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In Palworld, players can explore an open world and collectible Pokemon-esque creatures, some of whom utilize a variety of weaponry to defeat opponents.
LIFE / Digital
Jan 24, 2024

Overnight smash Palworld is much more than ‘Pokemon with guns’

Instead of “Pokemon with guns,” a more apt description for Palworld would be “Pokemon, but it grew up over the last 30 years.”
A scanning electron micrograph of group A streptococcus bacteria
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 24, 2024

Cases of tissue-damaging bacterial disease hit record high in Japan

Health authorities are urging people to take basic health measures such as hand-washing to prevent the spread of the disease.
American President Joe Biden hugs Brittany Alkonis after giving a State of the Union in February. The wife of jailed U.S. sailor Lt. Ridge Alkonis ran a successful pressure campaign to get her husband released from a Japanese prison into American custody. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 24, 2024

Japan owes no apology for U.S. Navy officer’s treatment

The case of Navy Lt. Ridge Alkonis is a divisive one, which both the U.S. and Japanese governments have tried to keep quiet about.
Anindya Shabrina Prasetiyo (center), a Labour Party legislative candidate in the upcoming general election, attends a rally on Jan. 19 in front of City Hall in Surabaya. Indonesia's presidential and legislative elections next month will see more than 200 million people eligible to vote, with slightly more than half of them women according to the country's election commission, yet with much fewer women representing them.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 25, 2024

Indonesian women hope election breaks them into boys' club

More than 200 million people are eligible to vote in the Feb. 14 election, yet only a handful of women represent them in parliament.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2024

Kishida's new aid package aims to help recovery of quake-hit areas

It will offer subsidies to small and medium-sized firms in Ishikawa Prefecture, as well as those in neighboring Niigata, Toyama, and Fukui prefectures.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits a munitions factory at an undisclosed location in this picture released on Jan. 10.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 26, 2024

Is North Korea's Kim preparing for an actual war?

Some believe he may be disillusioned with diplomacy and is girding for conflict; others think the provocations are timed to coincide with U.S. and South Korean elections.
Noto Tetsudo's Anamizu Station in Anamizu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 15. The local railway's services have been fully suspended since a powerful New Year's Day earthquake.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2024

Quake-hit railway vows to resume services

Noto Tetsudo is hoping to bring part of its 33.1-kilometer railway back online in February.
Foreign tourists at a duty-free counter in a department store in Tokyo
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2024

Duty-free sales at Japan department stores hit record high in 2023

The rise reflected the weak yen, as well as an increase in the number of foreign visitors to Japan.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 26, 2024

Japan's passport denial for ex-captive journalist ruled illegal

The presiding judge ruled that the denial of a passport for Jumpei Yasuda was illegal, as it represented an abuse of the government's discretionary power.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson scores against the Texans during the fourth quarter of their playoff game in Baltimore, Maryland, on Jan. 20.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jan 26, 2024

Ravens' Lamar Jackson ready for 'heavyweight fight' in AFC title game

The AFC championship showdown will determine which team advances to next month's Super Bowl in Las Vegas.
Some 5 million people globally die of causes related to air pollution from fossil fuels each year and climate change has a huge impact on people's health and psychological well-being.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2024

We’re finally recognizing climate change’s mental health toll

Climate change's impact on health, including psychological well-being, is overwhelming. COP28 took stock of this and put youth at the center of discussions like never before.
Shitsui Hakoishi, 107, works with researcher Yasumichi Arai (left) while her younger brother, Hidemasa, looks on. Researchers like Arai believe the healthy and active Hakoishi's cells may hold the secret to living a long life.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Jan 27, 2024

Living until 100, if not forever, in good health

Immortality may be out of reach, but can a slew of research projects prolong our natural aging process?
Taylor Swift attends the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, on Jan. 7.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 27, 2024

Outrage over deepfake porn images of Taylor Swift

One image of the U.S. megastar was seen 47 million times on X, the former Twitter, before it was removed Thursday.
The U.S. government on Friday approved the sale of F-16 warplanes to Turkey, after Ankara ratified Sweden's NATO membership.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 27, 2024

Washington approves $23 billion sale of F-16 warplanes to Turkey

Ankara will get 40 new F-16s and upgrades to 79 of the jets in its existing fleet, the U.S. State Department said in a news release.
Workers assemble electric vehicles at the Lucid Motors plant in Casa Grande, Arizona, in September 2021.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 28, 2024

