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Yoshihiko Noda, the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, gives a speech in the city of Kitakyushu last week.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 13, 2025

CDP's Noda looks to local elections to build party's momentum

The moves by main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan chief Yoshihiko Noda come amid speculation of a rare double election this summer.
People watch a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a train station in Seoul on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 14, 2025

North Korea fires suspected short-range ballistic missiles

The launches on Tuesday morning came a day after the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan held talks to reaffirm ties.
People hold an anti-Japan rally in Seoul in July 2019 following Tokyo's decision to tighten controls on exports to South Korea.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2025

North Korea incited anti-Japan sentiment in the South

North Korea aimed to fan the flames of anti-Japanese sentiment over issues like wartime labor and the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
The streets of Susukino district in the city of Sapporo, Hokkaido, in February 2020. Osamu Tamura, 61, is on trial to determine whether he was aware of the alleged actions of his daughter when he drove her to and from the hotel where a 62-year-old man was found dead and beheaded in July 2023.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 14, 2025

Father of suspected killer pleads not guilty to aiding Sapporo murder

Osamu Tamura, 61, is on trial to determine whether he was aware of his daughter's alleged actions.
Japan's first COVID-19 case was confirmed on Jan. 15, 2020, and there have been reports of cases of prolonged COVID-19 aftereffects having impact on social life.
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2025

Caution still needed five years after Japan's first COVID-19 case

Waves of infections have continued even after Japan lowered the classification of COVID-19 under the infectious disease law in May 2023.
A screen displays a news report on the arrest of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul on Wednesday. Investigators arrested Yoon after launching a pre-dawn operation to bring the impeached leader in for questioning over his short-lived martial law declaration.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 15, 2025

South Korean investigators question arrested President Yoon in insurrection probe

Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested and questioned by authorities in relation to a criminal insurrection investigation on Wednesday, saying he was only cooperating with what he called an illegal probe to avoid violence.
U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock, Pennsylvannia, in 2019. Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel face significant legal challenges in their case against the United States.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 15, 2025

Nippon Steel’s case against Biden probably unwinnable, attorneys argue

A U.S. president's rejection of a deal following review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has only been successfully challenged once.
A damaged school bus is seen after residents fled from the Eaton fire, one of six simultaneous blazes that have swept across Los Angeles County, in Altadena, California, on Saturday.
WORLD / Society
Jan 15, 2025

LA schools rush to reopen as memories of COVID-19 disruption linger

Educators, administrators and parents are taking steps to mitigate learning loss and provide relief to families adversely affected by wildfires.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 15, 2025

BOJ’s Ueda joins deputy chief in flagging chance of January hike

Following Ueda’s remarks, the yen strengthened as much as 0.4% to ¥157.34 against the dollar.
A survey found that there were gaps in many cases between people's self-assessments of sleep length and quality, and the results of analyses such as those by brain wave examinations.
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2025

Over 40% of those content with sleep hours lack sleep, study shows

Meanwhile, some 66% of people surveyed who complained about insomnia, including difficulty falling asleep, had no problem.
Nine-year-old Paprika loves food and is sure to bring a smile to your face.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Jan 16, 2025

Always happy, always smiling

Paprika, sure to bring smiles, is looking for a new home.
KKR is discussing investing several hundred billion yen for an equity stake in the operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 16, 2025

KKR considers joining Seven & I management buyout after Apollo

The U.S. firm is discussing investing several hundred billion yen for an equity stake in the operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores.
Filmmaker David Lynch at his Hollywood Hills home in Los Angeles in 2002. The painter turned avant-garde film artist, whose fame, influence and distinctively skewed worldview extended far beyond the movie screen, died on Thursday at 78.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 17, 2025

David Lynch, maker of florid and unnerving films, dies at 78

A painter turned artist whose films included “Eraserhead,” “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive,” Lynch also brought his visionary view to the small screen with “Twin Peaks.”
From the mid-2000s onward, Ryuichi Sakamoto created a number of installation works, often in collaboration with Shiro Takatani, of multimedia art collective Dumb Type.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 17, 2025

A slow dive into ‘a moment and an eternity’ with Ryuichi Sakamoto

New exhibition “Seeing Sound, Hearing Time” is the first comprehensive overview of the musician’s installation work presented in Japan.
Nintendo said it will reveal its next-generation Switch 2 on April 2, setting in motion the retirement of the nearly eight-year-old flagship model.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 17, 2025

Nintendo hopes to reprise blockbuster Switch with 2025 successor

It will host several "Nintendo Switch 2 Experience" events in major cities around the world from April 4 to give gamers an opportunity to test the new console.
The compromise of Janet Yellen’s computer makes the Treasury breach the latest hack attributed to the Chinese government that has reached the top ranks of a U.S. federal department.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 17, 2025

Chinese hackers accessed Yellen's computer in U.S. Treasury breach

The attackers appeared to focus on Treasury’s role in sanctions, intelligence and international affairs, but didn’t penetrate the department’s email or classified systems.
Rakuten Group CEO Hiroshi Mikitani speaks during an interview at the company's headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 17, 2025

Rakuten’s Mikitani wants to sell bonds to Japanese investors

Market pricing indicates that views on Rakuten are improving after years of losses and a stretched balance sheet.
The families of the victims of sexual violence and others hold a news conference in the city of Osaka on Dec. 4 after submitting a petition to the Osaka Prefectural Assembly calling for the continuation of the Sexual Assault Crisis Healing Intervention Center Osaka, a one-stop support center within a hospital.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Jan 17, 2025

Osaka sexual violence support center faces existential threat

SACHICO, Japan's first one-stop support center within a hospital setting for women affected by sexual violence, has been asked to leave Hannan Chuo Hospital.
Hideki Matsuyama won the Genesis Invitational at Riveria Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, on Feb. 18, 2024.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Jan 17, 2025

Tiger Woods-hosted PGA Tour event to be relocated due to LA wildfires

The PGA Tour event that Tiger Woods was scheduled to host in Southern California next month will be played at an alternate venue due to the massive wildfires that have ravaged parts of Los Angeles, the Tour said on Thursday.
Parents and municipal staff share their concerns during a workshop held by volunteer group Cotohana in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jan 27, 2025

Towns near Fukushima plant struggle to attract families with children

Futaba County, home to the Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant, has seen a drastic reduction in the number of children in the area.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. Tokyo prosecutors on Friday indicted an accountant of the Liberal Democratic Party’s bloc in the assembly for underreporting over ¥60 million ($386,000) of the group’s income and expenditure.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 17, 2025

Accountant for LDP bloc in Tokyo assembly accused of underreporting funds

Hidekatsu Yajima, 72, is alleged to have underreported over ¥60 million ($386,000) of LDP assembly members’ income and expenditure.
Then-Rep. Brandon Williams, a Republican from New York, during a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing in Washington last May
WORLD / Politics
Jan 18, 2025

Trump picks one-term congressman to manage U.S. nuclear arsenal

Brandon Williams represented a New York congressional district for one term, but little is known about his experience in the management of atomic weapons.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba poses for a photo with Dimitri Kerkentzes (second left), visiting secretary-general of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions, at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2025

Ishiba vows to make Osaka Expo a success

"We will do our best to communicate (the attractions of) not only Osaka but also Japan as a whole to the world," Ishiba also said.
Eugene Kangawa's Atelier iii is a space where visitors are invited to engage directly with the artist’s evolving practice.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 18, 2025

Eugene Kangawa’s art space embraces impermanence

The artist’s Atelier iii studio resists spectacle and asks visitors to slow down and commit to being present.
Fuji TV is losing more advertisers following allegations about inappropriate behavior by a celebrity host and questions about its handling of the case.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2025

Fuji TV loses more advertisers amid inquiry into host’s behavior

Insurance firm Dai-ichi Life Insurance and telecommunications company NTT East have decided to suspend ads on the major broadcaster.
Beds lie in a corridor of a hospital in Duan Yao autonomous county in Guangxi region, China, on Jan. 9.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jan 20, 2025

China's aging villages face yawning health care gap in a fragile economy

Far lower wages in rural China mean many qualified doctors are heading to the cities to make a living.
A dairy farming facility in Bengaluru, which Akiba Bokujo Holdings is expected to operate
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 20, 2025

Japanese dairy farm operator targeting India

Akiba Bokujo Holdings has partnered with an Indian IT startup to procure feed, raise dairy cows and produce products.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Mogami frigate, of the class of the same name, is anchored at the MSDF's naval base in the city of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in September 2022.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jan 20, 2025

Japan looks to learn from the past with bid to build Australian warships

A winning bid for a decadelong Australian frigate program would be a major breakthrough for Japan’s defense industry following a failed 2016 attempt to sell submarines to Canberra.
Core machinery orders, excluding orders for ships and power equipment, totaled ¥899.6 billion ($5.77 billion) in November, the Cabinet Office said.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 20, 2025

Japan's core machinery orders up 3.4% in November

Orders totaled ¥899.6 billion ($5.77 billion), the Cabinet Office said, marking a second consecutive month of growth.
Climate change and urbanization are believed to have contributed to the earliest ever observation of cedar pollen in Tokyo, on Jan. 8, an expert says.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 20, 2025

Cedar pollen is already in the air in Tokyo

Tokyo officials are urging people to take steps to prevent and mitigate hay fever symptoms, as pollen counts are expected to rise in the coming weeks.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’