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Last week, Shotaro Morii signed a minor league deal worth $1.5 million with the Athletics that defies 30 years of cultural norms holding that Japanese players should first compete in NPB before going to Major League Baseball.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 22, 2025

By signing with A’s, a two-way prospect charts a rare path out of Japan

Shotaro Morii opted to bypass NPB in order to sign a minor league deal worth $1.5 million with the Athletics.
Israeli tanks near the border with Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 22, 2025

Hamas' tight grip on Gaza complicates plan for lasting peace

Hamas remains deeply entrenched in Gaza and its hold on power represents a challenge to implementing a permanent ceasefire.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers a policy speech at the Lower House of the parliament in Tokyo last November.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 23, 2025

As parliament opens, ruling coalition enters uncharted territory

For the Liberal Democratic Party, the days of pushing through bills on the back of an overwhelming majority in both chambers of parliament are over.
Chinese actor Wang Xing shakes hands with a Thai police officer after being assisted in his return to the country, after being kidnapped into one of the telecom fraud centers, at a police station in Thailand-Myanmar border's Mae Sot district, Tak province, Thailand, on Jan. 7.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jan 22, 2025

China families appeal to free relatives held by scam gangs in Myanmar

Chinese law does not consider men as potential victims of human trafficking.
“The Elephant Man” and “Twin Peaks” director David Lynch became a favorite among Japanese moviegoers who flocked to new arthouse cinemas (known as “mini theaters”) popping up around the country in the 1980s and ’90s.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 23, 2025

How 'Twin Peaks' turned David Lynch into Japan's favorite weirdo

The director’s work thrived in the early days of arthouse “mini theaters,” and cherry pies and canned coffee fueled the nation's "Twin Peaks" mania.
A charred chimney is all that remains at a fire-ravaged ocean front home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Jan. 16.
WORLD
Jan 22, 2025

After the fire, should some parts of Los Angeles never rebuild?

Researchers warn that wildfires pose very different risks from more predictable events like sea-level rise and riverbank flooding.
Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki speaks during his introductory news conference with the team in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 23, 2025

Dodgers introduce Japanese pitching phenom Roki Sasaki

A frenzied sweepstakes among MLB clubs officially came to an end with Sasaki's decision to join Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in LA.
Attendees inside the Congress Center at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday. The annual Davos gathering of political leaders, top executives and celebrities runs from Jan. 20 to 24.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 23, 2025

China tones it down at Davos this time ahead of Trump tariffs

Donald Trump has warned that a 10% levy could be imposed on China as soon as Feb. 1.
Emergency vehicles on the side of the road as flames race up a hill in Castaic, a northwestern neighborhood of Los Angeles, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Jan 23, 2025

Fast-growing wildfire breaks out north of Los Angeles, forcing evacuations

The Hughes Fire in the Castaic Lake area of Los Angeles County forced evacuations with warnings of "immediate threat to life."
U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 23, 2025

As Trump threatens tariffs, his orders kick off more extensive trade overhaul

The U.S. president's executive order on trade touched on sweeping changes to rules that have governed U.S. trade policy for decades.
A portrait of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is placed amid flowers at his grave at the Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow on March 2, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 23, 2025

Navalny's lawyer regrets she couldn't stop his return to Moscow

Olga Mikhailova says she feels she "did not push hard enough" to change the mind of the Russian opposition leader, who eventually died in an Arctic penal colony.
Mizuho's CEO Masahiro Kihara said on Wednesday that domestic corporate banking, asset and wealth management, as well as global and corporate and investment banking, would all contribute to growth.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 23, 2025

Mizuho head sees profit reaching ¥1 trillion in three to four years

Mizuho previously projected record annual net income of ¥820 billion for the current fiscal year, meaning the increase would require an uplift of more than 20%.
An oil pump jack. Big U.S. oil companies believe withdrawing from the Paris Agreement only limits Washington's ability to influence an ongoing global energy transition and exposes them to an uneven regulatory environment.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 23, 2025

Trump's climate withdrawal creates rare discord with Big Oil

A shift in the U.S. power industry away from coal has contributed to a roughly 17% decline in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions since 2007.
Celtic's Arne Engels (left) and Young Boys' Silvere Ganvoula M'boussy vie for the ball during their Champions League match in Glasgow, Scotland, on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Jan 23, 2025

Celtic makes 'little bit of history' with Champions League progress

Celtic ensured it will have at least three more games at Europe's top table this season.
Tourists visit shops near Kyoto's Fushimi Inari Shrine on Jan. 13. The nation's growing tourism sector, set to hit 40 million visitors in 2025, boosts the economy but is straining the nation's infrastructure.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 23, 2025

Japan has '$100 billion' reasons to welcome more visitors

Japan's growing tourism, set to hit 40 million visitors in 2025, boosts the economy but strains infrastructure, highlighting a need for smarter policies to manage overtourism.
The site of a Rheinmetall arms factory in the municipality of Unterluess, Germany, in February last year. The war in Ukraine has highlighted Europe's need for increased armaments production.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2025

Europe needs a defense production act

The war in Ukraine has already prompted structural reforms and an increase defense spending at the national and EU levels.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, sentenced to 14 years for corruption, reflects the country's recurring cycle of leaders rising with military backing and then falling out of favor.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2025

Jailing Imran Khan won’t fix Pakistan’s problems

Pakistan’s economic recovery hinges on reforms, stability and military backing.
Emmanuelle Moureaux in her office, which looks like a museum, at emmanuelle moureaux INC.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 31, 2025

How Tokyo taught a French architect the power of colors

French-born architect Emmanuelle Moureaux took inspiration from Tokyo's vibrancy to create her "100 colors" series.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade at Capitol One Arena in Washington on Monday.
WORLD
Jan 23, 2025

Musk calls for defunding of Wikipedia over description of gesture

A recent war of words pits the two tech giants against each other and highlights the starkly different ethos behind Musk's X and Wikipedia.
National Police Agency Commissioner-General Yasuhiro Tsuyuki speaks during a news conference on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 23, 2025

Japan police agency sets rules for fake IDs in undercover yami baito probes

Investigations involving the use of fake IDs will target crimes such as robbery, special fraud, investment fraud and romance fraud.
The day care room for younger children at a multipurpose facility on Tonaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, has never been used since its establishment in 2019.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Feb 3, 2025

The harsh reality of migration outflow on Okinawa’s least populated island

Since Tonaki Island established its only day care center in 2019, not a single child has set foot inside.
Shipping containers at an industrial port in the Keihin Industrial Zone in Kawasaki. Japanese businesses see a larger role for Japan if global trade breaks down and multilateral trade institutions become less effective without U.S. participation.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 23, 2025

Japan contemplates global free-trade leadership as U.S. goes protectionist

Tokyo could find opportunity in the turmoil while avoiding direct confrontation with Washington.
Japanese Communist Party leader Tomoko Tamura speaks at a Lower House session in Tokyo in December 2024.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 23, 2025

Japanese Communist Party's Tomoko Tamura faces leadership questions ahead of polls

Tamura is aiming for 6.5 million proportional representation votes, but experts say that's unrealistic.
Marialyce Pedersen cleans burned leaves and debris that accumulated in the sink of her outdoor kitchen made of cob that survived the Eaton fire when her home burned in Altadena, California, on Jan. 20.
WORLD / Society
Jan 23, 2025

Los Angeles wildfires spark interest in adobe and natural building materials

Former homeowners determined to stay want houses that the next fire will not burn easily and that, if burnt, will not turn the soil, water and air into a toxic hazard.
A business district in Tokyo. Japan plans to strengthen pre-screening measures for overseas investors that could potentially cooperate with foreign intelligence gathering efforts, addressing rising national security concerns.
BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2025

Japan to tighten investment pre-screening amid security concerns

While the updated regulations will impose an additional step for a broader range of investors, those who pass the screening can still invest in Japanese companies.
This year's Oscar nominations were unveiled on Thursday, with transgender cartel musical "Emilia Perez" earning 13 Oscar nods and breaking the record for most Academy Award nominations for a non-English-language movie.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 23, 2025

'Emilia Perez' tops Oscar nominations in fire-hit Hollywood

Jacques Audiard's Mexico-set musical shattered the record for the most Academy Award nominations for a non-English-language movie.
The Food and Drug Administration headquarters in White Oak, Maryland
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 24, 2025

Trump alarms scientists by muzzling U.S. health agencies

The move could delay essential information and slow funding for potentially life-saving initiatives.
Steps against diversity form part of U.S. President Donald Trump's broader campaign targeting the federal bureaucracy, which he has sometimes disparaged as the "deep state" secretly working against his agenda.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 24, 2025

Trump accelerates campaign to remake federal bureaucracy

The U.S. president says his orders ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs would make America a "merit-based country" once again.
Afghan citizens, who are in the process for resettlement in the U.S., attend an English class on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Society
Jan 24, 2025

Afghans awaiting U.S. resettlement feel betrayal after Trump order

Some feel betrayed, with many — including those who fled Taliban rule in Afghanistan — having already spent years in limbo.
Though he comes from a troubled home, Bach is a sweet fellow who loves to play.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Jan 24, 2025

Bach the bobtail will warm your lap and heart

This tuxedo cat loves to play with toys, but is just as happy taking it easy.

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