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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2022

Minimum wages are going up. Jobs may disappear.

Past studies have found that higher pay doesn't hurt employment over the short term. But new research shows that the effects over time could be more harmful.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 12, 2022

Biden plots a 2024 presidential run — and a Trump rematch

Biden's resolve to mount a second White House bid is hardening even with polls showing most Democrats would prefer a candidate other than the 79-year-old president.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 12, 2022

FBI sought nuclear documents in search of Trump's home, media report says

It was not clear if such documents were recovered at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 11, 2022

South Korea says THAAD missile shield ‘not negotiable’ with China

Decisions on the deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system was a matter of South Korea's self-defense, a senior presidential official told reporters Thursday in Seoul.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 11, 2022

Futenma base biggest issue in Okinawa governor race

The Japanese government is working to move the Futenma base, now in a congested area in Ginowan, to the Henoko coastal district in the city of Nago.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2022

COVID-19 tracker: Tokyo's cases see weekly drop, but experts warn of spread amid holidays

While the capital has seen a downward trend in daily cases this week, other parts of the nation are posting record numbers.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 11, 2022

Health panel issues warning over COVID-19 in Japan

The medical system has been under heavy strain, and the situation could become even more severe, the panel of experts said.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 11, 2022

Ukraine accuses Russia of using nuclear plant for deadly rocket attack

Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of imperiling the plant, Europe's largest nuclear complex, with attacks nearby.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2022

U.S. rethinks approach to China tariffs in wake of Taiwan response

The president's team has been wrestling for months with various ways to ease the costs of duties imposed on Chinese imports during predecessor Donald Trump's tenure.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2022

Fed officials say rates likely to rise into next year to curb inflation

Two U.S. Federal Reserve officials have responded to softening inflation data by saying it doesn't change the U.S. central bank's path toward even higher interest rates this year and next.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 10, 2022

Toshiba logs surprise quarterly operating loss as costs surge

Chief Financial Officer Masayoshi Hirata told reporters that the conglomerate's first quarterly loss in two years came amid jumps in prices for steel and copper.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Aug 10, 2022

LDP politics take precedence over economy in Kishida’s Cabinet reshuffle

The apparent desire to achieve an internal balance of power seems to have mostly affected ministerial positions concerned with economics.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 10, 2022

South Korea and China foreign ministers discuss North Korea and K-pop ban

On the agenda was boosting cultural and people-to-people exchanges as well as restarting exports of K-pop and Korean movies, dramas and games, which have been effectively banned in China.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Aug 10, 2022

LIV Golf trio denied chance to play in PGA playoffs

All three were among those suspended by the PGA Tour after they teed off in their first event of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series in June.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Aug 10, 2022

World hammer throw champion to avoid flying after twice losing gear

Poland's Pawel Fajdek recently won his fifth straight world title in Eugene, Oregon, despite his favorite equipment having gone missing on a flight earlier in July.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 10, 2022

The U.S.-China rift moves climate politics into an era of competition

The next three months before countries meet in Sharm El-Sheikh for COP27 will show whether the era of cooperation has given way to competition.
Taiwan's coast guard said it would continue to use radar, surveillance and patrols to ensure the "harmony and safety" of the waters near the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands, which are close to China's shores.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 21, 2024

Taiwan drives away Chinese coast guard boat as tensions rise

The Chinese coast guard vessel had entered Taiwan's waters near Kinmen a day after officers from the agency boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 21, 2024

Film director Hideo Sakaki held on suspicion of sexual assault

While allegations of sexual abuse were made against Sakaki as far back as March 2022, this is the first time that the director has been taken into custody.
A Houthi military helicopter prepares to land on the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea in November.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2024

Why Beijing won’t fight the Houthis

Whether they target Chinese vessels directly or not, attacks on Red Sea shipping by Houthi rebels threaten to undermine China’s economic recovery.
Eleven portraits of Ainu chieftains, completed in 1790, are now held by the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besancon, France. There were originally 12 paintings in the original set, collectively known as the “Ishu Retsuzo,” but one has disappeared.
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Feb 26, 2024

The ongoing mystery of the Ainu portraits in France

A former Hokkaido journalist is hoping to find out how portraits of Ainu chieftains from 1790 made it to Europe.
Biomass will heat the facility and provide clean CO2 for the plants.
ESG CONSORTIUM
Feb 22, 2024

A hothouse of ecological ideas will produce tomatoes in Aomori

Starting in April, a project in the Aomori city of Mutsu, at the northern tip of Honshu, will grow tomatoes using a new cultivation method that will go beyond zero carbon and actually absorb more CO2 than it emits. Built on a large abandoned farm, the facility will also create 100 new jobs.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump at a campaign event ahead of the Republican presidential primary election in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Feb. 14
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Feb 29, 2024

Why Japanese companies need to prepare for Trump 2.0

Given the former president's views on the recent U.S. Steel deal, firms should cover all bases ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
The LDP's Takuo Komori stepped down from his post as parliamentary vice minister for internal affairs after it was revealed he had underreported political funds.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 21, 2024

Will the LDP funding scandal change Japanese politics?

What can we learn from the LDP funding scandal? One thing is certain: The saga fits a pattern that is anything but unseen in Japanese politics.
China’s tech firms were caught off guard by breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence — Beijing’s regulations and a sagging economy aren’t helping.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 22, 2024

China’s rush to dominate AI has a twist: It depends on U.S. technology

Even as the United States has tried to slow China’s advancements, it has not held back the practice of openly releasing software to encourage its adoption.
Yasuhiro Otomo and Miku Narisawa during one of Odyssey Nature Japan's educational fishing programs.
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 22, 2024

A young 3/11 survivor and her vow to protect the ocean

At 12, Miku Narisawa experienced a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami that destroyed her home. Now she is working to protect it.
Yurii, 53, and Tetiana, 51, attend a rally of families of Ukrainian prisoners of war  in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on Jan. 21.
WORLD
Feb 22, 2024

How life in Ukraine has been shattered by two years of war

Even in remote villages, signs are everywhere of the two-year-old war that has irrevocably changed the face of Ukraine.
Demonstrators hold a rally in Tel Aviv on Wednesday calling for the release of hostages kidnapped in the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas from Gaza.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 23, 2024

Israel steps up attacks in Gaza Strip amid cease-fire talks

A new draft of a deal is being negotiated after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu withdrew from the last one over Hamas' "ludicrous" demands.
Nippon Steel's Kashima plant seen from a park in Kamisu, Ibaraki Prefecture. Scrutiny over Nippon Steel’s China holdings threatens to add another complication to its politically contentious deal to acquire United States Steel.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 23, 2024

Nippon Steel’s China assets could derail United States Steel deal

Regulators may look unfavorably on whether the acquisition of U.S. Steel could allow more access to U.S. markets for Chinese-sourced steel.
Hideo Shimoju points to a possible site that his fellow neighbors may relocate to. Such relocations have happened before, but not preemptively.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / Longform
Feb 24, 2024

In disaster-prone Japan, some communities consider major moves

Rural communities are considering collective relocation as a means to deal with worsening climate disasters.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic