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Akira Otsuka (left) and Miki Tamaki formed the performing arts troupe DamaDamTal in 2016. They have performed in every edition of the Nakanojo Biennale in Gunma Prefecture since 2017 and credit the festival as a source of inspiration for new productions.
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 4, 2023

DamaDamTal turns abstract dreams into visual art

The Japanese performing arts troupe led by Miki Tamaki and Akira Otsuka gets creative in the mountains of rural Gunma Prefecture at Nakanojo Biennale.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy speaks at the Capitol after he was ousted as speaker of the House, in Washington on Tuesday. The ouster is without precedent in modern U.S. history and leaves the chamber without a leader, plunging it into chaos.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 4, 2023

U.S. House speaker ouster means more chaos as shutdown fight looms

Kevin McCarthy lost his post after hardliners in his party revolted over his compromise with Democrats to avert government shutdown.
A Delta spokesperson said the "small number” of engines involved account for less than 1% of the more than 2,100 power plants on its mainline fleet.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 4, 2023

Delta says some aircraft flew with uncertified engine parts

The disclosure indicates the extent to which uncertified components linked to a British distributor have been sold globally.
Zoom controlled only about 7% of the market for communication and collaboration software as of the first quarter of the year, while Microsoft topped 42%, according to industry analyst IDC.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 4, 2023

Zoom expands tools and features in bid to compete with Microsoft

The company is adding word processing to its suite of tools and experimenting with novel features for meetings as it faces steep competition from Teams.
Passengers line up to board a bullet train at Tokyo Station in August.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2023

Shinkansen rail pass prices soar 70% for tourists

Even with the big increase, demand is likely to stay strong thanks to a cheaper yen and steady flow of inbound visitors.
KitKat-maker Nestle has pledged to increase sales of products that have a Health Star Rating of 3.5 or above by around 50% in the eight years through 2030, but investors say that isn't enough.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 4, 2023

Nestle isn’t doing enough to sell more nutritious food, investors say

Obesity is a growing health crisis in much of the world and food companies have been under pressure to make their portfolios healthier.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 4, 2023

JGB yields hit fresh multiyear highs despite BOJ intervention

The benchmark 10-year JGB yield hovered around 0.78%, its highest since September 2013, after having fallen slightly the previous day.
The Justice Ministry is considering revising the law that requires wills to be handwritten so that people can write them on computers and smartphones.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 4, 2023

Japan considers law revision to allow computer-written wills

The Justice Ministry hopes that not requiring wills to be handwritten will both ease the burden of creating the documents and promote their use.
Tourists leave Ittoqqortoormiit, Denmark, after visiting the village on Aug. 20.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Oct 4, 2023

Inuit hunters blame cruise ships as narwhal disappear

While some view Arctic tourism as a means to reinvigorate the community, others worry it could destroy the last surviving Inuit hunting societies.
Demonstrators hold signs during a protest against COVID-19 measures Munich in 2022.
WORLD / Society
Oct 4, 2023

AI 'supercharges' online disinformation and censorship, report warns

Internet freedom declined for the 13th straight year, with China, Myanmar and Iran having the worst conditions of the 70 countries surveyed.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 4, 2023

Children's agency chief Ayuko Kato vows to tackle falling birthrate

One of the aims of the agency is to help implement the Children's Future Strategy, a plan that was announced as a way to reverse the declining birthrate.
The Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple where Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed in June in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 4, 2023

India's spies infiltrated West long before Canada's murder claim

Canada's recent allegations have thrust India's secretive Research and Analysis Wing into the global spotlight.
Sosuke Ikematsu plays two pianists — or is it just one? — pursuing dreams of becoming a jazz musician in late-1980s Tokyo in “Between the White and Black Keys.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 5, 2023

'Between the White and Black Keys': Offbeat biopic will have you seeing double

Masanori Tominaga’s free-spirited film about jazz pianist Hiroshi Minami captures the vibe of 1980s Tokyo nightlife but remains mostly on the surface.
A woman (Yoko Maki) haunted by the trauma of her husband’s unexplained disappearance hires a detective to find answers in Rikiya Imaizumi’s “Undercurrent.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 5, 2023

‘Undercurrent’: All is not lost in cathartic drama

Yoko Maki and Arata Iura deliver committed performances in Rikiya Imaizumi’s introspective film about people who vanish for inexplicable reasons.
Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy speaks to reporters after he was ousted as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023

McCarthy’s ouster highlights the depths of GOP dysfunction

The recent removal of Kevin McCarthy as U.S. House speaker is symptom of the wider malaise in a fractious Republican Party.
A screen shows this year's winners of the Nobel Prize in chemistry — U.S. chemists Moungi Bawendi and Chemist Louis Brus and Russian physicist Alexei Ekimov — during the announcement of the winners at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Wednesday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 4, 2023

Three win chemistry Nobel for work on quantum dots

Nanoparticles and quantum dots are used in LED lights and computer screens and can also be used to help guide doctors removing cancerous tissue.
Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology displays its EVOGO battery swap solution at the Auto Shanghai show in April. There are concerns that the company is trying to team up with a U.S. firm to avoid U.S. sanctions.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023

Deceptive Chinese strategies that challenge U.S. economic statecraft

The practice by Chinese businesses of using third countries to circumvent tariffs is raising concerns.
Teacher Tarna Andrews at the local school grounds, ahead of a nationwide referendum on Indigenous issues, in Areyonga, Australia
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 5, 2023

In Australia's outback, Indigenous proposal struggles to inspire

In just over a week, Australians will vote on a referendum on Indigenous issues. However, the very people it is designed to help know little about it.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 5, 2023

NTT Docomo to make online brokerage Monex a subsidiary

With the move, the firm aims to strengthen its revenue base by entering in the field of asset formation services.
Employees monitor the production of Covishield, the local name for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, at the Serum Institute of India in Pune, Maharashtra, India.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 5, 2023

Top vaccine maker seeks growth by selling shots to globetrotters

Serum Institute of India plans to start production of yellow fever and dengue shots for travelers to countries where those diseases are endemic.
Police officers work to control a crowd gathering to celebrate Halloween in the Shibuya district of Tokyo on Oct. 31, 2022.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 5, 2023

Shibuya mayor vows to keep things civil as Halloween nears

The mayor made headlines last month when he told would-be partiers to stay away from the Tokyo ward this year for the occasion, citing safety concerns.
Volunteers work at a Salvation Army mobile health clinic in Montreal on Sept. 22. Canada, despite being a wealthy nation, is gripped by a surge in homelessness that has seen thousands of people living in the streets after being priced out of real estate and rental markets.
WORLD / Society
Oct 5, 2023

Homelessness explodes in Canada as rents and housing prices soar

Researchers warn government data is vastly underestimating the number of homeless across the country.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin welcomes Defense Minister Minoru Kihara to the Pentagon in Washington on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 5, 2023

Japan expedites purchase of Tomahawks as security concerns grow

In light of the increasingly challenging Asian security environment, Japan will acquire the cruise missiles a year earlier than initially planned.
Taiwan has become a hot spot that is capable of precipitating a military conflict between China and the United States, and possibly even a nuclear war.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2023

Applying Chinese wisdom to resolve the Taiwan issue

Some 70 years after the Chinese Civil war ended, do the winners of that war still think that violence is the way to achieve unification with Taiwan?
Writer Jon Fosse poses in Oslo in 2015. Since his debut novel was published in 1983, Fosse has written poems, essays, children’s books, plays and novels.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 5, 2023

Norwegian playwright and author Jon Fosse wins literature Nobel

The Swedish Academy cited Fosse's “innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.”
The Singapore skyline
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 6, 2023

The rich are flocking to Singapore as bankers stick with Hong Kong

From Singapore’s earliest years as an independent state, it has aimed to be one of the key locales through which the world’s money flows.
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks
WORLD / Politics
Oct 6, 2023

China’s aggression pushes others toward U.S., top official says

Pentagon official cited cooperation with the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, and the AUKUS alliance
The Safran logo outside the company's headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 6, 2023

Hunt for suspect jet engine parts spurs call for regulation

False documentation could allow the sale of old or unsafe aircraft parts as new, raising safety concerns
The Feels, a new kind of dating event for New York singles, fast-tracks intimacy by fusing mindfulness practices like meditation, unnaturally long eye contact and even feeling each other’s heartbeats.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 7, 2023

Out with speed dating, in with speed intimacy

The event, known as the Feels, fast-tracks intimacy through meditation, unnaturally long eye contact and even feeling each other’s heartbeats.
This year's Tokyo Game Show attendance came up just shy of 2019's draw — an encouraging sign for the event's future.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Oct 7, 2023

A dark fantasy spin on ‘Pinocchio’ may put FromSoftware under pressure

It wasn’t the biggest TGS ever, but it's hard to imagine anyone behind the scenes at TGS headquarters pulling their hair out over 2023’s return to form.

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