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Elementary school student Yugo Hirata, who uses a wheelchair, swims with the assistance of Edogawa-ku General Gymnasium staff member Michiyo Tominaga at a dedicated facility for people with disabilities in Tokyo on June 22.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 15, 2024

Projects eye better sports facility access for people with disabilities

Efforts are being made to create a network linking specialized sports facilities for people with disabilities with general public facilities.
People gather for afternoon tea in the dining area of an Ikea in upscale Xuhui, Shanghai.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 10, 2024

From People’s Park to Ikea, Shanghai’s seniors look for love

China has the world's largest population of people 65 or older. As social norms change, many older singles are hoping for a second or third chance at love.
American Kara Harris is on the verge of attaining a high-level certification in the world of kimono — and may possibly be the first Black woman to do so.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / Black Eye
Sep 16, 2024

‘The people I’d seen in kimono didn’t have as much melanin as I do’

A student of Kara Harris says the kimono instructor knows how to expertly fit the traditional garment to bodies with more curves than the stereotypical Japanese frame.
The government is considering asking more people age 75 or over to pay 30% of their medical costs.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 13, 2024

Japan may require more elderly people to foot 30% of their medical costs

Currently, those age 75 or older pay in principle 10%, while those with preretirement levels of income pay 30%.
A re-creation of a scene in which an electric wheelchair tire has become stuck in a gutter
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2024

Deaths among elderly people using electric wheelchairs on the rise

Accidents usually occur at railroad crossings, roadside ditches and on slopes, especially when elderly wheelchair-users are alone outdoors.
Scientists used a version of ChatGPT to challenge conspiracy theories and beliefs and found people more open to evidence than expected, contradicting the "post-truth" era idea.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2024

AI can debunk conspiracy theories better than humans

Believers often invest huge amounts of time in researching their theories online. Maybe only LLMs can keep up.
A climbing wall at a kindergarten in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture. The sport has been on the rise in Japan, mainly due to the popularity it gained from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and new climbing walls are popping all over the place.
MORE SPORTS / Sport climbing
Sep 24, 2024

People of all ages and sizes scale new heights amid climbing boom in Japan

The sport gained a boost from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and new climbing walls are popping up all over the place.
Takayuki Suzuki won a gold, two silvers and a bronze medal during the Paris Paralympics.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 7, 2024

Paralympic star Takayuki Suzuki hopes to raise visibility of people with disabilities

Takayuki Suzuki won four medals, including one gold, during the Paris Paralympics.
Shinjuku Mayor Kenichi Yoshizumi (left) and Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Monday
JAPAN / Society
Oct 7, 2024

Tokyo mayors ask people to follow rules during Halloween

Shibuya and Shinjuku wards have each set an ordinance to prohibit drinking on the streets.
People line up to buy wood to protect their assets before the hurricane Milton, in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Oct 9, 2024

After Helene devastation, over 1 million people flee path of Hurricane Milton

Milton, which exploded Monday into one of the most intense Atlantic hurricanes on record, was forecast to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday.
Of the potential candidates at present, more than 1,060 are preparing for battle in 289 single-seat constituencies.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 10, 2024

Over 1,170 people plan to seek Lower House seats

Over 1,170 people are currently planning to run in the Oct. 27 election for the House of Representatives.
Houseboats of the indigenous seaborne Bajau Laut community anchor in the waters of Semporna, Malaysia, on Aug. 20.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 14, 2024

Malaysia's eviction of sea nomads casts light on precarious lives

Many face impoverished, precarious lives and are denied access to health, education or financial services due to a lack of basic paperwork.
Japan has been trying to boost its fertility rate for 30 years and now the rest of the rich world is, too.
WORLD / Society
Oct 14, 2024

Can the government get people to have more babies?

The number of babies born in Japan last year fell to the lowest level since the government started collecting statistics in 1899.
Young people, including students and youth league officials, sign petitions to join or return to the North Korean army this week, according to state media on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 16, 2024

North Korea says 1.4 million young people apply to join army

Pyongyang's claim comes as it accuses Seoul of a drone incursion that it says had brought the "tense situation to the brink of war."
Hiroshi Moriyama, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, stresses the significance of supporting all households with children at all stages of life.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 21, 2024

LDP calls for higher incomes for young people

Secretary-general Hiroshi Moriyama said, "It's important to increase the incomes of young people and families with children."
Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris along with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff attend a rally on the National Mall in Washington one week before the Nov. 5 national election.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2024

The U.S. election is happening too soon

The upcoming U.S. election is unlikely to lead to national renewal or a decisive defeat of MAGA populism.
Nobuaki Koga, former president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, speaks about receiving this year's Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2024

Japan recognizes 3,987 people in autumn honors

Among the recipients are Nobuaki Koga, the former president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, and former Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa.
A Palestinian woman carries her child near the ruins of a house destroyed in the Israeli military offensive in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD
Nov 5, 2024

Israeli strikes kill at least 16 people in Gaza and keep up pressure on north

The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said Israel was scaling back the number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza.
Volunteers and locals help to clean the mud off the street following heavy rains in Paiporta, near Valencia, Spain, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Nov 6, 2024

At least 89 people missing from floods in eastern Spain

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he was earmarking €10.6 billion ($11.6 billion) to help victims.
Smoke and flames billow over Beirut's southern suburbs after an Israeli strike, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon on Thursday.
WORLD
Nov 7, 2024

Israel strikes on Lebanon kill 40 people around Baalbek, health ministry says

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon over the last year, the vast majority in the past six weeks.
Shurei Sasai in Nagpur, India, on Oct. 13
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2024

Monk from Japan works to lead people in India to Buddhism

Shurei Sasai has been devoting his life to freeing people from discrimination based on the Indian caste system for more than half a century.
Andrew Harper, climate advisor for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), looks on during a visit to a neighborhood partially destroyed by the floods that hit Porto Alegre, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on June 23.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 12, 2024

Climate crisis worsening 'hellish' conditions for displaced people, U.N. reports

Weather-related causes have displaced approximately 60,000 people per day over the past decade, data shows, adding to those uprooted by other disasters.
A village school bus drives along an empty street in the village of Tenei, Fukushima Prefecture, in March 2023. In rural areas, more single-member households will emerge from an aging population and the eventual death of spouses in two-person households, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 12, 2024

1 in 5 people in Japan age 65 and older will be living alone in 2050

The trend resulting from rapid depopulation will affect both metropolitan and rural areas, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research says.
Suspects in a badger game scheme allegedly forced victims to pay money by threatening them, locking them up, assaulting them and pursuing them via consumer credit companies.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 14, 2024

Tokyo police arrest nine people over alleged badger scheme

The individuals were arrested on charges for extorting about ¥2 million in cash from four male customers in their 20s to 40s between April and July.
People visit the Akasaka Estate in Tokyo on Saturday to sign the book of condolences for the late Princess Yuriko.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2024

People sign condolence book for Princess Yuriko

Many people visited the residence of the late Princess Yuriko at the Akasaka Estate in Tokyo to sign the book of condolences.
A Metropolitan Police Department official offers a lecture on yami baito dark part-time jobs to high school students in Tokyo's Taito Ward on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 17, 2024

Japan police helping people quit illegal part-time jobs

Police took protective steps for 46 such applicants in October and November, with more than half of them being young people.
Protesters gather on parliament grounds in Wellington on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 19, 2024

New Zealanders rally against bill to alter Indigenous rights

The Treaty Principles Bill was introduced earlier this month by legislators who want to reinterpret a 184-year-old treaty signed between the British and Indigenous Maori.
The scene where a car crashed outside the Yong'an primary school in Changde, central China's Hunan province, on Tuesday in which "multiple students were injured" according to state-run media.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 19, 2024

Car rams into students outside China primary school, hurting several people

Police said that a 39-year-old male was arrested but did not provide more details, saying only that investigations were continuing.
Omar Nok arrived in Japan 250 days after leaving Egypt. He didn't use a plane for any part of his journey.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Nov 20, 2024

Omar Nok: 'There are good people everywhere'

Omar Nok says the hospitality he has received from locals at every stop on his journey from Egypt to Japan has been nothing short of inspirational.
A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD
Nov 21, 2024

Israeli strikes kill 48 people in Gaza as hospital in north makes distress call

Operations have focused for weeks on the northern edge of Gaza, where Israel has laid siege to three major towns and ordered residents to flee.

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