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A seamstress at Kineya Tabi sews together split-toe "tabi" socks, once a major industry for the town of Gyoda, Saitama Prefecture.
LIFE / Style & Design
May 3, 2025

Japan’s ‘tabi’ sock mecca runs on thread and memories

At their peak in the early-20th century, Gyoda’s artisans churned out more than 84 million pairs of socks each year.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at the Labor Party's election night event in Sydney on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 4, 2025

Trump backlash helps Australia’s leader to historic reelection

For the second time in a week, voters in a prominent U.S. ally angered by President Donald Trump punished conservatives and reelected a left-leaning incumbent.
Israeli tanks operate in the Gaza Strip, by the Israel-Gaza border, on Saturday.
WORLD
May 4, 2025

Israel calls up tens of thousands of reservists for Gaza offensive

All aid deliveries to Gaza have been blocked since March 2, prompting warnings from U.N. agencies of impending humanitarian disaster.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong arrives at an assembly area for People's Action Party supporters on Saturday, the day of a general election.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 4, 2025

Singapore’s ruling party keeps majority in victory for PM Lawrence Wong

The results may underscore how voters in countries disrupted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade wars are increasingly rallying behind incumbent governments.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks in a video message on Saturday to a gathering of people in Tokyo who support revising the Constitution.
JAPAN / Society
May 4, 2025

Rallies held on Japan's Constitution Day

Citizens opposed to revising Japan's Constitution rallied in Koto Ward, while advocates of a constitutional amendment held an event in Chiyoda Ward.
Japanese companies including Shiseido are stepping up their rejuvenation and antiaging research.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 4, 2025

Japanese firms stepping up rejuvenation and anti-aging research

If technology and related products are developed, they can become powerful weapons to help people maintain health and regain their youth.
Since the 1990s, Parkinson's disease researchers have aimed to use stem cells to replace lost neurons, and they're now finding the right cues to turn them into dopamine-producing cells.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2025

Finally, a source of hope for Parkinson’s disease sufferers

The treatments were originally developed by a team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the other by researchers in Kyoto.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before departing Washington en route to Michigan for back-to-back events on the 100th day of his second term, on April 29.
WORLD / Politics
May 5, 2025

'I don't know': Trump pleads ignorance on the supreme law of the land

In an interview, Donald Trump said he wasn’t sure if he’s obligated to uphold the Constitution. The remarks, tied to his deportation policies, drew criticism from legal experts.
Palestinians receive food cooked by a charity kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on April 29.
WORLD
May 5, 2025

Hamas executes looters in Gaza as food crisis worsens under Israeli blockade

Hamas officials have accused some of the looters of working in collaboration with Israel, which has sealed off aid from entering Gaza.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri celebrates on the podium after winning the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
May 5, 2025

Piastri completes hat trick of wins to stretch F1 championship lead

The win from fourth on the grid was the Australian's third in a row, after Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and fourth of the season.
Nataliia Zelenina, 52, poses for a portrait in the office of the Svitanok charitable foundation, where she works as a social worker after having spent five years in Russian custody, in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, on April 22.
WORLD
May 5, 2025

'Accept me': Organization offers haven for outcasts near Ukraine front

People living with HIV, those recovering from drug addiction, sex workers — all are welcome to seek medical guidance and respite from stigma.
George Simion, presidential candidate and leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, speaks during a press conference outside of the Palace of the Parliament government building in Bucharest on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
May 5, 2025

Romanian hard-right leader clear winner in first-round presidential vote

Ballots from nearly 99.6% of voting stations showed Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, 55, was in second place at around 21%.
The health ministry and some municipalities are turning to spot workers to solve the labor shortage in the nursing care industry.
JAPAN / Society
May 5, 2025

More nursing care facilities in Japan embrace 'spot work' amid labor shortage

The demand for care providers is expected to rise to around 2.4 million by fiscal 2026 and about 2.72 million by fiscal 2040.
With the June 1 reform of imprisonment penalties, Japan will shift the main objective of imprisonment from punishment to preventing repeat offenses.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 5, 2025

Japanese prisons prepare for imprisonment penalty reform

Japan will shift the main objective of imprisonment from punishment to preventing repeat offenses.
People wait for dinner at a shelter run by Sant'Egidio, a Catholic association dedicated to social outreach, across the street from St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on April 24.
WORLD / Society
May 5, 2025

Homeless sheltered by Pope Francis wonder who will follow

Pope Francis shunned much of the pomp and privilege of the papacy and sought to make the Roman Catholic Church more inclusive and less judgmental.
Members of Israeli security services inspect a crater near a road outside Israel's Ben Gurion airport after a missile launched from Yemen struck the area on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2025

Israel launches strikes on Yemen's Hodeidah Port after Houthi attack

The airstrikes came a day after the Iran-aligned militants fired a missile that struck near Israel's main airport.
Pope Francis waves to the crowd from his popemobile as he arrives at the Manger Square before presiding over an open-air mass on May 25, 2014 outside the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank Biblical town of Bethlehem.
WORLD / Society
May 6, 2025

Francis' popemobile converted into clinic for Gazan children

The iconic open-sided vehicle will head to the Gaza Strip if and when Israel opens a humanitarian corridor.
An Indian soldier stands guard on a street, following the Pahalgam attack in south Kashmir, in Srinagar on May 5.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 6, 2025

Pakistan tests missile and India orders drills amid Kashmir standoff

Relations between the nuclear-armed states have nosedived since gunmen killed 26 people on April 22 in an attack targeting Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir.
A survey by a private group found that 30% of people in de facto marriages in Japan have not filed for marriage registration because they or their partners do not want to change their surnames.
JAPAN
May 6, 2025

About 30% of those in de facto marriages refuse to marry over surname change

Nearly half of such people are willing to file if a system allowing married spouses to use different surnames is introduced.
While for Aston Martin, it’s all about delivering luxury, their regional president for Asia Gregory Adams' start in the auto industry in Japan was far more humble.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 6, 2025

The drive for luxury: Aston Martin Asia's president explains the desire for more

“No one needs an Aston Martin,” said the company's regional president for Asia — it is more about emotion and less about practicality.
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife, Lady Victoria Starmer host a VE Day 80th Anniversary street party on Downing Street, central London, on Monday.
WORLD
May 6, 2025

U.K. kicks off party to mark 80 years since the end of World War II

Tens of thousands defied the damp weather on the Union Jack-lined Mall to watch the parade, which began with Winston Churchill's 1945 victory speech.
Japan's Rui Hachimura walks off the court after being disqualified for a second unsportsmanlike foul against France at the Paris Olympics in July last year.
BASKETBALL / B. League
May 6, 2025

Basketball bust-ups threaten ambitious Japan's hoop dreams

A row involving star player Rui Hachimura and disagreements over the domestic league's direction mean the path ahead is full of hurdles.
U.S. citizen Chrishan Wright from New York after an interview in Lisbon on April 9
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2025

Fearing Trump's policies, some Americans start new lives in Europe

Relocation firms said there has been a spike in interest since Trump returned to the White House, with clients expressing concern over policy and social issues.
Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. undersecretary-general and high representative for disarmament affairs, planted saplings from a persimmon tree that survived the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Monday.
JAPAN
May 6, 2025

Saplings from a tree that survived atomic bombing planted at U.N. headquarters

The planting comes as this year marks the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Israeli tanks are positioned near the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel on April 23.
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2025

Israel may seize all of Gaza in expanded operation, officials say

The newly approved offensive would move the territory's civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas' hands.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands as they attend a joint news conference at the White House in Washington in February.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 6, 2025

India offers zero-for-zero tariffs on auto parts and steel from U.S.

New Delhi has proposed zero tariffs on steel, auto components and pharmaceuticals on a reciprocal basis up to a certain quantity of imports in trade negotiations with Washington.
A potential offer for a stake in India’s Yes Bank will likely be determined by market prices, according to people familiar with the matter.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 6, 2025

SMFG in talks to buy minority stake in India’s Yes Bank

Japan’s aging population and slow growth have been encouraging companies to look elsewhere for expansion, leading to a surge in outbound transactions.
A new U.S. FDA policy requiring full placebo-controlled trials for updated vaccines, pushed by Commissioner Marty Makary (right) and U.S. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (center), is seen as a backdoor effort to sideline COVID-19 boosters and undermine broader vaccine development.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 2, 2025

RFK Jr.’s new vaccine scrutiny is alarming

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the FDA, intends to set new regulatory standards vaccine manufacturers couldn’t possibly meet.
A 31-year-old man was taken into custody on Monday on suspicion of drunken driving after he caused a multivehicle crash in the city of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 6, 2025

Driver arrested at scene of Yokosuka crash that injured eight

A breathalyzer test showed the 31-year-old man's blood alcohol level was approximately three times the legal limit.
Land at an address identified on the U.S. entity list, in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China, on Oct. 31, 2024.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 6, 2025

U.S. blacklist on China is riddled with errors and outdated details

Five former U.S. officials acknowledged difficulties in evaluating possible cases of mistaken identity and updating information on the entity list, due in part to limited staffing.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan