Search - 2021

 
 
Lei Jun introduces the Xiaomi YU7 sport utility vehicle during a launch event in Beijing on June 26.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 7, 2025

Xiaomi founder’s bold EV bet is paying off where Apple’s failed

The tech firm's success in the EV space has burnished founder Lei Jun’s reputation, making it one of the most valuable companies in China.
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been recruiting top artificial intelligence engineers for the company’s new superintelligence division.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 8, 2025

Apple loses top AI models executive to Meta’s hiring spree

The departure of Ruoming Pang marks another setback in the iPhone maker’s struggling efforts in the emerging space.
Carlos Alcaraz celebrates after winning his Wimbledon quarterfinal match against Cameron Norrie on Tuesday in London.
TENNIS
Jul 9, 2025

Alcaraz and Sabalenka take contrasting routes into Wimbledon semis

The Spanish second seed dropped four sets in a series of scrappy displays during his run to the last eight, but was at his best on Tuesday.
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic drives to the basket against the Thunder during a playoff game on May 13.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Jul 9, 2025

Nuggets' Nikola Jokic reportedly to wait until next summer for contract talks

A three-time MVP, Jokic is eligible for a three-year, $206.4 million contract extension, but could wait and sign a max deal next summer.
U.S. F-35 stealth fighters fly side by side with South Korean F-35s as part of a bilateral exercise over the Yellow Sea in July 2022. The U.S. Air Force is grappling with whether to prioritize air superiority or air denial in response to lessons from Ukraine and the growing threat from China.  
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jul 9, 2025

Air superiority vs. air denial: Redefining U.S. airpower strategy

The strategic debate is centering on whether to prioritize offensive or defensive airpower. The decision will determine how U.S. air resources are allocated.
A Beijing store selling merchandise based on the "boys’ love" genre of graphic novels on June 16
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 10, 2025

China detains female writers of 'boys' love' content in porn crackdown

The detentions since March have triggered debate on social media about the limits of free speech and the apparent sexist nature of the crackdown.
Shoya Narita, a physical education teacher at Obu Minami Junior High School, gives a lecture about water safety in a classroom.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Jul 22, 2025

Swimming lessons disappearing from Japan's public junior high schools

Aging pool facilities are prompting teachers to switch to giving classroom lectures on water safety.
A team of technicians from climate startup Recoolit work to capture emissions from a large air conditioning unit in the basement of a housing complex in Jakarta on June 10.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 10, 2025

In Indonesia, a startup captures coolants to stop global warming

With cooling demand increasing as the planet warms, concern is growing over highly polluting refrigerants. Enter the Recoolit startup.
Kirin Holdings said that it will stop selling Beaujolais Nouveau in Japan due to rising freight costs and the shifting preferences of wine drinkers in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 10, 2025

Beaujolais Nouveau’s fanbase finally dries up in Japan

Kirin Holdings’ wine unit will stop selling the early-release wine in the country amid soaring costs and changing tastes in what had been a holdout export market.
After nearly shuttering earlier this year, the Tokyo-based Game Preservation Society continues its work to save the early history of Japanese gaming.
LIFE / Digital
Jul 12, 2025

‘Our ultimate goal is to save every single Japanese video game’

The Tokyo-based Game Preservation Society almost shuttered earlier this year, but a flood of support has buoyed efforts to save games on extinct media.
Jane Birkin’s original Hermes Birkin bag displayed at Sotheby’s in Paris, on July 3
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 11, 2025

Hermes’ original Birkin bag sells for $10 million at auction to a Japanese buyer

The price shattered the previous record for a handbag at auction, a rare Himalaya Kelly bag in crocodile with a diamond that sold for about $510,000.
Pick up some country-style bread from Boulangerie Aman on your road trip in Kamikawa, Hokkaido.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 13, 2025

Road-tripping through central Hokkaido? Don't miss these bakeries

Slice through lavender fields and flaky croissants on your drive through the scenic region of Kamikawa.
Women represent 26% of the AI workforce, according to a UNESCO report, and men hold 80% of tenured faculty positions at university AI departments globally.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 12, 2025

Tech's diversity crisis is baking bias into AI systems

Built-in viewpoints and bias, unintentionally imbued by its creators, can make the fast-growing digital tool risky to use.
Israeli-American businessman Moti Kahana holds a flag during a mission to evacuate 200 Jews in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, in March 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 13, 2025

How a U.S. mission to push a Trump deal in Congo unraveled

The story of the ill-fated venture, which has not previously been reported, provides a glimpse of how the Trump administration is prepared to work through unconventional channels.
A volunteer carries a cross during a Good Friday "Stations of the Cross" procession in front of the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral on April 18.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 13, 2025

Catholic Church draws ire for promoting priest jailed for rape

Victim support groups and traditionalists have expressed outrage over the case of Dominique Spina, who was found guilty of raping a 16-year-old boy in 2006.
China's Wang Haoyu celebrates winning the men's 4x100m freestyle relay final at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha in February 2024.
MORE SPORTS / Swimming
Jul 14, 2025

China swimmers dope-tested most ahead of World Aquatics Championships

From Jan. 1, Chinese swimmers had an average of 8.8 anti-doping tests, while those from Britain were tested 2.2 times, a report said.
The badge of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Fugitive Operations team is seen in Santa Ana, California, on May 11, 2017.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 14, 2025

ICE may deport migrants to countries other than their own with hours notice

ICE agents could remove them to a so-called third country with as little as six hours' notice "in exigent circumstances," a new memo says.
One of the early exemplars of Chinese innovation is a cell therapy that has shown promise to potentially cure a deadly blood cancer.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 14, 2025

China biotech’s stunning advance is changing the world’s drug pipeline

The number of novel drugs in China entering into development ballooned to over 1,250 last year, far surpassing the European Union.
Mod's memoir “Things Become Other Things” chronicles his walking trips across the Kii Peninsula, surveying “a graceful end to a certain life cycle.”
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2025

Craig Mod's life in motion in a disappearing Japan

In “Things Become Other Things,” the longtime resident of Japan captures that grace that lingers in slowly vanishing countryside towns.
A Loro Piana SpA luxury clothing store in Milan on Wednesday
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2025

Italy cracks down on sweatshops supplying Armani and Dior

For a decade, a Chinese tailor toiled in a three-story building on the outskirts of Milan, working 13 hours a day making high-end garments for brands including Italian cashmere label Loro Piana.
Manny Pacquiao trains at Wild Card Boxing Club in Los Angeles on June 25. Pacquiao will face Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight title in Las Vegas on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Jul 17, 2025

Manny Pacquiao embraces underdog status ahead of comeback fight against Barrios

The 46-year-old Filipino feels rejuvenated after four years away from the ring and said he was returning for another opportunity to make history.
Japanese companies are heading overseas to borrow as their local market is becoming too volatile and rates are rising.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2025

Japan Inc. takes global credit by storm with record sales

More and more Japanese companies are heading overseas to borrow as their local market is becoming too volatile and rates are rising.
Misa Kimura is the main producer for Kawaii Lab, a project by entertainment agency Asobisystem whose groups have found success by pairing a social media-first strategy with a fresh perspective on traditional idol-pop tropes.
CULTURE
Jul 17, 2025

Kawaii Lab redefines idol pop for the TikTok generation

The idol-pop project's main producer, Misa Kimura — a former idol herself — is giving her performers more control over their image and sound.
Kiyoshi Shibata stands in front of one of the rice paddies in Murayama, Yamagata Prefecture, where he produces the prefecture's signature rice brand Tsuyahime.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 17, 2025

Japan's rice farmers are confounded by Shinjiro Koizumi’s policies

Farming communities, a key base for the Liberal Democratic Party, are increasingly voicing their distress at how the rice situation is being handled.
Just 17% of Americans approve of U.S. President Donald Trump's handling of the Jeffery Epstein case, a weaker rating than the president received on any other issue in the poll.
WORLD
Jul 18, 2025

Trump faces backlash as 69% believe Epstein details concealed, poll finds

Close to two-thirds of Republicans surveyed think the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is hiding details on Jeffrey Epstein's business.
Japanese officials made a similar call in March to China to expand a program allowing certain mainland investors to put more money abroad when they held a high-level economic dialogue in Tokyo with their Chinese counterparts.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 18, 2025

Japan official urges China to expand foreign investment quota

China has been easing its strict controls over capital outflows in recent years.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a news conference with President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on June 27.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 19, 2025

Trump sues Wall Street Journal over Epstein report, seeking $10 billion

The newspaper said that Trump in 2003 sent Jeffrey Epstein a birthday greeting that included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets they shared.
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Jul 20, 2025

Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate

The debate over the damage sunscreens cause to the marine environment is heating up as some regions ban certain chemical ingredients.
In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jul 21, 2025

The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan

AI chatbots are becoming stand-ins for pets and partners — offering comfort, connection and raising new concerns.
American lawyer Alan Dershowitz returns to the courtroom for the criminal trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump after a short break at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on May 20, 2024.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 21, 2025

Former Epstein lawyer calls for release of additional materials

U.S. President Donald Trump has been under mounting pressure from his supporters to release more information related to the government's sex-trafficking probe into Jeffrey Epstein.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell