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Lantoko, a company operated by Taiwan native Ping-Fang Lan, offers drift ice walking tours and other exhilarating experiences in and around Shiretoko National Park.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jan 13, 2025

Due north: Foreign-born guides introduce Hokkaido’s unique charms

With adventure tourism on the rise in Hokkaido, a new generation of foreign-born guides is eager to greet travelers.
The U.S. Supreme Court justices on Friday expressed skepticism about a challenge from TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 13, 2025

What happens after the TikTok ban?

TikTok's future in the U.S. is uncertain as the Supreme Court weighs security concerns, with a potential ban or forced sale looming on Jan. 19. Here's how it could play out.
Solar panels and a coal-fired power station in Fukushima Prefecture. Japan has not set a clear path for phasing out coal and its new draft energy plan foresees an important role for fossil fuels, especially gas, and nuclear power in its future energy mix.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 13, 2025

Japan’s energy plans endanger real climate solutions

The government's draft energy plans were not subject to open debate and their outcome shows an insufficient commitment to making the changes needed to tackle climate change.
A worker inspects the outdoor gas pipes at the underground gas storage facility operated by Gas Storage in Haje, Czech Republic, on Jan. 3.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Jan 13, 2025

Europe threatens to trigger a global scramble for natural gas

For the first time since the energy crisis was turbocharged by Russia’s war in Ukraine, Europe risks failing to meet its storage targets for next winter.
People watch a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a train station in Seoul on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 14, 2025

North Korea fires suspected short-range ballistic missiles

The launches on Tuesday morning came a day after the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan held talks to reaffirm ties.
An aerial photograph taken on Monday shows inflatable dinghies and outboard engines stored in a Port Authority yard in Dover, southeast England, that are believed to have been used by migrants who were picked up at sea while crossing the English Channel from France.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 14, 2025

Fortress Europe: What will migration policy look like in 2025?

Some countries in Europe are calling for the rules fast-tracking asylum processes and returns to be sharpened or implemented sooner.
Jurgen Klopp, Red Bull's new global head of soccer, is interviewed at a media event in Salzburg, Austria, on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Jan 15, 2025

Klopp excited about Red Bull role as he dismisses return to management

Klopp insisted he was happy to be away from the daily grind of club management after more than two decades working in a dugout.
The flight data recorder retrieved from Jeju Air flight 2216, which crashed killing 179 people in December. Black boxes holding the flight data and cockpit voice recorders for the flight stopped recording four minutes before the disaster, South Korea's transport ministry said Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 15, 2025

Crashed Jeju jet’s black box failure shows decadeslong gap in power rules

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board first recommended that cockpit voice recorders be fitted with an independent power source in the late 1990s.
A motorcade carrying South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol leaves for the Seoul Detention Center at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials following his arrest, in Gwacheon, South Korea, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 16, 2025

South Korean president’s arrest shows peril as Trump returns

Bureaucrats in Seoul are hoping that Donald Trump goes easy on South Korea once he's back in the White House.
Self-Defense Forces members search for victims in Kobe's Nagata Ward on Jan. 28, 1995, in the wake of the Great Hanshin Earthquake.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 16, 2025

Hanshin quake sparked changes to Japan's disaster response policies

Having outlined the Self-Defense Forces' active role and support for victims, the government now aims to set up a new central agency for disaster relief.
For some time away from Tokyo's suffocating urban sameness, Yamagata Prefecture is home to a soothing array of natural abundance.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 18, 2025

For tourists in search of seasonal sights, Yamagata makes its case

Japan’s much-lauded four seasons aren’t felt as much in Tokyo as they are in the full, rural vistas of Yamagata Prefecture.
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket streaks into orbit after launching from the Kennedy Space Center on its maiden flight, at Cape Canaveral, Florida on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 16, 2025

Blue Origin rocket lifts off in major test in SpaceX rivalry

The firm's new flagship rocket thundered off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida at 2:03 a.m. local time on Thursday.
Filmmaker David Lynch at his Hollywood Hills home in Los Angeles in 2002. The painter turned avant-garde film artist, whose fame, influence and distinctively skewed worldview extended far beyond the movie screen, died on Thursday at 78.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 17, 2025

David Lynch, maker of florid and unnerving films, dies at 78

A painter turned artist whose films included “Eraserhead,” “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive,” Lynch also brought his visionary view to the small screen with “Twin Peaks.”
Naomi Osaka is off to a strong start to the season and defeated Karolina Muchova on Wednesday to reach the third round of the Australian Open.
TENNIS
Jan 16, 2025

Naomi Osaka's Australian Open and the rediscovery of a tennis superpower

Osaka will play her first third-round match at a Grand Slam event since the 2022 Australian Open.
The TikTok ban results from an April law signed by President Joe Biden and is the first time the United States has attempted to shut down access to an app with such a large user base — roughly 170 million domestic users.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 17, 2025

How a TikTok ban would work — and why user workarounds won't

TikTok reportedly plans to shut down the service and will show users a message about the law and offer to let them download their personal data.
The prospect of a TikTok ban has already triggered some users to seek alternatives, with Chinese social media app RedNote gaining nearly 3 million U.S. users in one day earlier this week.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 17, 2025

TikTok's fight against going dark gains support from key U.S. lawmakers

A law passed in April mandates owner ByteDance to divest TikTok's U.S. assets by Sunday to a non-Chinese buyer, or be banned on national security concerns.
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo hold a joint news conference in Taguig City, Metro Manila, the Philippines, on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2025

Japan looks to up the ante with more money and partners in military aid program

As funds for Japan's official security assistance increase, so will Tokyo's efforts to boost the number of countries it assists, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Children pray for the victims of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake during an early morning ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the quake, in Kobe on Friday.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 17, 2025

30th anniversary of Hanshin quake marked with desire to pass on lessons

Hyogo Prefecture is also calling on the central government to pick Kansai as the base of a new disaster relief agency currently in the works.
Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
BUSINESS / Companies / Longform
Jan 17, 2025

Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go

The CEO and president of Rapidus says the chip venture in Hokkaido is key to Japan's fortunes.
Parents and municipal staff share their concerns during a workshop held by volunteer group Cotohana in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jan 27, 2025

Towns near Fukushima plant struggle to attract families with children

Futaba County, home to the Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant, has seen a drastic reduction in the number of children in the area.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be secretary of state, reacts as he testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 18, 2025

'Quad' top diplomats expected to meet the day after Trump inauguration

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio appears on track for confirmation as Trump's secretary of state on Monday, clearing the way for the meeting the following day.
Most of the grant funding for U.S. President Joe Biden's ambitious Chips and Science Act has been awarded, and the initiative has spurred more than $400 billion in planned company investments. But much of the job remains unfinished — and broader upheaval in the chip industry will only add to the challenges.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 18, 2025

Biden’s chips team hands off $52 billion program to a skeptical Trump

Before the election, Donald Trump described the Chips Act as "so bad” and suggested tariffs would be a better solution.
Then-Rep. Brandon Williams, a Republican from New York, during a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing in Washington last May
WORLD / Politics
Jan 18, 2025

Trump picks one-term congressman to manage U.S. nuclear arsenal

Brandon Williams represented a New York congressional district for one term, but little is known about his experience in the management of atomic weapons.
U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden walk across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington in August 2022, after returning from a trip to Kentucky.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 18, 2025

How Biden’s inner circle protected a faltering president

“Your biggest issue is the perception of age,” Mike Donilon, the president’s longtime strategist, told him in 2022, according to people who heard him.
Eugene Kangawa's Atelier iii is a space where visitors are invited to engage directly with the artist’s evolving practice.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 18, 2025

Eugene Kangawa’s art space embraces impermanence

The artist’s Atelier iii studio resists spectacle and asks visitors to slow down and commit to being present.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s potential role in any plan to save TikTok remains both intriguing and complicated. The ban is set to take effect just one day before his inauguration, and while it has been reported that President Joe Biden won’t enforce the ban on day one, the decision on what to do long-term will become Trump’s problem almost immediately.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 18, 2025

TikTok’s fate rests on Trump after U.S. Supreme Court upholds law

U.S. President -elect Donald Trump’s potential role in any plan to save TikTok remains both intriguing and complicated.
A firefighter lights a controlled burn in a forest environment in Bages, southwestern France, on Saturday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 19, 2025

Slew of satellite projects aims to head off future wildfires

Tech-focused groups are launching new orbiters as space launches get cheaper, while machine-learning techniques will sift the torrent of information.
People attend a New Year's celebration in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 1.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 19, 2025

Wuhan keen to shake off pandemic label five years on

There is nothing to mark the location of the world's first COVID-19 lockdown — in fact, there are no major memorials to the lives lost to the virus anywhere in the city.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo in May 2019.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 19, 2025

As Trump returns, will Japan be able to weather the storm?

Tokyo may be surprisingly more suited to work with Trump — and beat back any exorbitant demands — than it was during his first stint.
John Adolph holds his son, Remy, as he stays with his friends after his home in Altadena was damaged during the Eaton Fire, in Eagle Rock, California, on Friday.
WORLD
Jan 20, 2025

Displaced by wildfires, Los Angeles' residents search for a place to live

In the wake of the wildfires, rents in Los Angeles have surged, and uncertainty over insurance settlements has left some of the displaced in limbo.

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