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Kaori Yamada grew up surrounded by bonsai her whole life and was expected to carry on her family's 170-year-old legacy when she became an adult.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 23, 2024

The bonsai master working to branch out an age-old craft

Kaori Yamada grew up surrounded by bonsai her whole life and was expected to carry on her family's 170-year-old legacy or otherwise end it.
Canadians Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps celebrate their gold-medal performance in the pairs competition at the World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
Mar 22, 2024

Canadians win pairs figure skating world title as Uno leads men's short program

The defending champions Miura and Kihara, who missed much of the season due to injury, took silver.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 22, 2024

Yamamoto back to drawing board after disastrous Dodgers debut

Yamamoto’s MLB career got off to a difficult start on Thursday night and the long-time Orix Buffaloes ace only lasted one inning.
“Blue Imagine” centers on a young actor (Mayu Yamaguchi) who finds support at a communal living space after she is sexually assaulted by a well-known director while participating in his actors’ workshop.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 23, 2024

'Blue Imagine' gives voice to victims of sexual abuse in the film industry

Urara Matsubayashi's debut feature finds the beauty in women coming together in solidarity to publicly speak out against abusers.
Retired management professor and trekker Jitendra V. Singh completed his goal of collecting all 46 prints in the series “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji” in 2023.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 23, 2024

One collector’s high mountain road to Hokusai

A professor’s 30-year dream of assembling a complete set of “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji,” the pinnacle of the artist’s career, leads to an auction.
Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, appears in this still image taken from video released Friday in which she announced that she is undergoing preventative chemotherapy after cancer was found to have been present, following her abdominal surgery in January.
WORLD
Mar 23, 2024

Catherine’s cancer diagnosis puts U.K. royals on even more uncertain terrain

First King Charles and now Catherine, Princess of Wales, are facing grave health concerns, stretching an already slimmed-down monarchy.
Participants take part in a matchmaking event organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government at Jindai Botanical Gardens on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 23, 2024

Tokyo, Tokyo, make me a match! Metropolis hopes AI app will spur marriages

The app will ask matrimonial hopefuls more than 100 questions as the capital seeks to curb declining numbers of marriages and births.
Then-U.S. President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton tour the American Cemetery in Manila in November 1994, two years before the alleged assassination attempt.
WORLD
Mar 24, 2024

The al-Qaida plot to kill Bill Clinton that history nearly forgot

Four former U.S. officials, including the ambassador in Manila at the time, Thomas Hubbard, confirmed the foiled attack against Bill Clinton.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 25, 2024

Ohtani to speak Monday on allegations surrounding ex-interpreter

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he hoped two-way superstar's plans to speak on the press would bring "clarity."
Jannik Sinner reacts after winning a point against Tallon Griekspoor on the seventh day of the Miami Open in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Sunday.
TENNIS
Mar 25, 2024

Sinner pulls off Miami great escape but no way out for Rune

"Mentally I tried to stay strong, which I did, and I was in a tough situation today," said Sinner.
The Central business district of Hong Kong. Hong Kong IPOs have dried up as stock prices slump and economic prospects wane.
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2024

Once high-flying bankers in Hong Kong become a lost generation

The damage is underscored by the barrage of layoffs, the retreat of global capital, and the city’s diminishing role as an international financial center.
The Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani delivers a statement during a news conference at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Monday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 26, 2024

Ohtani denies betting on baseball and accuses ex-interpreter of lying and theft

The baseball star expressed shock over the gambling scandal involving his long-time ex-interpreter, in his first public comments on the matter.
Christian villagers walk inside a church on Feb. 28, 16 years after it was destroyed by a mob following the murder of a Hindu priest, in the village of Irpiguda in the Kandhamal district of India's Odisha state. With India's election on the horizon and Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi widely expected to win, many Christians fear they may once again become targets.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 26, 2024

Christians in India fearful as election looms, recalling past violence

In 2008, mobs targeted churches, prayer halls and Christian homes, killing over 100 people, sexually assaulting women and forcing thousands to flee.
Japanese chocolatier Yasushi Sasaki holds a box of chocolates in his workshop in the Brussels commune of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 27, 2024

A Japanese 'flavor wizard' conquers the homeland of chocolate

Yasushi Sasaki has been named Brussels' chocolatier of the year by the prestigious Gault & Millau food guide.
Beijing-based Chinese influencer Chang Feifei has taken on many jobs to promote travel destinations in Japan, including from Universal Studios Japan and the Hankyu and Hanshin department stores.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Mar 28, 2024

Influencers — Japan’s secret weapon to promote niche tourism spots

Followers' trust in — and reliance on — social media for travel info, even when the content is sponsored, is a key factor.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 29, 2024

The vocabulary of shogi can help you make moves in your conversations

The world of shogi, a game that is often described as a form of Japanese chess, has given us much more than just checkmates.
Hitoshi Matsumoto
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 28, 2024

Comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto's defamation trial kicks off

Identities of two women accusing the comedian of forcing them into having sex, as reported by Shukan Bunshun, becomes the focus on Day 1.
Described as “the world’s first cosmic opera,” Jeff Mills’ “The Trip: Enter the Black Hole” is a multimedia spectacle tied together by a concept that teeters on the brink between quantum physics and science fiction.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 29, 2024

Jeff Mills’ trippy techno odyssey comes to Tokyo

The influential techno artist's multimedia 'cosmic opera' features vocals by '80s avant-pop diva Jun Togawa.
Dried cocoa beans at the Somos Cacao farm and production in Ragonvalia, department of Norte de Santader, Colombia, on March 22, 2024. Cocoa is the best-selling commodity in the world so far in 2024, and futures have doubled in less than three months as poor harvests in West Africa, where most of the world's cocoa is grown, have led buyers to look elsewhere for supplies.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 29, 2024

Cocoa market 'broken' as crop failure drives third year of shortages

here’s a risk poor harvests in West Africa could be long-lasting, with climate change and crop disease ravaging trees.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Mar 29, 2024

Nissan hopes to shock the home crowd at Tokyo E-Prix

After finishing seventh in the overall standings last year, the team sits sixth through four races.
California’s share of U.S. wine production, around 90% in the 1990s and 2000s, dropped below 80% for the first time on record in 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2024

Who will save the U.S. wine industry? Not California boomers.

California’s share of U.S. wine production, around 90% in the 1990s and 2000s, dropped below 80% for the first time on record in 2022.
A mural showing Los Angeles Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani is seen on the Miyako Hotel in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday. The mural, by artist Robert Vargas, is 150 feet (46 meters) tall and is titled "LA Rising."
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 30, 2024

Shohei Ohtani is home and focused on baseball. Dodgers fans are relieved.

Los Angeles finally got a close look at baseball’s megastar, as a gambling situation involving his former interpreter took a back seat to opening day.
Drivers speed toward the first corner at the start of the first Tokyo E-Prix.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Mar 30, 2024

Nissan’s Rowland narrowly misses dream win in Formula E’s electric Tokyo debut

Maserati’s Maximilian Guenther spoiled the party for Nissan's legions of fans as the electric racing series made its long-awaited Japan debut.
Danielle Collins during the Miami Open semifinals. The American won the final on Saturday over Elena Rybakina.
TENNIS
Mar 31, 2024

Collins beats Rybakina to win Miami Open

The 30-year-old Collins, No. 53 in the world, is the lowest-ranked woman ever to win the tournament.
Nissan's Oliver Rowland races in the first Tokyo E-Prix on Saturday. The Japanese team delighted the home fans with Rowland's second-place finish as Formula E made its debut in the motorsport-loving country.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Mar 31, 2024

First Tokyo E-Prix wins over Japan's passionate motorsports fans

Spectators hailed the long-awaited arrival of the racing series, which offered a different kind of spectacle compared to F1 and domestic series.
Children wash their hands with a new public pump installed as part of a climate resilient water system in Inn Chey in Kratie Province.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Mar 31, 2024

Japan sits at the forefront of climate resilient infrastructure in Southeast Asia

Japanese businesses and government agencies are pouring billions of yen into various programs across Cambodia and Southeast Asia to reduce climate risks.
Self-Defense Force soldiers search for survivors after a landslide swept through a residential area in Asaminami Ward, in the city of Hiroshima, in August 2014. Despite the nation’s numerous natural disasters, the government needs better contingency planning.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 28, 2024

Is Japan ready for the worst-case scenario?

Is the nation ready for massive disasters? Based on my studies of Japan’s crisis management system, I say “no” and unfortunately not.
Keita Nakajima won the Indian Open on Sunday to earn his first DP World Tour title.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Apr 1, 2024

Nakajima dominates Indian Open for first DP World Tour win

"I want to try and finish in the top 10 on this tour and then go to the PGA Tour in 2025," the player said.
All Blacks forward Ardie Savea wants New Zealand Rugby to reconsider the rule that only allows domestic-based players to be selected for the national team.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Apr 1, 2024

Savea calls for change in All Blacks' eligibility regulations

A number of high-profile New Zealanders have moved away from home, with a handful contracted to Japanese clubs.
A mural showing Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani is seen on the side of the Miyako Hotel in Little Tokyo, downtown Los Angeles, on Thursday. The mural is by artist Robert Vargas and is 46 meters tall.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 1, 2024

Ohtani’s arrival brings hope and nostalgia home to Little Tokyo

In Los Angeles, home to one of the nation’s oldest Japanese American enclaves, rooting for the Dodgers is a cherished tradition.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami