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Sachiko Ishizuka, who was born via artificial insemination by donor (AID), tells her story to lawmakers from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan on April 9.
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Apr 15, 2025

Privacy and transparency clash in debate over bill on artificial insemination

At stake is the thorny question of when children conceived through artificial insemination by donor can access information on their biological parents, and to what extent.
Emperor Naruhito speaks during the opening ceremony of the 2025 Osaka Expo on Saturday.
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2025

Emperor meets with Turkmenistan president

The meeting followed the president's attendance in Turkmenistan's national day event Monday at the 2025 World Expo in Osaka.
Japanese companies have faced pressure from the Tokyo Stock Exchange and investors to offload noncore assets such as real estate to use capital more efficiently.
BUSINESS
Apr 15, 2025

Nomura said to sell Tokyo building to real estate affiliate

The buyer, Nomura Real Estate Holdings, plans to demolish the building and develop luxury condominiums on the site.
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told Fox News the U.S. will focus on restricting Iran’s uranium enrichment and missile capability rather than dismantling its entire nuclear program. He later took a different tone on social media.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 16, 2025

U.S. backs away from envoy saying Iran can keep enriching uranium

Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff later posted on social media "that Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program."
The Canton Fair in Guangzhou, China, on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 16, 2025

Ground zero of China trade boom reckons with decoupling from U.S.

"The China-U.S. relation is beyond salvation — this change of gears is irreversible,” said the China director at a political risk consultancy.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (right) and Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov shake hands at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 16, 2025

Ishiba's expo diplomacy begins with hosting of Turkmen president

The two leaders released a joint statement calling for maintaining "the free and open international order based on the rule of law."
The start of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah on March 9 last year.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Apr 16, 2025

Team ownership could be next F1 step for Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia first hosted Formula One in 2021, while energy giant Aramco is a global partner of the sport and also the title sponsor of the Aston Martin team.
A damages lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Fukuoka District Court, names four defendants including the group’s boss, 83-year-old Kenichi Shinoda and his second-in-command, 77-year-old Kiyoshi Takayama.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 16, 2025

Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza boss sued over fraud scheme in Fukuoka

The lawsuit names four defendants including the group’s boss, 83-year-old Kenichi Shinoda, better known as Shinobu Tsukasa.
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg departs after attending a Federal Trade Commission trial at a U.S. District Court in Washington on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 16, 2025

Zuckerberg defends strategy behind Instagram, WhatsApp deals

The Federal Trade Commission alleges the acquisitions of the two apps give Meta Platforms a social media monopoly, and is fighting to break up the company.
Fuji Media's headquarters in Tokyo's Minato Ward
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2025

U.S. investor to propose candidates for Fuji Media's board

Dalton Investments said in a statement that the old-fashioned corporate structure of Fuji Media must be swept away.
A night market in Taipei in April
JAPAN / Society
Apr 16, 2025

Japan is by far the favorite country among Taiwanese: survey

Japan has been the most popular country since the survey began in 2008.
Shinobu Yamato (right), the mother of Hikaru Yamato who died in the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, mourns her son along with Hikaru's brother Shogo in Minamiaso, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2025

Family mourns university student killed in 2016 Kumamoto earthquake

The earthquakes claimed the lives of 278 people, including those who died due to indirect causes, in Kumamoto and the neighboring prefecture of Oita.
Facing a new round of U.S. tariffs, China may devalue the yuan — possibly by as much as 20% — if fiscal stimulus falls short, risking a global currency war as it fights to meet its growth target.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 16, 2025

When will China start to devalue the yuan?

One way to think about China’s currency policy is its fiscal stance. Unless Beijing brings out the stimulus bazooka, devaluing the yuan might be the most expedient option.
The trade war is ratcheting up tensions between Beijing and Washington. Taipei needs to be more prepared. 
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 15, 2025

Taiwan is under siege with or without tariffs

Taiwan must urgently strengthen defenses and unite politically to counter rising threats from China, despite Trump’s trade war.
Stacked parcels are seen as an employee stands at a service counter at a post office in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 16, 2025

Hong Kong postal service halts U.S. parcels over tariff ‘bullying'

The move comes as Trump’s tariff offensive on China increasingly affects the former British colony.
Dewi Sukarno
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 16, 2025

Tokyo police refer Dewi Sukarno to prosecutors

Sukarno is suspected of throwing a champagne glass at a female staff member from her office, sources say.
American rapper Post Malone performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 13.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Apr 17, 2025

Music, revolution and Y2K: Coachella 2025 takeaways

Highlights from the California music festival included an appearance from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and an increase in leather pants.
When a bomber holds a high-speed train to ransom, it’s left to conductor Kazuya Takaichi (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) and his colleagues to save the day in “Bullet Train Explosion.”
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2025

'Bullet Train Explosion’: High-speed disaster movie doesn’t get the pulse racing

Netflix’s most lavish Japanese movie to date whizzes by without doing much damage to the image of the high-speed rail it’s promoting.
Arata Hirano, owner of the restaurant Shokudou Arata, pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2025

More Japanese embracing foreign rice, even before it became a tariff topic

A change in mindset could allow Tokyo leeway to relax restrictions if rice becomes a thorny topic in tariff talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.
With Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's visit to Vietnam and the Philippines later this month, Japan is hoping to counter China through stronger cooperation with Southeast Asian countries.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 17, 2025

Ishiba to visit Vietnam and the Philippines from April 27

The trip comes at a time when China is cozying up to Southeast Asian countries.
A U.S. security report cites DeepSeek’s ties to Chinese government interests as "significant.”
WORLD / Politics
Apr 17, 2025

DeepSeek poses ‘profound’ security threat, U.S. house panel claims

The committee urged Nvidia to hand over information on sales of chips that the Chinese startup may have used to develop its breakthrough chatbot model.
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative condition in which motor function is impaired due to a decrease in nerve cells that produce dopamine, a chemical that works in the brain.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 17, 2025

Japan succeeds in improving Parkinson's symptoms with iPS cells

A trial saw nerve cells made from iPS cells transplanted into patients' brains.
Alysa Liu reacts after her free skate at the world championships in Boston on March 28.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
Apr 17, 2025

World champion Alysa Liu feels best yet to come with Olympics on horizon

The 19-year-old crowned her comeback with a dazzling win at the world championships in Boston a little less than three weeks ago.
Burnt power banks containing lithium-ion batteries are shown at the Consumer Affairs Agency
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2025

Japan urges proper disposal of lithium-ion batteries

The Environment Ministry issued a notice to local governments on Tuesday requesting the thorough separation and collection of such batteries.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks as Vice President JD Vance looks on during a meeting with President Donald Trump and President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador in the White House in Washington on April 14. Rubio and his aides shut down a State Department office on Wednesday that tracks and counters global disinformation from foreign actors, including the governments of China, Russia and Iran, U.S. officials said.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 17, 2025

U.S. State Department closing office targeting foreign disinformation

The GEC had come under intense criticism from some Republicans who said it was straying from its mission, accusing it of disfavoring opinions by conservative media in particular.
Michael McMahon, a retired New York City police sergeant working as a private investigator, arrives for the start of his trial at the Brooklyn federal court in New York on May 31, 2023. McMahon was sentenced to 1½ years in prison on Wednesday for acting as an illegal Chinese agent.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 17, 2025

Ex-New York cop sentenced to 1½ years' jail for acting as Chinese agent

A jury found Michael McMahon guilty of interstate stalking and of acting as an agent of China without notifying the U.S. attorney general.
Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Hanoi on Tuesday. Xi is also visiting Malaysia and Cambodia as part of a charm offensive related to recent U.S. tariffs.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 17, 2025

Cambodia seeking China's financial support as Xi visits amid U.S. tariffs

Phnom Penh is a close partner of China, which has invested billions of dollars in projects including roads and airports and is the country's largest creditor.
Palestinian American photographer Adam Rouhana’s exhibition at this year’s Kyotographie festival shows Palestinian life, not death and rubble.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 18, 2025

Kyotographie 2025 opts for laughter and levity in the face of global strife

Artists at the 13th edition of the international photography festival find humor and heart in their portrayals of humanity.
A police car enters Insein prison before the release of prisoners to commemorate the Buddhist New Year in Yangon on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 17, 2025

Myanmar junta to free nearly 5,000 prisoners in amnesty

The junta said 13 foreign nationals would also be pardoned and deported, without giving details of their identities or crimes.
A recently enacted ordinance aimed at respecting individual differences in Sapporo has not been without controversy.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Apr 28, 2025

Sapporo enacts ordinance to foster diversity and inclusion

The number of foreign residents in Sapporo has doubled over the past decade, despite an overall population decline in the city.

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