under the country's legal framework, nor are human-drawn illustrations that depict child abuse.
Supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas take part in a protest against the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to demand the release of all hostages, in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
WORLD
Apr 27, 2025

Hamas says open to five-year Gaza truce and one-time hostages release

Nearly eight weeks into an Israeli aid blockade, the U.N. says food and medical supplies are running out in the territory.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (center) leads prayers next to Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh (third from left) during a meeting of the organization's executive committee in Ramallah, in the West Bank, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 27, 2025

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appoints aide as potential successor

Hussein al-Sheikh was appointed by Abbas, 89, after the vice presidency position was created during a convention held in Ramallah this week.
An ambulance is parked at the site of the Lapu Lapu day festival, where a vehicle drove into a crowd killing several people in Vancouver on Saturday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 27, 2025

As many as nine dead after driver plows into Vancouver festival crowd

The driver was a "lone suspect" known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the scene.
A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / Longform
Apr 28, 2025

If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami

Last year the government issued its first "megaquake" advisory. Ever since, those living in the areas it's expected to hit have been preparing for the worst.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda. The BOJ is getting into a tough spot between high inflation and a likely economic slowdown.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 28, 2025

BOJ to hit pause on rate-hike path as economic risks mount

Gov. Kazuo Ueda’s board is poised to keep the benchmark rate at 0.5% at the conclusion of the two-day gathering on Thursday, according to all 54 economists surveyed.
Hoshuji temple displays a banner welcoming people to "marriage-hunting at the temple," an event for those who want to register as members of the nationwide Kichienkai matchmaking organization, on Jan. 26 in Chikusa Ward, Nagoya.
JAPAN / Society
May 4, 2025

Temple master takes unconventional approach to matchmaking

"It's better to find happiness with the partner you meet than to search for a partner you think will make you happy," says Buddhist monk Koshi Kimiya.
A manhole card and a manhole cover featuring characters from "Sailor Moon," on Feb. 10. The cards were handed out by Tokyo's Minato Ward, where the series is set.
JAPAN
May 4, 2025

Manhole cover designs recognized as tourism assets in Japan

The initiative to create specially designed manhole covers began as a public relations campaign to improve the image of the sewage industry.
Ground personnel unload weapons and other military hardware delivered by the U.S. military near Kyiv in 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2025

U.S. aid pullback is making Ukraine more vulnerable to Russian hacks

USAID has been gutted in the first months of Trump’s presidency by Elon Musk’s "department of government efficiency," and Trump has become increasingly impatient with Zelenskyy.
People gather to protest outside the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) headquarters after the Elon Musk-led "department of government efficiency" (DOGE) was charged with oversight of OPM, in Washington on Feb. 2.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2025

100 days of DOGE: lots of chaos, not so much efficiency

"DOGE is not a serious exercise," said Jessica Riedl, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a fiscally conservative think tank that supports streamlining government.
A Doctors Without Borders nurse conducts a malaria test on a young Sudanese refugee suffering from malnutrition, at the group's hospital at the Touloum refugee camp in the Wadi Fira province, Chad, on April 11.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2025

U.S. aid cuts create 'perfect storm' for malaria in Africa

Experts warn that U.S. funding cuts could lead to an upsurge in the disease across Africa and beyond.
John Phelan at a Senate confirmation hearing for U.S. secretary of the navy in Washington in February
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 28, 2025

U.S. secretary of the navy weighs ‘dual-use’ shipbuilding with Japan

Washington’s idea appears to be aimed at attracting investment from allies to strengthen the U.S. shipbuilding industry and start closing the gap with Beijing.
Apartments in the district of Miyazato in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, where many students live
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
May 12, 2025

Rents soar in northern Okinawa ahead of Junglia theme park opening

While large-scale hiring may help to revitalize the area, it is also creating a housing supply shortage, affecting students and others who are moving in.
Despite China’s 30-year propaganda campaign that peace would be ensured if cross-strait disputes were settled internally, Beijing’s actual behaviors suggest otherwise.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2025

Placating China won't prevent it from invading Taiwan

Many Taiwanese misperceive China’s rational logic behind potential invasion risks, influenced by Beijing’s propaganda and exacerbated by Taiwan's current political landscape.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan