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A nuclear-fuel reprocessing plant under construction in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2025

Construction of Tohoku nuclear-fuel reprocessing plant ongoing after 30 years

Japan Nuclear Fuel is "now confident to a certain degree" that the plant for processing spent fuel from nuclear power stations will be completed in fiscal 2026.
Chinese tour groups visit a waterfront promenade in Hong Kong on May 5.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 9, 2025

Can big stars bring higher-spending tourists back to Hong Kong?

Hong Kong, which once billed itself as Asia’s World City, is now seeking to brand itself as the region’s events capital.
Experts are calling on people not to miss children's signs of trouble, particularly in June after fatigue can accumulate over the two months since the beginning of the school year in April.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 9, 2025

Experts warn of 'June syndrome' among children in Japan

Much like the better-known May syndrome, or May blues, June syndrome is a general term for mental and physical disorders and is medically classified as adjustment disorder.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at an Upper House session in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 9, 2025

No-confidence motion against Ishiba Cabinet could lead to double election

A double election could result in more political stability if either bloc manages to capture both chambers, or continued instability if neither holds a majority.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes warms up before Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans last February. Flag football is set to debut at the 2028 Olympics — but if the NFL wants the sport to thrive globally, it should resist overshadowing it with high-profile pro players.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2025

NFL stars don’t belong on the Olympics' flag football field

If the NFL is really serious about growing football’s global footprint, it and its players should sit the Olympics out.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stands alongside Chief of the Defense Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan and Minister of National Defense David McGuinty as he makes a speech about defense and security at Fort York Armory in Toronto on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 10, 2025

Canada vows to meet NATO defense budget target early

New Canadian leader Mark Carney said he will boost funding for the armed forces and hit NATO's 2% military spending target this fiscal year, five years earlier than promised.
Expectant parents Masataka and Saki Ohita look at ultrasound images of their unborn twins.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jun 23, 2025

Childbirth facilities disappearing from Fukushima towns

With just 26 facilities in the prefecture that can handle deliveries, there is concern that the trend could accelerate population decline.
Gen. Jennie Carignan, Canada’s Chief of the Defense Staff, attends an interview with The Japan Times on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2025

Japan ‘priority’ as Canada eyes bigger Asian footprint, military chief says

Ottawa's concerns about what it sees as growing challenges to the current world order are driving its Asia push.
A plastic bottle lies on the sand at Maccarese beach in Italy in 2018.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jun 10, 2025

Development banks to invest €3 billion in ocean plastics fight

Plastic waste entering the water could triple to up to 37 million metric tons per year by 2040, from around 11 million tons in 2021, the U.N. estimates.
Japan faces soaring rice prices, a powerful farming cooperative resistant to change, declining farmer numbers, falling rice consumption and conflicting government policies that hinder effective reform of the sector.
COMMENTARY
Jun 10, 2025

How ‘vintage’ rice is shaking up Japanese politics

Rice is where consumers have drawn the line. The staple rose by 98% in the past year, adding almost half a percentage point to headline inflation.
A hydroelectric dam near Shannan in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in March 2025
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2025

Catastrophe on the roof of the world

As the source of 10 major rivers that sustain nearly 20% of the world’s population, the Plateau’s degradation threatens regional water security, food systems and biodiversity.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri passes the checkered flag to win the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on June 1.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Jun 10, 2025

Imola axed from 2026 F1 calendar as Spain gets two races

Japan will be round 3 as a standalone event on March 29.
A worker cleans the floor next of a BYD dealership in Sandton, South Africa, on June 5.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jun 10, 2025

Why China's auto and tech giants threaten Tesla’s self-driving future

More Chinese auto and tech companies are offering affordable electric vehicles with advanced technology for a relative pittance.
The new basic plan for promoting disaster prevention measures is expected to call for intensive efforts to develop evacuation shelters and stockpile emergency supplies to prevent earthquake-related deaths from indirect causes.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2025

Japan plans to target 80% reduction of likely megaquake death toll in 10 years

The target will be included in a new basic plan for promoting disaster prevention measures, which is expected to be adopted in early July.
People carry relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private U.S.-backed aid group that has bypassed the longstanding U.N.-led system in the territory, as displaced Palestinians return from an aid distribution center in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 10, 2025

Palestinians' dangerous ordeal to reach Israeli-approved aid

Gunfire and a desperate crowd of hungry people make reaching aid points a life-threatening ordeal that may ultimately be an exercise in futility.
The Port of Los Angeles, in San Pedro, California. The World Bank stopped short of forecasting a recession, but said global economic growth this year would be its weakest outside of a recession since 2008.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 10, 2025

World Bank slashes global growth forecast as trade tensions bite

The bank stopped short of forecasting a recession, but said global economic growth this year would be its weakest outside of a recession since 2008.
South Korean musical "Maybe Happy Ending" won big at the 78th Tony Awards in New York on June 8. From left: Hunter Arnold, Dez Duron, Marcus Choi, Hue Park, Helen J. Shen, Darren Criss, Will Aronson and Jeffrey Richards.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 11, 2025

South Korean musical 'Maybe Happy Ending' tops Broadway's Tony Awards

The awards celebrated Broadway's biggest year since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.
BTS member RM (left) plays saxophone while V looks on while holding flowers at an outdoor facility in Chuncheon on Tuesday.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 11, 2025

Two BTS megastars released from South Korea military

As the members of one of the world's biggest pop groups complete their military service obligations, fans hope for a new album.
An Airbus A300 aircraft operated by Iran Air at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran
WORLD / Politics
Jun 11, 2025

Iran looks for planes and partners in post-sanctions order

Tehran-based Iran Air is eager to expand its operations to meet rising travel demand and is actively seeking new aircraft, spare parts and partnerships.
Senegal players celebrate at the end of the match against England at the City Ground stadium in Nottingham on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Jun 11, 2025

Senegal becomes first African team to beat England with 3-1 win

England's loss was its first defeat in four games under new manager Thomas Tuchel.
More and more older Japanese people are joining health clubs, with Pilates becoming a popular form of exercise.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 11, 2025

So long, gateball. Japan’s seniors are ready to work those core muscles.

Japan’s seniors are trading gateball for Pilates, chasing strength, stability and a new kind of aging — with core control.
Nomura Holdings shuffles its leadership in its currencies and emerging markets trading business following the departure of the unit’s co-head Nagaraj Pangal.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2025

Nomura shuffles leadership in trading units after second exit in nine months

The business has been suffering from a series of high-profile exits, and on one team as of January at least eight traders had left or gone on leave in the prior 12 months.
A Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus eCanter electric truck. The merger between Toyota Motor and Daimler Truck comes as the commercial vehicle industry faces mounting pressure to adapt as electrification, autonomous driving and emissions compliance reshape global transport.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2025

Toyota and Daimler finalize plan to merge truck units in 2026

The tie-up comes amid a mutual desire to boost margins and develop new technologies.
A customer poses with a Nintendo Switch 2 console at a Bic Camera electronics store in Tokyo on June 5.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2025

Nintendo's Switch 2 sets sales record in boon for gaming sector

The numbers bode well for its target of selling 15 million units by March next year.
Solar panels in Dunhuang, China. In April alone, China installed about 45 gigawatts of solar power, more than triple the amount in the same month last year.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 11, 2025

China’s solar industry gathers as gloom deepens over demand

The solar industry’s record growth in China masks some brutal economics confronting equipment-makers.
People swim in the Mediterranean Sea on a sunny and warm spring day during the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3), which gathers leaders, researchers and activists to discuss how to protect marine life, in Nice, France, on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jun 11, 2025

Leaders warn race for minerals could turn seabed into 'wild west'

Anxiety over Trump's push to fast-track deep-sea mining in international waters took center stage at the opening of the U.N. Ocean Conference in France.
South Korean soldiers work on a loudspeaker that is set up for propaganda broadcasts during a military drill near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea, in this image released on June 9, 2024.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 11, 2025

South Korea halts loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts against North Korea

The loudspeakers were turned on in the demilitarized zone in June last year in response to trash-filled balloons flown southward by Pyongyang.
Serious labor shortages in the bus and taxi industries have prompted the government to consider easing language requirements for non-Japanese drivers.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2025

Eased language requirement proposed for non-Japanese bus and taxi drivers

Currently, foreign nationals wanting to work as bus or taxi drivers are required to have the N3 level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.
A man stands on a balcony damaged by a Russian drone strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Jun 12, 2025

Russia hits Ukraine's Kharkiv with deadly nighttime barrage of drones

The overnight attack followed Russia's two biggest air assaults of the war on Ukraine this week.
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting where Trump announced nuclear talks with Iran, in Washington on April 7.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 12, 2025

Israel appears ready to attack Iran, officials in U.S. and Europe say

The step could further inflame the Middle East and derail or delay U.S. efforts to broker a deal to cut off Iran’s path to building a nuclear bomb.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji