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This year's Tokyo Game Show attendance came up just shy of 2019's draw — an encouraging sign for the event's future.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Oct 7, 2023

A dark fantasy spin on ‘Pinocchio’ may put FromSoftware under pressure

It wasn’t the biggest TGS ever, but it's hard to imagine anyone behind the scenes at TGS headquarters pulling their hair out over 2023’s return to form.
Ayatana's hand-pounded curry paste is just one example of what chef Bo Songvisava calls her revival of traditional Thai cuisine.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 8, 2023

Ayatana elevates Thai comfort food to gourmet cuisine

Japan has no shortage of Thai food, but this new Kyoto restaurant aims to transcend its reputation of a casual bite.
Fumiyuki Kinsu (left) and Shun Sato are the driving forces behind Censu's wine-loving approach to Japanese cuisine.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 8, 2023

Censu: An izakaya where wine outshines beer and sake

Censu’s eclectic cuisine is rooted in Japanese culinary vernacular but takes in the breadth of chef Shun Sato’s diverse experiences abroad.
Rahm Emanuel, U.S. ambassador to Japan, and Ann Burroughs, president and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, discuss the importance of preserving the history of interned Japanese Americans.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 6, 2023

U.S. ambassador honors artworks by interned Japanese Americans

“This is not a great moment for America, and we have to own it,” Rahm Emanuel said at a reception in Tokyo.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 6, 2023

A year after borders fully opened, tourism vocab is also back

After tourists fully returned to Japan last October, so did a term we hadn't heard since before the pandemic: overtourism.
Over four days in September, Japan Soca Weekend brought together the Tokyo area's Caribbean community for dance parties, outdoor blowouts and a crowning Carnival festival on a racetrack in Chiba.
COMMUNITY / Issues
Oct 10, 2023

‘Peak happiness’ at the first Japan Caribbean Carnival

For Japan’s Caribbean community, Carnival provides a deep sense of community and offers a cure for homesickness.
Bianca Vara, a Democrat and grandmother of five, at the flea market where she runs a stall in Chamblee, Georgia, on Thursday. American voters’ broad discontent with the disarray in Washington transcends political parties, race, age and geography. "Disgust isn’t a strong enough word,” said Vara.
WORLD
Oct 7, 2023

Americans are too turned off by Washington to even complain

Griping about politics is a time-honored American pastime — but lately, the country’s political mood has plunged to some of the worst levels on record.
Children jump rope in a park. Young people with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) can have difficulties in jumping rope, throwing a ball or doing other common physical activities.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional voices: Chubu
Oct 16, 2023

Better understanding of developmental coordination disorder needed

DCD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that makes it hard for children to control their bodily movements to perform daily activities.
Taylor Swift attends the MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Sept. 12.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 8, 2023

Taylor Swift and the political needle

With hundreds of millions of social media followers and a staunchly loyal fan base, she can move any dial with the tiniest of efforts.
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.
Artemis II moon mission crew members Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch pose for photographs after taking part in a news conference with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 18.
WORLD / Science & Health / ANALYSIS
Oct 8, 2023

Geopolitics in space: Why great powers are scrambling for the moon

A new space race — pitting the U.S. and its partners against China and Russia — is expected to have significant implications.
Ireland hooker Ronan Kelleher celebrates his team's win over Scotland in their 2023 Rugby World Cup Pool B finale at the State de France in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Oct 8, 2023

Ireland thrashes Scotland as England avoids Rugby World Cup stumble

England survived a Samoan scare by a point, while Wales beat Georgia to top Pool C.
Australian head coach Eddie Jones' reliance on young players did not work out for the team during the Rugby World Cup
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Oct 9, 2023

High-stakes misses prove costly as Australia crashes out of World Cup

Australia's gambles resulted in an early exit from the Rugby World Cup.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Oct 9, 2023

Shinnosuke Abe hoping to join special group of Giants managers

Shinnosuke Abe is hopeful of guiding the Giants back to the Central League summit.
Dar San Ye smoking in her home in Yangon. Forty years ago, she stood in a river squaring up to a North Korean agent on the run after a botched assassination, a live grenade primed in his hand.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 9, 2023

The Burmese barmaid who nabbed a North Korean assassin

On October 9, 1983, a hit team from Pyongyang attempted to blow up the South Korean president when he visited Yangon.
Visitors walk along the Marina Barrage water catchment area in Singapore in 2009.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 10, 2023

Singapore fighting rising seas to save $50 billion in real estate

During a half-century of independence, Singapore has fought to expand its territory, inch by hard-won inch. On the tip of the Malaysian peninsula, the island city-state piled up sand to expand its coastline and reclaim land from the sea.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen takes the stage during National Day celebrations in Taipei on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 10, 2023

Taiwan seeks 'peaceful coexistence' with China, president says

President Tsai Ing-wen said in her last national day speech Tuesday that the island will be democratic for generations to come.
Houses and buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in Gaza City, on Tuesday
WORLD / Politics
Oct 10, 2023

Israel pounds Gaza with fiercest airstrikes ever

Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with the fiercest airstrikes in the 75-year history of its conflict with the Palestinians, razing whole districts to dust.
The remains of a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel lies on a road where it fell in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Oct 11, 2023

Who is the secretive Hamas commander behind the attack on Israel?

Mohammed Deif has topped Israel's most wanted list for decades, held responsible for deaths of dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings.
Most projections show the world will hit peak humanity in the 21st century as people choose to have smaller families and women gain power over their own reproduction.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2023

Don’t worry about global population collapse

While environmentalists have long warned of a planet with too many people, now some economists are warning of a future with too few.
A struggling novelist (Rie Miyazawa) wrestles with life’s bigger questions after taking a job at a care facility for people with severe disabilities in “The Moon.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2023

‘The Moon’: Provocative drama bites off more than it can chew

Yuya Ishii’s film courts controversy with a fictionalized retelling of a real-life knife attack at a care facility for people with mental disabilities.
Singer-songwriter Aina The End (center) plays a young woman who strives to overcome her hardscrabble life and become an indie musician in “Kyrie.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2023

'Kyrie': Musical melodrama celebrates youth

Shunji Iwai's film about indie musicians and female friendships may have an overstuffed plot, but it also has a visual energy unique to the director.
Some of the most popular influencers can amass small fortunes before they're 18, but there are few legal protections to ensure their earnings remain their own.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 12, 2023

Child influencers make big money. Who gets it?

"I’m terrified to share my name because a digital footprint I had no control over exists."
The classic Japanese ghost story often features a vengeful female ghost.
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 12, 2023

[Rebroadcast] Japan’s got ghosts

This week we discuss a few horror movies before “Uncanny Japan” podcast host Thersa Matsuura tells a classic Japanese ghost story.
Anand Malligavad, a mechanical engineer known as “Lake Man,” stands in the clean waters of Kyalasanahalli Lake in Bengaluru, India. Malligavad, who turned to centuries-old knowledge to reclaim dozens of lakes, is now in demand across India.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 13, 2023

India’s ‘lake man’ relies on ancient methods to ease water crisis

In the seven years, 35 lakes in Bengaluru with a combined water-holding capacity of about 106 million gallons have been restored.
The Phillies' Nick Castellanos rounds the bases after hitting his second home run against the Braves in Game 4 of the NLDS in Philadelphia on Thursday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 13, 2023

Nick Castellanos homers twice to power Phillies into to NLCS

The Phillies will host the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the best-of-seven National League Championship Series on Monday.
A 19-year-old girl plagued with strange visions sets out with her younger brother to uncover the truth about her perfect family in Banana Yoshimoto’s “The Premonition.”
CULTURE / Books
Oct 14, 2023

Banana Yoshimoto’s new book is a sickly sweet fantasy

In “The Premonition,” the characters exist in a dream-like state of sweetness and steer clear of examining complex questions.
Japanese purin is a classic dish, but this plant-based version is a bit of a sweet twist.
LIFE / The Recipe Box
Oct 15, 2023

Recipe: Soy caramel flan

Looking for a sweet snack? Here’s a traditional caramel and plant-based custard with a seaweed extract setting agent.
A representative of Chevalier Brewery presents a bottle of its sake adapted to French drinkers' tastes.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 15, 2023

Sake fights an uphill battle for France’s wine lovers

Among many French drinkers, sake is still associated with cheap, low-quality alcohol only served at the end of meals in Japanese restaurants.
Nearly 60 years old, Pop-Tarts remain a polarizing yet iconic symbol of America's love of processed sweets.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 15, 2023

How one family influenced the rise and recipes of Pop-Tarts

As Kellogg’s prepares to celebrate the 60th birthday of Pop-Tarts next year, the polarizing treats remain a cultural touchstone.

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