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JAPAN
Jun 25, 2021

Ugandan team member arriving in Tokyo had delta coronavirus variant

The case adds to concern that the games — less than a month away — may trigger a new wave of infections.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 25, 2021

Downtown Sydney to enter lockdown after spike in delta variant cases

Authorities have struggled to contain a spike in the highly contagious delta COVID-19 virus variant in the city.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 25, 2021

Biden balances climate need with human rights in Chinese solar product ban

The intersection of the solar supply chain with alleged human rights abuses creates a conflict between the president's environmental and human rights agendas.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 25, 2021

U.N. says 230,000 displaced by Myanmar fighting

The organization said 177,000 people were displaced in Karen state bordering Thailand, 103,000 in the past month.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / Vocabulary Boost
Jun 25, 2021

Variants, the Olympics and other boosters for your vocabulary

Frequent Japanese words popping up in the media have more to do with vaccinations, but could an Olympic shift be ahead?
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Jun 24, 2021

Corporate governance issues haunt troubled Toshiba as it faces off with investors

Amid scandal, a shareholders meeting on Friday is set to be a showdown between Toshiba's board, who are pushing to retain Chairman Osamu Nagayama, and investors who want him out.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jun 24, 2021

Time to re-examine Japan’s longstanding ambiguity over Taiwan

Tokyo has historically walked a fine line between Beijing and Taipei, but recent tensions point to a need to re-evaluate its stance.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2021

‘The Door into Summer’: Some doors are best left closed

An orphaned genius travels to the future and back in Takahiro Miki's treacly sci-fi, “The Door Into Summer,” based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 24, 2021

U.S. to block some solar goods made in Xinjiang region

The move is one of the Biden administration's biggest steps yet to counter alleged human rights abuses against China's ethnic Uyghur Muslim minority.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 23, 2021

Honda goes all in on electric cars in stark contrast to Toyota

Honda has said publicly it will phase out sales of gasoline-powered cars completely, setting 2040 as the goal.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 23, 2021

SoftBank’s Son may stay on as chairman past age 69

Masayoshi Son isn't letting go of the reins at SoftBank Group Corp. anytime soon, even as the founder tells shareholders he's taking the issue of his succession seriously.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 23, 2021

The end of Iran's Islamic republic

It was less an election than a chronicle of a death foretold — the death of what little remained of the constitution's republican principles.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 23, 2021

Sydney residents banned from leaving city as coronavirus cluster grows

Australia's largest city of Sydney re-introduced "soft touch" COVID-19 curbs on Wednesday to contain a widening outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, mandating masks in offices while neighboring states closed their borders.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Jun 23, 2021

Know your news: Shohei Ohtani

How closely have you been following the MLB phenomenon that is Shohei Ohtani this stellar season? Step up to the plate and show us your stuff, slugger.
While AI has added increased uncertainty over what is and isn't true, misinformation has been around for a while.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 14, 2025

How to tell if what you're hearing is true (or just sounds like it is)

Some Japanese grammatical terms signal uncertainty, and that is when you need phrases to help you get to the truth of the matter.
Chelsea striker Sam Kerr arrives at Kingston Crown Court in London on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Feb 14, 2025

Chelsea has no plans to discipline star player Sam Kerr after acquittal

Kerr was found not guilty by a jury at Kingston Crown Court in London on Tuesday after calling a British police officer "stupid and white" during an incident in January 2023.
Part of the Saudi Arabia World Cup bid exhibition is seen on Dec. 11, 2024, in Riyadh.
SOCCER / World cup
Feb 14, 2025

Saudi Arabia to ban alcohol at 2034 FIFA World Cup

The Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom quipped that much like Saudi Arabia's dry weather, "It's a dry country."
A special police member monitors a protest, while inside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) building, a day after members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk moved into the CFPB, in Washington last Saturday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 14, 2025

Rapid unraveling of U.S. consumer watchdog leaves financial firms in limbo

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may be reviled by the industry, but its abrupt undoing is causing upheaval among those it regulates.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an Executive Order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 14, 2025

U.S. embassies told to brace for staff cuts amid Trump overhaul, sources say

Some embassies have been asked to look into reducing both U.S. staff as well as locally employed staff by 10% each.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) and Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi at the U.S. State Department in Washington on Jan. 21
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 14, 2025

Top Japan diplomat to hold first trilateral talks with U.S. and South Korea under Trump

The talks aim to highlight how they will continue to "unite and work together for regional peace and prosperity,” Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said.
A site in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, where a road cave-in occurred in January
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2025

Sewage pipe abnormalities found at locations in Saitama Prefecture

Inspections were carried out as a deteriorated sewage pipe is believed to have caused a road cave-in the city of Yashio.
An uprooted tree as Cyclone Zelia made landfall in a suburb of Port Headland, Western Australia
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 14, 2025

Powerful tropical cyclone hits Australia's iron ore hub

The weather bureau warned the system could bring record-breaking rainfall to the region.
Kendrick Lamar performs at the halftime show of Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Louisiana.
COMMUNITY / Voices / Black Eye
Feb 17, 2025

Black History Month in 2025: The boundaries between 'us' and 'them'

Our columnist reflects on the fraught ideologies of race from both sides of the Pacific.
The U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pennsylvania.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 14, 2025

Nippon Steel wants 100% of U.S. Steel, not a minority stake, report says

Last week, the deal appeared effectively dead after a meeting between Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te holds a news conference in Taipei on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 14, 2025

Taiwan’s Lai vows to lift military funding after Trump complaint

Lai said Taiwan would boost expenditure to 3% of GDP, though he didn’t indicate when that would start.
Sydney-based Minotaur Capital outperformed the global stock market in its first six months while slashing research costs by using AI.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 14, 2025

Hedge fund startup that replaced analysts with AI beats the market

Minotaur Capital, which has no analysts on staff, returned 13.7% in the six months ending January versus 6.7% for the MSCI All-Country World Index.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a session of parliament on Thursday afternoon.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 14, 2025

Budget talks intensify between ruling coalition and opposition parties

The minority government is looking to pass its budget by March 2 to give Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba some breathing room.
The government's stockpiled rice in Tokyo in 1999. Since 1995, the government has been stockpiling around 200,000 tons of rice from the annual harvest to ensure that there is enough to go around during emergencies.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2025

Government taps rice stockpile to reverse price increases

This will be the first time the stockpile has been used to reduce prices instead of due to emergencies.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past