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A tunnel inside the Sado Island Gold Mines in Sado, Niigata Prefecture
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2024

South Korea to accept Sado Gold Mines as World Heritage site

The International Council on Monuments and Sites urged Japan to provide visitors with information on all mining periods at the site.
Beijing's push to integrate core socialist values into its chatbots highlights a significant challenge in China's bid to compete with the U.S. in AI development.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2024

What's wrong about ‘Chat XiPT’ is bigger than China

The difficulty of creating AI models infused with specific values will likely hurt China’s efforts to create chatbots as sophisticated as those in the U.S.
The students at Mitaka Municipal No. 7 Junior High School have access to various cooling devices for when they play sports.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / Longform
Jul 26, 2024

Japan's extreme heat is causing a rethink of school sports

At risk of sunburns and heatstroke, principals across Japan are trying to protect students' health as well as their athletic opportunities.
Some investors are warning that a yen rally is fragile, as was on show this week when the yen rapidly retraced an advance after Thursday’s stronger-than-expected U.S. economic growth figures.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 27, 2024

‘Crazy’ yen rally is at risk of shattering as soon as Wednesday

Swaps markets suggest a roughly 45% chance of the Bank of Japan hiking rates by 15 basis points at the conclusion of its July 31 policy meeting.
The Sado Gold Mine, so heavily tapped that the mountain bearing it has been cleaved in two, is up for consideration for UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site status.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2024

Japan should display full history of Sado mine, South Korean archaeologist says

He will not advise the South Korean UNESCO delegation against accepting the designation of the mine if Japan explains its history properly.
U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, addresses a crowd of supporters during a campaign event at Radford University in Radford, Virginia, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 27, 2024

J.D. Vance’s ‘cat ladies’ insult sparks criticism of Trump’s VP pick

Comments JD Vance made in 2021 disparaging "childless cat ladies” are drawing criticism from not only Democrats, but also some members of his own party.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and her South Korean counterpart, Cho Tae-yul, shake hands during talks on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings in Vientiane, Laos, on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 27, 2024

Japan and South Korea top diplomats pledge even stronger cooperation

The pair reaffirmed the importance of cooperation in order to maintain and strengthen a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
Athletes from South Korea take part in the floating parade on the River Seine during the 2024 Paris Olympics' opening ceremony on Friday.
OLYMPICS
Jul 27, 2024

South Korea expresses 'regret' over Olympics opening ceremony gaffe

The South Korean athletes were introduced as representing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea — the official name for North Korea.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris,  candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, speaks during her first campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 27, 2024

Harris team champions her ‘strong’ foreign policy record in memo

The VP's team sent memo to national security professionals highlighting the new Democratic nominee’s "strong record” on foreign policy.
A tunnel inside the Sado Island Gold Mines in Sado, Niigata Prefecture
JAPAN / History
Jul 27, 2024

Japan's Sado gold mines added to World Heritage list

The site is associated with Korean wartime labor and was once the world's largest gold mine complex.
TikTok has deployed Washington power brokers and $1,500-an-hour attorneys to fend off a new law barring the app unless its Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, divests.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jul 27, 2024

TikTok’s survival is at stake in all-out fight against U.S. ban

TikTok has deployed Washington power brokers and $1,500-an-hour attorneys to fend off a new law barring the app unless ByteDance divests.
South Korean and U.S. soldiers conduct a joint river-crossing exercise in Yeoncheon, South Korea, in March.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 28, 2024

South Korea reports leak from its military intelligence command

The military said in a brief statement that it planned to "deal sternly with” those responsible for the leak.
Torchbearers Teddy Riner and Marie-Jose Perec light the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony of the Paris Games on Friday.
OLYMPICS
Jul 28, 2024

Upset bishops and mixed reviews for Paris Olympics ceremony

The show's artistic director Thomas Jolly, who is gay, had pledged earlier this month that the ceremony would celebrate "diversity" and "otherness."
Former U.S. President Donald Trump during a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Saturday
WORLD / Politics
Jul 28, 2024

Trump tells Christians ‘You won’t have to vote anymore’ if he’s elected

The former President has further embraced a brand of conservatism that experts on autocracy have said veers toward totalitarian.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks in Widnes, England, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 28, 2024

Keir Starmer’s clash with Labour left sets up wider fight on tax rises

Making the numbers add up while keeping her tax promises is the unenviable task that’s been top of U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ mind.
Canada head coach Bev Priestman prior to a match in February
OLYMPICS
Jul 28, 2024

Canadian women's team loses six points and coach banned over drone scandal

The Canadian Soccer Association was also fined 200,000 Swiss francs ($226,346) in a case that has rocked the Paris Games.
The Ishizawa River in Yurihonjo, Akita Prefecture, is seen bursting its banks on Friday due to heavy rain.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2024

Two dead and three missing in Tohoku deluge

Yamagata and Akita prefectures are likely to see severe rain continue until around Tuesday.
Disaster response vehicles parked at a roadside rest station at Noto Airport in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 17.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2024

Japan to pick more roadside stations for disaster relief

The ministry plans to increase the number of such roadside stations to about 100 from the current 39 so that each of the country's 47 prefectures will have one or two.
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign fundraising event at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 28, 2024

Harris says she is 'underdog,' as Trump goes on offense

The candidates' dueling appearances capped a whirlwind week with Harris ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket.
Mourners hold a mass funeral in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on Sunday. The Israeli military said the victims, 12 youths, died when an Iranian-made missile fired by Hezbollah landed on a soccer field in the town.
WORLD
Jul 28, 2024

Thousands of Druze mourn youths killed in Golan rocket attack

Since October when war in the Gaza strip began, Israeli forces and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement have regularly exchanged fire over the border.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gives a presidential decree to Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, during an endorsement ceremony in Tehran on Sunday.
WORLD
Jul 28, 2024

Iran's Khamenei formally grants Pezeshkian presidential powers

Pezeshkian, 69, won a runoff race on July 5 against the ultraconservative Saeed Jalili to replace president Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash in May.
Hifumi Abe reacts after defending his Olympic title in the judo men's under-66 kg division at the Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris on Sunday.
OLYMPICS / Judo
Jul 28, 2024

Japan's Hifumi Abe defends Olympic title after sister falls early

The Abe siblings famously both won gold at their home Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 just 30 minutes apart.
Though some in the country rejected their wartime associations, the Japanese government made the Hinomaru flag and "Kimigayo" anthem official 25 years ago.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Aug 1, 2024

Japan Times 1999: Flag, anthem now official

After some controversy, the Hinomaru flag was made official alongside the country's national anthem, "Kimigayo."
A man stands near a damaged gate around a football pitch after a reported strike from Lebanon fell in the Majdal Shams village in the Israeli-annexed Golan area on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 29, 2024

Israel Cabinet says government can respond to deadly rocket strike

Hezbollah denied responsibility for the attack on Majdal Shams.
A doctor consults with a COVID-19 patient at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney in 2021.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 29, 2024

Excess deaths in Australia reveal COVID-19's long, lethal tail

Excess mortality — the increase above the expected toll had the pandemic not occurred — was 5% for Australia in 2023.
A crashed helicopter with a pilot and a mechanic on board was heading for Saga Airport on Sunday afternoon.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2024

Two killed in helicopter crash in Fukuoka

The pilot, 50, and a mechanic, 70, were confirmed dead at the scene.
Demonstrators hold a rally in Tbilisi, Georgia, in May against a bill labeling organizations that receive foreign funding as spies. The passing of the so-called Russia law has been a setback for Georgia's democracy.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jul 29, 2024

Democracy is on tenuous ground this ‘election year’

From former Soviet countries to India and even the U.S., democracies are backsliding and authoritarianism is gaining ground, with far-reaching global implications.
Ursula von der Leyen has been president of the European Commission since 2019.
WORLD / Society
Jul 29, 2024

Global backsliding on gender parity puts EU ambitions at risk

Political expediency and institutional hurdles have complicated EU efforts to meet wide-ranging gender-parity goals.
Bereaved family members make soap bubbles to mourn for the victims of the 2014 Mount Ontake eruption during a memorial climb on the mountain, which straddles Nagano and Gifu prefectures, on Sunday.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2024

Bereaved families climb Mount Ontake ahead of 10th eruption anniversary

At the Kengamine peak, they observed a moment of silence at 11:52 a.m., the same time the eruption occurred on Sept. 27, 2014.
Fuel prices are displayed on a board at a gas station in Tokyo in September 2023. Fighting high prices is among the priority policy measures encompassed by a special spending quota for the fiscal year from April 2025.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2024

Japan to create priority policy spending quota in fiscal 2025

Priority measures include strengthening the country's defense capabilities, raising its birthrate and expanding investments in carbon reduction.

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