Riyadh's multi-billion EV dream risks crashing into reality

Riyadh has spent billions to try to turn itself into a hub for electric vehicles and overcome obstacles including a lack of infrastructure and talent.
Environment groups gather to oppose a key LNG terminal that threatened a delicate algal reef, in Taipei in December 2021. If Taipower can’t make sufficient progress on clean-energy generation, the island could potentially lose some of its allure as a destination for chip manufacturing.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 28, 2024

Taiwan’s troubled utility poses risk to chipmakers’ green goals

Political pressures have prevented the state-owned Taipower from passing on costs to customers, while bets on offshore wind have been marred by obstacles.
Jannik Sinner celebrates after defeating Daniil Medvedev in the Australian Open final in Melbourne on Sunday.
TENNIS
Jan 29, 2024

Jannik Sinner ready to dance in 'pressure storm' after winning Australian Open

Sinner is prepared for the brighter spotlight that will follow him after winning the Australian Open.
Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft under construction in Renton, Washington, in 2017
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 30, 2024

Boeing under a microscope for safety issues as it reports results

Boeing shares have fallen 21% this month, putting them on track for their worst January since at least 2017.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Jan 30, 2024

Local governments in Japan battle overtourism challenges

Officials are seeking ways to solve problems that emerge from higher tourist numbers, such as a shortage of taxis and the accumulation of garbage.
Tokyo's net population inflow rose for the second consecutive year in 2023, reflecting a recovery in the number of people relocating to the capital after pandemic-related restrictions were eased.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2024

Tokyo's net population inflow rose to 68,000 in 2023

The net population inflow, or the number of people moving into Tokyo minus those moving out, rose for the second consecutive year.
A statue of Mario on display inside a Takashiyama department store in Kyoto in November. Nintendo's shares have soared 47% in the past year, outpacing gains in console rivals Microsoft and Sony Group over the past couple of months.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024

Nintendo’s record gain tested in wait for 'Switch 2’

Nintendo's shares have soared 47% in the past year, recently outpacing gains in console rivals Microsoft and Sony Group.
Given that developing countries’ domestic markets are much smaller than that of the U.S., liberal trade policies play a larger role in driving their economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2024

Developing countries should reject American-style protectionism

America’s current industrial policy poses an existential threat to the multilateral trading system it worked so hard to build
The thick, supposedly lucky sushi rolls of Setsubun are full of it.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 31, 2024

How a trendy sushi roll usurped the traditions of Setsubun

The lore around “ehōmaki” sounds just whacky enough to make it an old custom, but it turns out to be a fairly recent phenomenon.
Huang Jie, who was elected on Jan. 13, called her win a "positive outcome," and said that her election reflected "certain progress in Taiwan's society."
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 31, 2024

Taiwan's first openly gay lawmaker hopes to inspire

Huang Jie's journey to the legislature was not easy — she has been the target of discriminatory attacks and has faced distrust from voters due to her age.
At the heart of European Union thinking about economic security is fear that economic dependencies will be weaponized.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 30, 2024

EU’s dilemma: balancing national and economic security

At the heart of EU thinking about economic security is fear that economic dependencies will be weaponized.
The most relevant measure to gauge plastic bag use isn’t how many carriers get used, but how much material is consumed and how much pollution is produced in their making.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2024

Plastic bag bans have failed in every way except one

Reusable plastic bags need to be used 52 times before its environmental impact drops below that of a disposable one, according to a 2018 Danish study.
Harboring feelings for her one-time film director, a woman (Adela Sou, left) sets out to find him after he mysteriously disappears in “Everything, Everywhere.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2024

‘Everything, Everywhere’: Contemplative drama speaks to lonely drifters

Kah Wai Lim captures the beauty of the Balkans in his film about an adrift filmmaker and his muse who searches for him.
Takuro Adachi’s documentary “Sono Kodo ni Mimi wo Ateyo” follows doctors working in Aichi Prefecture’s busiest ER over nine months.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2024

‘Sono Kodo ni Mimi o Ateyo’: An absorbing dive into pressures of the ER

Filmed at the height of the pandemic, Takuro Adachi’s documentary spotlights emergency room doctors who attend to patients from every strata of society.
Fujitsu apologized for its role in the wrongful conviction of more than 900 subpostmasters in the U.K. who used its accounting software.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024

Fujitsu promises better quality control after U.K. scandal

The Tokyo-based technology company is the subject of an inquiry into a glitch in its Horizon accounting software used by the U.K. Post Office.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 1, 2024

Prosecutors seek 23 years for Japanese doctor in consensual killing case

They claim the accused had an "interest" in killing the elderly and people with disabilities under the false pretense of medical care.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji