Search - new

 
 
A worker places blank guitar picks into a tray at D'Addario's production facility in Farmingdale, New York, on July 10.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 23, 2025

Inside a U.S. guitar string-maker's strategy to navigate the trade war

While the company makes nearly all its music accessories in the U.S., its supply chain and distribution are global, with its biggest foreign market being Japan.
Sohei Kamiya, founder of the Sanseito, which campaigned on a “Japanese first” message and tough immigration rhetoric, speaks at a rally in Gunma Prefecture on July 6.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 23, 2025

Ignore the election hype, foreign residents are here to stay

While the number of foreign residents reached a record high last year, it’s still barely over 3% of the total population, low by international standards.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff threats seemed effective at first because markets expected him to back down, but as investors grow numb, the risk rises he’ll follow through, triggering the very economic harm his threats were meant to avoid.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2025

Why markets may soon call America’s tariff bluff

Complacency brings new risk: If markets tune out Trump’s tariff threats, they may stop checking harmful policies.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to London earlier this month to meet with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer shows how a changing Europe and shifting global threats could let Britain move past Brexit and help shape a new European security order.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2025

Britain and Europe are changing together

Britain can help shape the continent’s new security order, so long as it banishes the Brexit mindset.
London’s worsening disorder — from soaring petty crime to reckless delivery riders and rising drug use — reflects a decades-old pattern of authorities and citizens normalizing lawlessness.
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2025

What turning a blind eye to deviant behavior is doing to London

The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, needs to take growing disorder on the streets more seriously.
European Council President Antonio Costa (left) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (right) join hands with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba prior to a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 23, 2025

Japan and EU launch trade ‘alliance’ amid concerns over U.S. and China

The new agreement will expand bilateral trade ties, promote business cooperation and explore ways to diversify critical mineral supply chains.
Before multiplexes entered the Japanese theatrical market in the early 1990s, moviegoers frequented “roadside theaters” — cinemas located in central urban areas near train lines. The Marunouchi Toei, which will close July 27, is the last of such theaters in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 24, 2025

Marunouchi Toei closes as Japan’s cinema landscape evolves

As audiences gravitate toward the luxury, tech and varied lineups of multiplexes, Tokyo’s last "roadside theater" closes after 65 years, marking the end of an era in moviegoing.
Protesters gather in the streets of western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Wednesday following President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to hobble anti-corruption authorities.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 24, 2025

Zelenskyy risks Ukraine EU bid as protests over graft office grow

EU leaders regarded the about-face on more than decade of rule-of-law efforts as a major setback for Ukraine’s bid on Western integration.
Shintaro Suzuki stands by a stone monument that marks the beginning of the pole-and-line bonito fishing method in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Aug 4, 2025

Miyagi city marks 350 years of bonito fishing method

In 1675, fishermen from what is now called Shingu, Wakayama Prefecture, taught a village in present-day Miyagi Prefecture a revolutionary technique to catch bonito.
Ichiro presents then-Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson with the bat he used to break the single-season hits record in 2004.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 24, 2025

Hall of Fame always held deeper meaning for Ichiro

Ichiro, who will be inducted into the Hall on Sunday, is so familiar with the storied museum that he could probably lead the tour that new inductees receive.
Swarm Biotactics' cyborg cockroaches are equipped with specialized backpacks that enable real-time data collection via cameras.
WORLD
Jul 24, 2025

Spy cockroaches and AI robots: Germany plots the future of warfare

A wave of German defense startups is developing cutting-edge technology, from tank-like robots and unmanned mini-submarines to battle-ready cyborg cockroaches.
An explosion in the Gaza Strip is seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2025

Blaming Hamas, U.S. and Israel recall teams from Gaza truce talks

It was the latest setback in efforts to bring a ceasefire to the Gaza Strip, as both Israel and Hamas face pressure at home and abroad to reach a deal.
Hulk Hogan tears his shirt during a rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, at Madison Square Garden, in New York City on Oct. 27, 2024.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 25, 2025

Hulk Hogan, shirt-shredding superstar of pro wrestling, dies at 71

Hogan was the face of pro wrestling for decades, with his blond hair and horseshoe mustache, colorful bandannas and massive biceps, which he referred to as "24-inch pythons.”
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas (right) meets then-French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, now France's president, in the West Bank city of Ramallah in 2015.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2025

France to recognize Palestinian state in September, Macron says

The French president's announcement prompted a harsh response from Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (center) responds to questions during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, China, on July 17. Nvidia is one of the companies at the heart of the global artificial intelligence movement.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 25, 2025

DeepSeek and Trump’s plan steer agenda at China’s premier AI forum

This year's edition of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference takes place at a critical juncture in the U.S.-Chinese tech rivalry.
Visitors at Matryoshka Square, a theme park in the border town of Manzhouli, in China’s Inner Mongolia, on July 10. Much of the trade between China and Russia has long run through Manzhouli.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 25, 2025

How a Chinese border town keeps Russia’s economy afloat

The economic strategy of the town of Manzhouli underlines Russia’s evolution into a supplier of raw materials to China’s vast manufacturing sector.
Japan’s ruling LDP-Komeito bloc lost big, smaller parties gained ground and the country now faces a more fractured, uncertain political future.
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2025

Voter revolt shatters Japan’s ruling coalition and empowers smaller parties

The big winners were smaller, newer parties on the right, Sanseito and the Democratic Party for the People.
Manhattan Beach on the California coast
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 25, 2025

‘Unprecedented’ ocean heat waves in 2023 suggest climate tipping point

The world’s oceans experienced a staggering amount of warming in 2023, as vast marine heat waves affected 96% of their surface.
Batam, a duty-free Indonesian enclave a short ferry ride from Singapore, has become a key waypoint in a convoluted global shuffle involving Chinese solar panels and U.S. tariffs.
BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2025

China’s stealthy solar exports stay one step ahead of U.S. tariffs

Of Indonesia’s 10 biggest exporters of solar cells and panels to the U.S. during the first half of 2025, six in Batam were found to be owned by executives at Chinese companies.
Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks during an news conference announcing charges against Ghislaine Maxwell for her role in the sexual exploitation and abuse of minor girls by Jeffrey Epstein.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 25, 2025

Amid Epstein furor, Ghislaine Maxwell seeks relief from U.S. Supreme Court

The justices, now on their summer recess, are expected in late September to consider whether to take up an appeal by the jailed British socialite.
CC Sabathia plays in a celebrity softball game during MLB All-Star festivities in Atlanta on July 12.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 26, 2025

Sabathia and Ichiro lead intriguing Hall of Fame class into Cooperstown

While the presence of Ichiro will lend an international flavor to the festivities, the enshrinement of classic era candidates Allen and Parker will add layers of poignancy.
People detained by U.S. immigration forces are seen behind fences at the Desert View Annex at an ICE detention facility in Adelanto, California, on July 10.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Jul 27, 2025

Most ICE detainees have no criminal history as detention reaches record levels

Private prison corporations are set to benefit from the Trump administration's unprecedented deportation drive.
A technician works on the assembly line at a solar panel manufacturing hub on the outskirts of New Delhi last October.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Jul 27, 2025

Amid fossil fuel shift in U.S., hope emerges for India and Japan tie-up on solar

As the Trump administration shifts back to gas and coal, solar power stakeholders in Japan and India are seeking new ways to collaborate.
Reporters and photographers, including long-time baseball beat writer Keizo Konishi, swarm around Ichiro Suzuki during the World Baseball Classic in San Diego in 2009.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 27, 2025

Three decades and a pile of notebooks: The beat writer who chronicled Ichiro’s career

For nearly three decades, this journalist's job revolved around one man — Ichiro Suzuki. But covering the baseball legend was never boring.
U.S. President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands after making joint statements at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 2017.
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2025

U.S. and China to resume tariff talks in effort to extend truce

China is facing an Aug. 12 deadline to strike a durable tariff agreement with the Trump administration, after Beijing and Washington reached a preliminary deal in June.
Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates, has become irresistible for the world’s richest people.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Jul 28, 2025

World’s rich ignore Middle East strife to bet on Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Europeans have turned to the United Arab Emirates to seek respite from economic uncertainties, while some Chinese have begun looking beyond long-favored hubs like Singapore.
Paul Weaver, director and head of cannabis at U.S.-based Boston Beer Company, shows the company's weed-themed product catalogs in his office in Toronto in June.
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2025

U.S. alcohol sector prepares to fight back against buzzy cannabis drinks

Alcohol makers are still suffering a hangover following America's pandemic drinking binge, when sales spiked as cash-flush consumers splurged on pricey bottles of liquor.
Hajime Kawano and his family traveled from Japan to see Ichiro Suzuki be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, on Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 28, 2025

Ichiro's Hall of Fame induction becomes family affair for some fans

Some traveled from Japan to the United States to be part of Ichiro's big moment.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has called off a trip to Central and South America that would have included stopovers in the U.S.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 29, 2025

Taiwan's Lai calls off trip with U.S. transit as Trump seeks Xi summit

The Taiwanese president had intended to stop in New York and then Dallas as part of a trip to diplomatic allies in Central and South America.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, on June 30, 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 29, 2025

North Korea says Trump must drop denuclearization policy if he wants to meet Kim

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader, called personal ties between Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump "not bad.”

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