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The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo. Many analysts say the central bank would want to avoid rushing policy moves as policymakers probably don’t want to be seen as being forced to act to boost the currency.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 12, 2024

Yen jump eases pressure on BOJ to tighten its policy, analysts say

If the Bank of Japan raised interest rates and announced fewer bond purchases, it could risk being seen as only driven by the volatile yen.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks to the press during the NATO 75th anniversary summit in Washington on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 12, 2024

South Korea to deploy 'StarWars' lasers against Pyongyang's drones

The new laser weapons are apparently invisible and noise-free, require no additional ammunition, operate solely on electricity and are cheap to use.
Durian Lollobrigida and his co-hosts — actors Megumi and Chiaki Horan, singer Thelma Aoyama and former “Terrace House” panelist Yoshimi Tokui — offer in-studio commentary on the contestants’ footage in Netflix’s new reality dating show, “The Boyfriend.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 13, 2024

'The Boyfriend' host Durian Lollobrigida puts a face to queer joy

Involvement in Netflix's new reality dating show is just the latest success in the Japanese drag queen's rise.
Prime Minster Fumio Kishida attends a working session of the NATO Summit in Washington on Thursday. Kishida and new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held their first in-person talks on Thursday, in Washington.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 12, 2024

Japan and Britain agree on wide-ranging cooperation, including in AI

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also confirmed the inseparability of security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions.
Junior high school students taking entrance exams for public high schools enter a venue in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, in March.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 12, 2024

Japan to test digital high school admissions

The Digital Agency estimates digital procedures will cut administrative work by 30-90 hours in junior high schools and 20-80 hours in high schools.
Members of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces take part in a military review at Camp Asaka in October 2018. The nation’s public is currently favorable to the SDF, but if scandals aren’t handled correctly, that opinion may change. 
EDITORIALS
Jul 12, 2024

A multitude of scandals threaten Japan’s national defense

Individually, recent scandals are troubling. Together they are reflective of a problematic culture within the defense forces and bureaucracy.
Summer Basho winner Onosato is trying to join Terunofuji as the only wrestlers to win consecutive titles since 2018.
SUMO
Jul 12, 2024

Onosato poised to continue rapid rise at Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament

The 24-year-old former amateur yokozuna has been on fire since turning pro 14 months ago and already stands on the verge of promotion to sumo’s second-highest rank.
People on a train from India's northeastern states stretch out their hands to collect free food being distributed by an NGO at a railway station in Kolkata in 2012.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 12, 2024

Empty beds, lost jobs: The price of India's crackdown on NGO funds

Only 15,947 NGOs remain active in India, while 35,488 licenses have been cancelled or expired, according to the country's FCRA dashboard.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, view international order as hinging on the concept of indivisible security.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 12, 2024

Russia and China want security for themselves and no one else

Putin and Xi seek indivisible security, that is, exercising draconian control over their respective spheres of influence — which shows the extent of their hypocrisy.
Marketing and PR Director at MSC Cruises Japan Kathy Knowles believes inbound tourism in Japan is likely to increase, and hopes more people will want to explore the country by sea.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jul 13, 2024

Kathy Knowles: ‘I would never have been able to see so much if it weren't for this job’

Going on a cruise can be a fun summer travel option, so much so that this industry executive has made a career out of it.
The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale returns this weekend and features works by artists such as Yayoi Kusama.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 13, 2024

Got somewhere to be and need a friend? Better learn how to ask.

If you live in Japan long enough, you're bound to receive an invitation sooner or later. Make sure you know how to respond or how to ask in return.
Beds that once were used by children to take naps at a kindergarten-turned-elderly center in Taiyuan, in China's northern Shanxi province, on July 2
ASIA PACIFIC / Society / FOCUS
Jul 13, 2024

Chinese kindergartens pivot to senior care as population ages

Some educational facilities are remaking themselves as a recreational center for people of retirement age and above.
A worker passes a sign for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 13, 2024

Republicans to anoint Trump at party convention

The 78-year-old billionaire will be the star of the show as Milwaukee rolls out the red carpet for the Republican National Convention.
U.S. President Joe Biden reacts to the audience during a campaign stop in Detroit on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 13, 2024

'I'm not going anywhere,' Biden says as campaign struggles

The 81-year-old president is trying to shift the conversation from his mental sharpness to the impact of another Donald Trump presidency.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and others at a position of Ukrainian servicemen in the town of Kupiansk last November.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 13, 2024

Being Volodymyr Zelenskyy: How war has changed Ukraine's leader

His ambition when he was elected in 2019 had been to help Ukraine become a modern democracy, before that was shattered by Russia's invasion in 2022.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 14, 2024

Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally

The FBI identified the suspected shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, a Pennsylvania resident who was later killed by Secret Service agents.
Shohei Ohtani receives congratulations from teammates after he hit his 200th home run in MLB on Saturday in Detroit.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 14, 2024

Ohtani becomes first Japanese player to hit 200 MLB homers

Shohei Ohtani also scored three runs for the Dodgers but it wasn't enough to pace Los Angeles to a win over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday.
Palestinians look at the debris of destroyed tents and makeshift housing structures on Saturday following an Israeli military strike that killed dozens of people, near the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
WORLD
Jul 14, 2024

Israel launches major attack against a senior Hamas commander

The Gaza Health Ministry said 90 people had been killed in the assault, half of them women and children, and 300 wounded.
A police officer patrols a beach following what Russian authorities say was a Ukrainian missile strike, in Sevastopol, Crimea, on June 24.
WORLD
Jul 14, 2024

Ukraine is targeting Crimea, a crucial base for Russia’s invasion

Now armed with U.S.-made precision missiles, Kyiv seeks to raise the cost for Russian occupation forces who have long used the peninsula as a base of operations.
About 100 of the roughly 200 species of snails in the Kinki region of Japan are threatened with extinction, researchers have warned.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 14, 2024

Snails becoming rarer in Japan, facing risk of extinction

About 100 of the roughly 200 species of snails in the Kinki region are threatened with extinction, researchers warn.
Keisuke Mukunashi, CEO of Yamaguchi Financial Group, says the regional bank is ready to pay compensation comparable to that of Japan’s biggest banks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 14, 2024

Regional Japan lender dangles megabank pay for market hires

Competition among financial institutions to hire bond traders and other specialists is intensifying as the Bank of Japan nudges interest rates higher.
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump is surrounded by bodyguards after he was shot in the ear during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 14, 2024

How attacks on presidents and candidates have shaped U.S. history

Even before Saturday’s incident, polls showed voters worried about possible violence surrounding this year’s presidential election.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in Ottawa in April. Trudeau has faced accusations of not responding swiftly enough to foreign interference.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 14, 2024

Canada said to have mapped out secret Chinese police operations

Concern has grown over whether or not Beijing monitors and intimidates members of the Chinese diaspora living in Western democracies.
U.S. President Joe Biden prior to a rally in Detroit on Friday
WORLD / Politics
Jul 14, 2024

Is Biden competent to serve again? Here's what health experts say.

A battery of new cognitive tests could enlighten voters on the mental abilities of both Biden and Trump, who has had his own share of verbal lapses.
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.
OLYMPICS
Jul 14, 2024

She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics

While news sites have suggested that being a volunteer is a way to attend the Games for “free,” that doesn’t apply to international volunteers like Mai Tarumi.
A bloodied Donald Trump is surrounded by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 14, 2024

‘America’s under attack’: A gleeful Trump rally shattered by gunfire

A campaign rally for former U.S. President Donald Trump was a day of big emotions. Glee, unity and righteous anger — and then suddenly fear.
Storage tanks at the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage project controlled by oil companies Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies in Norway. The Norwegian government is funding 80% of the initial investment for the state-of-the-art facility.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2024

A giant carbon dump gives glimpse into net-zero future

As the cost of renewables declines at pace with fossil fuel use, the need for carbon, capture and storage tech will diminish, making cost reductions a challenge.
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Jul 15, 2024

Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?

Vocaloid creators’ recent cacophonous approach to using Miku’s voice sounds like nothing in mainstream pop right now — and people love that.
A truck driven by a drunk man collided with a group of schoolchildren and killed two pupils in Yachimata, Chiba Prefecture, in June 2021.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 15, 2024

Japan to toughen penalties over drunken truck drivers

The annual number of traffic accidents caused by drunken truck drivers has remained between 30 and 50 a year since 2012.
A child receives an oral Malaria vaccine in Lilongwe, Malawi.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 15, 2024

Rising conflicts globally slowed childhood vaccination rate in 2023, U.N. says

About 14.5 million children failed to get vaccinated in 2023, compared with 13.9 million a year earlier, according to U.N. estimates.

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