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The TSMC plant in Phoenix, Arizona. The chipmaker's projects in Arizona have become increasingly entwined with U.S. President Joe Biden’s campaign message on revitalizing the economy.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 9, 2024

TSMC gets $11.6 billion in U.S. grants and loans for chip plants

TSMC’s projects in Arizona have become increasingly entwined with Biden’s campaign message on revitalizing the economy.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway would be the first major non-financial overseas debt issuer to sell yen bonds after the Bank of Japan last month scrapped the world’s last negative interest rate.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 9, 2024

Berkshire plans to sell first yen bonds since BOJ move

The U.S. company last turned to the yen bond markets in November, with a ¥122 billion ($803 million) five-tranche deal.
Electricity pylons next to the Sizewell B nuclear power station, in Sizewell, U.K.
BUSINESS
Apr 9, 2024

European nuclear plants put out of work by green power surge

The drive to promote renewable energy is turning the screws on Europe’s nuclear industry.
Shin-Etsu Chemical is among the world's leading makers of photoresists and silicon wafers.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 9, 2024

Shin-Etsu Chemical to build new chip materials plant in Gunma

The plant, slated to be completed by 2026, will make photoresists, including extreme ultraviolet resists used for generative AI systems.
U.S. President Joe Biden waves with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife, Yuko, as first lady Jill Biden looks on at the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 10, 2024

Kishida kicks off state visit to U.S., with allies set for 'historic' defense upgrade

The state visit, which will include all the trimmings — including a swanky gala banquet — will be the culmination of years of deepening cooperation.
Koichi Wakata holds his final news conference as a JAXA astronaut in Tokyo on March 29.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 10, 2024

Former ISS commander and astronaut Koichi Wakata joins U.S. space firm

Wakata, 60, left the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency at the end of March after staying in space for 504 days.
The U.S. Department of Commerce building in January 2022
WORLD / Politics
Apr 11, 2024

Firms aiding Chinese military to get AI chips now face blacklist

The companies are "involved with providing AI chips to China's military modernization programs"
NTT Docomo's "d Point" reward points can now be earned and used on the Amazon shopping website.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 11, 2024

NTT Docomo points arrive at Amazon

NTT Docomo's d Point program had roughly 100 million users as of the end of March.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses a meeting on AI strategy held at the Prime Minister's Office in December. Japan is beginning to draw global attention for its potential as an AI market.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 12, 2024

Google alums go big in Japan with months-old startup Sakana AI

Sakana is setting out to train low-cost generative AI models using small datasets, unveiling three AI models for Japanese speakers last month.
Average age of Japanese chief executives increased for 33 consecutive years to 60.5 last year.
BUSINESS
Apr 14, 2024

Japan biz leaders' average age rises for 33rd straight year

As of December last year, the average age of company leaders stood at 60.5 years old. In 1990, the average age was 54.
The No. 6 and 7 reactors of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2024

Tepco given OK to move fuel into Niigata reactor

Tepco is set to move fuel into the world's largest nuclear power plant, which has been idle since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Hideyuki Sakamoto, executive vice president for manufacturing and supply chain management at Nissan, speaks during a media briefing at the company's plant in Yokohama on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 16, 2024

Nissan looks to Tesla’s style of carmaking to build cheaper EVs

The carmaker will use machines with about 6,000 tons of force to make the rear floors of EVs to be sold from fiscal 2027 onward.
Workers clean argeli bark in the Ilam district of eastern Nepal. Thousands of miles away, in Japan, the bark will be used to make yen notes.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 16, 2024

On Himalayan hillsides grows Japan’s cold, hard cash

One of the poorest pockets of Asia supplies a primary ingredient for the economy in one of the richest.
Efforts by Russia and China to shape U.S. politics through propaganda and cyberattacks have been less pronounced during this year’s election cycle than they were in 2016 and 2020, Microsoft said on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 18, 2024

Microsoft sees slowing in Russian and Chinese efforts to sway U.S. vote

Researchers concluded that there have been few signs of people being broadly swayed by sophisticated deepfake videos made with AI by the nation-states.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during the signing of the Rasht-Astara railway agreement in May 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 18, 2024

New 'sanctions-proof' transport routes put Russia at heart of global trade

Shipping and rail networks via Iran and an Arctic sea passage could strengthen Moscow’s pivot toward China and India and away from Europe.
In “Evil Does Not Exist,” Hitoshi Omika plays a single father and village handyman who a Tokyo company tries to recruit as the caretaker of a new glamping site that threatens the area’s natural environment.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 19, 2024

Ryusuke Hamaguchi ponders the dangers of disrupting the rural idyll

"Evil Does Not Exist," which delves into humanity's relationship with nature, was directly inspired by a collaboration with musician Eiko Ishibashi.
Lizi Haidarzhy, whose mother and 4-month-old brother, Tymofii, were killed in a Russian drone attack, wakes up from a nap in Odesa, Ukraine.
WORLD / Society
Apr 19, 2024

A drone strike in Odesa shatters a family’s life

The family’s story and grief have resonated widely in Ukraine.
Boxes of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 developed by Walvax Biotechnology and Abogen Biosciences
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health / FOCUS
Apr 20, 2024

China's drugmakers can't sell mRNA shots but haven't quit yet

While Chinese firms are pursuing new targets for the novel messenger RNA technology, they face a tough path, crimped by a lack of revenue.
Lithium powder from recycled batteries in Nevada in March
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 21, 2024

Japanese trading firms look abroad to diversify lithium supply

The resource-limited country is aiming to create a stable supply of the mineral, which is critical for producing batteries for electric vehicles.
A submerged street after heavy rains in Qingyuan, in China's southern Guangdong province, on Sunday
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Apr 22, 2024

Unseasonal floods batter 'factory floor of the world' in China

As home to factories crucial to the world, China's Guangdong province has prepared for floods — but not on this scale.
Yum China, which operates KFC and Pizza Hut, plans to add more than 5,000 outlets by 2026 with more than 50% of them outside megacities.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 23, 2024

China’s small towns thrive as more opt out of demanding megacity life

As an economic downturn in China’s biggest cities prompts layoffs and competition for remaining posts, many are finding a better quality of life elsewhere.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the Manhattan Supreme Court on the sixth day of the hush-money trial against him on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 24, 2024

Ex-tabloid CEO says he bought and killed stories about Trump affairs

The National Enquirer's ex-CEO said he deliberately didn't publish stories about Donald Trump's affairs to help the former president's 2016 election.
A man offers flowers in Shari, Hokkaido, Tuesday for the victims of the fatal sinking of a sightseeing boat off the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido two years ago.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 24, 2024

Hokkaido boat operator probe ongoing two years after fatal sinking

Thirty relatives of passengers plan to file a group lawsuit against the operator's president at the Sapporo District Court as early as next month.
Sanrio is marking Hello Kitty's 50th anniversary this year. The character's rise mirrors that of kawaii culture globally, and her longevity offers important clues as to the future of cute culture.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 22, 2024

Hello Kitty turns 50. What will the next cat's meow be?

The global rise of Hello Kitty, who turns 50 this year, tracks that of Japanese culture. What, then, does the next half-century of kawaii have in store?
A ship, identified by the Royal United Services Institute as the North Korean registered cargo ship Angara, is seen docked alongside a larger vessel at the Zhoushan Xinya Shipbuilding Co. wharf in Zhoushan, China, in February.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 25, 2024

Images show China harboring ship tied to Russian arms transfers

Satellite images show China is docking a ship that has moved containers believed to be full of North Korean munitions around Russia.
Toyota's annual global sales topped 10 million units in 2023 for the first time.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 26, 2024

Toyota sets records for output and sales as scandals fail to dent demand

Global sales increased 5% from a year earlier to 11.1 million units, new data shows, exceeding 10 million for the first time.
Takuya Hirai, head of the Liberal Democratic Party’s digital promotion working group
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2024

Facebook scams demand stricter online rules, Japan lawmaker says

Lawmakers in the Diet are considering summoning Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg to testify before them regarding fake ads on Facebook.
Solar panels on Dave Duttlinger's farmland that he leased to Dunns Bridge Solar in Wheatfield, Indiana
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Apr 27, 2024

As solar capacity grows, some of America's most productive farmland is at risk

The solar industry is pushing into the U.S. Midwest, drawn by cheaper land rents and wide-open fields.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends a conference in Paris last June.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 28, 2024

Tesla CEO Elon Musk kicks off surprise trip to Beijing

Musk is seeking to meet senior Chinese officials in Beijing to discuss the rollout of Full-Self Driving software in China.
JR East says it will not yield to unreasonable demands by customers who harass its employees.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2024

JR East says it will not respond to customer harassment

According to the policy, the company will not respond to customers who engage in harassment, such as physically or psychologically attacking employees.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person