Search - about-us

 
 
Daikin's air conditioners for sale at a home appliances store in Mumbai
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 3, 2024

Daikin, world’s No. 1 air-conditioner maker, to expand capacity in India

The Japanese company has signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire an additional 13.4 hectares to build a new plant near its current factory in southern India.
Pasocom Music Club’s “Love Flutter” marks an important moment for Japan’s electronic community as project members Aoi Shibata (left) and Masato Nishiyama step into a role other artists once held for them — scene veterans who are inspiring the next generation.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 5, 2024

Pasocom Music Club returns to the pure pleasures of the dance floor

For the Kansai-born duo, new album “Love Flutter” isn’t just an evolution of its sound — it’s the next step in pushing the boundaries of electronic music.
Few in Japan may be more passionate about the 'onigiri' (rice ball) than Yumiko Ukon, owner of an onigiri specialty shop in Tokyo's Otsuka neighborhood.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 8, 2024

‘When I die, I would like to come back as a rice ball’

There’s no denying the cultural significance of the ‘onigiri’ (rice ball). But there comes a point where an onigiri is surely just an onigiri.
Flags of the Vatican and East Timor wave at the Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport ahead of Pope Francis' visit in Dili on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 8, 2024

Pope Francis visit keenly awaited in deeply Catholic East Timor

When Pope Francis touches down in the East Timorese capital of Dili this week he will be landing in a totally different nation to the one visited by his predecessor.
When it comes to a career in cuisine, chef Andreas Fuchs thinks newcomers will know within three months whether they want to commit to it or not.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Sep 12, 2024

Andreas Fuchs: ‘I love that no two days are the same’

As the Grand Hyatt Tokyo’s executive chef, Andreas Fuchs is responsible for overseeing extensive menus across multiple venues.
Rory McIlroy has been critical of LIV Golf since it began in 2021.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Sep 12, 2024

Rory McIlroy not trying to send any 'message' with exhibition against LIV Golf stars

McIlroy has expressed his frustration since the creation of LIV Golf, which began in 2021 and has splintered the sport.
A self-proclaimed lover of great cocktails, YouTuber Chris Broad says his new Shibuya watering hole is more a place to get yourself a solid drink than it is anything related to his social media career.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 15, 2024

Chris Broad's new bar puts cocktails first, YouTube second

Elements of Lost hint at Broad's prolific content creation career, but it also wants to thrive on its merits as a place to find a decent drink.
Marina Tsukada got the idea for her anthology “Mitsuki, Sekai” from her acquaintance with the two young lead actors, whom she first met at a video workshop she conducted in Nagano Prefecture.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 20, 2024

Marina Tsukada lets local lives shape her work

The director’s latest, “Mitsuki, Sekai,” is part of an ongoing project that traces the lives of Nagano Prefecture-based children for a decade until they reach adulthood.
Rescuers sift through the rubble Saturday at the scene of an Israeli strike that targeted Beirut's southern suburbs a day earlier.
WORLD
Sep 22, 2024

Israel’s risky new posture against Hezbollah stops short of war

The attacks are aimed at preemptively degrading Hezbollah’s military prowess so that they won’t be able to launch an attack similar to the Oct. 7 strike by Hamas.
A person rides a scooter underneath a fallen pole following Typhoon Shanshan in Miyazaki on Aug. 29 in this screengrab taken from a social media video.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Sep 23, 2024

Shanshan study spotlights science linking warming to extreme weather

Scientists are now able to assess the influence of climate change on particular weather events within weeks or even days.
Choi Min-kyong (right), a North Korean defector who said she was deported by China four times before making it to South Korea in 2012, and Shin Ju-ye (left), who fled North Korea in the 1990s and settled in China before defecting to South Korea last year, speak during an interview in Seoul on July 19.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 25, 2024

China cracks down on North Korean defectors with biometric surveillance

Facial-recognition cameras now monitor China's border with North Korea, documents show, while police have collected biometric data of North Koreans in the country.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2024

Masamitsu Yoshioka, last Pearl Harbor bombardier, dies at 106

"I’m ashamed that I’m the only one who survived and lived such a long life,” Yoshioka said in an interview last year.
A tea field in Makinohara, the birthplace of Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda, in August. The city in Shizuoka Prefecture, which once thrived on a now-declining tea industry, exemplifies disparities between Japan's struggling rural areas and its bustling megacities.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 4, 2024

In Bank of Japan chief's birthplace, Ueda's policy puzzle is laid bare

Makinohara's mayor says the Shizuoka Prefecture surf town is not keeping pace with Japan's broader recovery.
“The Cats of Gokogu Shrine” centers on a local shrine in Ushimado’s Honmachi district, which has become home to a colony of street cats.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2024

Kazuhiro Soda embraces the wisdom of street cats

The filmmaker turns his camera closer to home in his new documentary, “The Cats of Gokogu Shrine,” and brings a community into focus.
Toshiko Hamanaka (left), the assistant secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo, and the organization's co-chair, Terumi Tanaka, during a news conference in Tokyo on Saturday, the day after the group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2024

Nihon Hidankyo members hope surprise Nobel win cements nuclear taboo

Senior members of the group noted that the Nobel committee chose Nihon Hidankyo at a time when the threat of nuclear war is becoming more intense.
A Nepali paramilitary police force office in the village Hilsa, Nepal, on Oct. 12, 2023
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 14, 2024

China’s ‘new Great Wall’ casts a shadow on Nepal

The fortification building spree is placing intense pressure on China’s poorer, weaker neighbors.
As banking's behemoths gather at the COP16 summit, there is much talk about monetizing nature and biodiversity.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 15, 2024

Global banks want to monetize biodiversity

Opportunities to invest in funds that target biodiversity are currently limited
Angry at what they view as China's state-led xenophobia, taught in schools and prevalent online, some people are taking action after the killing of a 10-year-old Japanese boy on his way to school in China, even at their own personal risk.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 16, 2024

Killing of Japanese boy leaves Chinese asking: Is this my country?

Some Chinese people believe the boy was a victim of surging anti-Japanese sentiment fueled by China’s government.
Adapting to new information when faced with public health crises like COVID-19 is crucial, as oversimplified public health messaging can erode trust in science. 
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2024

The best answer science may have right now is ‘I don't know’

Acknowledging uncertainty and adapting to new information is crucial, as oversimplified public health messaging can erode trust in science.
China has shifted the economic narrative. The country's rapid growth and production under a repressive regime challenges the idea that good institutions are necessary for wealth.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2024

Beijing’s success is a conundrum for Nobel winners

China has shifted the economic narrative. The country's rapid growth under a repressive regime challenges the idea that good institutions are necessary for wealth.
Naoko (Ayaka Onishi, right) starts moonlighting as a paid companion for older men under her missing colleague’s identity in “Strangers.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2024

‘Strangers’: A satisfyingly unnerving stolen identity drama

Kenta Ikeda and his cinematographer imbue the thriller about a woman who takes on the identity of her more carefree and flirtatious colleague with a sense of paranoia.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba visits Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, which was heavily damaged by the New Year's Day earthquake, on Oct. 5.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2024

Noto residents view upcoming election with mixed hope and resignation

Only about 16% of publicly subsidized demolition work on buildings damaged in the Jan. 1 quake in Ishikawa had been completed as of the end of September.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a closing executive session during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Apia, Samoa, on Saturday.
WORLD / Society
Oct 27, 2024

Commonwealth agrees 'time has come' for talks on legacy of slavery

African, Caribbean and Pacific nations want Britain and other colonial powers to atone for slavery and other ills of colonization.
A guest room decked out in Shohei Ohtani and Dodgers gear at Yuko Hattori's Ohtani-senshu Ouen Minpaku (Guesthouse for Ohtani Fans) near Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 27, 2024

Los Angeles couple gives Japan guests a lodging experience fit for Ohtani superfans

A unique lodging near Dodger Stadium may be the ideal home base for anyone making the trip to Los Angeles to see the Japanese superstar.
The Tokyo Hydrogen Museum in the capital's Koto Ward on Thursday. The capital is targeting the “full use” of hydrogen produced using renewable energy “in all fields” by 2050 as part of its decarbonization drive.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Nov 3, 2024

Tokyo's climate goals rely on a fuel that is falling out of favor

The metropolitan government is targeting the widespread use of hydrogen, but strong competition and its physical properties are limiting its applications.
As the European Commission prepares to make decisions on Google’s practices by the end of 2024, there is hope for a collaborative approach with U.S. regulators to create meaningful structural reforms.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2024

Google’s breakup needs an international tag team

There’s a growing consensus among regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to redefine antitrust harm beyond just pricing issues.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and senior officials and delegates at the National Peoples Congress in Beijing in March
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 4, 2024

China stimulus questions to persist long after meeting this week

It may be months before detailed plans to support consumption come into focus.
A person walks past residents' belongings covered in mud, following heavy rains that caused floods in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, on Monday.
WORLD
Nov 5, 2024

Troops reinforce rescue efforts in flood-hit Spain as anger grows

Public anger in Spain is mounting over the disaster that has killed at least 217 people, with dozens still unaccounted for.
Workers at a garment factory in Gazipur, Bangladesh, on April 16, 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 5, 2024

AI supports fashion's climate goals, but workers may be left behind

In Bangladesh, about 60% of apparel workers, or 2.7 million people, risk losing their jobs due to automation.
Sanwa Koutsu's Kuroko Taxi service has drivers dressed in traditional stagehand garb communicate with passengers only through gestures and written messages.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 9, 2024

The sound of silence: Japan's no-conversation services

“Constant social interaction can feel like torture for us introverts,” one customer says. "I think it’s a pretty smart business move."

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji