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Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet speaks during the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept. 22, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 24, 2024

Under Cambodia’s new leader, room for dissent narrows

While Prime Minister Hun Manet has often spoken of the need for independent media and civil society in Cambodia, his government has moved in the opposite direction.
One researcher claims that the much-touted long lifespans of Japan, Italy and other countries may be propped up by faulty data.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 25, 2024

The secret to living to 110? Bad record-keeping, says Ig Nobel Prize winner.

The true secret to extreme longevity seems to be to "move where birth certificates are rare, teach your kids pension fraud and start lying," the researcher has said.
Doubts about the strength of the conclusions drawn from China’s research add to the mounting questions about how the positive tests were investigated and adjudicated by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
OLYMPICS
Dec 25, 2024

Questions emerge about data used by China to defend against doping allegations

The finding raises more questions about explanations from China and WADA as to why elite Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned substance.
Volunteers place eelgrass seeds on slabs of agar gel with tweezers during an event in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, on Nov. 9.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2024

Seagrass bed restoration work spreads in Miyagi Prefecture

Seagrass and seaweed beds are capturing global attention as they absorb carbon dioxide.
Death row inmate Chisako Kakehi, who was convicted of murdering three elderly men between 2012 and 2013 with the intent of inheriting their assets, has died, local media reported Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 26, 2024

Chisako Kakehi, sentenced to death for cyanide murders, dies in custody

The 78-year-old death row inmate was convicted of murdering three men — her husband and two common-law spouses — to inherit their assets.
Manmohan Singh, who died on Thursday at the age of 92, was arguably one of India's most successful leaders.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 27, 2024

Manmohan Singh, India's reluctant prime minister, dies age 92

He is credited with steering India to unprecedented economic growth and lifting hundreds of millions out of dire poverty.
A Japan Coast Guard vessel sails in front of Uotsuri island, one of the disputed Senkaku Islands, which are claimed by Beijing as the and Diaoyu, in the East China Sea in August 2013.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2024

Chinese government vessels seen near Senkakus for record 353 days in 2024

The record comes as Beijing continues to ramp up its activities near the tiny islets that it also claims in the East China Sea.
Midori Kato has been voice acting the character Sazae Fuguta in the TV animation series "Sazae-san" since it started in 1969.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Dec 30, 2024

Still sounding young at 85, Midori Kato is the voice of old Japan

The voice actor is the last original member of the cast of “Sazae-san,” a cartoon series that premiered in 1969 and never quite joined the modern world.
Although meat consumption has been dropping, it's not happening quickly enough to meet climate targets, something to keep in mind over the holidays.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2024

Why are my vegan friends going back to meat?

Helping people eat healthier diets with more fruit, vegetables and fiber would have enormous benefits for human well-being and the planet.
Hillary Rodham Clinton receives the Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Joe Biden during a ceremony at the White House in Washington on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 5, 2025

Biden awards Hillary Clinton, George Soros and others Medal of Freedom

First awarded by President John F. Kennedy, the medal is considered the highest civilian honor a president can bestow.
Children at a traditional festival in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Thursday. A forecast made by Tohoku University professor Hiroshi Yoshida estimates that Japan will be left with just one child on Jan. 5, 2720, based on current birthrate trends.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 6, 2025

2720 — the year when Japan is left with just one child

An expert on the graying of society has warned that the nation will be left with just one child age 14 and below in 695 years if its birthrate continues to decline.
Many Japanese dating apps have ways to detail specific interests that can be as narrow as one particular TV show, game or an artist.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 7, 2025

Swiping in Japan: How Gen Z is changing the dating app game

The once-stigmatized apps are flourishing as a new normal for dating among Gen Z in Japan, albeit with a different approach to before.
Migrants queue to board a bus that will take them to a shelter after turning themselves in to agents of Mexico's National Institute of Migration to look for a permit which would allow them to cross the country and reach the northern border with the U.S., in Tapachula, Mexico, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 9, 2025

Anxious but undeterred, migrants brace for Trump presidency

Trump has pledged tougher border controls and immigration enforcement and to launch a mass deportation operation.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (right) and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during a ceremonial welcome at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, Indonesia, on Saturday
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 12, 2025

Ishiba turns to Southeast Asia amid growing international uncertainty

Experts say that Ishiba's decision to prioritize Malaysia and Indonesia was a sign of the importance of the two major regional economies.
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai leaves the podium after delivering a speech during an international summit in Islamabad on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 13, 2025

Malala Yousafzai tells Muslim leaders not to 'legitimize' Taliban

The Nobel Peace Prize winner was speaking at a two-day conference that brought together ministers and education officials from dozens of Muslim-majority countries.
Daniil Medvedev's smashed racket during his first round match against Kasidit Samrej at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Tuesday.
TENNIS
Jan 14, 2025

Medvedev destroys net camera in huge scare against Thai wildcard

The tantrum earned fifth seed Medvedev a code violation for racket abuse and held up play as staff swept up debris.
U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock, Pennsylvannia, in 2019. Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel face significant legal challenges in their case against the United States.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 15, 2025

Nippon Steel’s case against Biden probably unwinnable, attorneys argue

A U.S. president's rejection of a deal following review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has only been successfully challenged once.
China has increased provocations against Japan under Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's weak leadership, exploiting political instability to push its agenda, including military incursions, cyberattacks and other forms of coercion.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 14, 2025

China seizes opportunities amid Ishiba’s weak leadership

China is also no longer hesitant to send its aircraft carrier group through narrow straits in the southernmost Nansei Islands to conduct drills.
Migrants wait to be processed on U.S. soil after crossing from Mexico in El Paso, Texas, in May 2023.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 15, 2025

Trump’s immigration crackdown will be swift and ugly. Here’s how.

U.S. President-elect Trump plans major immigration crackdowns, focusing on deportations, birthright citizenship, and humanitarian programs, marking a significant shift in policy.
The new Switch is a tablet-style device with detachable controllers that can be played in handheld mode or hooked up to a TV, like its predecessor.
LIFE / Digital
Jan 17, 2025

Nintendo announces Switch 2, its first new console in eight years

Japan residents can apply via lottery for a hands-on demo of the Switch 2 on April 26 and 27 at Chiba’s Makuhari Messe convention center.
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

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes