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Train service on Tokyo’s Yamanote Line will be partially suspended this weekend.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 15, 2023

Yamanote Line set for closures and reduced service Nov. 18 and 19

Train service on Tokyo’s Yamanote Line will be partially suspended this weekend as part of ongoing construction work at Shibuya Station.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 15, 2023

Japan’s Tsuruha weighs sale after proxy battle with Oasis

The company is working with an adviser on the potential transaction and has reached out to some private equity firms to gauge their interest.
Japan’s public bathhouses have been in decline for decades, with the number of such facilities in Tokyo alone dropping by nearly half in the last 15 years.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 14, 2023

Japan seeks digital detox with return to ‘way of the sauna’

Public bathhouses have been in decline for decades, with the number of sentō baths in Tokyo dropping by nearly half in the last 15 years.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 15, 2023

Lawmakers submit proposal to revise law on Unification Church assets

A group of lawmakers has submitted proposals to amend existing laws governing religious organizations, aiming to prevent the outflow of church funds.
U.S. President Joe Biden shakes hands with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at Filoli estate in Woodside, California, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 16, 2023

Xi and Biden agree to restart high-level military-to-military talks

The leaders of the two superpowers looked to stabilize a relationship that has been in freefall amid fears it could devolve into outright conflict.
The scene after a car crashed into a barricade near the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo on Thursday
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2023

Man arrested after car crashes through barricade near Israel's Tokyo embassy

The driver, a man in his 50s, was arrested for alleged obstruction of official duties. Investigative sources said he is a member of a right-wing group.
Milk Talk members Yuqi Shinohara (left), who goes by the moniker Q.i, and Miles Ungar officially started their electro-boogie project in 2019.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 17, 2023

Milk Talk's deliciously funky mix of sweet and sour

The duo turns bottled-up feelings into electro-boogie delights on their debut album.
Bears doing yoga? If you’re in the city, why not?
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 16, 2023

Bear goes the neighborhood? Japanese wildlife is on the move.

This week, Alex K.T. Martin joins us to discuss why people are encountering bears, boars and other wildlife in the most unlikely of places.
Mika and Jesse say their landlady prefers a hands-off style of property management, leaving all matters, including maintenence and repairs, to the renting couple.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 18, 2023

Renting akiya: A backdoor into Japan's abandoned homes

“If the choice is between leaving (an akiya) empty or renting it out, please rent it out.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, along with his daughter, walks away from an intercontinental ballistic missile in this undated photo released on Nov. 19, 2022
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 17, 2023

Kim Jong Un’s daughter marks a year as country’s propaganda star

The preservation of the family rule is inextricably tied to the country’s weapons program
A Ukrainian soldier during a live fire training exercise in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on Oct. 26. The outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East has raised questions about allies’ ability to remain focused on supporting Ukraine.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 17, 2023

Zelenskyy says artillery to Ukraine slowed by Israel-Hamas war

The outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East has raised questions about allies’ ability to remain focused on supporting Ukraine.
Heavily destroyed buildings at the border between Israel and Gaza on Friday amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 17, 2023

Japanese Red Cross nurse speaks of resilience of colleagues in Gaza

While Sachiko Kawase evacuated to the south of Gaza and eventually to Egypt, several of her colleagues have stayed behind to provide emergency aid.
A woman sits where her apartment once stood in Lahaina, Hawaii, after the city was devastated by a wildfire, on Aug. 11.
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 17, 2023

Nowhere is safe from worsening climate change, new U.S. report warns

The report comes at a time of record-shattering heat, with recent months ranking as the hottest on record across the world.
Petroleum pipelines and fuel storage tanks at a refinery near Manama, Bahrain, in 2017
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 18, 2023

To meet climate goals, Gulf countries will have to overhaul everything

The growing oil-rich region faces myriad challenges as the world pushes to decarbonize.
A Palestinian girl and her brother sit amidst the debris of a house following an Israeli strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday.
WORLD
Nov 18, 2023

Hundreds flee as Israel orders Gaza's main hospital evacuated

Israel has been pressing military operations inside the hospital, searching for the Hamas operations center it says lies under the sprawling complex.
Vehicle carriers operated by Nippon Yusen sit docked at the Port of Zeebrugge in Zeebrugge, Belgium, in March 2020.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 20, 2023

Japan confirms Nippon Yusen cargo ship seized by Houthis

The Nippon Yusen-operated vessel was captured by the Iran-linked group in the Red Sea as it was traveling south near Yemen.
Communicating over the phone, a necessity for businesspeople, is a headache for many young people.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Nov 27, 2023

Many young people in Japan scared of telephone calls

For some, their heart skips a beat when they hear phones ringing and they hesitate to make calls, fearing they might be considered a nuisance.
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2023

Listed firms in Japan work on fostering female managers

An increasing number of publicly traded Japanese companies are actively fostering female managers to assume leadership roles in the future.
The labor ministry is planning to review the workers' accident compensation program to cover all freelancers commissioned to work for companies.
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2023

Japan to expand workers' accident compensation for freelancers

The measure is aimed at creating an environment in which freelancers can work with a sense of security.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 21, 2023

Japan to ban marijuana-derived substance found in gummy candies

An expert panel at the health ministry decided to officially add the HHCH synthetic compound to a drug list, with the ban taking effect from Dec. 2.
A redacted online resume of a North Korean IT worker is shown in this screenshot obtained on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 21, 2023

North Koreans use fake names to land remote IT work for cash

Landing a job outside North Korea to secretly earn hard currency for the country demands highly-developed strategies to convince Western firms.
A North Korean rocket carrying a military spy satellite is launched in this undated photo released Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 22, 2023

North Korea calls spy satellite launch a success, but questions linger

A rocket carrying the payload passed over the Japanese archipelago late Tuesday, but Tokyo said it had not confirmed the veracity of Pyongyang's claims.
Argentina's president-elect Javier Milei at a polling station in Buenos Aires on Sunday
WORLD / Politics
Nov 22, 2023

How AI shaped Milei's path to Argentina presidency

"It is going to be a huge problem in global elections in the future"
Up until very recently, the business of packaging semiconductors — encasing chips in materials that both protect them and connect them to the electronic device they’re part of — was, at best, an afterthought for the industry.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 22, 2023

A new front is opening up in the U.S.-China conflict over chips

The process of packaging semiconductors is increasingly seen as the "secret sauce" — a path toward achieving higher performance.
“Blue Giant,” a feature-length anime movie that centers on young men in Tokyo who aspire to become jazz stars, was so successful in Japan and overseas that director Yuzuru Tachikawa was given an even bigger budget to re-edit the film for a second screening in theaters across Japan.
CULTURE / Film / CULTURE SMASH
Nov 23, 2023

Sleeper hit anime 'Blue Giant' gets an encore

The surprise success of the big-budget feature about jazz warranted a re-edited version and a second life in theaters.
In addition to directing “Kubi,” Takeshi Kitano (second from left) plays Oda Nobunaga’s successor, Hashiba (later Toyotomi) Hideyoshi, in the blood-soaked period film.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 23, 2023

Takeshi Kitano still has a head for provocation

The “Kubi” director doesn’t shy away from causing a commotion, whether it’s in public or in his latest film about a pivotal moment in Japan’s history.
Sam Altman was reinstated as OpenAI CEO less than five days after his ouster.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 23, 2023

Altman is back at OpenAI, but questions remain over firing

One of the big issue for the organization is to what extent Altman can continue pursuing outside ventures.
Finnish Border Guards escort migrants at the international border crossing at Salla, northern Finland, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 24, 2023

Finland pushing back 'weaponized migration' on Russia border

Finnish PM described Russia's move to allow a growing number of migrants without papers to reach the border as "a systematic and organized action."
A recently implemented tracking system shows the real-time position of all horses during the live broadcast of the spring Tenno Sho on April 30.
MORE SPORTS / Horse Racing
Nov 24, 2023

New technology enhances fan experience

A jockey camera and a tracking system introduced by the Japan Racing Association this past spring have proven popular with horse-racing fans.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 24, 2023

Japan says North Korean ‘object’ orbiting Earth after launch

"We need to continue to carefully analyze the details, including whether the satellite is orbiting the Earth as intended," the defense minister said.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’