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Defending the rights of transgender and nonbinary people isn’t only about waging legal battles. It’s about more persuasive arguments.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 29, 2025

Trump can’t erase trans people with the stroke of his marker

There hasn’t been as much outrage as I had anticipated, but it makes sense. Most Americans, polls show, don’t personally know anyone who identifies as transgender.
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.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2025

Scam hubs on Thai-Myanmar border still have up to 100,000 people, Thai police says

The main focus of Thai authorities currently is to help coordinate the return of scam center victims to their home countries.
Miho Koshiba started her career in finance before she founded the Mirai Institute, a think tank that operates the Midori.so coworking space with an ever-growing cosmopolitan community across seven locations in Tokyo.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jun 28, 2025

Miho Koshiba: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if people looked forward to Mondays?’

The cofounder of the Midori.so coworking space shares her inspirations and aspirations for career and community.
Rie Usui has been working to help people with disabilities get jobs, and now runs a talent agency for disabled people.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 29, 2025

Tokyo woman working to help people with disabilities secure jobs

Rie Usui's talent agency represents about 40 models and television personalities who feature in advertisements and TV drama series.
A street in Suttsu, Hokkaido, with a sign put up by an anti-nuclear organization. The small community is considering hosting a facility that would hold nuclear waste.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Jul 6, 2025

Ainu land rights in crosshairs as Hokkaido communities debate nuclear waste

Some scholars and activists are raising concerns that Indigenous voices are not being heard amid the debate over whether to host nuclear waste storage facilities.
Employees of a fishing net manufacturer, including Ainu Indigenous people, work at a facility in Urahoro, Hokkaido, in June.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Jul 23, 2023

In Hokkaido, an Ainu group's lawsuit and climate change converge on salmon fishing

The Raporo Ainu Nation in Hokkaido is fighting for its Indigenous rights to fish for salmon. But warming waters are raising questions about future fish stocks.
Japan might change because of you or your actions, but it will not change for you.
COMMUNITY / Voices / Black Eye
Jun 19, 2023

A note to people of color interested in living in Japan

When asked about what life is like here for people of color, columnist Baye McNeil summed it up with a story about sitting on a crowded train.
A protester outside a meeting between then-Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Indigenous leaders in 2015. Discussions around a referendum on whether to recognize Indigenous people in the Australian constitution have been held for years, and the vote will be held soon.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 9, 2023

Tough road ahead for Australia’s landmark Indigenous referendum

The campaign to recognize Indigenous people in Australia's constitution in an upcoming referendum may be losing steam, polls say.
A demonstrator blocks a military vehicle in the city of Imphal on Aug. 3 during a protest against the killings of Kuki peoples amid ethnic violence in the Indian state of Manipur.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2023

India’s state of violence

The slow-burning horror in its northeastern state of Manipur has shaken the country and paralyzed its Parliament. And there is no resolution in sight.
A harvesting combine burns after hitting an anti-tank mine in a wheat field near the village of Vilkhivka, in Ukraine's Kharkiv Region, in July 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2023

Feed the people, not the factory farms

There can be no excuse for Russia, in pursuit of its war of aggression against Ukraine, to target that country’s grain exports.
A construction site in Dubai, where workers often face temperatures up to 45 degrees Celsius
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 23, 2023

As temperatures climb, millions more people face food insecurity

A recent study shows that extreme heat leads to an impossible conundrum for many workers: Risk your health to earn a living, or go hungry.
Singaporean presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian gives speech on Aug. 22 in the lead-up to Friday's election.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 31, 2023

Singaporeans should vote in their imperfect elections

While the selection process for presidential candidates and the behavior of some of them may not be perfect, Singaporeans should vote on Friday.
The All Blacks perform the haka in front of Scotland before their match in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Nov. 13, 2022.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Sep 7, 2023

All Blacks prepared to unleash haka at Rugby World Cup

The haka is a fierce war dance that was originally used to prepare Maori warriors for battle and has since been adopted by the All Blacks.
The remains of the community of Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui, is seen after wildfires driven by high winds burned across most of the town last month.
WORLD
Sep 9, 2023

A month after deadly Maui fire, 66 people still missing

The official death toll of the Aug. 8 fire that left the historic town of Lahaina in charred ruins stands at 115 people.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during a campaign launch in Adelaide for the "yes" vote in an upcoming referendum on whether to change the country's constitution to officially recognize Indigenous peoples.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 8, 2023

Australia PM ‘optimistic’ on referendum but would respect ‘no’ vote

Since the country’s federation in 1901, only eight out of 44 referendums have been successful, the most recently in 1977.
Voters fill out ballot papers at a polling station on Sydney's Bondi Beach on Saturday as polls open in Australia's historic Indigenous rights referendum.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 14, 2023

Australian voters reject greater Indigenous rights

The result will be a setback to reconciliation efforts with Indigenous Australians and a political blow to the center-left Labor government.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at Parliament House in Canberra on Saturday following the defeat of the Voice referendum.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 15, 2023

Australia referendum failure may mean more divisive politics

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese misread the public mood, analysts said, as he took responsibility for the referendum result.
Construction works at the site of the proposed Amazon regional headquarters development beyond the Liesbeek River in Cape Town, South Africa
WORLD / Society
Oct 23, 2023

How one river highlights South Africa's land inequality

The river has become emblematic of the myriad of sometimes conflicting land disputes in a country struggling to right the wrongs of the past.
Suzuki President and Representative Director Toshihiro Suzuki unveils the Suzu-Ride at a press day of the Japan Mobility Show at Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo on Oct. 25.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 1, 2023

New mobility concepts cater to older people's love for the road

The four-wheeled vehicles categorized as "specified small motorized bicycles" can be driven on public roads by anyone 16 or over without a license.
Pope Francis greets people during the weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican on Wednesday.
WORLD / Society
Nov 9, 2023

Transgender people can be godparents or baptized, Vatican says

The Vatican's doctrinal office posted three pages of questions and answers on the topic in response to queries from a bishop in Brazil.
People attend a demonstration against antisemitism on Sunday as antisemitic offenses surged in in France.
WORLD / Society
Nov 13, 2023

French marches against antisemitism rally over 180,000 people

The march comes after a surge in anti-Jewish incidents across the country following the eruption of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants.
Smoke and steam billow from a coal-fired power plant in Suralaya, Banten province, Indonesia.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Nov 13, 2023

Can Indonesia deliver a green power plan for the people?

Communities impacted by a major climate deal are at risk of losing out because they have had limited involvement in planning the transition so far.
A street thermometer marks 40 degrees Celsius in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 15, 2023

Heat projected to kill nearly five times more people by 2050

A team of international experts warned that without climate change action, the "health of humanity is at grave risk."
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 17, 2023

LDP lawmaker Mio Sugita under fire again over Ainu comments

In September this year, the Sapporo Legal Affairs Bureau found that her blog post about the Ainu people in 2016 violated their human rights.
Farm workers carry rice saplings on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, in July.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Nov 21, 2023

In India, 'natural farming' draws young people back to the land

The farming method shuns synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, involves the use of organic manure and no tilling of the land.
Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto Prefecture hands out "blindfold" stickers that visitors can use to cover up their wishes written on wooden plaques.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 23, 2023

Privacy concerns prompt people to cover up Shinto prayer plaques

The plaques have been used to express wishes for centuries, and now some shrines are allowing them to be covered with stickers for privacy reasons.
People hold an Israeli flag as a helicopter carrying released hostages arrives at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, in Tel Aviv, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 29, 2023

Israel and Hamas to release more people amid efforts to extend truce

The pause has brought Gaza its first respite after weeks of fighting and attention is now on whether mediator Qatar can negotiate another extension.
Yuki Fukui (center) squares up against a student during a training session at a judo dojo in Thimphu, Bhutan.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 2, 2023

'The people of Bhutan think differently, and that has changed me'

Originally from Sendai, 26-year-old Yuki Fukui is the fifth Japanese judo coach for the Bhutanese national team.
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2023

Japan’s travel industry urges people to get their mighty passports

Japan’s passport gives visa-free entry to 192 global destinations, according to the latest Henley Passport Index.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past