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Wawira Njiru, the founder of Food4Education, serves food during the opening of a new kitchen in Mombasa County, Kenya, in 2022. The organization started in 2012 by feeding 25 children out of a single kitchen. Now it feeds nearly half a million every day.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Jan 19, 2025

Amid rising world hunger, a Japan-inspired group in Kenya is making a big impact

Food4Education is helping feed half a million students through a program that drew inspiration from Japan's renowned school lunch programs.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer addresses medical staff and media during a visit to a hospital in Epsom, England, on on Jan. 6.
COMMENTARY
Jan 22, 2025

There's a target on the back of Britain's NHS

The scale of the improvement Starmer is targeting has been achieved before, under a previous Labour government in 2007.
Last week, Shotaro Morii signed a minor league deal worth $1.5 million with the Athletics that defies 30 years of cultural norms holding that Japanese players should first compete in NPB before going to Major League Baseball.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 22, 2025

By signing with A’s, a two-way prospect charts a rare path out of Japan

Shotaro Morii opted to bypass NPB in order to sign a minor league deal worth $1.5 million with the Athletics.
“The Elephant Man” and “Twin Peaks” director David Lynch became a favorite among Japanese moviegoers who flocked to new arthouse cinemas (known as “mini theaters”) popping up around the country in the 1980s and ’90s.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 23, 2025

How 'Twin Peaks' turned David Lynch into Japan's favorite weirdo

The director’s work thrived in the early days of arthouse “mini theaters,” and cherry pies and canned coffee fueled the nation's "Twin Peaks" mania.
A charred chimney is all that remains at a fire-ravaged ocean front home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Jan. 16.
WORLD
Jan 22, 2025

After the fire, should some parts of Los Angeles never rebuild?

Researchers warn that wildfires pose very different risks from more predictable events like sea-level rise and riverbank flooding.
Aside from purely aesthetics, the flowers in Mika Ninagawa’s art carry deep cultural and spiritual meaning.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 25, 2025

Mika Ninagawa transforms the Kyocera Museum into a vibrant dreamworld

The artist’s most expansive exhibition in the Kansai region to date is an experience that straddles the boundaries of photography, film and installation art.
Fuji TV adviser Hisashi Hieda in 2005
JAPAN / Media
Jan 29, 2025

Who are the key figures involved in the growing Fuji TV scandal?

Koichi Minato, who resigned as president of Fuji TV on Monday, will be one focus of a third-party probe, given his executive role when the incident occurred.
Shilling poses for a picture at her home in California, Maryland, on Jan. 19.
WORLD
Jan 29, 2025

How transgender troops prepared to fight Trump's new policy

Transgender advocates say the lawsuit is the first shot in what they predict will be a long fight.
The Bank of Japan's phasing out of its fund-provisioning program underscores Gov. Kazuo Ueda’s determination to slowly but steadily proceed with the normalization of policy after more than a decade of radical monetary easing.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2025

BOJ to shrink balance sheet by around ¥77 trillion with end of loan program

All outstanding loans from the central bank's fund-provisioning program to stimulate bank lending are expected to be wiped off its books by March 2028.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and members of the Liberal Democratic Party take a group photo at the party's headquarters in Tokyo during the Oct. 27 Lower House elections.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 30, 2025

Adjusting to the new normal in Japanese politics

The upheaval of the past year has forced a fundamental rethinking of how political watchers must observe things in Tokyo
Scottie Scheffler competes during the The Presidents Cup in Ile Bizard, Quebec, on Sept. 29, 2024.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Jan 30, 2025

No. 1 Scheffler ready to go in season debut at Pebble Beach

A freak Christmas dinner accident, while using a wine glass to shape ravioli, resulted in a wound to his hand that required surgery and delayed Scheffler's start to the campaign.
Ravens kicker Justin Tucker arrives on the field before a game against the Browns in Baltimore on Jan. 4.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jan 31, 2025

Massage therapists accuse Ravens kicker Justin Tucker of sexual misconduct

Tucker released a statement on social media vehemently denying the allegations.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2025

Japan wary of taking another hit if Trump slaps tariffs on China

Policymakers, investors and economists are watching Trump’s trade policy amid fears that his threatened use of tariffs could batter global commerce.
Billed as a “cultural bridge that connects Japan and Vietnam,” Tet Viet Saitama drew tens of thousands of attendees from across the Kanto region.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 2, 2025

Home away from home: My first time at a Tet festival in Japan

A longtime resident of Japan attends Saitama’s first public celebration of Vietnam’s most important holiday.
Masahiro Tanaka signed with the Giants in December.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Feb 3, 2025

Star pitcher Masahiro Tanaka looking to revive glory days with Giants

Masahiro Tanaka is one of the most recognizable faces in Japanese baseball, but sightings of the new Giants pitcher were few and far between in 2024.
The current government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer has resisted calls for a national inquiry focused on the grooming gangs in Rotherham, and says it will conduct a series of local probes.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2025

'Life's ruined' in U.K. town broken by grooming gangs

Rotherham, once a producer of some of the world's finest steel, is now the epicenter of a major U.K. scandal that has left the town angry, ashamed and needing answers.
A statue of the founder of the International Olympic Committee, Pierre de Coubertin, at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland
OLYMPICS
Feb 5, 2025

The closed-door battle to lead the Olympics

For such a consequential election, much of it is taking place in the dark, away from any form of public or private debate.
The bestselling Switch has a confirmed successor, but what little we know about the Switch 2 console so far raises some concerns about its longterm viability in a crowded gaming market.
LIFE / Digital
Feb 6, 2025

Making sense of Nintendo’s tight-lipped Switch 2 reveal

Nintendo will remain mum on details until April, but questions on how its new console fits into the modern gaming landscape abound.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and U.S. President Donald Trump. Microsoft and Nvidia are quietly engaging with the Trump administration on policies affecting AI, chip exports and data centers
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2025

Tech giants Microsoft and Nvidia taking a quieter approach to Trump

Under Biden, the United States curbed the sale of Nvidia chips to China and capped the sales of its AI chips to more than 100 other countries
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint news conference with the President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Kyiv on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 12, 2025

Zelenskyy offers land swaps as Russia heartens Trump with prisoner release

The Ukrainian president said he was ready to trade land in Russia's Kursk region which Ukraine seized in a surprise offensive last year.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shows a picture of him with U.S. President Donald Trump during a joint news conference at the White House on Friday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 12, 2025

Ishiba navigates the low expectations for Japan’s foreign policy

The summit proceeded well enough, but some will argue that this is only because Ishiba had a low bar for his engagement.
Japanese companies face mounting pressure as U.S.-China tensions grow, forcing them to navigate security concerns, economic dependencies and shifting trade policies.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 12, 2025

For Japanese firms, the China dilemma is set to intensify

“America First” and “Make America Great Again” are simple slogans that can be fitted to any outcome. All that ultimately matters is the final say of the president.
A hapless rakugo comic storyteller, Tamon Saito (Tomizo Nobe, left), strikes up an unlikely relationship with a young comedian (Nagiko Tsuji) who wants to rip off his routine in “Laugh, Everyone!”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2025

'Laugh, Everyone!’: A wonky but endearing double act

Taichi Suzuki’s comedian buddy movie walks a fine line between funny and bleak.
By cancer type, the 10-year survival rate was 57.9% for stomach cancer, the most common cancer among the patients surveyed.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 13, 2025

Japan's 10-year cancer survival rate stands at 54% in latest survey

The rate was 57.9% for stomach cancer, the most common cancer among patients surveyed.
Data show that the policies of Japan’s last decade or so have served the rich better than the vast majority of the country’s households.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2025

Assets of Japan’s wealthiest jump to a record $3 trillion

Between 2011 and 2023, the wealth of Japan’s rich more than doubled and super rich tripled.
The 50th ASEAN-Japan commemorative summit was held in Tokyo in December 2023. Japan has strong relations with ASEAN member countries and should continue leveraging this position to pursue its Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Feb 14, 2025

Why ASEAN is crucial to a Free and Open Indo-Pacific

Tokyo understands ASEAN's centrality to the Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision better than Washington does and should continue leading in defending this regional order.
China frequently shifts between warming and freezing relations with Japan, driven by its domestic issues, often using softer rhetoric while masking aggressive actions.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 14, 2025

Are China-Japan relations truly 'warming,' or is this just fool’s gold again?

As the trade war between the U.S. and China heats up, Beijing is turning to its familiar playbook, using softer language to court American allies and partners while offering things like greater cooperation and more dialogue — part of its ongoing divide-and-conquer strategy.
The Seattle Mariners Ichiro Suzuki watches the ball in the top of the third inning against Oakland Athletics during their baseball game at the Major League Baseball Japan Opening Series in Tokyo in March 2019.
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 15, 2025

Ichiro to donate personal collection to Hall of Fame

Suzuki wants "to follow in the footsteps of Hank Aaron and Tom Seaver," two players who pledged their entire collections to Cooperstown, said a former Hall of Fame official.
Celtic's Daizen Maeda scored a late goal against Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League match in Glasgow on Feb. 12.
SOCCER
Feb 17, 2025

Brendan Rodgers urges underdog Celtic to be bold against Bayern Munich

Bayern is in the driver's seat for a spot in the last 16 after a 2-1 win at Celtic Park on Wednesday.
Ravens kicker Justin Tucker has been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple massage therapists in Baltimore.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 17, 2025

Seven more women accuse Ravens kicker Justin Tucker of sexual misconduct

Tucker has strongly denied wrongdoing both in a post on X and in a formal statement via his attorneys.

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