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Unlike his immediate predecessor, new Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi has chosen to speak in words of his own for some matters.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 24, 2023

Hayashi maneuvers through his new Cabinet position carefully

Hayashi has served in many Cabinet posts in the past, including defense minister, agriculture minister and education minister.
Desi Permatasari, 32, comforts her daughter, Sheena Almaera Maryam, 5, who was prescribed contaminated cough syrup last year in their home in Bogor, Indonesia.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 24, 2023

When children take toxic cough syrup — and live

In Indonesia, one of the places most impacted by the contamination, families struggle to care for survivors while taking action against those responsible.
The yuan's stealthy climb in global payments could see it pose a challenge to the U.S. dollar's dominance.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2023

The yuan is finally showing some muscle in international trade

The yuan's stealthy climb in global payments could see it pose a challenge to the U.S. dollar's dominance.
Palestinians watch as an Israeli strike hits near houses in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2023

War and chaos are what Hamas and Iran really want

Israel must be stopped from expelling the Palestinians from Gaza as that would radicalize and destabilize the entire region.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 25, 2023

Japan to open nursery places to all children by fiscal 2025

At the moment, typically only children from families where both the parents are working are admitted to day care.
Nancy Mills in a photo that appears to have been taken on Amami Oshima
JAPAN / History
Dec 26, 2023

New Yorker recalls life on Amami island 70 years after reversion

Tracing her early childhood through photographs and letters, 74-year-old Nancy Mills wishes for Amami residents' happiness.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks at a campaign town hall in Atkinson, New Hampshire, on Dec. 14.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 26, 2023

Nikki Haley works to broaden reach as bid to beat Trump gains pace

Support for the Republican presidential contender has risen in opinion polls, but falls short among rural voters and those without college degrees.
A Philippine supply boat sails near a Chinese Coast Guard ship during a resupply mission for Filipino troops stationed at a grounded warship in the South China Sea on Oct. 4.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 26, 2023

Philippines not stirring conflict in South China Sea: spokesperson

Instead Manila accused Beijing of performing dangerous maneuvers that sometimes result in collisions at sea.
A group of 19 host club owners in Kabukicho who own most of the host clubs in the area have pledged to ban the pay-later system by April and prohibit entry to those under 20 years old from January.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 26, 2023

How Japan's host clubs trap young women under mountains of debt

False promises of love — and even marriage — lead to huge bills for some as young as 18, who are often then coaxed into sex work to make repayments.
Naoya Inoue fights Marlon Tapales  during their four-belt super bantamweight title unification match at Ariake Arena in Tokyo on Tuesday.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Dec 27, 2023

Naoya Inoue still hungry after becoming undisputed super bantamweight champ

Naoya Inoue has said that he intends to retire at 35 but he hinted earlier this year that he might prolong his career for two extra years.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 27, 2023

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi vows to tackle distrust

Hayashi, who took office after his predecessor quit over a funding scandal, says revising the relevant law is related to freedom of political activity.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2023

Local governments in Japan eye independent ride-hailing services

Some local governments are exploring the introduction of their own systems tailored to fit local circumstances, separate from the central government.
Next year, U.S. President Joe Biden will seek a mandate to govern into his mid-80s. His likely opponent, former President Donald Trump, is only three years younger.
COMMENTARY / The Year Ahead
Dec 27, 2023

Making or breaking democracy

As 2024 approaches, one milestone looms menacingly on the horizon: The U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5.
The Dvorak Dreams project leveraged AI to retrieve, synthesize and extend the legacy of an earlier cultural pioneer.
COMMENTARY / The Year Ahead
Dec 28, 2023

The AI question we should be asking

Artists working with AI can map out a path for the technology’s role across society more broadly.
When Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power, he inherited a China that was enjoying prosperity, but also succumbing to gilded-age excesses.
COMMENTARY / The Year Ahead
Dec 29, 2023

The moral of the China story

Even if China is no longer “winning,” it would be short-sighted to dismiss its recent experience as irrelevant.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 27, 2023

Takashimaya apologizes over damaged Christmas cakes

The pricey ¥5,400 cakes were meant to be delivered frozen, but many arrived melted, lopsided or crumbled.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends the December 2023 plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, in Pyongyang.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 28, 2023

