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A woman walks past a Samsung store in Seoul on June 28. Sources have said that the firm is planning overseas layoffs.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 2, 2024

Samsung to cut thousands of jobs amid struggles in AI market

Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10% in certain markets, a source said.
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 6, 2024

Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law

A weak yen, robust inbound tourism and social media have shone a spotlight on a park in Tokyo where men gather in search of sex.
Labor union members rally and call for an increase of the average minimum wage in Tokyo in July.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 2, 2024

Japan’s new prime minister moots minimum wage moon shot

To achieve Ishiba’s target, increases of over 7% a year would be needed, which economists say would be a challenge.
People take shelter on Tuesday during an air raid in central Israel after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at the country. Iran has targeted Israel twice in recent months with little to show for its efforts, risking further loss of credibility in the region.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2024

Iran’s missile salvo was yet another strategic blunder

The intended message was clear — we don’t want a real war, but if it comes to one, look what we can do. And yet the attack projected weakness instead.
Shoppers on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Oct 3, 2024

CIA boosts its China recruiting efforts to exploit discontent with Xi

The CIA's online push comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping has consolidated power over a fifth of humanity to a degree unseen in decades.
Students hold posters of Hassan Nasrallah, the assassinated chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah, during a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Oct 3, 2024

Iran's Khamenei warned Nasrallah of Israeli plot to kill him, sources say

Iran is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said.
Relatives and friends mourn by the grave of Israeli soldier Eitan Itzhak Oster, killed in fighting in the northern border area with Lebanon, at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem on Oct. 2.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 3, 2024

Biden seeks to deter Israeli attack on Iran nuclear sites

The comments opposing such a strike mark a fresh U.S. attempt to rein in Israel, something it’s frequently failed to achieve in almost a year of military conflict.
While China's recent initiatives signal a willingness to address economic challenges, the road ahead remains difficult as the country's policymakers have yet to offer a clear road to success.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2024

A stimulus is good, but China still faces a hard slog

Beijing is back in investors' good books. To justify the euphoria, it needs some meaty goals.
A survey found that 18.6% of people who changed careers in their 20s and 17.3% of those in their 40s used resignation agencies.
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2024

One in 6 workers in Japan use resignation agencies to change jobs

As to why they let an agency handle their resignation, 40.7% said it was because they were stopped from quitting, or thought they would be stopped, by their employer.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav has repeatedly stressed that Israel must take the fight to Lebanon.
WORLD
Oct 4, 2024

Israel's hawkish Yoav Gallant is driving the war in Lebanon

Officials in Israel like Yoav Gallant have called to push the Lebanese militant group away from their shared border to allow displaced people to return.
An electronic ticker at the Tokyo Stock Exchange
BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2024

More stocks trade below book value in Japan despite reforms

About 38% of Topix 500 companies were trading below book value as of the end of September.
U.S. voters are increasingly concerned about misinformation spreading the good-old-fashioned way — through politicians sowing falsehoods.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 4, 2024

More than AI misinformation, U.S. voters worry about lying politicians

Politicians face almost no legal consequences for distorting the truth, researchers say.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2024

Masamitsu Yoshioka, last Pearl Harbor bombardier, dies at 106

"I’m ashamed that I’m the only one who survived and lived such a long life,” Yoshioka said in an interview last year.
A tea field in Makinohara, the birthplace of Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda, in August. The city in Shizuoka Prefecture, which once thrived on a now-declining tea industry, exemplifies disparities between Japan's struggling rural areas and its bustling megacities.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 4, 2024

In Bank of Japan chief's birthplace, Ueda's policy puzzle is laid bare

Makinohara's mayor says the Shizuoka Prefecture surf town is not keeping pace with Japan's broader recovery.
The FIFA logo is seen during a news conference in February 2019.
SOCCER
Oct 4, 2024

FIFA defers decision on call to suspend Israel

The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) called for its Israeli counterpart to be suspended in May.
The Japanese market for secondhand items is growing, with more consumers using flea market apps such as Mercari.
BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2024

Japan's used goods market is expanding, but that may hurt its GDP

The trend is seen as friendly to consumers and the environment, but it can have the undesirable consequence of pushing down the country's GDP.
Men run for cover after an Israeli strike on the Mreijeh neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Oct 5, 2024

Countdown to Middle East war? How the region can step back from the brink

Brakes remain to halt a regional fall into a wider conflagration that would lock Israel and Tehran into escalating conflict and suck in other nations.
There's long been one mantra in mainstream economics: Growth is good. But recently, an alternative term has begun taking root in popular culture and policy: "degrowth."
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 5, 2024

These are boom times for ‘degrowth’

Kohei Saito believes one reason degrowth has had increasing appeal is because "younger generations are not enjoying the fruits of economic growth.”
A flock of Common Teal fly across a wetland on a winter day on the outskirts of Srinagar.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Oct 5, 2024

Study documents extinction of 610 bird species and ecological impacts 

The disappearance of avian species erases functions they serve in innumerable ecosystems and may lead to "secondary knock-on extinctions."
Cameron Lew, who makes music under the name Ginger Root, recently released “Shinbangumi,” an album that was influenced by the glimmering pop echoes of Japan in the 1980s as well as the nerviness of Devo, the loose rock-pop of Hall & Oates and even Haruomi Hosono’s ’70s explorations of exotica.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 5, 2024

Ginger Root expands on effervescent retro sound

New release "Shinbangumi" comes after a whirlwind year for the American artist who blends glittering pop echoes of 1980s Japan with a mish-mash of Western influences.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba inspects the area around a morning market, which was heavily damaged in the Jan. 1 earthquake, in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Saturday.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2024

Torrential rain in Noto Peninsula to be designated a severe disaster, Ishiba says

Ishiba announced the plan during a visit to areas damaged heavily by the rain and the powerful Jan. 1 earthquake.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk jumps on stage to join Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 6, 2024

Trump rallies with Elon Musk at site of assassination attempt

For Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla and SpaceX and the world’s richest man, it’s his most prominent moment yet as part of a political campaign.
A man walks past memorial pictures of hostages, most of whom were kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, in Tel Aviv on Sept. 4.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 7, 2024

Two ceremonies show Israel's conflicting narratives over Oct. 7

The distinction in tone for the ceremonies is at the heart of a public discourse over how to remember the darkest day in Israel's 76-year history.
A couple from Orlando walks along a street covered in sand as a result of Hurricane Helene in Clearwater, Florida, ahead of Hurricane Milton's expected midweek landfall.
WORLD / Society
Oct 7, 2024

FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation as Florida braces for Milton

The head of the U.S. disaster relief agency lashed out at a "dangerous" misinformation war being waged over the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Security officials examine the site of an explosion near Karachi's international airport in the Pakistani city on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Oct 7, 2024

'Terrorist attack' near Karachi airport kills two Chinese nationals

Separatist militant group Baloch Liberation Army has claimed responsibility over the attack, which it said targeted Chinese nationals.
A man wades through water in an area affected by monsoon flooding in Roshi village in Nepal's Kavre district on Sept. 30.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 7, 2024

Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers

Nepal is reeling from its worst flooding in decades after monsoon rains swelled rivers and inundated neighborhoods in Kathmandu.
Coffee house owner Vu Dinh Tu making coffee at a cafe in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sept. 30.
BUSINESS
Oct 7, 2024

Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution

Coffee has become a byword for creativity and self-expression among young entrepreneurs — though their parents may take some convincing.
The average price of new condos in Tokyo's 23 wards in the first half of this year stayed over ¥100 million and a notable wave of price increases was observed in urban areas surrounding Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Oct 7, 2024

Tokyo area condo prices remain sky-high

The average price of new condos in central Tokyo's densely populated 23 wards stood at ¥108.55 million in the first half of this year.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato attends an interview with media outlets at the Finance Ministry on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 7, 2024

Japan's new finance minister vows to finish the job as deflation czar

Katsunobu Kato's message indicates that financial conditions might remain accommodative for some time.
Former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal speaks during an interview in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 8, 2024

Hamas will rise 'like a phoenix' from the ashes, leader-in-exile says

Khaled Meshaal, who was overall Hamas leader from 1996 to 2017, said the group is still recruiting fighters and continues to manufacture weapons.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan