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In 2023, Bryan Eastlake (left) began a three-year contract with the local Takahama tourism association to write, post photos and otherwise promote the small town in northern Kyoto Prefecture to a wider audience.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
May 20, 2024

The new vanguard of rural revitalization efforts in Japan

Currently, the Regional Revitalization Corps has around 200 foreign residents working in different industries around the country.
A large screen in the Dubai Metro is out of service on Friday amid a massive global IT outage.
WORLD
Jul 20, 2024

From ATMs to flights, epic IT crash leaves trail of destruction

In what will go down as the most spectacular IT failure the world has ever seen, a botched software update from a cybersecurity firm caused a global systems outage.
Bulk carriers float offshore from Singapore, on Feb. 19.
WORLD
Sep 19, 2024

The shadow fleet transporting sanctioned gas for Russia

In the short term it could provide some wartime profit, but Moscow's ultimate goal is to triple LNG exports by 2030.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. campus in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on July 16. The incessant demand for electricity that the artificial boom is placing on chipmakers such as TSMC has made opposition to nuclear power harder to maintain.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 21, 2024

Taiwan signals openness to new nuclear tech amid surging AI power demand

Premier Cho Jung-tai's comments underscore what appears to be a shift by a government that has opposed using nuclear power for safety reasons.
European Council President Antonio Costa looks on as he attends a handover ceremony at the European Council in Brussels on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 2, 2024

Before tackling Trump, new EU leader aims to end infighting

For years, attempts to shore up the EU have been hampered by internal dysfunction.
Then-Rep. Brandon Williams, a Republican from New York, during a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing in Washington last May
WORLD / Politics
Jan 18, 2025

Trump picks one-term congressman to manage U.S. nuclear arsenal

Brandon Williams represented a New York congressional district for one term, but little is known about his experience in the management of atomic weapons.
SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son announces  the Stargate Project, an artificial intelligence venture with OpenAI, during a news conference in Tokyo on Feb. 3.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 11, 2025

SoftBank eyes debt-heavy financing for $500 billion AI push

SoftBank and OpenAI’s push to build out tens of gigawatts of datacenter capacity has the potential to be the biggest rollout of computing power ever.
Arunima Mazumdar, a New Delhi-based communications professional, began sharing her love of Japanese literature online in 2022. The platform has grown into a robust community known as Dokusha Book Club.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Apr 26, 2025

Arunima Mazumdar: ‘Japanese literature has a niche but deeply engaged readership in India’

The founder of Dokusha Book Club talks about why Indian readers love Japanese books and the community that she’s forged, online and offline.
A visitor looks at portraits of former United Nations Secretaries-General at U.N. headquarters ahead of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 17, 2023

World disappointed by the U.N. now looks elsewhere for answers

If the body's strongest members keep resisting reform, the Global South may have no choice but to seek new options, including those offered by China.
Members meet for a United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine on July 17. Between the carnage in the Middle East and a permanent member of the Security Council waging a war of aggression against its neighbor, there is ample reason to doubt that a consensus on U.N. reform is reachable.
COMMENTARY / The Year Ahead
Dec 31, 2023

The outlook for multilateralism in 2024

What matters most in the coming year is whether global issues can still be addressed simultaneously and in unison.
Tesla Model 3 assembly line at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, in 2018. Before the Shanghai plant opened, Fremont was Tesla’s principal factory.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 27, 2024

A pivot to China saved Elon Musk. It also binds him to Beijing.

Musk is now treading a fine line, sounding the alarm about Chinese rivals, even as he remains reliant on the Chinese market.
Workers at a garment factory in Gazipur, Bangladesh, on April 16, 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 5, 2024

AI supports fashion's climate goals, but workers may be left behind

In Bangladesh, about 60% of apparel workers, or 2.7 million people, risk losing their jobs due to automation.
Paris Saint-Germain players line up before the team's club friendly against Inter Milan at Tokyo's National Stadium on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Aug 2, 2023

Second straight tour shows PSG's commitment to Japanese market

The French superclub has experienced explosive growth in its global base, especially in Asia, since its 2011 takeover by Qatari ownership.
China's push to obtain hard power and "meta-power" has seen it lean heavily on its science and technology sectors.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Sep 28, 2023

China looks to science and technology in its push for more power

Further power could give Beijing the ability to restrict other nations by structuring or restructuring systems, rules or frameworks.
U.S. President Joe Biden greets Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders week in Woodside, California, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 16, 2023

Biden and Xi agree to pick up the phone to avert crisis. But now what?

Agreed measures are unlikely to be enough to improve bilateral ties, as neither side appeared willing to tackle fundamental differences head on.
Sanrio is marking Hello Kitty's 50th anniversary this year. The character's rise mirrors that of kawaii culture globally, and her longevity offers important clues as to the future of cute culture.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 22, 2024

Hello Kitty turns 50. What will the next cat's meow be?

The global rise of Hello Kitty, who turns 50 this year, tracks that of Japanese culture. What, then, does the next half-century of kawaii have in store?
The Mount Holland lithium mine is a glimpse of the future of what Western Australia hopes will be a new, greener stage of development.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2024

On lithium’s frontier, miners are betting on a greener second act

Despite weak prices for the metal deemed critical to energy transition, they are gearing up for a rebound in demand for batteries and electric vehicles.
Attendees at the Leap technology conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 6, 202. The oil-rich country is plowing money into glitzy events, computing power and artificial intelligence research, putting it in the middle of an escalating U.S.-China struggle for technological influence.
WORLD / Politics
May 2, 2024

‘To the future’: Saudi Arabia spends big to become an AI superpower

Saudi Arabia was long a financial spigot for tech, but is now building its own industry.
Penny Sackett, a former director of the Australian National University’s Mount Stromlo Observatory, in the remains of the observatory, which was destroyed by a wildfire in 2003, just outside Canberra on May 6.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 14, 2024

Alarmed by climate change, astronomers train their sights on Earth

Seeing how climate change has impacted the earth, many astronomers have left science to become full-time activists.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a State Dinner at the White House in Washington on June 22, 2023. As the United States prioritizes teamwork with its partners in the Asia-Pacific region, many believe they are witnessing a lasting change in American power.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 13, 2024

In China’s backyard, the U.S. has become a humbler superpower

The United States no longer presents itself as the confident guarantor of security but as an eager teammate for military modernization and tech development.
Pope Francis and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida talk ahead of a Group of Seven session on artificial Intelligence, energy, Africa and the Mediterranean on the second day of the G7 summit in Borgo Egnazia, Italy, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 15, 2024

G7 agree on AI code of conduct and joint initiatives for Africa

The bloc also agreed to build a common framework to combat illegal migration, with the aim of cracking down on human trafficking.
A Chinese worker organizes plastic doll heads after painting them at a toy factory in Xietang, Zhejiang Province, China, in 2015.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 2, 2024

China’s plastics boom is set to create another trade headache

Parts of the country’s sprawling petrochemicals sector are running at as little as half capacity as producers cut back.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a news conference at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 19, 2024

India's Modi faces test of resilience in 2025 after year of setbacks

Having secured a third term, the prime minister faces a slowing economy with his political standing decidedly weakened.
After starting out as a games journalist, John Davis found opportunities in marketing and consulting that led him to work in the Japanese gaming industry.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Feb 8, 2025

John Davis: ‘At its core, indie is about creative freedom’

The co-founder of BitSummit, Japan’s biggest indie gaming showcase, shares how he pivoted from journalism to gaming after moving here.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks as Vice President JD Vance looks on during a meeting with President Donald Trump and President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador in the White House in Washington on April 14. Rubio and his aides shut down a State Department office on Wednesday that tracks and counters global disinformation from foreign actors, including the governments of China, Russia and Iran, U.S. officials said.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 17, 2025

U.S. State Department closing office targeting foreign disinformation

The GEC had come under intense criticism from some Republicans who said it was straying from its mission, accusing it of disfavoring opinions by conservative media in particular.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping arrive for a signing ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21.
WORLD
Aug 8, 2023

China’s rebuke of Russia over border tussle doesn't signal shift

The rare admonition took place Friday over an incident involving Chinese citizens denied entry from Kazakhstan into Russia at a border checkpoint.
Chinese national flags fly over Tiananmen Square along with other red flags ahead of the fifth plenary session of the First Session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 12.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 16, 2023

China is hiding more and more data from the rest of the world

China’s abrupt decision to pause releasing data on its soaring youth jobless rate this week was the latest sign the Asian giant is increasingly restricting sensitive information - especially when it’s unflattering to the nation’s faltering economy.
The rubble of a home in Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui, on Aug. 16
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 14, 2023

China sows disinformation about Hawaii fires using new techniques

False posts carrying images apparently made using artificial intelligence put China among the first to have used these tools in such a campaign.
Pedestrians walk past a McDonald's restaurant in Hong Kong.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 13, 2023

Hong Kong takes economic hit as Chinese tourists fail to splurge

Changes in travel habits come as the Chinese economy weakens and youth unemployment remains high.
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, attends a plenary session in Moscow on Oct. 10.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 17, 2023

Russia set to revoke ratification of nuke test ban treaty, official says

Moscow would remain a signatory and would continue to cooperate with the test ban treaty organization and the global monitoring system.

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Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.