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Farmer Hla Han, 52, who lost his leg after stepping on a mine, peels garlic outside his house in Demoso township, eastern Kayah state, Myanmar.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 20, 2024

Myanmar led world in landmine victims in 2023, monitor says

Decades of sporadic conflict between the military and ethnic rebel groups have left Myanmar littered with deadly landmines and munitions.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda gives a speech in Nagoya on Monday. Ueda's signaling remains vague and noncommittal, further muddying the outlook for December.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 20, 2024

Dithering in December could cost Bank of Japan yen stability

For some analysts, the central bank is all but certain to raise rates next month, though others think it might be too early.
A post-election analysis by the polling company Blueprint discovered that the top reason why American swing voters eventually supported Donald Trump over Kamal Harris was culture (+28) followed by inflation (+23).
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2024

It’s too soon to say wokeism is dead

The Republicans ran the most unwoke man in America for the presidency, Donald Trump, and were amply rewarded for it.
Scientists worry that if H5N1 spreads through commercial pig farms, it could evolve into a form capable of causing a human pandemic.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2024

Bird flu in pigs is one step closer to endangering humans

Flu viruses have historically been transmitted from pigs to people and from people to pigs — either on farms or at agricultural fairs.
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 20, 2024

Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy

The package will include cash handouts to lower-income households and subsidies to help families cope with rising utility bills.
Their trucks, sometimes driven by Someya herself, go around Tokyo collecting used cooking oil from restaurants and households.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Nov 27, 2024

Turning tempura oil into fuel: 30 years of environmental efforts by Tokyo entrepreneur

"Seeing all the used cooking oil being collected, I thought Tokyo is basically an oil field."
Japan Times
CULTURE
Nov 30, 2024

Anime-loving cartoonist from Sweden shares joys of Tokyo life

Her five-volume manga series humorously depicts the unique aspects of Japan that stand out to foreigners from a young foreign woman's perspective.
U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein talks to reporters following a meeting in Beirut on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 21, 2024

U.S. envoy en route to Israel in bid toward ceasefire with Hezbollah

U.S. diplomatic efforts, led by envoy Amos Hochstein, are focused on brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to prevent further regional destabilization.
Funding for the proposed buyout of Japan's Seven & i Holdings by its founding family will be finalized by the end of December, sources say.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 21, 2024

Seven & I buyout funding to be finalized by next month, sources say

The retailer is caught in a three-way tug-of-war between a foreign suitor, its founding family and company management.
Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal celebrates after closing out an inning during Detroit's playoff series with Cleveland last month.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 21, 2024

Braves' Chris Sale and Tigers' Tarik Skubal collect Cy Young honors

Both left-handers won the pitching Triple Crown and were the clear favorites in Cy Young Award voting.
Jimmy Lai, publisher of Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper, at his office in Hong Kong on Aug. 22, 2019. Accused of masterminding anti-government protests that swept across Hong Kong in 2019, Lai testified for the first time on Wednesday at his landmark national security trial.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 21, 2024

Apple Daily: The Hong Kong tabloid that dared to challenge China

Hong Kong's Apple Daily was once the city's most popular tabloid by punching up against the Chinese Communist Party. But Beijing had the last laugh.
Korea Zinc Chairman Yun B. Choi, a grandson of a co-founder, last week agreed to scrap a controversial plan to issue new shares in the zinc refiner to help fend off a takeover attempt.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 21, 2024

Korea Zinc takeover battle tests Seoul's resolve on tackling 'Korea discount'

South Korean firms tend to have lower valuations compared to their overseas peers due to low dividend payouts and the dominance of family-run conglomerates.
Students at Fujinokuni Junior High School in the city of Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture, learn how to write postcards in Japanese.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Chubu
Dec 2, 2024

Night schools offer alternative route to completing compulsory education

More such schools are being set up, which would provide learning opportunities to those unable to complete junior high school education.
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2024

The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’

Junichi Yasuda’s film about a time-traveling warrior is a loving tribute to the “jidaigeki” (period drama) genre and its practitioners.
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 21, 2024

Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps

Ease of meeting a wide range of people is likely the biggest appeal of app use, underscoring a major shift in how young people meet their partners.
Howard Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, gestures as he speaks during a rally for then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 27.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 21, 2024

Lutnick's China ties draw fire after Trump taps him for U.S. trade roles

The ties raise questions about whether Lutnick could be unduly influenced by Beijing when making decisions as U.S. trade representative and commerce secretary.
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with a Hamas commander who Israel says was killed in Gaza months ago.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Nov 22, 2024

ICC issues arrest warrant for Israel’s Netanyahu on Gaza ‘war crimes’

The Israeli government has repeatedly denied the allegations and said its operations against Hamas comply with international laws.
A sign with a photo of Mount Fuji covered in snow is seen at a view point as the mountain looms in the background in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Oct. 31.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2024

Shizuoka considers charging each Mount Fuji climber up to ¥5,000

The fees is designed to prevent overcrowding on trails and discourage dangerous overnight attempts to scale the mountain.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 22, 2024

Putin, ascendant in Ukraine, eyes contours of a Trump peace deal

The Russian president could broadly agree to freeze the conflict along the front lines, five current and former Russian officials say.
Oitomi's decision to send superstar Shohei Ohtani one of the company's traditional ironware tea kettles has paid off with a surge of interest from general consumers.
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 23, 2024

After Shohei Ohtani bump, Iwate ironware maker sees brighter future

Thanks to the Dodgers superstar, the waitlist for Oitomi’s Miyabi Tetsubin kettle now stretches to more than a year.
Best known as the home of Kuon Temple, Minobu, Yamanashi Prefecture, is a charming day trip from Tokyo with the potential for cultural verisimilitude.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 23, 2024

In rugged Yamanashi, a wild-goose chase for ‘real Japan’

Japan’s countryside certainly offers a different experience than its cities, but whether that makes it categorically superior is up for debate.
Blast Onepiece (center) wins the 63rd Arima Kinen on Dec. 23, 2018, at Nakayama Racecourse in Chiba Prefecture.
MORE SPORTS / Horse Racing
Nov 22, 2024

Making new lives for veteran racehorses

The future is expanding for retired racehorses. Generally speaking, there are not many racehorses who can transition to life as stallions or brood mares, passing on their blood to future generations. Some go on to second careers as riding horses, for example. But, in the end, thoroughbreds are basically...
U.S. pitcher Spencer Patton throws during the sixth inning of Team USA's loss to Samurai Japan on Thursday at Tokyo Dome.
BASEBALL
Nov 22, 2024

U.S. pitcher Spencer Patton gets warm reception as he returns to Japan for Premier12

Patton pitched pitched for the Yokohama BayStars from 2017 to 2020, making 219 appearances for the club overall. Now he's back in Japan and competing for Team USA.
The private equity landscape is rapidly changing in Japan, where more than $12 billion in such transactions have been announced this year, after reaching a record in 2023.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 22, 2024

KKR-Bain brawl worth $4 billion highlights Japan private equity boom

The saga shows how fast the private equity landscape is changing in Japan, where more than $12 billion in such transactions have been announced this year.
Beijing Daxing International Airport
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2024

China reinstates visa-free travel for Japanese nationals

The exemption will cover travel for up to 30 days and will continue through the end of 2025. 
Migrants gather at the CATE (temporary assistance center for foreigners) in San Andres on the island of El Hierro, Spain, on Oct. 28
WORLD / Society
Nov 22, 2024

In Spain's Canaries, rescuers exhausted as new migrant routes open

Nearly twice as many migrants as residents have landed this year on the southernmost part of Spain's Canary Islands.
Police officers remove a protest banner outside the West Kowloon Court following a sentencing hearing for 45 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2024

Paranoia and Beijing trump democracy in Hong Kong

Concerned nations must step up as China discards the promises it made when it regained control of Hong Kong. Anything less is a betrayal.
The policy chiefs of the Democratic Party for the People, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito — Makoto Hamaguchi (left), Itsunori Onodera (center) and Mitsunari Okamoto — shake hands after reaching an agreement on an economic stimulus package on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 22, 2024

Japan approves ¥21.9 trillion stimulus plan

Combined with expected spending from the private sector, this year’s package is estimated to add a total of ¥39 trillion to the economy.
After almost a decade of traveling around the world, a working holiday during the 2019 ski season in Nozawa Onsen was to be Rowie Geraerts’ last hurrah before she settled down in Australia.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Nov 25, 2024

How a solo yoga teacher built a wellness community in the Japanese Alps

A budding entrepreneur from Australia, Rowie Geraerts has created Shizen Collective in Nozawa Onsen — a new home for herself, locals and visitors.
Palestinians gather to buy bread from a bakery in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Friday.
WORLD
Nov 23, 2024

Little hope in Gaza that arrest warrants will cool Israeli onslaught

Medics in Gaza said at least 24 people were killed in fresh Israeli military strikes.

Longform

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