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The Gateway Park at Takanawa Gateway City on Tuesday
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2025

JR's 'futuristic' Takanawa Gateway complex set to open in Tokyo

Takanawa Gateway City is a long-planned redevelopment project from JR East that integrates residential, commercial and cultural facilities.
OpenAI is close to finalizing a $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank Group, sources say.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 27, 2025

OpenAI close to finalizing $40 billion SoftBank-led funding

The artificial intelligence developer’s funding round would be the largest of all time, according to data compiled by research firm PitchBook.
Elon Musk listens to U.S. President Donald Trump speak in the White House in Washington on Feb. 11.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 27, 2025

Member of Elon Musk's DOGE team provided tech service to cybercrime ring

Edward Coristine, 19, is among the most visible members of the DOGE effort that has been given sweeping access to U.S. government networks.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a meeting of the Upper House Budget Committee on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 27, 2025

Ishiba’s remarks on inflation relief measures draw ire as budget deadline looms

Confusing messages about an economic package to counter rising prices came as negotiations were heating up on when to hold a vote on the budget.
There is concern about a severe decline in democracy in Asia, with many former success stories now backsliding.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2025

An Asian democracy collapse amid the new world order

By the monitoring organization Freedom House's calculations, for 19 years, democracy has eroded around the world.
Basilio is believed to be a Kai ken, one of the six dog breeds native to Japan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Mar 28, 2025

A tawny Kai ken discovers his courage

Rescued from a hoarder’s home, Basilio is easing up and learning to enjoy life again.
Yuki Tejima, who runs the Instagram account booknerdtokyo, hesitated to try her hand at literary translation until she won an award at the International Translation Contest.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 29, 2025

Yuki Tejima's metamorphosis from bookworm to literary translator

An Instagram “bookfluencer” and professional translator for over 10 years, Tejima’s love of books was, strangely enough, a hurdle to working in literary translation.
Graduation ceremonies in Japan will usually include a performance of the Japanese national anthem, “Kimigayo.”
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 28, 2025

Attempting the classics: The world of waka poetry

The origins of this poetry style stretch back to at least the seventh century, when one of the emperor's wives composed it at court ceremonies.
Billionaire Elon Musk said the value of his X social media network is $45 billion when including $12 billion of debt, describing his xAI artificial intelligence startup's purchase of X as an all-stock transaction.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 29, 2025

Musk’s xAI startup swallows up X social network in surprise deal

Elon Musk said his xAI artificial intelligence startup has acquired the X platform, which he also controls, at a valuation of $33 billion.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani (left) and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo ahead of their talks Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 30, 2025

In Tokyo, Pentagon chief provides assurances that Japan-U.S. alliance remains robust

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth described Japan as an “indispensable partner” in confronting China and sought to dispel lingering unease in Tokyo.
A pagoda that was damaged after a strong earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 30, 2025

A question in quake-wracked Myanmar: Does this augur the end of the junta?

The earthquake, known to have killed at least 1,000 and probably many more than that, struck a day after Myanmar’s military regime celebrated the country’s 80th Armed Forces Day.
Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, speaks during an event at the company’s campus.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 31, 2025

'Something is rotten': Apple's AI strategy faces doubts

Theories vary on why Apple is having trouble seizing the AI moment.
The so-called baby hatch, open 24 hours a day, is meant to be an "emergency, last-resort measure" to save babies' lives, Hitoshi Kato (center), head of Sanikukai Hospital, told a news conference Monday in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2025

Tokyo hospital opens city's first 'baby hatch'

Used for centuries globally, so-called baby boxes or baby hatches are meant to prevent child abandonment or abuse.
Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD
Apr 1, 2025

Bodies of 15 rescue workers recovered from Gaza grave, U.N. officials say

U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher said on X that the bodies were buried near "wrecked & well-marked vehicles."
People fleeing Rafah arrive in Khan Younis city following new Israeli evacuation orders, in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD
Apr 1, 2025

Israel tells Gazans to leave south before ‘intense fight’

The notification on Monday covered Rafah, a city near the border with Egypt, as well as surrounding areas.
A worker cuts Inada granite, which is used in various buildings in Tokyo.
ESG CONSORTIUM
Apr 1, 2025

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

In 2024, the Tsukuba massif granite of the Mt. Tsukuba Area Geopark was certified by the International Union of Geological Sciences as one of the first 55 IUGS Heritage Stones, which have been “used in significant architecture and monuments” and “recognized as integral aspects of human culture.”...
A new law in Japan will prohibit IT giants from blocking the entry of other companies into the market or giving preferential treatment to their own services.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 1, 2025

Japan's FTC to regulate Google and Apple under new smartphone law

The law will prohibit IT giants from blocking the entry of other firms into the market.
A ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location, after U.S. President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, in this screenshot of a handout video released on March 15.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 1, 2025

White House says strikes killed Houthi missile expert, but questions linger

The U.S. military has so far declined to confirm the death, and the identity of the Houthi commander in question remains unclear.
A tank containing liquid hydrogen in Kobe, where a special shipping terminal has been built in order to import liquid hydrogen from Australia.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2025

Japan-Australia flagship hydrogen project stumbles

The blockbuster project is hanging in the balance over questions about its climate credentials.
Lawyer Akira Takeuchi (center), the head of a third-party panel commissioned by Fuji TV to investigate a series of scandals at the broadcaster, fields questions along with other panel members at a news conference on Monday in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
JAPAN / Media / FOCUS
Apr 1, 2025

What the Fuji TV third-party probe uncovered

The panel concluded that TV personality Masahiro Nakai committed "sexual violence" against a female newscaster and that there is a culture of harassment at the broadcaster.
A Buddhist monk walks past the damaged Mandalay Palace on Monday. The country's ruling military junta can repeat the mistakes of 17 years ago by blocking aid after Cyclone Nargis left 140,000 dead or allow urgent assistance to flow freely.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2025

The quake in Myanmar should force the junta’s hand

The ousted civilian administration initiated a two-week ceasefire in quake-hit areas to allow aid to reach victims. It doesn’t look like the junta will do the same.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is launched at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 1, 2025

SpaceX eyes Starlink hub with multiple ground stations in Vietnam, sources say

The move would herald its launch in the country and would help authorities police internet traffic.
U.S. Health and Human Services employee Julie Siegel stands outside the Mary E. Switzer Memorial Building on Tuesday as she is denied access and her badge taken away as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration reportedly begins mass layoffs of 10,000 staffers at U.S. health agencies.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2025

Trump begins mass layoffs at FDA, CDC and other U.S. health agencies

The job cuts are part of a broad plan by the U.S. president and billionaire ally Elon Musk to shrink the federal government and slash spending.
The logo of Xiaomi is seen on a tire wheel of the SU7, the company's first electric vehicle, on display at a showroom in Beijing on March 25.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 2, 2025

Three reported dead after Xiaomi car with driver assistance crashes

The incident is likely to spark scrutiny over the smart driving software deployed in many of today’s cars.
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 3, 2025

Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments

NHK's new four-episode miniseries, “After the Quake,” probes the ripple effects of past major disasters across Japanese society.
Ruling and opposition parties are discussing strengthening parliamentary oversight of government activities under a planned active cyberdefense law.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2025

Japan eyes stricter Diet oversight of active cyberdefense

If the ruling and opposition sides agree, a revised bill on the issue will be submitted as early as Friday.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking is in talks to provide corporate client data to Fujitsu to run through the IT company’s multimodal machine learning tools to make business forecasts.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 3, 2025

SMBC and Fujitsu to partner on AI-driven forecasting services

The move would be a rare instance of a Japanese bank allowing another company access to sensitive customer data.
Meta is at the center of accusations of copyright theft from authors over its "LibGen" online library.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Apr 4, 2025

Authors hold London protest against Meta for 'stealing' work to train AI

Writer Gail Renard explained the situation by saying, "If you stole a diamond ring there'd be consequences and there has to be consequences."
On April 23, 1925, The Japan Times ran a story about the principal clauses of the new Peace Preservation Law that was enacted to suppress ideologies deemed dangerous by the state.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Apr 5, 2025

Japan Times 1925: Peace law has several teeth

The Peace Preservation Law was a means of ideological suppression that grew tighter over time until it was repealed by Allied authorities following World War II.
Amarone was taken in from the streets and has decided to give humans a chance — especially when they come bearing food.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Apr 4, 2025

Meet the cool cat with a roguish mustache

After a life on the streets, amiable Amarone is ready for a place to call home.

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’