Search - 2018

 
 
Liam Lawson during a media event ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Dec 19, 2024

Lawson officially replacing Perez at Red Bull F1 team

The move means that the more-experienced Yuki Tsunoda will stay with the RB team for the 2025 season.
Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe speaks during a joint news conference with heads of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors on their merger talks in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Dec 24, 2024

Honda crafts Nissan rescue plan that plays out over years

While executives called the transaction a merger, Honda will take the lead in forming the new entity and nominate a majority of its directors.
Former U.S. President Jimmy in 1996. Carter, who rose from Georgia farmland to become the 39th president of the United States on a promise of national healing after the wounds of Watergate and Vietnam, then lost the White House in a cauldron of economic turmoil at home and crisis in Iran, died on Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 30, 2024

Jimmy Carter, president known as a peacemaker, is dead at 100

While Carter's presidency was remembered more for its failures than for its successes, his post-presidency was seen by many as a model for future chief executives.
Police arrested former chancellor of Tokyo Women's Medical University on Monday on suspicion of breach of trust involving fictitious payments of construction consulting fees by the university, according to people familiar with the investigation.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 13, 2025

Ex-Tokyo medical university chancellor arrested for breach of trust

The former chancellor was dismissed in August last year over allegations about illegal expenditures linked to the university's alumnae association, Shiseikai.
Private firefighters gather near their vehicles at a mall in Pacific Palisades, California, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Society
Jan 17, 2025

Private firefighters highlight wealth divide in ruined Los Angeles

Questions are being asked about how some of the city's superrich seem to have survived almost unscathed after enormous blazes spread through the metropolis.
Suspect Kenichi Hosoya, who was rearrested, enters Asakusa Police Station on Friday in Tokyo's Taito Ward. The handcuffs and waist ties are blurred for privacy reasons.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 17, 2025

Tokyo couple re-arrested in ¥26 million insurance fraud murder case

The couple had already been arrested four times last year for allegedly murdering four family members.
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.
Tsutomu Ide speaks to reporters after the ruling in the city of Osaka on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 21, 2025

In first, Osaka increases compensation to family of disabled girl

It is the first ruling to calculate the potential future income of a disabled child in the same way as able-bodied people.
An attendee records a virtual address by U.S. President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2025

Trump threats risk stretching Europe's fragile unity to breaking point

The European Commission urged member states in a private meeting last week to remain united, with some comparing the situation to the Brexit negotiations.
Tokyo’s notoriously crowded trains and train stations can be stressful for many. Unfortunately, the ぶつかり男 (butsukari otoko, bumping man) takes his stress out on others through shoving, elbowing and shoulder checks.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 31, 2025

Mind the gap — and the shoulder checking: Dealing with pushy people in Japan's crowded spaces

Knowing what to say in the moment is good, knowing how to report it to the authorities is even better.
A gas flare on an Iranian oil production platform in 2005
WORLD / Politics
Feb 5, 2025

Trump reimposes 'maximum pressure' on Iran that aims for zero oil exports

Trump said he was open to a deal with Iran and expressed a willingness to talk to the Iranian leader.
Heat forward Jimmy Butler (center) shoots the basketball over Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (left) and forward Aaron Gordon during the third quarter of a game at Kaseya Center on Jan. 17.
BASKETBALL
Feb 6, 2025

Warriors reportedly land Heat's Jimmy Butler in multi-team trade

Butler has agreed to a new two-year, $121 million extension with the Warriors through 2026-27, according to multiple reports.
Naomi Osaka celebrates winning her second round match at the Australian Open over the Czech Republic's Karolina Muchova on Jan. 15.
TENNIS
Feb 6, 2025

Naomi Osaka on tennis, motherhood and being Japanese

Osaka returned to the tour a year ago and has had mixed results overall. But there are early signs in 2025 that she's starting to "get her pink back."
"Uketsu" is a completely anonymous writer and YouTuber whose odd books — which blend mystery and horror — have become a smash-hit publishing phenomenon in Japan.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 7, 2025

'Uketsu': The internet phantom haunting Japan's bestseller lists

Anonymous author and YouTuber "Uketsu" deals in a quiet horror that has delighted millions of readers.
Ippei Mizuhara, former interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, leaves the courthouse in Santa Ana, California, on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 7, 2025

Ohtani's ex-interpreter Mizuhara sentenced to nearly five years in prison

The case involved the illegal transfer of nearly $17 million from the star's account to pay off gambling debts.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order on tariffs on aluminum imports in Washington on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 11, 2025

Trump sets 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, heightening trade war

The move would fulfill what the most extreme trade protectionists have sought for years.
Researchers work around Chang'e-5 lunar return capsule carrying moon samples next to a Chinese national flag, after it landed in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Dec. 17, 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2025

China builds space alliances in Africa as Trump cuts foreign aid

Beijing has access to data and images collected from the space technology, and Chinese personnel maintain a long-term presence in the facilities it builds in Africa.
Chinese President Xi Jinping
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Xi’s embrace of China tech CEOs spurs hope of big economic shift

Developing national tech champions is core to Beijing’s plan for boosting the economy as it deflates a bubble in the property market.
Akwasi Frimpong competes during a skeleton heat at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Feb. 15, 2018.
OLYMPICS / Skeleton
Mar 6, 2025

Skeleton racer Akwasi Frimpong wants to open doors for more African athletes

The 39-year-old broke barriers in 2018 when he and Nigerian Simidele Adeagbo became the first African skeleton racers to compete at an Olympics.
Globally, women are severely underrepresented among leading roles in cinema, with female directors accounting for just over 10% of the industry in Japan. Achieving gender equality on-set would have far-reaching consequences for the whole of society.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 7, 2025

Without women behind the camera, equality stays out of the frame

Cinema isn't only about what stories are told, but who tells them. Overcoming severe underrepresentation, women are reshaping the film industry and cultural narratives.
JX Advanced Metals plans to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on March 19.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 10, 2025

JX Metals raises $3 billion in Japan's biggest IPO since SoftBank

The semiconductor materials supplier, whose clients include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Intel, plans to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on March 19.
Rolled steel is stored at a Hyundai Steel plant in Dangjin, South Korea, in 2011.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 13, 2025

South Korean steelmakers eye U.S. investments as Trump tariffs kick in

Posco and Hyundai Steel say investments in operations in the U.S. are among their options. Meanwhile, European steel mills warn of a flood of surplus metal.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei looks on during a meeting with students in Tehran on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 15, 2025

Despite tough talk, economic woes may force Iran to bargain with Trump

Behind the defiant rhetoric of Iran's leaders in public, there is a pragmatic willingness within Tehran to strike a deal with Washington.
Jalen Brunson of the Knicks during an NBA All-Star Game event in San Francisco on Feb. 16.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Mar 16, 2025

To get big in China, NBA stars enlist social media surrogates

The trend comes as recently fraught ties between the NBA and China thaw.
Lindsey Vonn celebrates on the podium after finishing second in a women's super-G event in Sun Valley, Idaho.
MORE SPORTS / Alpine skiing
Mar 24, 2025

Lindsey Vonn gets confidence boost from first podium finish since comeback

Vonn had not managed a World Cup podium since 2018.
Brooklyn Kura's Catskills, a "junmai daiginjō" (sake with rice polished down to at least 50%), is made with water from the New York region of the same name.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 28, 2025

New York's Brooklyn Kura becomes first U.S. sake exporter to Japan

The brewer’s initial exports are “relatively small,” but it hopes drinkers in Japan are "open to trying" American-made sake.
Honda Racing President Koji Watanabe says the carmaker's development on the next generation of Formula One engines is proceeding as planned ahead of sweeping regulation changes in 2026.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Apr 5, 2025

Honda looks toward its F1 future as Red Bull partnership nears end

Honda Racing President Koji Watanabe discusses the carmaker's past and future in Formula One as its Red Bull partnership draws to a close.
Soybeans are harvested near Stuttgart, Arkansas in October 2023.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 6, 2025

'Anxious' U.S. farmers see tariffs as threatening earnings

U.S. farmers hoping for a profit this year instead find themselves facing lower crop prices — and the prospect of ceding more ground in foreign markets.
A flag outside United Nations headquarters in New York.
WORLD
Apr 10, 2025

U.N. may get first female chief as Latin bloc unites

Latin American and Caribbean nations are working to back a single candidate — likely a woman — for U.N. chief as Antonio Guterres prepares to step down.
Facing a new round of U.S. tariffs, China may devalue the yuan — possibly by as much as 20% — if fiscal stimulus falls short, risking a global currency war as it fights to meet its growth target.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 16, 2025

When will China start to devalue the yuan?

One way to think about China’s currency policy is its fiscal stance. Unless Beijing brings out the stimulus bazooka, devaluing the yuan might be the most expedient option.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami