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Children walk past Nepal's Parliament house in Kathmandu Thursday, just days after it was set on fire by protesters angered by a social media ban and government corruption.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2025

Gen-Z protesters across Asia are challenging the old guard

On Tuesday, Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned after two days of demonstrations over a sweeping social-media ban.
Singer-songwriter Mei Ehara confronted the pressure of creating her third album by taking inspiration from a literary device that merely serves as a trigger for a plot. The resulting album is “All About McGuffin.”
CULTURE / Music
Sep 12, 2025

Mei Ehara’s third album finds clarity in the noise

The Japanese singer-songwriter turns the concept of a McGuffin into her most direct work yet, sharpened by a U.S. tour with Faye Webster.
South Korea’s lack of a free trade deal with Mexico puts it at a disadvantage to Japanese rival carmakers.
BUSINESS
Sep 11, 2025

Mexican tariffs give Japan’s carmakers an edge over Korean rivals

Higher tariffs are expected to apply to a list of more than 1,400 categories of products coming from countries with which Mexico has no trade agreement.
FBI agents inspect a rooftop on Thursday at the scene where, a day earlier, youth activist and influencer Charlie Kirk was shot during a public event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 12, 2025

Hunt for shooter of Charlie Kirk enters third day in U.S.

The manhunt for the shooter who killed Charlie Kirk stretched into a third day on Friday, after police released fresh images in an effort to crack the case.
Melos Han-Tani is a game designer of eclectic interests whose upcoming releases, Angeline Era and Danchi Days, are set in alternate-history Ireland and a public housing complex in Japan, respectively.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Sep 12, 2025

Melos Han-Tani: ‘Figuring out what you value is valuable for any artist’

A designer, programmer and composer, Han-Tani draws inspiration from a wide range of sources and channels his creativity through games, music and writing.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint news conference at the White House in Washington in February. Israel has shown it is not afraid to act against U.S. interests.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 12, 2025

Qatar bombing tests the limits of the Trump-Netanyahu alliance

Israel's surprise attack against Hamas leaders in Doha showed the cold calculus beneath U.S. President Trump's relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life and 7-Eleven, a chain that began in the U.S. in 1927, opened its first store in Japan in 1974 — and then became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005 through parent company Seven & I Holdings.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 12, 2025

Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens?

Facing a stagnant and highly competitive retail market in Japan, Seven & I’s growth is expected to come from overseas.
A screen displays share prices outside a securities firm in Tokyo. Some activists believe Japan’s corporate governance reforms will touch more firms, especially smaller ones.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 12, 2025

Activist AVI poised to boost holdings of Japan small-cap shares

The plan is an example of how activists are shaking up corporate Japan as they plow capital into the country given the Tokyo bourse telling firms to raise their enterprise value.
Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani addresses delegates during an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council at U.N. headquarters in New York City on Thursday.
WORLD
Sep 12, 2025

U.N. Security Council condemns strikes on Qatar, without naming Israel

Qatar's prime minister welcomed the council's statement of support and reiterated his country's commitment to acting as a mediator in the conflict.
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2025

‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Shirakawago is famed for its verdant landscape and gasshō-zukuri farmhouses, which are hundreds of years old.
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi speaks in Tokyo on Thursday. He is attempting to become Liberal Democratic Party president for the second time.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 12, 2025

Will a more conservative leader emerge from the LDP presidential election?

Conservative members of the party are looking to elect such a leader, but there is a possibility that their votes might be split between two presidential hopefuls.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato reaffirmed in a joint statement their commitment to allowing markets to determine currency exchange rates and not targeting them for competitive advantage.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 12, 2025

U.S. and Japan pledge not to manipulate forex for competitive advantage

Tokyo has spent close to $150 billion in the last three years trying to prop up the yen with the last move in July last year.
Sensing a bleak future for the local "awamori" liquor, Mizuho Distillery ventured into rum production, releasing a collection of eight rums made from "kokutō" (partially refined or unrefined sugar) sourced from various islands in Okinawa Prefecture.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 12, 2025

The sweet rise of Okinawan rum

The spirit is emerging out of the shadow of the local “awamori” liquor, thanks to a growing band of producers who are keen to tell the tale of the islands' traditional agriculture.
Shigeko Kagawa, Japan's oldest person at 114, in Yamatokoriyama, Nara Prefecture, on July 30
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2025

Aging Japan’s centenarian population nears 100,000

The number has grown steadily in recent years and comes as the birth rate continues to plummet.
A soldier on a tank waves an Israeli flag amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas near the Israel-Gaza border in January 2024. 
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2025

War responsibility across borders and generations

The Asia-Pacific War is often remembered for the culpability of leaders, but this overlooks the multitudes who filled the ranks below.
Stocks traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange continue to rally, with the Nikkei 225 up more than 20% over the past year.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 12, 2025

Nikkei 225 hits record but just misses the 45,000 mark

Japanese stocks have been rallying for months on trade optimism and now political hope.
Aonishiki (left) finished 11-4 in his first three tournaments in the top division
SUMO
Sep 5, 2025

Rising star Aonishiki set for another chance to strengthen promotion bid

Yokozuna duo Onosato and Hoshoryu still have to be considered the front-runners to lift the Emperor’s Cup in the upcoming autumn meet.
Defending champion javelin thrower Haruka Kitaguchi is likely to be the center of attention for Japanese fans during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
SPORTS / Athletics
Sep 12, 2025

10 stars to look out for at the 2025 World Athletics Championships

The world championships are back in Tokyo for the first time since 1991.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (center) speaks at the first meeting of the government's headquarters for promoting the use of artificial intelligence and strengthening related risk management, on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 12, 2025

Japan starts discussing basic plan for AI use and development

The Japanese government hopes to finalize the basic plan by the end of this year with the aim of creating the best environment in the world for such efforts.
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 13, 2025

Japan's major art events converge this fall

Dozens of biennials, triennials, art festivals and fairs are taking place between September and December.
People pay their respects during a candlelight vigil for youth activist and influencer Charlie Kirk at a makeshift memorial at Orem City Center Park in Orem, Utah, on Thursday, a day after he was shot dead during a public event at Utah Valley University.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Sep 13, 2025

Charlie Kirk's alleged killer: what we know

Tyler Robinson, 22, had become more political in recent years, and authorities said he had engraved what appeared to be anti-fascist messages on bullet casings they found.
Smoke streams from a smokestack at a refinery in Anacortes, Washington, last October. The Environmental Protection Agency moved on Friday to stop requiring thousands of polluting facilities to report the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases that they release into the air.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 13, 2025

U.S. moves to scrap emissions reporting by polluters

U.S. President Donald Trump has heavily promoted new oil, gas, and coal extraction while moving to suppress competition from solar and wind.
Nepalese President Ram Chandra Paudel (left) gestures after administering the oath of office to the country's newly appointed prime minister, Sushila Karki, during her swearing-in-ceremony at the President House in Kathmandu on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 13, 2025

Former chief justice named Nepal's first female prime minister after violent unrest

Deadly anti-graft protests forced Sushila Karki's predecessor, K.P. Sharma Oli, to resign earlier this week.
A Tennessee State Trooper vehicle drives in Memphis, Tennessee, on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he will deploy the National Guard to the city.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 13, 2025

U.S. to deploy National Guard to Memphis, Trump says

The move follows his administration's unprecedented police takeover in Washington, D.C., last month.
Government-stockpiled rice to be sold to help bring down high prices sits on display in a Tokyo grocery store on May 31.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2025

Rice prices in Japan rebound to 13-week high

The average price rose ¥264 from the previous week to ¥4,155 in the week through Sept. 7, up for the second straight week.
Chinese passports left behind in one of the rooms of a dormitory building at a former online casino compound in Bamban, the Philippines, last December after a raid revealed the mayor’s business connections to a money-laundering scandal and sparked allegations of Chinese espionage.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 13, 2025

Philippines says Chinese ‘malign influence activities’ continue at high pace

A top Philippine security official has said that the espionage activities are “almost on par” with Beijing’s ship deployments in parts of the South China Sea.
Migrants gather outside an office of Mexico's Refugee Aid Commission to obtain a humanitarian visa that allows them safe passage to continue their journey to Mexico's northern border to seek asylum in the U.S., in Tapachula, Mexico, in September 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 13, 2025

Trump administration plans push at U.N. to restrict global asylum rights

Under the proposed framework, asylum seekers would be required to claim protection in the first country they enter, not a nation of their choosing.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a letter from Britain's King Charles as he meets with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington in February.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 13, 2025

Trump’s big U.K. visit comes at worst possible time for PM Keir Starmer

Trump's three-day trip comes just days after Starmer lost two senior members of the U.K. government to scandal.
"I don't want to scare a company from ever hiring a blind person again,” said Emeline Lakrout. But she and others want change.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 13, 2025

‘PowerPoint broke me’: The challenges for blind professionals

"I don't want to scare a company from ever hiring a blind person again,” said Emeline Lakrout. But she and others want change.
Brentford midfielder Yehor Yarmolyu (left) and Chelsea midfielder Cole Palmer battle for the ball during their club's league match on Saturday in London.
SOCCER
Sep 14, 2025

Chelsea blows chance to top Premier League at Brentford

The world club champion squad paid for Enzo Maresca's experimental team selection and sits behind a quartet of standings leaders.

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