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Shiho Hanadate is part of a small yet growing number of young tappers pivotal in securing the future of domestic sap collection used in Japanese lacquerware.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 30, 2024

The young sap collectors underpinning Japanese lacquerware

“You can’t cut into the core, so you have to judge the thickness of the bark,” says tapper Shiho Hanadate. “You have to develop a sense for it.”
Discovered in the 1930s, the Geisha coffee plant came to worldwide fame in the early 2000s and now represents some of the best coffee on the planet — Tokyo's top cafes included.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 30, 2024

The Geisha bean is the leading lady of Tokyo's coffee scene

Named for a region of Ethiopia (and not Japan’s kimono-clad performers), Geisha has become the crown jewel of Tokyo’s flourishing specialty coffee scene.
Should Trump-o-phobes emulate Ellen DeGeneres, the comedian and ex-talk show host, who has apparently bolted for Britain to avoid the incoming administration?
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2024

Do you dislike Trump so much you’d quit the U.S. like Ellen?

DeGeneres’s escape from Trump may look like a political statement, but she’s not really a desperate pilgrim in reverse, risking all for new beginnings.
Electric candles at a memorial service for those who died from AIDS on the sidelines of the Japanese Society for AIDS Research conference on Thursday
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 29, 2024

Ahead of World AIDS Day, advocates call for an end to HIV stigma in Japan

While cases are relatively low in Japan, experts and stakeholders say the stigma often attached to patients needs to be addressed.
Hiroyuki Fukuda is due to become the new president of Nippon Television Holdings in April.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 30, 2024

Four Nippon TV affiliates to integrate management in April

The aim of the merger is to stabilize their business base and address the increasingly tough business environment resulting from media diversification.
This combination of pictures shows rubble and the cross at the altar inside the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris a month after it sustained major fire, on May 15, 2019 (top), and the tabernacle designed by French artist and designer Guillaume Bardet in the heart of the cathedral on Friday.
WORLD
Nov 30, 2024

France shows off restored Notre Dame after 'impossible' restoration

Some 250 companies and hundreds of experts were brought in for restoration work costing hundreds of millions of euros.
Pete Hegseth, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be secretary of defense, speaks to reporters at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington on Nov. 21.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 30, 2024

Pete Hegseth’s mother accused her son of mistreating women for years

She said on Friday that she regretted the 2018 email and had apologized to him.
Workers building a railway in front of Lusail Stadium in Doha in 2018
SOCCER
Nov 30, 2024

FIFA should pay workers injured building Qatar World Cup, internal report says

The report offered no specific dollar amount of compensation.
Ottawa's Zoe Boyd battles Boston's Loren Gabel during a Professional Women's Hockey League game in Ottawa in January.
MORE SPORTS / Ice Hockey
Nov 30, 2024

Fans flocking to PWHL as women's league returns for second season

Buzz is growing around the top-flight North American league as it enters its second season.
Rachel Accurso, in character as the internet personality Ms. Rachel, in New York on Nov. 4.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 30, 2024

Ms. Rachel’s improbable journey from toddler whisperer to holiday toy sensation

A series of toys depicting children’s YouTube sensation Ms. Rachel is quickly becoming one of the hottest holiday gifts.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail pledged that he would make it costly for countries to move away from the U.S. dollar. And he’s threatened to use tariffs to ensure they complied.
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2024

Trump demands ‘commitment’ from BRICS nations on using dollar

Backlash against the dollar’s dominance gained traction in 2022 when the U.S. led efforts to impose economic sanctions on Russia.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum delivers a speech during the inauguration of a family medicine unit in San Nicolas de los Garza, Nuevo Leon State, Mexico, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 1, 2024

Trump’s demand that Mexico stop migrants and drugs may never be met

Mexico's new leader must find ways to appease Trump while avoiding the perception that she easily bends to U.S. demands.
The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo is a popular place to foster curiosity in the natural sciences.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Dec 2, 2024

Can Japan's scientific community rebound from a Nobel nosedive?

Shrinking funding and limited support spark fears for the country's scientific prowess moving forward.
Ken Kutaragi, the creator of Sony's PlayStation, speaks at the annual Tokyo Game Show in the city of Chiba in September.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 2, 2024

Father of PlayStation says 'everyone told us we would fail'

With revolutionary 3D graphics and titles like "Tomb Raider" and "Metal Gear Solid," the device first hit shelves on Dec. 3, 1994.
Employees at SunSource Energy inspect solar panels installed at a food processing plant in Greater Noida, India, on Nov. 21.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Dec 2, 2024

Glittering dreams: India's big push for solar power

India is building what it boasts will be the world's largest renewable power plant, an emblem of a determined push to boost solar energy.
A serviceman with the Ukrainian Army's 24th mechanized brigade fires a machine gun during an exercise, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the country's Donetsk region on Friday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 2, 2024

Europe eyes 'boots on the ground' in Ukraine as possible peace deal option

The troop presence is among security guarantees being considered as the possibility grows of a deal requiring Kyiv to cede territory to Moscow.
Armored vehicles from the Self-Defense Forces parade in formation at the Ground Self-Defense Force's Camp Asaka on Nov. 9.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2024

Top Japan defense industry firms saw sales boom in 2023

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Fujitsu, NEC and Mitsubishi Electric saw their combined revenues from arms rise by 35% to $10 billion.
Under new U.S. rules, chipmaking equipment made in Malaysia, Singapore, Israel, Taiwan and South Korea will be subject to curbs on exports to China, while the Netherlands and Japan will be exempt.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 2, 2024

Latest U.S. strike on China's chips hits semiconductor toolmakers

Equipment made in Malaysia, Singapore, Israel, Taiwan and South Korea will be subject to curbs on exports to China, while the Netherlands and Japan will be exempt.
A 40-year-old house in the city of Fukuoka that has been renovated by Katitas, a company that buys up secondhand houses for resale. The company retained the house's original wooden ceilings and window frames to preserve the property's vintage look.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Dec 9, 2024

As demand rises for abandoned houses, so do cases of hidden defects

Industry experts recommend prospective buyers conduct thorough inspections before concluding transactions for akiya.
Peter Westbrook became the first African American and Asian American to win an Olympic medal in fencing at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
OLYMPICS / Fencing
Dec 2, 2024

Trailblazing Olympic fencer Peter Westbrook dies at 72

Westbrook was the first first African American and Asian American to win a medal in fencing at the Summer Games
The goal of the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, building on years of evolving trade restrictions, is to slow China’s domestic development of advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence systems that may help its military.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 3, 2024

U.S. tightens curbs on China’s access to AI memory and chip tools

The new measures included exemptions for key allies such as Japan and the Netherlands.
A supporter of Donald Trump holds a limited edition beer with an image of Trump and the words "Conservative Dad's Revenge," as he attends the New York Young Republican Club watch party on Nov. 6.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 3, 2024

After Trump's win, his election denial movement marches on

Since winning the 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump has gone quiet on his false claims of voter fraud. But the election denial movement he spawned isn’t going away — and appears to be strengthening in some areas of the country.
Nissan Motor vehicles bound for shipment at the Nissan Oppama wharf in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 3, 2024

Nissan is awash in outdated models as car buyers look elsewhere

While Japan’s other major carmakers take six months or more to ship a new vehicle, many of Nissan’s most popular models can be delivered within a month or two.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger delivers a speech at the COMPUTEX forum in Taipei on June 4. When Gelsinger met with the Intel board last week, he was given the option to retire or be removed.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 3, 2024

Intel CEO forced out by board frustrated with slow progress

Whoever replaces Pat Gelsinger will face the same set of problems he was brought in to fix, including the fallout from decisions made by his predecessors.
While Donald Trump’s legacy and the future ideological direction of the country remains uncertain, the U.S. still retains a democratic future and a dynamic character.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2024

The post-cold war era is finished. Liberalism and democracy will go on.

For now, the weirder, stranger future the U.S. is entering still looks like a democratic future.
Kim Seongmin, president of Free North Korea Radio, edits content for the station at his home on Ganghwa Island, west of Seoul, on Nov. 21. Kim has cancer and was recently told that he has months to live.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 3, 2024

A North Korean voice that Kim Jong Un would like to silence

North Korean defectors have been infiltrating the North with outside media for two decades, through balloons floated across the border or radio broadcasts.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley at the COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Nov. 12.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 3, 2024

Barbados completes world's first debt swap for climate resilience

Barbados' new deal could generate around $125 million to go toward sewage treatment plant upgrades that should boost water supplies and reduce pollution.
Trees in a forest in Nyanga, Gabon
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 3, 2024

Scientists behind ‘net zero’ concept say nations are getting it wrong

Countries may be claiming carbon credits for work already being done by land and oceans — and the accounting mismatch has consequences.
A demonstrator wearing a mask of President Yoon Suk Yeol dances near a line of police officers across the street from the main gate to the National Assembly building in Seoul on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2024

South Korea’s whirlwind stint in martial law jolts markets

The move sparked whiplash in the country’s foreign-traded assets and caught global markets off guard.
Activated on Wednesday, U.S. Space Forces Japan — a component similar to the one established at South Korea’s Osan Air Base in 2022 — will operate out of Yokota Air Base in the city of Fussa, western Tokyo, with a staff of about 10.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Dec 4, 2024

U.S. Space Force launches first unit in Japan

The move is part of an effort to boost coordination and interoperability with its ally, including the Air Self-Defense Force’s own Space Operations Group

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes