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On March 21, 1925, a front page headline announced that the Tokyo Radio Broadcasting Bureau, the precursor to NHK, had begun operations with a communications range of 50 kilometers.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Mar 1, 2025

Japan Times 1925: Government sanctions official broadcasting station, the precursor to NHK

Japan’s first official broadcasting station began operating 100 years ago, setting a new precedent for the speed of communication and news.
The global electric vehicle boom has resulted in a lithium supply shortage since 2022 despite the 180% increase in production compared to 2017.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 1, 2025

Three novel approaches that can revolutionize batteries

The innovations aren’t yet available at a commercial scale, but they are part of an effort to prevent the global clean energy transition from stalling.
Container cranes at the Port of Vancouver in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Friday
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 3, 2025

Trump heads toward tariff barrage on Canada, Mexico and China

The long-promised tariffs scheduled to take effect Tuesday would easily be among the most sweeping of the Trump era, applying to roughly $1.5 trillion in annual imports.
Pedestrians commute through Shibuya Station in central Tokyo, an area that is almost never devoid of people.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Mar 3, 2025

As the rest of Japan shrinks, Tokyo grows

Women and young people are leading a migratory wave that the government is struggling to halt.
Xiaobaodang Coal Mine, in Shaanxi province, China, in 2023. China, which mines and burns half the world’s coal, is facing swelling inventories of the fuel.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 3, 2025

Coal’s four-year lows hide a coming global supply squeeze

Demand for the fuel continues to rise in India and China, outpacing breakneck rates of expansion in solar and wind.
People gather in front of an Israeli military vehicle in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees, where troops allowed residents to retrieve belongings after issuing reported demolition notifications for several houses, in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
WORLD
Mar 6, 2025

Israel's settler pressure on West Bank villages stirs annexation fears

Most countries consider Israel's settlements in the occupied West Bank to be illegal.
BYD's large cylindrical cell batteries are pictured at Smart Energy Week in Tokyo on Feb. 19.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 18, 2025

How BYD’s five-minute charging stacks up against the competition

The Chinese firm is now staking claim to a system it says will make it as quick to charge an electric vehicle as to refuel a gasoline car.
U.S. President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters in the White House on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 23, 2025

How Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts leave a vacuum that China can fill

When President Donald Trump announced Friday that the United States would move ahead with a long-debated project to build a stealthy next-generation fighter jet, the message to China was clear: The United States plans to spend tens of billions of dollars over the next decade, probably far longer, to...
A commercial fishing boat leaves the port in Point Judith, Rhode Island, on March 13, as cuts by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration imperil key fishing data and research.
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2025

Trump’s regulatory freeze throws U.S. fishing industry into chaos

The freeze allowed overfishing of Atlantic bluefin tuna in waters off North Carolina.
A surgical team attend to a patient suffering from black fungus in Rajasthan, India.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 2, 2025

Once-rare fungal diseases are killing millions in an unprepared world

An estimated 6.5 million people develop invasive fungal infections each year, with about 2.5 million deaths directly caused by them.
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
LIFE / Digital
Apr 3, 2025

Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5

The gaming giant's newest console will retail for ¥49,980 for its Japanese-only version and ¥69,980 for multilingual and multiregion support.
Kwai Chung container ports in Hong Kong earlier this month
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 7, 2025

East Asia tries a mix of measures to counter U.S. tariffs as markets suffer

U.S. President Donald Trump last week announced a raft of tariffs, with almost every country affected.
Demonstrators gather in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outside the agency's main campus in Atlanta on March 28.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 8, 2025

Volunteers on 'right side of history' fight Trump data purge

The Trump administration has gutted several federal agencies, fired tens of thousands of employees and altered or deleted thousands of government webpages since taking office.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he attends the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner in Washington on Tuesday. Trump allowed new tariffs — including a 24% levy on Japan — to go into effect as scheduled on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 9, 2025

Trump's tariff gambit leaves Asia stunned and scrambling

Tariffs take time to actually affect prices and trade flows, but financial markets are already responding to the possibility of severe economic dislocation.
A man recycles electronic waste from computer power supplies at a scrap yard in Ahmedabad, India
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 11, 2025

From Daikin to Samsung, companies fight Modi over e-waste policy

India wants to tackle its mounting e-waste problem. Global electronics companies say the cost is too high.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte meets with members of an explosives disposal team while inspecting equipment aboard the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Mogami frigate at the Yokosuka Base in Kanagawa Prefecture on Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2025

Japan and NATO strengthen links amid rising security fears

The starting point for the deepening ties is a shared view that security is indivisible and events that create instability in one part of the world will impact other regions.
A wave of fear is spreading in immigrant communities as ICE uses secretive, aggressive tactics, bypassing legal protections and spreading panic reminiscent of authoritarian crackdowns.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2025

Unmarked vans and secret lists. The police state has arrived.

"It’s the unmarked cars,” a friend who grew up under an Argentine dictatorship said. He had watched the video of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil’s abduction. In the video, which Khalil’s wife recorded, she asks for the names of the men in plainclothes who handcuffed her husband.
The Canton Fair in Guangzhou, China, on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 16, 2025

Ground zero of China trade boom reckons with decoupling from U.S.

"The China-U.S. relation is beyond salvation — this change of gears is irreversible,” said the China director at a political risk consultancy.
An aerial photo taken on March 20, 2025, shows part of the original site of Lang Nu village in Vietnam's Lao Cai province, after it was wiped away in a landslide triggered by Typhoon Yagi's devastating heavy rains last year.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 23, 2025

Vietnam village starts over with climate defenses after landslide

She and dozens of survivors have been relocated to a site that authorities hope will withstand future climate change-linked disasters.
The activity represents the continuing evolution in the sprawling North Korean efforts to target the cryptocurrency sectors in a bid to raise cash for the North Korean government.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Apr 25, 2025

North Korean cyber spies created U.S. firms to dupe crypto developers

The activity shows the continuing evolution in North Korea's efforts to target the cryptocurrency sectors to raise cash for the North Korean government.
Public transportation ridership across the U.S. hasn’t yet returned to its pre-COVID peak.
WORLD
Apr 30, 2025

A $6 billion shortfall has U.S. mass transit facing a death spiral

The Trump administration is drastically reining in federal spending, creating fear of job losses that could again decimate ridership.
Feelings of lethargy and anxiety can sometimes hit after the Golden Week holiday period has concluded. The Japanese call this the “May blues.”
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 1, 2025

Why the month of May feels tough and how language can help

The phenomenon known as the "May blues" can have serious ramifications if you don't deal with it.
U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attend the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peters Square in Vatican City on April 26.
WORLD / Politics
May 4, 2025

Trump posts AI-generated photo of himself as pope, drawing internet outrage

The U.S. president, who is not a Catholic, posted the image less than a week after attending the funeral of Pope Francis, who died at 88 last month.
Urgent diplomacy and restraint are needed to prevent further escalation between India and Pakistan, as both sides risk being pulled into a dangerous conflict with potential global consequences.
COMMENTARY / World
May 8, 2025

Can India and Pakistan step back from the brink?

India and Pakistan on many occasions have been on the brink of major conflict, yet have successfully climbed down.
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Britain's ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, after announcing a trade deal with the U.K., in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 9, 2025

Trump and Starmer hail limited U.S.-U.K. trade deal, but 10% duties remain

Trump pushed back against seeing the U.K. deal as a template for other negotiations, saying that many other trading partners may end up with much higher final tariffs.
For centuries, artisans have unraveled strands of the fibrous bark of "shuro" trees to create a medley of everyday objects. Designer Kazuki Nagasawa is now transforming the traditional material into ethereal contemporary pieces.
LIFE / Style & Design
May 9, 2025

Kazuki Nagasawa's sustainable designs are rooted in tradition

The recent SaloneSatellite Award-winner transforms a humble bark, long used by artisans to craft everyday objects, into ethereal works of contemporary design.
Tesla's story about keeping used cars for "robotaxis" fits a long pattern of unfulfilled promises to deploy self-driving vehicles — most recently announced for June in Austin, Texas.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2025

Tesla took back leased cars for use as 'robotaxis,' but sold them instead

Despite repeated promises, the robotaxis never came and Tesla flipped many of the off-lease cars to new buyers.
Vocaloid idol Hatsune Miku and kabuki actor Nakamura Shido II first performed together in 2016. This month, they’re reviving the show for the Osaka World Expo.
CULTURE / Stage
May 17, 2025

Traditional performing arts are plugging into modern audiences

Noh and kabuki are getting an image update by teaming up with pop culture figures such as Vocaloid idol Hatsune Miku and DJ Ken Ishii.
Jony Ive, left, is collaborating with OpenAI’s Sam Altman as part of a nearly $6.5 billion deal.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 22, 2025

OpenAI to buy AI startup from Apple veteran Jony Ive in $6.5 billion deal

The purchase — the largest in OpenAI’s history — will provide the company with a dedicated unit for developing AI-powered devices.
A house damaged during a Pakistani artillery shelling in Poonch, in India-administered Kashmir, on May 14
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 26, 2025

India and Pakistan battle for global sympathy after border truce

Both sides are sending delegations to global capitals to influence international perception of the conflict, as tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals continue to simmer.

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