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Newly elected Pope Leo XIV waves on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican on Thursday.
JAPAN / Society
May 9, 2025

Heads of hibakusha groups urge Pope Leo to promote abolition of nukes

They expressed hopes that the new pontiff will follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Francis, who visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2019.
China's Black Pearl Restaurant Guide held its award ceremony overseas for the first time, picking the dining capital of Singapore to promote its brand to an international audience.
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 11, 2025

In China’s ‘Michelin Guide,’ Tokyo leads overseas listings with 30 entries

Tailored to the Chinese palate, the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide looks to expand its regional influence by rating restaurants in Japan and Southeast Asia.
A customer walks past a display of rice, with a sign apologizing to shoppers they must be limited to one bag each due to market conditions, at a branch of Japanese discount retailer Don Quijote in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward on April 21.
JAPAN
May 10, 2025

As prices soar, Zen-Noh ships just 32% of government-stockpiled rice

The group is currently shipping between 2,000 and 3,000 tons of rice per day, and is working to send out deliveries as quickly as possible, a Zen-Noh official said.
A high school student was arrested Saturday on suspicion of killing his grandparents at their home in Tahara, Aichi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 11, 2025

High school student arrested over deaths of his grandparents

The boy initially claimed to discover two bodies at his house but later admitted to killing them.
People stand in front of a big screen displaying the Nikkei share average outside a brokerage in Tokyo late last month.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 12, 2025

Japan’s Topix extends rally to 12th day as tariff worries ease

The Topix closed 0.3% higher at 2742.08, giving it its longest winning streak since 2017.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama speaks in the city of Kagoshima on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 12, 2025

LDP and CDP see consumption tax cut as election issue

CDP leader Yoshihiko Noda told reporters in Sapporo that if the ruling camp does not decide on the consumption tax cut, it would have to become an election issue.
A former nonregular government employee, who cooked lunch for a public school in the Tohoku region, says she was dismissed after she was made to take an open recruitment exam.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
May 19, 2025

Civil service contract workers fear lack of job security

Contracted civil servants are paid about half the salaries of regular staff or even less, and a fear of being dismissed hangs over their heads.
Yoshitaka Toda, the suspect in Wednesday's knife attack at Todaimae Station on the Tokyo Metro Nanboku Line, leaves a police station in the Japanese capital the same day for a pre-detention medical examination.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 12, 2025

More details emerge about stabbing near Tokyo University metro station

Yoshitaka Toda, 43, claimed he stabbed a student to show how academic pressure could push a child off course.
The number of business failures due to labor shortages grew to 36 from 25 a year before, while the number of bankruptcies because of inflation remained high, at 56, against 60.
BUSINESS
May 12, 2025

Japan business failures hit 11-year high for April

More failures were seen mainly among smaller companies with weak business bases as their revenue was squeezed by rising prices and higher labor costs.
Since the LDP resumed discussions on the issue in February, members against introducing a selective dual surname system have been gaining momentum, calling for expanding the use of maiden names.
JAPAN
May 12, 2025

LDP to forgo compiling bill on dual surname system

The LDP concluded that it would be unwise to create divisions within the party ahead of this summer's election for the House of Councilors.
A branch of SMBC Nikko Securities, a unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, in Tokyo
BUSINESS
May 12, 2025

Japan’s megabanks to remain buoyed by BOJ’s long game to hike rates

The central bank stood pat earlier this month after a cycle of rate hikes since March 2024 and halving its economic growth outlook to 0.5% for this fiscal year.
Shoichi Kojima holding a cheesecake made with funazushi on May 6 in the city of Hikone, Shiga Prefecture
JAPAN
May 13, 2025

Shiga chef turns stinky sushi into cheesecake

Girasole, a restaurant in the city of Hikone, has been serving the funazushi-derived Basque-style cheesecake since April 2021.
The beach on Aka Island, Okinawa Prefecture, where U.S. forces first landed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
May 26, 2025

How a remote island escaped mass suicide in Battle of Okinawa

Residents had been told that, if captured, women would be assaulted and men mutilated by U.S. soldiers.
Senior officials of Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito agreed Tuesday on the need to draft a supplementary budget before a possible extraordinary session of the Diet this autumn.
JAPAN / Politics
May 13, 2025

LDP and Komeito agree to draft supplementary budget before autumn session

The extra budget is expected to fund measures to deal with inflation and the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.
Overall net profit is expected to go down 42.9% from the previous year to ¥200 billion at Nippon Steel, 18.4% to ¥75 billion at JFE Holdings and 16.8% to ¥100 billion at Kobe Steel.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 13, 2025

Three major Japan steelmakers say they expect profit falls in fiscal 2025

Overall net profit is expected to go down 42.9% from the previous year to ¥200 billion at Nippon Steel, 18.4% to ¥75 billion at JFE and 16.8% to ¥100 billion at Kobe Steel.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
May 13, 2025

Consumption tax set to dominate Upper House election debate

Broaching the subject has traditionally been seen as akin to kicking a hornet's nest.
Despite the government releasing rice from its emergency stockpile since March, prices have remained high.
JAPAN
May 13, 2025

Rice prices finally fall, but change is in baby steps

The average supermarket price of 5 kilograms of rice dropped for the first time since December, falling ¥19 to ¥4,214.
Japan will call for the public and private sectors to spend about ¥60 trillion in total over the five years to fiscal 2029 to improve the productivity of small and midsize companies.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 14, 2025

Japan considers five-year wage hike plan for smaller firms

The government will call on the public and private sectors to spend about ¥60 trillion in total over the five years.
Liberal Democratic Party executives at a General Council meeting on Tuesday at the party's headquarters in Tokyo
JAPAN / Politics
May 14, 2025

LDP approves pension reform legislation

The government aims to adopt the legislation at a Cabinet meeting Friday and submit it to the current session of the Diet, the country's parliament.
A survey showed that 47.7% of respondents exposed to examples of false and misleading information were likely to consider such information to be true or probably true.
JAPAN / Society
May 14, 2025

Misinformation still fools many, Japan survey reveals

Of respondents who were exposed to false information, 25.5% also said they have spread the information to their families or on social media.
Nippon Life Insurance is diversifying its investments to enhance yields, although it’s a tricky time to invest with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war fueling global market volatility.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025

Japan’s biggest insurer weighs riskier overseas CLO investments

Japan’s biggest life insurer is considering taking on a little more risk with its investments in collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), as it looks for ways to eke out better returns abroad.
Terumi Tanaka, one of the representatives of 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo, speaks during the prize ceremony in Oslo in December.
JAPAN
May 14, 2025

Nobel Institute to hold event in Tokyo to call for nuclear disarmament

The Norwegian Nobel Institute plans to hold an event in Japan in July to call for nuclear disarmament, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.
A 15-year-old boy, arrested for fatally stabbing an elderly woman in the city of Chiba, told authorities he committed the crime in hopes of being sent to a juvenile detention center to escape his difficult home life, according to investigators.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 14, 2025

Teen suspect in Chiba stabbing wanted to escape his home life, police say


The junior high school student allegedly attacked 84-year-old Yayoi Takahashi from behind with a knife at around 5 p.m. on Sunday.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and French President Emmanuel Macron at the AI Action Summit in Paris in February. The mood at the event was largely optimistic despite growing evidence that chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT are being used by malicious actors.
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2025

How much will we risk in the name of AI?

AI safety breaches are a very present danger. Evidence shows that leading chatbots are perpetuating Kremlin talking points, while many leaders tout optimism rather than concern.
Cars on display at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama on Tuesday. The automaker posted a massive annual net loss and confirmed that it plans to cut thousands of jobs worldwide.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025

Japanese automakers looking at a ¥1 trillion hit from Trump tariffs 

No matter what happens, they expect the new levies to cost them a lot.
Bereaved family members observe a moment of silence on Wednesday at a memorial ceremony for a train collision that killed 42 people in the city of Koka, Shiga Prefecture.
JAPAN
May 14, 2025

34-year memorial held for victims of Shiga train collision

On May 14, 1991, an SKR train and a JR West train collided head-on in Shigaraki, now Koka, killing 42 people and injuring more than 600.
Tokyo officials are pushing back against arguments that blame the dwindling national population partly on the concentration of people and businesses in the capital.
JAPAN / FOCUS
May 15, 2025

Regional revitalization faces Tokyo-countryside divide

Some blame Japan's dwindling national population partly on the concentration of people and businesses in the capital.
Calling themselves "Cheer Re-Man's" — a mash-up of "cheerleading" and "salaryman" — the group is made up of alumni from the elite Waseda University's male cheerleading squad.
JAPAN
May 15, 2025

Japanese 'salarymen' inspire with cheerleading acrobatics

The young men are all about spreading cheer through their eye-popping acrobatic performances, volunteering their weekends to entertain crowds.
Uber Technologies CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in New York on Wednesday
BUSINESS / Companies
May 15, 2025

Uber to launch self-driving mobility service in Japan

The U.S. ride-hailing service provider plans to introduce autonomous rides in Japan once partner firms are ready, an executive said.
NTT said last week it will take its data service unit NTT Data Group private. That followed its acquisition of its mobile service arm, NTT Docomo, in 2020.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2025

Listed subsidiaries get the ax in Japan after investor pressure

The trend stems from pressure on firm to cater to shareholders in response to activist campaigns, demands from the stock exchange and hostile takeovers.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo