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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the Defense Ministry on Saturday, the anniversary of the Korean People's Army's founding, in Pyongyang.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 9, 2025

North Korea's Kim vows to further develop nuclear forces

Leader Kim Jong Un criticized trilateral military cooperation among the U.S., Japan and South Korea for raising tensions in the region.
The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold sails in the front of a formation with the Philippine Navy Jose Rizal-class frigate BRP Jose Rizal (center), the Royal Australian Navy Hobart-class air warfare destroyer HMAS Hobart (left) and the Maritime Defense Force Akizuki-class destroyer Akizuki, during a multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity exercise in the South China Sea last Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 10, 2025

Calls grow louder for joint maritime patrols near Philippine hot spots

Some want Manila to consider joint coast guard and naval patrols near Chinese government vessels operating in disputed waters of the South China Sea.
Researchers have come up with a way to measure the sugar content of white strawberries using near-infrared light without having to damage the fruit.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2025

New method reveals white strawberry sweetness without damage

Before such technology, the most common way to determine the sweetness of a strawberry was to crush it up and analyze the juice created.
Toshikazu Shiba (right), 71, works full-time along with younger staff at sofa manufacturer Eucas in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Feb 17, 2025

More older people choosing to work for social connection and survival

Older residents are exploring ways to navigate the later stages of their lives, whether continuing their careers or with new ventures.
Fukushima University student Itsuki Yamada (right) takes part in a workshop in December in the village of Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, together with local residents. Yamada leads a group of student volunteers that runs an internet community radio program featuring Iitate.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Feb 17, 2025

University students launch community radio show for Fukushima village

The program aims to spread word about the realities faced by Iitate's aging population, and support the village's revitalization.
Japan's current account surplus grew 29.5% year on year in 2024, the Finance Ministry said.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 10, 2025

Japan's current account surplus hits record high in 2024

The surplus grew 29.5% from 2023 to ¥29.26 trillion ($193 billion) last year, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.
Tsuneo Yamaguchi, head of the Nihon Dobutsu Kaigo Center (right), takes in a border collie that was affected by the disaster in the Ishikawa town of Uchinada, from its owner.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2025

Nonprofit continues to care for pets displaced by Noto earthquake

One owner left their dog at the center after being unable to find an evacuation center that would accommodate pets.
A toilet container transported to the roadside station Anamizu for disaster relief in the aftermath of the Noto Peninsula earthquake, on Jan. 12, 2024, in Anamizu Town, Ishikawa Prefecture
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2025

Japan to help roadside stations install portable containers for disaster use

Portable containers installed at evacuation centers after the earthquake on the Noto Peninsula in January 2024 were used for multiple purposes, including as medical offices.
On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that U.S. Steel would remain American.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 10, 2025

Nippon Steel goes quiet after U.S. Steel deal seemingly nixed for good

Comments over the weekend by U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba point to the U.S. steelmaker remaining American.
Debt servicing costs are estimated to increase, reflecting the Bank of Japan's interest rate hikes.
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2025

Japan's government debt climbs to record ¥1.32 quadrillion

The combined balance of Japanese government bonds, borrowings and financing bills swelled by ¥7.2 trillion from the end of September 2024.
Travel officials from the Middle East experience test cutting for Japanese swords in Setouchi, Okayama Prefecture, in January.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2025

Government touts exchanges with nations participating in Osaka Expo

Local governments expect their plans to boost youth exchanges, accelerate overseas expansion and promote tourism.
In digital trade, Japan's imports have been rising faster than its exports, amid the dominance of global information technology giants such as Microsoft and Google.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 11, 2025

Japan's trade deficit for digital services rose to record ¥6.6 trillion in 2024

Japan's digital trade deficit is expected to reach ¥10 trillion in 2030, roughly equivalent to its crude oil imports in 2024.
The city of Settsu in Osaka Prefecture, which has distributed "randoseru" to elementary schoolchildren for free for 50 years, marked the milestone with a redesign of the school backpack.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 16, 2025

City marks 50 years of free school bag project

The city redesigned the traditional backpack for the first time, increasing its capacity, in the fiscal year that started in April 2024.
A worker walks in front of rolls of steel at a steel company in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 12, 2025

Canada, Mexico and EU slam 'unjustified' Trump steel tariffs

The European Union and Canada vowed to firmly retaliate against the tariffs.
Self-Defense Forces members march in formation at the Ground Self-Defense Force's Camp Asaka, which straddles Tokyo and Saitama Prefectures, last November. Japan has picked the head of its new Joint Operations Command, which is set to be launched on March 24 at the Defense Ministry's headquarters in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2025

SDF Joint Staff official tapped as first chief of new Joint Operations Command

The Joint Operations Command for the ASDF, the Ground SDF and the Maritime SDF is set to be launched in March at the Defense Ministry's headquarters in Tokyo.
The Osaka Prefectural Police headquarters in the city of Osaka
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 12, 2025

Osaka police arrest man for abandoning his wife’s body

His wife was last seen leaving work early at around 2 p.m. on May 26 last year.
A Self-Defense Forces member leads residents in Fukamimachi, a village in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, to a rescue helicopter, on a destroyed road in January last year.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2025

Japan to subsidize efforts to prevent emergency roads from collapsing

Many roads built on piled-up soil collapsed after a powerful earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in January 2024.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki addresses a meeting of the Legislative Council held at the ministry on Monday.
BUSINESS
Feb 12, 2025

Japan eyes measures to empower firms with details of de facto shareholders

Shareholder lists compiled by companies currently display only the names of trust banks and other nominal shareholders, making it difficult to identify de facto shareholders.
The city of Toyama. Under a new plan, the government of Toyama Prefecture, which lies on the Sea of Japan coast, will send officials to Shizuoka Prefecture in the event of a Nankai Trough megaquake.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2025

Partner prefecture plan eyed for Nankai Trough quake

The ministry will formally adopt the new plan by the end of fiscal 2024 for implementation in April.
Plastic bags containing radiated soil are seen inside the exclusion zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, in March 2020.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2025

Japan to pick final disposal sites for Fukushima soil around 2030

As of the end of December, about 14 million cubic meters of such soil had been transported to an interim storage facility.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said that Nippon Steel has agreed to make a big investment in the U.S. company instead of acquiring it, and has voiced his intention to meet with the leader of Nippon Steel as early as this week.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 13, 2025

Nippon Steel exec heads to U.S. to prepare for talks with Trump

Nippon Steel may be forced to significantly revise its plans as Trump has said that the Japanese company will not take a majority stake in U.S. Steel.
The city center of Obihiro, Hokkaido, is covered in snow on Feb. 4.
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2025

12 deaths related to heavy snow since Feb. 4

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency also said 51 people have been severely wounded across the country.
Misako Yoshimura looks for a photograph of her father from among several kept in a closet at her home in the town of Yonabaru, Okinawa Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Feb 24, 2025

Remembering a father who stopped smiling after the war

Misako Yoshimura hated her stern-faced father, but when she learned of what he lost during the Pacific War, the resentment disappeared.
The treated water storage tanks planned for dismantling, shown to members of the press at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on Thursday
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2025

High wind halts dismantling of Fukushima nuclear plant's water tanks

The dismantling had been seen as a milestone in Tepco's decades-long project to decommission the stricken plant, which went into meltdown after it was hit by a tsunami in 2011.
People attend a vigil for a recently deceased 43-year-old Japanese woman in central Budapest on Feb. 4
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 13, 2025

Hungarian police discipline officers over Japanese woman’s death

Despite repeated claims of domestic abuse at the hands of her ex-husband, local police failed to follow up with an investigation until it was too late.
The Ishiba Cabinet's approval rating has risen 0.3 percentage point in February, at 28.5%, while its disapproval rating was down 0.2 point at 40.1%, according to Jiji Press opinion poll.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 13, 2025

Public approval for Ishiba Cabinet steady at 28.5%, poll finds

The Cabinet approval rating was up 0.3 percentage point, while its disapproval rating was down 0.2 point at 40.1%.
Dewi Sukarno (center) at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 14, 2025

Celebrity Dewi Sukarno launches political group for animal rights

The 12 Heiwa To party, whose name is a play on "wan-nyan" (bow-meow), will focus on animal protection as its main policy.
Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district. Masayuki Makino, a representative of a volunteer group that operated in Kabukicho, is suspected of committing indecent acts against a 17-year-old girl at a hotel in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, on Oct. 15, 2023.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 14, 2025

Tokyo volunteer group's former rep held over indecent acts against teen

Masayuki Makino, who was part of a volunteer group that operated in the Kabukicho entertainment district, allegedly committed the acts against a 17-year-old girl.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 14, 2025

Japan’s biggest IPO since SoftBank seeks to raise $3 billion

The deal would exceed last year’s blockbuster share debut of subway operator Tokyo Metro.
The monkish aristocrat Yoshida no Kenko extolled the virtues of asymmetry, imperfection and ephemerality in his famed essay collection “Tsurezuregusa.”
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Feb 15, 2025

‘The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty’

A man of leisure from 700 years ago extols the virtues of asymmetry, imperfection and ephemerality.

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