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China's 15-day visa-free policy is giving tourism a huge boost, with bookings from eligible countries surging 150% and attracting millions of visitors post-pandemic.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 17, 2024

China strives to lure foreign tourists, but it's a hard sell for some

The recent surge in tourism comes after China closed its borders in early 2020 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, and kept them shut until the start of 2023.
Shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major Apple and Nvidia supplier, closed 2.4% lower on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 17, 2024

Trump says Taiwan should pay for defense, sending TSMC stock down

The U.S. is Taiwan's key international supporter and arms supplier, although there is no formal defense agreement between them.
The number of teachers in their 20s on leave due to mental conditions has risen, highlighting the need to reduce burdens on young teachers.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 17, 2024

Japan to boost support for young teachers to secure staff

The package addresses concerns about a decline in interest in teaching jobs among young people and aims to reduce teachers' overtime work to 20 hours per month.
Diaper products for babies and adults are displayed at a factory of Daio Paper's subsidiary Elleair in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, in June.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2024

Japan's diaper-makers look to adult market for revenue as births fall

Japan's population is likely to decline by about 30% to 87 million by 2070, with 4 people in every 10 at the age of 65 or more, estimates show.
Mizuho Securities is starting a fund to create opportunities for third-party investment into Japan's animation film sector that has created globally popular works such as "Demon Slayer."
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2024

Mizuho fund to invest in Japan’s popular but cash-needing anime scene

For investors, Mizuho's fund will be an opportunity to park their money in a sector famous for works like "Demon Slayer."
Japan's Hikaru Kitagawa dribbles past a defender during an Olympic qualifying match against North Korea at National Stadium in Tokyo in February.
OLYMPICS / Football
Jul 17, 2024

After Tokyo Olympic disappointment, Nadeshiko Japan look for redemption

For many, a disappointing effort on home soil in 2021 was a marker of just how far Japan's women's soccer team had fallen. Now the squad has its sights set on redemption.
Several people from Nomura Holdings in charge of Asia excluding Japan are leaving the company, according to an internal memo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2024

Nomura reshuffles Asia investment banking team and cuts jobs in slump

A management change coincides with a new round of job cuts involving about 10 bankers this week, sources have said.
Former U.S. President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to his vice presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance, during the second day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 17, 2024

Trump's VP pick signals stronger focus on China

J.D. Vance represents a hardening of Trump’s “America First” stance, but could also help push a tougher line on China and support for democratic Taiwan.
A man walks past a store of luxury brand Burberry at a shopping mall in Beijing in 2021.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 17, 2024

Luxury brands feel the sting as Chinese growth slows

China accounted for 16% of $393.8 billion of global luxury spending last year, but the economy grew slower than expected in the last quarter.
When Renho (center) announced her candidacy for the Tokyo gubernatorial election on May 27, the head of the Japanese Communist Party's secretariat, Akira Koike (far left), was also in attendance.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 17, 2024

Cutting ties with JCP not easy for CDP despite Renho's defeat

Despite calls to end the relationship, there is still pressure on the CDP to seek interparty cooperation to avoid splitting the opposition vote.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida receives a petition from victims of forced sterilization on Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 17, 2024

Kishida apologizes to victims of forced sterilization

The apology from the prime minister follows a Supreme Court ruling earlier this month declaring that the now-defunct eugenics law was unconstitutional.
PwC is considering slashing up to half its financial services auditing staff in China and about 20% of its staff in other auditing teams and nonauditing business lines.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2024

PwC weighs halving of China financial services audit staff, say sources

The firm has 781 partners and nearly 19,000 employees in mainland China as of last September.
Protesters mark the eighth anniversary of the 2016 arbitration ruling over China's claims in the South China Sea, in Quezon City, Philippines, on Friday. Beijing still refuses to abide by the ruling.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 17, 2024

South China Sea ruling anniversary and the disregard for the rule of law

Last Friday marked the eighth anniversary of the Philippines-China South China Sea arbitral tribunal ruling. That decision was a win for Manila.
China's success in retrieving samples from the far side of the moon and its strategic advances in space exploration are prompting calls for international collaboration amid growing concerns over efforts to achieve space dominance.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2024

It's too early to be fighting a space race with China

Lunar exploration is dangerous enough without turning it into a contest between great powers.
Artwork is displayed in the home of Mikiko Watanabe, who was killed in an arson attack at a Kyoto Animation studio in 2019, in Shiga Prefecture on June 11.
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2024

Mother of Kyoto Animation arson victim continuing to deliver lectures

Tatsuko Watanabe's 35-year-old daughter Mikiko was an art director at the anime company.
Naoki Prize winner Michi Ichiho (left), and Akutagawa Prize winners Sanzo K. Matsunaga (center) and Aki Asahina pose with their award-winning books at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 17, 2024

Three novelists named for Akutagawa and Naoki awards

Authors Sanzo K. Matsunaga and Aki Asahina won the Akutagawa Prize for literary writers, while the Naoki Prize for genre fiction went to Michi Ichiho.
Takahiro Ueda, a doctor who treated the Kyoto Animation arson suspect Shinji Aoba, is interviewed in Yonago, Tottori Prefecture, earlier this month.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 18, 2024

Saving Kyoto Animation arson suspect was 'meaningful,' says doctor

Takahiro Ueda said it was significant that Shinji Aoba was able to receive a court ruling.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Jul 18, 2024

U.K.'s Starmer to use forum to advocate EU reset and Ukraine support

A one-day meeting of more than 40 nations provides British Prime Minister Keir Starmer with an opportunity to push for closer defense cooperation.
A researcher at the University of Tokyo shows a face mold covered in human skin tissue at its lab.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 18, 2024

Say cheese: Japanese scientists make robot face 'smile' with living skin

Researchers at the University of Tokyo grew human skin cells in the shape of a face and pulled it into a wide grin, using embedded ligamentlike attachments.
U.S. gymnast Simone Biles competes in the uneven bars during the U.S. Olympic trials in Minneapolis on June 30.
OLYMPICS
Jul 18, 2024

Paris Olympics marketing blitz powered by female athletes

While the Olympics has long been considered the pinnacle of women’s sports, increased attention has prompted more brands to feature female athletes.
U.S. President Joe Biden disembarks Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 18, 2024

Biden called ‘more receptive’ to hearing pleas to step aside

Biden has not given any indication that he is changing his mind about staying in the race, but has been willing to listen to rundowns of new and worrying polling data.
The streets of Tokyo's Ginza district on Thursday. The rainy season appears to have ended in the regions of Tokai and Kanto, including Tokyo, on Thursday, according to the Meteorological Agency.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2024

Rainy season ends in Tokai and Kanto regions

The season looks to have ended a day earlier than average, according to the Meteorological Agency.
Visitors take photos of a tunnel of roses at Yokohama English Garden on Wednesday in Yokohama.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 18, 2024

Japan’s summer travel spending soars despite economic pressures

Households plan to spend the most in six years this summer as more people aim to travel despite rising inflation and a weakening yen.
A pumped energy storage facility and a wind turbine at Kibbutz Maale Gilboa, Israel, on July 9
WORLD
Jul 18, 2024

How 'energy islands' could help Israel build resilience for wartime

Israel's microgrid pilot, which will be complete sometime in the next year or two, will run in parallel to large stockpiles of diesel, coal and generators.
House of Representatives lawmaker Manabu Horii, 52, quit the Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday after his offices were raided by prosecutors. He said last month that he will not run in the next Lower House election.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 18, 2024

Prosecutors raid offices of LDP lawmaker Manabu Horii

He is being investigated over allegations that he gave funeral money to voters in his constituency in Hokkaido.
Cadets at the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kure Recruit Training Center row in unison during a cutter boat drill in Kure Bay, Hiroshima Prefecture, in June.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Jul 29, 2024

MSDF’s Kure base faces recruitment challenges as youngsters shy away

The stressful nature of service and an increasing likelihood of actual combat are causing many to opt for other careers.
Namibia is emerging as an oil exploration hub with major finds by different oil giants, which could significantly boost the country's economy.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 18, 2024

African outpost Namibia gets ready to become new oil hotspot

Massive oil finds 180 miles off Namibia’s coast have seen an 80% success rate since 2022 — an almost unprecedented achievement.
Tools at an exploration site run by KoBold Metals in Chililabombwe, Zambia, on June 11. A complex AI-driven technology that data crunchers at KoBold Metals painstakingly built over years helped identify a copper bonanza deep below a site in Zambia, and the company’s process could radically transform the discovery of metal and mineral deposits critical not only to the tech industry but to the fight against climate change.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 18, 2024

AI joins search for needed metals just in time

KoBold’s find comes as the United States and China are increasingly clashing over global access to minerals.
The police reported two sexual crime cases to the U.S. military, but the prefectural government was not aware of the incidents.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2024

U.S. forces-linked sex crimes in Kanagawa went unreported to prefectural government

The police reported both cases to the U.S. military, but the prefectural government was not aware of the incidents.
The electricity bill for a standard household in the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings service area for August is expected to fall by ¥1,061.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2024

Tepco bill to fall by ¥1,000 for standard household in August

The government has decided to resume a subsidy program for three months starting August.

Longform

"Shake hands with Lima-chan," a statue that shares the name of the Peruvian capital looks in the direction of Peru, where a sister statue, "Sakura-chan," is located. Erected in Yokohama's Rinko Park in 1999, it commemorates Peruvian-Japanese friendship.
The journey of Peru’s Nikkei: Finding identity in Japan