North Korea's Kim orders acceleration of war preparations

Kim also said Pyongyang would expand strategic cooperation with "anti-imperialist independent" countries, news agency KCNA reported.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 28, 2023

Japanese lawmaker Kakizawa arrested over vote-buying allegations

The former LDP member allegedly gave bribes to assembly members in Tokyo’s Koto Ward to garner support for a candidate in the Koto mayoral election.
Veteran politician Alan Leong in the now-empty headquarters of the Civic Party, once the city's second largest opposition party, in Hong Kong. Six lapel pins bearing the Civic Party's founding date are all Hong Kong veteran politician Alan Leong kept when the once-prominent opposition group cleared its headquarters and shuttered its doors days before the new year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 28, 2023

Hong Kong's former second-largest opposition party shuts down

Since China imposed its security law, the Civic Party has seen members jailed, elected politicians unseated and a former lawmaker listed as a fugitive.
U.S. President Joe Biden answers reporters questions as he departs for Camp David from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington on Dec. 23.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 28, 2023

With vote ahead, Biden trails Trump's pace of judicial appointments

Ahead of the 2024 election, Senate Democrats are pledging to stay focused on confirming Biden's judicial nominees and adding to the 166 already approved.
Fighters of the Wagner private mercenary group, many of whom were recruited from prisons, are deployed in June near the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2023

Vladimir Putin’s killer patriotism

Pardoning violent convicts to get more soldiers onto the battlefield is not desirable, but for Putin, the alternative would be even worse.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump
WORLD / Politics
Dec 29, 2023

Maine elections official disqualifies Trump from presidential primary ballot

Maine became the second state to bar the former U.S. president for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
People walk in the Zhujiang New Town area of Guangzhou.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 29, 2023

China’s richest provinces promise to take lead in driving growth

Almost all 31 mainland provinces held meetings to discuss next year’s priorities after the Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing this month.
A Houthi military helicopter flies over the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea in this photo released on Nov. 20.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 29, 2023

U.S. allies reluctant on Red Sea task force

Italy and Spain have issued statements appearing to distance themselves from Operation Prosperity Guardian.
Tampa Bay shortstop Wander Franco during a game in Kansas City in July.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 29, 2023

Wander Franco a no-show to answer complaint in Dominican Republic

At least two people have filed lawsuits against Franco amid probes into claims he had improper relationships with minors.
The Ground Self-Defense Force's Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade takes part in a marine landing drill on Tokunoshima island, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Nov. 19.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 29, 2023

Kishida’s military build-up plans face bumpy road ahead

One year on, questions remain as to whether the embattled leader, whose support rate recently dipped to new lows, can follow through on his pledges.
Among the issues that defined 2023 were the U.S. economy's "soft landing," the war in Ukraine, Hamas's terrorist attack and explosive advances in AI.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2023

The most important developments of 2023

The year reminds us that the world is in desperate need of new leaders who are both competent and inspiring.
Members meet for a United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine on July 17. Between the carnage in the Middle East and a permanent member of the Security Council waging a war of aggression against its neighbor, there is ample reason to doubt that a consensus on U.N. reform is reachable.
COMMENTARY / The Year Ahead
Dec 31, 2023

The outlook for multilateralism in 2024

What matters most in the coming year is whether global issues can still be addressed simultaneously and in unison.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida makes a toast with Indonesian President Joko Widodo at a Japan-ASEAN luncheon meeting at the Japan Business Federation in Tokyo on Dec. 18. Kishida’s chance of reelection in the LDP presidential race in September will largely depend on his administration’s response to the current funding scandal and its entanglement in it.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 31, 2023

Scandal, economic policy and LDP race to weigh on Kishida in 2024

How he balances all three will determine whether he keeps his job as LDP party president and, by extension, prime minister.
Chinese President Xi Jinping during a military parade in October 2019
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 31, 2023

Sweeping Chinese military purge exposes weakness and could widen

China's top lawmakers ousted nine senior military officers from the national legislative body on Friday, state media reported.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo