Search - new

 
 
"It is an expanding field. We need more people,” said Kaoru Onishi, head of the global product division at Nissay Asset Management.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 6, 2025

Nissay Asset ramps up hiring as alternative investment booms

Japanese asset managers are trying to boost returns at a time when policymakers are encouraging households to shift their savings to investments.
Masamune Goto (front) pilots his boat during a powerboat racing competition at Tokyo's Tamagawa boat course on Feb. 23.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 6, 2025

Powerboat racing revs up bid to shed shadowy reputation in Japan

Powerboat racing started more than 70 years ago under a special gambling law that classifies it alongside horse racing, speedway and cycling in Japan.
Elementary and junior high school students study online at Free School Mirai in the city of Nagano.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Mar 17, 2025

Schools face challenges in evaluating students not attending classes

There is concern that assessing students through grades may run counter to supporting those who cannot attend school.
The Eastern District of New York Court Federal Court House in New York on Feb. 5.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2025

Judges face rise in threats as Musk blasts them over rulings

In recent weeks, Musk, congressional Republicans and other top allies of U.S. President Donald Trump have called for the impeachment of some federal judges.
Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Mar 7, 2025

Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly

Despite longstanding taboos, evolving attitudes toward women's health highlight shifting cultural norms.
A monarch butterfly is seen at an enclosure at Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, in August 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Mar 7, 2025

Butterfly populations plummet by 22% in U.S. since turn of century

Studies in some other countries have documented declines at roughly the same rate as in the U.S. data.
While Google may be the restaurant review medium of choice in other countries, Japan largely prefers Tabelog, where five-star reviews are rare and three-star reviews aren't what they seem.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 9, 2025

On Japan's top foodie site, imperfection is gold

Cultural expectations may influence ratings on Tabelog, but reading between the lines might help you find the next hidden gem.
“The Place of Shells” takes place mostly in Gottingen, Germany, where both the author and the book's narrator live, while also jumping both geographically and temporally to Sendai, Japan, through memories of the 3/11 disaster and its aftermath.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 10, 2025

Grief ebbs and flows between two tragedies in 'The Place of Shells'

Mai Ishizawa’s debut novel, which won one of the three Akutagawa Prizes awarded in 2021, is also her first to be released in English, translated by Polly Barton.
The illuminated advertising board of a host club in Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district. The bill approved by the government on Friday aims to ban hosts from emotionally manipulating customers into making excessive purchases — a common tactic in the industry.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 7, 2025

Japan looks to crack down on host club exploitation with tighter regulations

Police received 2,776 consultations nationwide related to host clubs last year, with many involving women coerced into sex work to cover unpaid bills.
Shoshi Maekawa (center) speaks during a news conference in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Thursday following the opening of his retrial.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 7, 2025

Retrial ruling set for July 18 over 1986 murder in Fukui

In a hearing at the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court, Shoshi Maekawa said he was innocent of the junior high school student's murder.
Nintendo shares sank as much as 9.8% in Tokyo Friday, as U.S. President Donald Trump doubling levies on China means game consoles, mostly made in China, could have higher selling prices in the United States due to heftier import costs.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2025

Nintendo shares plunge on tariff fears as foreign investors retreat

Nintendo sank 9.2% in Tokyo, its biggest intraday drop since the stock market rout on Aug. 5.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2025

Bank of America CEO willing to hire in Japan amid revival

The bank, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, has about 800 employees in Japan.
Globally, women are severely underrepresented among leading roles in cinema, with female directors accounting for just over 10% of the industry in Japan. Achieving gender equality on-set would have far-reaching consequences for the whole of society.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 7, 2025

Without women behind the camera, equality stays out of the frame

Cinema isn't only about what stories are told, but who tells them. Overcoming severe underrepresentation, women are reshaping the film industry and cultural narratives.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Friday. Trump said tariffs could be imposed on Canadian dairy and lumber products within days, in a growing trade war with the United States' northern neighbor.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Mar 8, 2025

Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff strategy sows confusion

Hasty announcements have injected chaos into the economy and financial markets, casting doubts about the White House’s trade strategy.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday about his decision to cancel plans to raise the ceiling on out-of-pocket expenses for high-cost medical care.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 8, 2025

Ishiba cancels planned August medical expense cap hike

It is the third time the Ishiba administration has changed its policy on the high-cost medical care system.
Elon Musk departs the White House for the Capitol on the night of U.S. President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress, in Washington, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 8, 2025

Inside the explosive meeting where Trump officials clashed with Elon Musk

Simmering anger at the billionaire’s unchecked power spilled out in a remarkable Cabinet Room meeting. The president quickly moved to rein in Musk.
A demonstration by the Polish army at the Bemowo Piskie Land Forces Training Center in Poland in September 2023. As U.S. President Donald Trump casts doubt on his country's alliances, Poland needs to double its military manpower and consider more destructive weapons, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 8, 2025

Alarmed by Trump, Poland must look at nuclear options, premier says

Poland needs to double its military manpower and consider more destructive weapons, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
A makeshift memorial for fallen Ukrainian soldiers on Independence Square in Kyiv.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 8, 2025

Ten days that shook Ukraine’s world reverberate in defiant Kyiv

The U.S. shift is as calamitous for Ukraine as it is shocking for European allies. But the mood remains defiant in Kyiv.
SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft atop it's super heavy booster is launched on its eighth test at the company's Boca Chica launch pad in Brownsville, Texas, on Thursday.
WORLD
Mar 9, 2025

SpaceX scrubs launch of two NASA satellite missions

One rocket’s chief passenger was SPHEREx, a space telescope that will take images of the entire sky in more than a 100 colors that are invisible to the human eye.
Shigeru Ishiba, the prime minister and president of the Liberal Democratic Party, shakes hands with one of the party's candidates for the upcoming Upper House election during the party's annual convention in Tokyo on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 10, 2025

Ishiba vows all-out election fight at LDP convention

The triennial Upper House election comes after the LDP-Komeito ruling coalition lost its majority in the Lower House in last year's general election.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stands with him aboard Air Force One on his return to Washington on Sunday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 10, 2025

Trump declines to rule out recession in U.S. this year

The U.S. president's on-again, off-again tariff threats have roiled financial markets and stoked unease among consumers.
Aizawa Concrete employees work in the Namie factory in Fukushima Prefecture in January.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Mar 11, 2025

14 years after 3/11 disasters, Fukushima vies to become a startup hub

Part of the goal is to attract a more permanent workforce to Fukushima to support the development of the prefecture as a whole.
A solar panel provides electricity in northern Gaza on Feb. 13. Israel’s energy minister said on Sunday that he was immediately cutting off electricity to the Gaza Strip as Israel tries to pressure Hamas amid talks over their fragile truce.
WORLD
Mar 10, 2025

Israel halts Gaza's electricity supply ahead of new truce talks

Israel's decision comes a week after it blocked all aid supplies to Gaza.
A demonstration against the Trump administration’s cessation of military aid to Ukraine, attended by Ukrainians and American ex-pats, outside the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv on Saturday
WORLD
Mar 10, 2025

With drones and North Korean troops, Russia pushes back Ukraine’s offensive

Russia has retaken about two-thirds of the territory Ukraine seized last summer in the Kursk region of Russia, but at a fearful cost in lives.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen throws a pass in the third quarter of a 2025 AFC divisional round game against the Baltimore Ravens at Highmark Stadium on Jan. 19.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Mar 10, 2025

Bills star Allen set for record-breaking $330 million deal

The $250 million Allen will receive is the largest guaranteed figure paid to any NFL player in the history of the sport.
Excavators to be used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to remove debris from homes destroyed by the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / FOCUS
Mar 10, 2025

Cascading extreme weather events unleash billions in damages globally

Compound weather, when two or more concurrent events that collectively yield a result worse than if each had occurred on its own, are occurring more frequently.
China’s overnight and seven-day repo rates surged in February, while bond investors took losses from a sharp rise in yields.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 10, 2025

‘Impossible trinity’ conundrum has caused a cash crunch in Asia

Countries can’t simultaneously control their currencies, independently set interest rates and allow capital to move freely across borders — something will break or give way.
People rest inside the sports hall of an elementary school that was transformed into temporary accommodations for people fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Przemysl, Poland, in March 2022. Geography and geopolitical interests mean that Japan could find itself assuming a supporting role similar to Poland's should China ever attack Taiwan.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 10, 2025

Poland’s role in Ukraine war offers lessons for Japan, top envoy says

Geography and geopolitical interests mean that Tokyo could find itself assuming a supporting role similar to Warsaw’s should China ever attack Taiwan.
When Ukraine gets bulldozed into accepting a ceasefire on the capitulatory terms President Vladimir Putin might accept, Trump’s America will dismiss complaints from Kyiv as warmongering.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2025

Kyiv and Moscow are divided by a valley of lies

When Ukraine gets bulldozed into accepting a ceasefire on the capitulatory terms Putin might accept, Trump’s America will dismiss complaints from Kyiv as warmongering.
Artificial intelligence is set to disrupt white-collar jobs, making it crucial for knowledge workers to embrace AI, develop backup plans and adapt to an evolving job market.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2025

How to hedge against AI stealing your job

"Knowledge workers" need a back-up plan as artificial intelligence keeps getting better.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years