Search - 2021

 
 
SoftBank Group’s investments in AI will be financed through a loan in which Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and JPMorgan Chase serve as lead underwriters, highlighting the Japanese tech investor's ability to secure funding for its outsize ambitions.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 21, 2025

SoftBank taps Mizuho, SMBC and JPMorgan to lead $15 billion loan

The move is a sign of the Japanese tech investor’s ability to secure financing for its outsize ambitions.
Toyota executives say the automaker is listening to U.S. dealer requests for a truck smaller than the brand’s best-selling Tacoma midsize and Tundra full-size pickups.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 21, 2025

Toyota considers making tiny trucks for U.S. market as demand booms

Full-size and midsize pickups dominate the U.S. market, but their price — along with their size — have increased steadily in recent years.
The Eagles score against the Chiefs during the first quarter of Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on Feb. 9, 2025.
MORE SPORTS / Football
May 22, 2025

Tush push lives on after proposal to ban play fails at NFL owners meetings

A proposal to eliminate the play fell two votes short of the 24 required.
Boxing great Manny Pacquiao will come out of retirement to face Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight championship in Las Vegas on July 19.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
May 22, 2025

Manny Pacquiao coming out of retirement to face Mario Barrios for WBC title

Pacquiao is the only boxer to win world championships in eight weight divisions.
Afghans carry water canisters on the outskirts of Kabul on April 27.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
May 22, 2025

'Serious problem': Afghan capital losing race against water shortages

Kabul's crisis, driven by unruly and rapid urbanization, mismanagement over years of conflict, and climate change, forces residents to choose between food and water.
An Upper House committee approves new rules drawn up in April following a revision of the law governing lawmaker allowances.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
May 22, 2025

Parliament moves to boost transparency in lawmaker allowances

Both chambers have adopted new rules mandating the disclosure of how the allowances are spent and requiring the return of unused funds to government coffers.
A man talks of his experience of being hit by a spread of fake information about him online after appearing in a reality show.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
May 23, 2025

Online defamation still pesters reality show participants

Television broadcasters and online streaming services have taken steps to support and protect cast members, but defamation has not stopped.
Visitors walk along Nakamise-dori as they visit Sensoji temple in Tokyo's Asakusa district in March.
JAPAN
May 24, 2025

Travelers avoid trips to Japan over viral comic book’s quake prediction

Ryo Tatsuki, whom some claim predicted Japan’s 2011 earthquake, gives July 2025 as the date of the impending event in a 1999 graphic novel.
The Harvard University shield "VERITAS" sits above a campus entrance gate at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, last month.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / FOCUS
May 24, 2025

Long advantageous, Harvard's China ties become a political liability

The ties have yielded major financial gifts, influence in international affairs and global prestige for the school.
This satellite image taken Friday shows a new North Korean warship lying in the harbor after its failed launch in the port city of Chongjin.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 25, 2025

Three detained and blamed for North Korean warship accident

The ultimate fate of the three remains unclear, but leader Kim Jong Un has a history of making examples out of those who embarrass him.
A worker sorts plastic waste for recycling at Minato Resource Recycle Center in Tokyo in 2019. Japan has been criticized by environmental groups for its strategy on plastics, which is heavily reliant on recycling instead of reduction.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
May 25, 2025

Are microplastics hurting our fertility?

While a lot remains unknown about how microplastics affect our health, scientists in Japan and around the world broadly agree there's an urgent need to reduce plastic production.
The Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani pitches during a live bullpen session at Citi Field in New York on Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 26, 2025

Shohei Ohtani faces live hitters for first time since elbow surgery

According to reports out of New York, Ohtani had a pair of strikeouts and a walk. Kim doubled and grounded back to the mound.
Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / Longform
May 26, 2025

Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?

Trees have long occupied a sacred place in Japanese culture. In the fast pace of the 21st century, however, they're increasingly losing out to progress.
The Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant, which was shuttered last week, is seen from a beach in Pingtung, southern Taiwan, on April 29.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 26, 2025

Taiwan to hold referendum on restarting closed nuclear reactor

The Aug. 23 poll will decide whether the Maanshan nuclear power plant, shuttered just last week, should resume operations if there are no safety concerns.
Mets starter Kodai Senga itches against the Dodgers at Citi Field in New York on Sunday night.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 26, 2025

Kodai Senga gets win as Mets overcome Shohei Ohtani's homer to top Dodgers

The Mets dropped Friday's series opener before winning the final two games in a rematch of last year's National League Championship Series.
Jack Ma attends his company Alibaba Group's initial public offering at the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014. After a long absence from the public sphere, Ma recently attended a government-led private enterprises symposium in Beijing.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
May 26, 2025

Harnessing China’s tech giants: The case of Jack Ma

Alibaba founder Jack Ma's rehabilitation into public life signals China's intention to steer its tech entrepreneurs to do business with broader national interests in mind.
Fighters starter Hiromi Ito pitches against the Hawks in Fukuoka on April 29.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
May 26, 2025

Fighters already showing last season's playoff run was no fluke

Nippon Ham manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo has dialed back his antics lately, and perhaps with good reason — because it looks like the players are ready to take center stage.
Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi visits a supermarket to check the prices of rice on Friday in Koto.
JAPAN
May 26, 2025

Bags of rice at half price will hit stores by early June, Koizumi says

With necessary costs added on, a 5-kilogram bag of rice is set to cost ¥2,160 at retailers in June.
Sales of luxury properties in Tokyo, like Azabudai Hills’ Aman Residences, have pushed up average real estate prices in the capital.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 27, 2025

Luxury Tokyo penthouse sold for over $65 million in new record

Home prices in Tokyo have been on a broad upward trend, driven by rising construction costs and a limited supply of new buildings.
Israelis gather with flags by Damascus Gate, which leads to Jerusalem's Old City, as they mark Jerusalem Day on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
May 27, 2025

Far-right Israelis confront Palestinians and other Israelis in chaotic march

The large rally in Jerusalem marked Israel's capture of the city's east in the 1967 war.
Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized Israel's actions in the territory as "no longer comprehensible."
WORLD / Politics
May 27, 2025

Germany shifts tone on Israel over 'incomprehensible' Gaza carnage

The message reflects a broader shift in public opinion but also a greater willingness from top-ranking German politicians to criticize Israel's conduct.
The World Health Organization is struggling financially due to the departure of its biggest donor, the United States.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 28, 2025

WHO restructures and cuts budget after U.S. withdrawal

Hit by the withdrawal of its biggest donor, the United States, the WHO trimmed its already smaller 2026-2027 budget from $5.3 billion to $4.2 billion.
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks at a Lower House farm committee in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 28, 2025

With latest move, farm ministry sets sights on ¥1,800 for a 5-kg bag of rice

The agriculture ministry will sell older batches of stockpiled rice to smaller retailers and rice shops via no-bid contracts, and pause offerings to big buyers.
Closed-circuit television cameras in a New Delhi street in on May 21. Global makers of surveillance cameras have clashed with Indian regulators over new rules that require them to submit materials for assessment in government labs, driven in part by alarm about China's capabilities.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 28, 2025

India's alarm over Chinese surveillance prompts crackdown on cameras

Rejecting the request from manufacturers for a delay, India said its policy "addresses a genuine security issue" and must be enforced.
Ohkawara Kakohki CEO Masaaki Okawara (third from left) holds a sign saying "Complete victory" in Tokyo on Wednesday after the Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling ordering the government to pay damages over investigations into a case against him and the company.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 28, 2025

Central and Tokyo governments ordered to compensate over probe

The case related to spray-dryer-maker Ohkawara Kakohki and allegations of an illegal export.
The Chinese Communist Party has significantly expanded its global influence operations by using tactics like election interference, disinformation, elite capture and pressure on the diaspora to sway politics and policies in democracies worldwide.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2025

Is Beijing engineering election wins for 'soft on China' politicians?

Beijing legally requires all citizens to support Communist Party policies and views ethnic Chinese everywhere as instruments for advancing its global goals.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy walk to attend a press conference, following their talks at the Chancellery in Berlin on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 29, 2025

Putin's demands for peace include an end to NATO enlargement, sources say

Kyiv and European governments have accused Moscow of stalling while its troops advance in eastern Ukraine.
Carlos Alcaraz advanced to the third round of the French Open by defeating Fabian Marozsan 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in Paris on Wednesday.
TENNIS
May 29, 2025

Reigning champions Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek advance at French Open

Alcaraz defeated Fabian Marozsan 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (second from left) chairs a meeting of the government's cybersecurity strategy panel in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 29, 2025

Government to formulate new cybersecurity strategy amid rising threats

The new strategy includes a change in cryptography systems to better protect the government's internal communications against cyberattacks from quantum computers.
French veteran Richard Gasquet played the final match of his career on Thursday at the French Open in Paris.
TENNIS
May 30, 2025

No. 1 Jannik Sinner moves ahead as Richard Gasquet says goodbye at French Open

French Open veteran Richard Gasquet's career ended with a defeat against world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, while seasoned veteran Novak Djokovic continued his bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title by battling into the third round of the French Open on Thursday.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic