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COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 23, 2023

Kishida faces leadership test over Johnny's sexual abuse scandal

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who prides himself on his “ability to listen,” faces a test of his leadership amid the Johnny's sexual abuse scandal.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 23, 2023

Nihon University scandal puts focus on 'collective responsibility'

Critics of the approach of punishing an entire team for wrongdoing by some say it can unfairly affect athletes that weren't involved.
Matt Daniels of the Buffalo Bills Wheelchair Football Team moves with the ball during a scrimmage against the Cleveland Browns Adaptive Sports team in Cleveland on Aug. 5, 2023.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 24, 2023

Wheelchair football provides camaraderie amid metal-on-metal clashes

Dawson Broad was instantly drawn to wheelchair football after attending a game in Buffalo.
Koenji-based dance troupe Tengu-ren performs at an Awa odori event in Tokyo's Kagurazaka neighborhood a month before the Koenji Awa Odori.
CULTURE / Longform
Aug 26, 2023

The party returns to Koenji

While the COVID-19 pandemic put a temporary pause to one of Tokyo’s biggest festivals, its dancers never stopped practicing their steps.
Pham Minh Chinh, Vietnam's prime minister, at a summit in Brussels in December 2022
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 28, 2023

Flagging growth fuels tensions clouding Vietnam premier’s future

Despite some successes, failure to hit the country's ambitious growth target could be career-damaging for PM Pham Minh Chinh.
Kanji Matoba offers a prayer in front of a touch screen displaying a portrait of his late wife, at a columbarium in Sendai.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 4, 2023

New types of graves and services reflect changes in tradition

The COVID-19 pandemic made such services as grave visiting in place of families or ones using virtual reality technology take root.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo. A board member with the central bank Naoki Tamura has hinted that officials might be able to confirm some time early next year they’ve hit the goal needed to usher in policy change.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2023

Leading BOJ hawk hints at chance of policy shift in early 2024

"The achievement is finally and clearly within sight after a decade of large-scale monetary easing aimed at attaining it,” board member Naoki Tamura said.
The seat reserved for Myanmar is left empty during the retreat session of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Jakarta on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 5, 2023

ASEAN leaders meet at summit dominated by Myanmar crisis

The Philippines has said it is ready to replace the Myanmar's junta rulers as chair of the bloc in 2026.
Julie Keiko Fujishima (right), who stepped down as Johnny & Associates president on Tuesday, and new President Noriyuki Higashiyama give a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 7, 2023

Johnny's replaces president as it admits to abuse by late founder

The replacement comes on the heels of a scathing third-party report, which recommended that Julie Keiko Fujishima resign as president.
Major Japanese food and beverage maker Asahi Group Holdings made the decision not to feature Johnny's talents in its future sales promotion activities "to prevent itself from promoting human rights violations by a business partner."
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 9, 2023

Asahi to end use of Johnny's personalities in ads

The major Japanese food and beverage maker made the decision "to prevent itself from promoting human rights violations by a business partner."
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 10, 2023

Internal email sheds light on wind-power bribery scandal

Tokyo prosecutors have obtained an email as possible evidence of Akimoto having made statements before lawmakers at the request of Tsukawaki.
Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the China-Africa leaders’ roundtable on the closing day of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg on Aug. 24
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2023

China and doubling of BRICS size challenges the U.S.-led global order

Although China is the world’s second largest economy, it still claims to be a developing country and depicts itself as the champion of the Global South.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with U.S. President Joe Biden upon his arrival at the Bharat Mandapam convention center for the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 11, 2023

At G20 summit, India sought to loosen China’s grip on Global South

The U.S. and other G7 members stayed largely in the background at the gathering, allowing India to take a global leadership role.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida leaves his office residence in formal attire to attend an attestation ceremony at the Imperial Palace with his reshuffled Cabinet in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 13, 2023

Kishida replaces top diplomat and boosts women in Cabinet reshuffle

Among the more stunning moves was the prime minister’s decision to have former Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa replace Yoshimasa Hayashi as top diplomat.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 14, 2023

Johnny's says it will work for free as firms cut ties over scandal

The talent agency says it will not receive management fees for advertisements and television appearances by performers for a year.
Draft documents show a hole of about €220 million ($235 million) in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s €650 million budget for this year, with the U.S. and China being the biggest debtors.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 15, 2023

Nuke watchdog risks running out of money amid U.S.-China tensions

The last time the IAEA was in such dire financial straits was in the mid-1990s.
New health minister Keizo Takemi is the son of Taro Takemi, a prominent physician who was dubbed “Emperor Takemi” due to the enormous and often dictatorial power he wielded over health care policy as president of the Japan Medical Association.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 15, 2023

Critics worry about new health minister's ties with lobby group

Keizo Takemi is the son of a former president of the Japan Medical Association, a political lobby mostly made up of doctors in private practice.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un receives a send-off as he departs by train from Pyongyang for a visit to Russia on Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 15, 2023

North Korea’s newfound confidence is a dangerous and challenging thing

It is increasingly clear that Pyongyang has been emboldened by the formation of a new anti-U.S. bloc, prompting it to reach out to Beijing and Moscow.
Group of Seven leaders, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (center), lay floral wreaths at the Cenotaph for Atomic Bomb Victims in the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on May 19.
JAPAN / Politics / EXPLAINER
Sep 20, 2023

Kishida eyes return to stalled fissile treaty. That may be a nonstarter.

Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Kishida said Japan will work to facilitate discussions between nuclear and nonnuclear weapon states.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi converses with Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during the Group of 20 Leaders' Summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2023

The Modi-Jaishankar partnership serves India’s global interests well

Important contributors to India’s rising global profile are the communication skills, professionalism and competence of Foreign Minister Jaishankar.
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez
WORLD / Politics
Sep 23, 2023

Charged with bribery, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez vows not to resign

U.S. prosecutors on Friday charged powerful Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife with taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, which could complicate Democrats' efforts to keep their slim majority in the U.S. Senate in next year's elections.
Journalist and #MeToo advocate Sophia Huang Xueqin and labor activist Wang Jianbing were arrested on Sept. 19, 2021, but their trial in the southern city of Guangzhou was only due to begin on Friday, according to supporters.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 24, 2023

Chinese activist pair indicted for state subversion, supporters say

Journalist and #MeToo advocate Sophia Huang Xueqin and labor activist Wang Jianbing were arrested on Sept. 19, 2021.
The Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, where Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot and killed in the parking lot in June, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, on Wednesday. The violent, professional-style killing of Nijjar now lies at the center of a diplomatic clash between Canada and India that comes just as Western allies have been trying to strengthen ties with the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 24, 2023

Two hooded gunmen, a silver getaway car and a slain Sikh leader

Three witnesses who said they saw the killers of Hardeep Singh Nijjar described the scene.
The U.S. Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, its flagship medical center in Germany, is seen in 2021. The medical center has quietly started admitting Ukrainian Army soldiers who were wounded in combat, most of them American volunteers.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 24, 2023

U.S. Army hospital in Germany treating Americans hurt fighting in Ukraine

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center has quietly started admitting Ukrainian Army soldiers who were wounded in combat, most of them American volunteers.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 26, 2023

Japan and China clash over Fukushima water at IAEA meeting

The IAEA released a report in July concluding that the water discharge plan was consistent with international safety standards.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 27, 2023

Lawmakers upset as Taro Aso dubs coalition partner a 'cancer'

The LDP vice president reportedly made the remark while discussing Komeito's stance on the revision of key security documents last December.
China Evergrande Group Chairman Hui Ka Yan
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 27, 2023

Evergrande’s billionaire chairman Hui under police surveillance

Hui was taken away by Chinese police earlier this month and is being monitored at a designated location. It’s not clear why he is under surveillance.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 28, 2023

Japan politician Super Crazy-kun indicted on sexual assault charges

Makoto Nishimoto was charged on the grounds of nonconsensual sexual intercourse resulting in injury. The victim was a female acquaintance in her 30s.
French President Emmanuel Macron, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel and then-U.S. President Donald Trump during a photo opportunity at a NATO leaders summit in the U.K. in 2019.
WORLD
Sep 29, 2023

Europe is trying to ‘Trump proof’ the transatlantic relationship

Trump, 77, holds a commanding lead over his rivals in the contest for the Republican nomination, despite his mounting legal troubles.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi address a joint meeting of Congress at the Capitol in Washington in June.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 1, 2023

Modi’s Hindu nationalism stokes tension in Indian diaspora

Canadian and U.S. universities have become battlegrounds for critics and defenders of Hindu nationalism, punctuated by threats of violence and even death.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?