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Participants pray during a World War II memorial ceremony held off the coast of the Philippines in June. The program facilitating the services will end due to the aging of participants.
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2025

Overseas WWII memorial services for Japanese families set to end

The program has seen dwindling participation as many bereaved families grow older.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing. Nvidia, along with Advanced Micro Devices, has agreed to pay 15% of revenues from Chinese artificial intelligence chip sales to the U.S. government.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 14, 2025

Trump’s deal with Nvidia offers path forward in global trade war

The deal provides U.S. firms a path to enter the Chinese market despite various trade barriers.
Tsukiko Ito shares her experience of the World War II air raid on Akita's Tsuchizaki district, during an interview on July 15 in the prefecture.
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2025

Akita woman recounts one of the last air raids of WWII

Tsukiko Ito, 84, was 4 years old when Akita's Tsuchizaki district was battered by around 130 bombers from the United States and its allies on the night of Aug. 14, 1945.
The Parque da Cidade, the main venue for the COP30 summit, under construction in Belem, Brazil, on May 5.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 14, 2025

Lula’s plan for COP30 in Amazon risks becoming a logistical mess

With fewer than 100 days to go, Brazil is under fire from countries concerned about a shortage of hotel rooms and soaring accommodation costs.
The streets of Tokyo's Ginza district in April. The number of foreign residents in Japan hit a record high at 3.76 million as of the end of last year, comprising just over 3% of the population.
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2025

Welcoming foreign residents benefits Japan, three quarters of economists say

Some highlighted the need to avoid conflating foreign nationals who may be in Japan temporarily with long-term foreign residents.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference in Nagasaki on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 14, 2025

Approval for Ishiba Cabinet rises to 27.3%, poll shows

Respondents who think Ishiba should not resign following the ruling party's setback in last month's House of Councilors election slightly outpacing those who think he should.
Visitors rest inside the Osaka Expo venue early Thursday morning
JAPAN / Society
Aug 14, 2025

Tens of thousands left stranded at Osaka Expo by train service interruption

A power outage caused services on Osaka Metro’s Chuo Line to be suspended for about eight hours from 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
A miner holds a sack of ore as it comes out a the mine shaft at the Rubaya coltan mine, near the town of Rubaya, which is controlled by M23 rebels, in eastern Congo on March 24.
WORLD
Aug 14, 2025

Inside the mine that feeds the tech world — and funds Congo’s rebels

The Congolese town of Rubaya produces around 15% of the world’s coltan, which is shipped thousands of kilometers away to Asia where it’s processed into tantalum.
Currently, operators of theaters and music halls can get a one-third reduction in the fixed property and city planning taxes if they carry out barrier-free renovations that meet government standards.
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2025

Japan eyes tax relief for barrier-free movie theaters

The initiative aims to help people enjoy cultural and artistic activities regardless of their disability.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, in September last year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 15, 2025

Meta AI rules let bots hold ‘sensual’ chats with kids and offer false info

Meta's standards don’t necessarily reflect "ideal or even preferable” generative AI outputs, an internal document states. But they have permitted provocative behavior by the bots.
Kosuzu Harada (right), a Nagasaki resident and the granddaughter of a double hibakusha, and Ari Beser, the grandson of a radar operator who flew aboard the U.S. B-29 bombers, in the city of Nagasaki in September 2024
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2025

Beyond A-bombs, grandchildren unite for nuclear-free world

A Japanese woman and an American man whose grandfathers experienced the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from opposite sides have forged an unlikely collaboration.
Beniya Mukayu, a traditional "ryokan" inn located in Ishikawa Prefecture, considers itself at "the heart of onsen towns, local residents, farmers, fishermen, sake brewers and artisans" — all of which need new, sustainable methods of serving visitors to survive into the future.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 16, 2025

In preserving Japanese hospitality, ‘details are everything’

As part of a new UNESCO initiative, the elite Relais & Chateau hospitality group will empower its Japan-based members to preserve the country’s “omotenashi” culture.
Mitsuko Arakaki talks about life on Tinian Island and the situation after the U.S. military landing, on July 12 in the village of Nakagusuku, Okinawa Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 15, 2025

'Why do humans wage war?': Woman recalls escaping death on Tinian island in WWII

When U.S. air raids began in 1944, life changed overnight for the around 13,000 Japanese civilians living on Tinian.
Criminals started hijacking online brokerage accounts in Japan and using them to drive up penny stocks around the world earlier this year.
BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2025

Japan brokers seek to identify hackers after fraud surges

Criminals started hijacking online brokerage accounts in Japan and using them to drive up penny stocks around the world earlier this year.
Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 15, 2025

The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers

An decades-long effort to recover the remains of those who died during World War II, most of them abroad, may be entering its final phase.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba lays a flower during the memorial service at the Nippon Budokan on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 15, 2025

As Japan marks 80 years since WWII surrender, Ishiba expresses remorse

The prime minister’s reflections about the war stood in contrast to those of his recent predecessors.
Chef Kei Kobayashi is France's only Japanese chef with three Michelin stars.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 15, 2025

In Paris, chefs Chizuko Kimura and Kei Kobayashi make their mark

One is the world’s first Michelin-starred female sushi chef, while the other is France’s only three-Michelin-starred Japanese chef.
A screen displays share prices inside the Kabuto One building in Tokyo. The Nikkei 225 closed at a record high of 43,378.31 on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 15, 2025

Tokyo stocks hit closing-price record as GDP surprises

The Japanese economy grew much faster than expected in the second quarter.
Jose Takei, an 82-year-old man of Japanese descent in the Philippines, speaks during an interview on Aug. 8 at the Foreign Ministry.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2025

Stateless man of Japanese descent in Philippines eager for Japan citizenship

The son of a Japanese man and Filipino woman, Jose Takei never met his father, who left before he was born to join the Japanese military during World War II.
Taliban security personnel gather at Massoud square as they celebrate the fourth anniversary of their takeover of Afghanistan, in Kabul on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 16, 2025

Taliban mark fourth year in power in Afghanistan

Celebrations were buoyed by Russia's official recognition of their government last month, a step they hope other countries will follow.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaks during a news conference at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington on July 29.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 16, 2025

Draft of Trump’s health blueprint avoids industry crackdown

The draft was dated Aug. 11, but could still see changes before it’s finalized, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola on the sidelines during his club's Premier League season-opening win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.
SOCCER
Aug 17, 2025

Guardiola says one win does not signal that 'City are back'

Guardiola, whose once-mighty team stormed to four consecutive league titles before last season's shocking third-place finish, pleaded patience, saying that one win meant little.
An Israeli tank maneuvers near Gaza City as seen from Israeli side of the border on Saturday.
WORLD
Aug 17, 2025

Israeli military prepares to relocate residents to southern Gaza

Gaza residents will be provided with tents and other gear as they are moved from combat zones to the south of the enclave "to ensure their safety," the Israeli military said.
Atomic bomb survivor Keiko Ogura (left) speaks with students in Sydney on Saturday.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2025

Hiroshima hibakusha calls for nuclear abolition in Australia

Ogura has been talking about the devastation from the nuclear attack in about 50 countries.
U.S. President Donald Trump greets Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the tarmac after they arrived for a meeting on Ukraine at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 17, 2025

European leaders to join Zelenskyy for key meeting with Trump

The move comes as European nations shift their focus toward providing Ukraine with robust security guarantees as Trump pushes for a quick peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint news conference with the European Commission president in Brussels on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 18, 2025

Trump’s peace-deal demands leave Ukraine's Zelenskyy with only bad options

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy faces an existential dilemma as he travels to Washington for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday.
Protesters shout slogans and hold photos of hostages during a demonstration calling for a hostages deal on Sunday in Tel Aviv.
WORLD
Aug 18, 2025

Anti-war protests erupt in Israel ahead of Gaza City operation

Organizers said that as many as half a million people attended the main rally at Tel Aviv’s "hostage square” in the evening, a massive turnout by Israeli standards.
An aerial view shows houses partially submerged in sludge along a riverbed in the aftermath of flash floods at the Buner district of mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 18, 2025

Flash floods kill hundreds in northwest Pakistan district after rare cloudburst

Officials say global warming has changed the pattern of the annual monsoon, pushing it around 100 kilometers west of its normal path.
The area around Shibuya Station in Tokyo. After the end of World War II, population concentration in the capital accelerated while other parts of Japan continue to see population declines.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 18, 2025

80 years on: Tokyo prospers while local revitalization still insufficient

Experts stress the importance of setting up a system in which industrial resources are circulated locally in order to create a sustainable society.
Damaged buildings on the burnt-down Asaichi-dori street in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, after the Jan. 1, 2024, earthquake
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2025

Japan eyeing measure to speed up disaster damage recognition

The new system is designed to dispatch personnel with damage assessment experience to affected areas promptly once a disaster occurs.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years