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Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Apr 29, 2021

As rivals made fortunes, Exxon retreated from oil trading amid pandemic

'They were careful with capital during a period of time when they maybe shouldn't have,' one trader who left Exxon in the last year said of its management.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 29, 2021

Biden sees U.S. ‘rising anew’ in call for huge investment

The U.S. president warns corporations and wealthy Americans that he expects them to carry more of the burden of financing the nation's advancements.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 28, 2021

African samurai earns hero status in new anime ‘Yasuke’

Director LeSean Thomas brings the story of Yasuke, a real-life black samurai, to Netflix as 'a new kind of anime action hero.”
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2021

Three aging reactors in Fukui Prefecture given OK for restart

The prefecture's decision could set a precedent that leads to more aging reactors getting restarted instead of being scrapped.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2021

Biden talks up benefits of vaccines after new mask guidance

The U.S. leader urged Americans hesitant to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to reconsider, pointing to new U.S. guidance that inoculated people can socialize outdoors without masks.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 27, 2021

China widens internet crackdown with Meituan monopoly probe

China’s government has expanded its antitrust crackdown beyond Jack Ma’s technology empire, launching an investigation into suspected monopolistic practices by food-delivery behemoth Meituan.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 27, 2021

Suga faces prospect of joining long list of short-term leaders

The triple loss in the weekend elections came on the same day that a new virus emergency was imposed on about a quarter of the population.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2021

Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier to visit Japan on maiden deployment

The high-profile visits, aimed at bolstering security ties in East Asia, come amid tensions in the region as concern grows in Japan over any threat posed to neighboring Taiwan by China.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi says Japan has sent officials to Myanmar to coordinate on the planned dispatch of an emergency relief team.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2025

Japan sends coordinating officials to Myanmar after earthquake

The officials are to arrange for the planned dispatch of an emergency relief team to the Southeast Asian nation hit by a magnitude-7.7 earthquake.
The so-called baby hatch, open 24 hours a day, is meant to be an "emergency, last-resort measure" to save babies' lives, Hitoshi Kato (center), head of Sanikukai Hospital, told a news conference Monday in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2025

Tokyo hospital opens city's first 'baby hatch'

Used for centuries globally, so-called baby boxes or baby hatches are meant to prevent child abandonment or abuse.
People inspect the debris of a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Friday after an earthquake.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 1, 2025

Signs of life detected in quake-hit Bangkok skyscraper as overall death toll tops 2,000

Civil war in Myanmar is complicating efforts to reach those injured by the country's biggest quake in a century.
The Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong sails in waters off Taiwan on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 1, 2025

China conducts joint military exercises aimed at blockading Taiwan

The Chinese drills were practicing closing in on the island, with Beijing also warning that efforts toward Taiwan independence meant “war.”
A woman holds a poster of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol during a street rally in Seoul on Saturday, ahead of the impeachment verdict for the president.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 1, 2025

South Korea to rule on President Yoon’s impeachment on Friday

If the impeachment is upheld, then Yoon will immediately lose power and an election to replace him will be held within 60 days.
A ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location, after U.S. President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, in this screenshot of a handout video released on March 15.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 1, 2025

White House says strikes killed Houthi missile expert, but questions linger

The U.S. military has so far declined to confirm the death, and the identity of the Houthi commander in question remains unclear.
Takashi Shiraishi (center), honorable emeritus professor at the Prefectural University of Kumamoto and chair of the International Group of Eminent Persons for a World without Nuclear Weapons, speaks at a news conference after the group's meeting on Monday at the United Nations University in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2025

Global experts seek urgent action to prevent nuclear war

The experts warn that the risk of conventional warfare leading to the use of nuclear weapons is becoming serious.
Some market participants predict that benchmark 10-year borrowing costs won’t climb as sharply as the fiscal year that ended Monday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 1, 2025

Japan confronts biggest bond loss globally as BOJ rate hikes upend market

The past year marked a sixth straight year of losses for Japan’s sovereign debt as the central bank raises rates while its other counterparts elsewhere are cutting them.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 1, 2025

OpenAI says new funding from SoftBank boosts valuation to $300 billion

SoftBank said in a release that it is on a mission to realize artificial superintelligence that surpasses human intelligence.
The Bank of Japan's tankan survey indicates that large business are still positive on their prospects.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 1, 2025

Japanese businesses maintain optimism ahead of looming tariff storm

In the BOJ's latest tankan survey, the headline index for big manufacturers was 12, which indicates confidence in the business outlook.
Rapidus is gearing up to mass produce semiconductors using 2-nanometer processes in 2027, which on paper would match Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 2, 2025

Rapidus begins pilot production of 2-nanometer chips in Hokkaido

The 2-year-old company aims to mass produce the next-generation semiconductors — vital for technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous driving — in 2027.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 1, 2025

No rest for weary Ishiba as challenges await in parliament

After finally securing passage of the country's budget earlier this week, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba now faces an uphill battle to win back the public's trust.
In a series of meetings and calls over the weekend, officials inside U.S. President Donald Trump's White House and State Department acknowledged that Russian President Vladimir Putin is actively resisting Washington’s attempts to strike a lasting peace accord with Ukraine.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 2, 2025

Trump officials eye a longer road to Ukraine peace as frustration mounts

At the start of his administration, the Trump team set out to reach a full ceasefire by April or May. They hoped to broker a lasting peace deal in the following months.
People queue for food and relief supplies after a strong earthquake in Amarapura, Myanmar, on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 2, 2025

U.N. urges aid to Myanmar quake survivors before monsoons hit as death toll nears 3,000

A civil war in Myanmar had already displaced more than 3 million people long before the quake struck.
U.S tariffs on Vietnam would force Nike, one of several sportswear brands heavily reliant on the Southeast Asian nation as a production site, to absorb higher costs or hike its prices at a time when it is already discounting some items to clear inventory.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 2, 2025

U.S. tariffs on Vietnam would be a blow to Nike and other sportswear brands

Vietnam is a hub for high-tech running shoes, sportswear and outdoor apparel, with brands seeking to reduce exposure to China.
A F-18 jet lands on the runway of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier during military exercises in 2024.
WORLD
Apr 2, 2025

Pentagon sends second aircraft carrier to Mideast as Iran tensions rise

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered additional forces to the Middle East, including the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group and aircraft.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 2, 2025

A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers

Syndicates are increasingly targeting middle- to upper-class individuals from across the world through something as harmless as online video games.
Japan’s stocks plunged after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped the nation with a 24% levy as part of tariffs on trading partners worldwide.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 3, 2025

Japan’s stocks slump on Trump’s 24% tariffs and stronger yen

The Topix Index fell 4% to 2,544.41 as of 9:12 a.m. Tokyo time, while the blue-chip Nikkei declined 4.1% to 34,281.76.

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