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Victor Wembanyama of France battles Japan's Josh Hawkinson (left) and Yuki Kawamura during France's overtime win over Japan at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday in Lille, France.
OLYMPICS / Basketball
Jul 31, 2024

France edges Japan in overtime in Olympic men's basketball after four-point play

The teams were neck-and-neck for nearly the entire four quarters at Pierre Mauroy Stadium.
A worker at a supermarket in Tokyo's Nerima Ward puts up a sign on July 25 saying rice purchases are restricted to one bag per customer.
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2024

Japan's rice stocks shrink to record low amid high demand and heat woes

An 18 percentage point decline in the share of 2023's crop rated first-grade led to a decrease in rice on the market, while demand saw the first rise in a decade.
Traditional soap cakes are manufactured in Aleppo in northern Syria in February.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 31, 2024

Japanese importer fights to preserve traditional Aleppo soap

It is said that Aleppo has upheld the tradition of soapmaking for approximately 1,000 years, using olive and laurel oil with alkali made from charcoaled desert shrubs.
Teammates swarm Daiki Hashimoto after his gold medal-clinching performance on the horizontal bar on Monday.
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Jul 31, 2024

How Japan's gymnasts picked each other up and toppled China

With hope of a gold medal fading, the Japanese men's gymnastics team rallied around each other and simply refused to give up.
Kuninori Matsuda, Japanese ambassador to Ukraine, speaks during an interview in Kyiv on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 31, 2024

Japanese ambassador to Ukraine urges continuing of aid

Kuninori Matsuda said that Japan should not feel that it has no direct stake in the conflict, as Ukrainian aid helps protect the international order.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shakes hands with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol as U.S. President Joe Biden looks on alongside other members of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders week in San Francisco in November.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 31, 2024

Japan to co-lead crisis response branch of the global trade initiative IPEF

Japan will be vice chair of the Crisis Response Network, a body under the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.
Japan midfielder Yui Hasegawa is challenged by Nigeria's Rasheedat Ajibade during their Olympic group stage match on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS
Aug 1, 2024

Japan to face U.S. in women's soccer after both nations advance

Japan finished second in its group after beating Nigeria 3-1 in Nantes, with Maika Hamano, Mina Tanaka and Hikaru Kitagawa scoring goals.
Members of the Nuclear Regulation Authority discusses regulatory screening of the Tsuruga nuclear power plant's No. 2 reactor, in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2024

Japanese nuclear regulators to hear from operator over reactor

The standards do not allow important nuclear facilities such as reactor buildings to be built on active faults.
Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki said Israel will not be invited to the city's annual peace ceremony this year.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2024

Israel is not invited to Japan's Nagasaki peace ceremony

Nagasaki sent a letter to the Israeli embassy last month calling for an "immediate cease-fire."
Yuto Horigome defended his Olympic title in men's street skateboarding on Monday to continue Japan's dominant run in the event.
OLYMPICS / Skateboarding
Aug 1, 2024

Why Japan is so dominant in street skateboarding

Skateboarding has only been a part of the Olympics for two editions, but the sight of Japanese skaters on the podium in the street competition is already a familiar one.
People cross a street in Tokyo's Harajuku district on Wednesday. In July, the deviation from the average temperature between 1991 and 2020 — a period when warming was already well underway — was 2.16 degrees Celsius.
JAPAN / Boiling Point
Aug 1, 2024

Japan experienced its hottest July on record

The number of “extremely hot days” — those where the highest temperature hits 35 C and above — was the largest figure for a July.
Digital transformation minister Taro Kono (left)
JAPAN / Society
Aug 2, 2024

Japan to digitize national qualifications processes

Individuals of certain professions will be able to obtain digital qualification certificates online by using their My Number cards.
A health ministry panel has approved Eli Lilly's donanemab drug for Alzheimer's patients.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2024

Japan's health ministry set to approve second Alzheimer's drug

Donanemab, developed by U.S. pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, has been backed by a ministry panel.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government is working hard to enhance Japan's global and regional influence through strategic defense reforms and international partnerships.
EDITORIALS
Aug 2, 2024

Japan’s defense reforms and diplomacy boost regional security

Considerable progress was made this week in a series of meetings with Tokyo's counterparts in various endeavors, the heart of which is the Japan-U.S. alliance.
Japan's Yuki Kawamura goes to the basket in the men's preliminary round group B basketball match between Japan and Brazil during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, northern France, on Friday.
OLYMPICS / Basketball
Aug 3, 2024

Japan's 'Slam Dunk' fans upstaged by 'Brazilian chapulines'

The Brazilians crushed Japan 102-84 in men's Group B to end the Asian side's Olympic dreams.
Japan's Koki Kano shakes hands with Hungary's Gergely Siklosi at the end of the men's epee team gold medal bout between Japan and Hungary during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Grand Palais in Paris on Friday.
OLYMPICS / Fencing
Aug 3, 2024

Hungary upsets Japan to snatch gold in men's epee

Gergely Siklosi, scoring first, gave his team a lead that they kept for most of the bout, eventually winning 26-25 against the defending champions.
Road signs are tilted over a road damaged by the New Year's Day earthquake in Nishiaraya, Ishikawa Prefecture. A new report, part of a long-term assessment, was swiftly drawn up in response to the 7.6-magnitude quake that struck the Noto Peninsula area, so that coastal municipalities can improve their disaster reduction measures.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 3, 2024

Government reveals 25 offshore active faults on country's Sea of Japan side

The active faults are located off the coast stretching from the northern area of Hyogo Prefecture to the Joetsu area of Niigata Prefecture.
Japan's Tatsuru Saito (above) is dismayed after losing to France's Teddy Riner in the gold-medal bout of the judo mixed team event on Saturday at the Paris Olympics.
OLYMPICS / Judo
Aug 4, 2024

Judo legend Riner leads France to team title over Japan for fifth gold medal

Three years after leading France to victory over Japan at the Budokan in Tokyo, Riner again led the way as France fought back from 3-1 down to retain the title.
South Korean Ambassador to Japan Yun Duk-min is interviewed in Tokyo on July 19.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 4, 2024

South Korea's outgoing envoy pushes for joint declaration on history recognition

Yun Duk-min reiterated that a declaration could be announced in 2025 to mark the 60th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral diplomatic ties.
The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry has said the 50-50 control of LY, the operator of the Line app, by SoftBank and Naver leaves the messaging app vulnerable to cyberattacks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 4, 2024

SoftBank and Naver to sell down stake in Japan’s Line app

The tender comes as the capital structure of the operator of Japan’s biggest messaging app Line threatens to become a diplomatic flash point with South Korea.
Fuka Nagano (left) and Hinata Miyazawa after Japan was eliminated from the Olympic soccer tournament by the U.S. on Saturday in Paris.
OLYMPICS
Aug 4, 2024

For Nadeshiko Japan, the quarterfinals prove to be a stumbling block — again

The team fell 1-0 to the U.S. after also losing in the last eight at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and at the Women’s World Cup in 2023.
From left: Gymnastics men's team gold medalists Takaaki Sugino, Kazuma Kaya, Wataru Tanigawa, Shinnosuke Oka (who also won gold in men's all-around) and Daiki Hashimoto at Champions Park in Paris on Thursday. The gymnastics team was one of the highlights of a successful first half of the 2024 Games for Team Japan.
OLYMPICS
Aug 4, 2024

Gymnastics and skateboarding highlight a solid first half of the Paris Olympics for Japan

Japan ended Saturday with eight gold, five silver and nine bronze medals and sat seventh on the medal table.
Government officials are concerned that businesses are reluctant to report cyberattack damage due to fears about a possible decline in stock prices.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2024

Japan mulls requiring private sector operators to report cyberattacks on infrastructure

The move is designed to prevent cyberattack damage from spreading to other businesses by sharing information quickly.
People attend a memorial event in Cowra, Australia, Sunday to mourn for the deaths of over 230 people who died during a mass escape attempt by Japanese soldiers from an internment camp 80 years ago during World War II.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2024

Memorial events mark 80 years since Japanese POW breakout in Australia

During the POW breakout in Cowra during World War II, 234 Japanese and four Australian soldiers died, according to the Australian government.
From left to right: Yudai Nagano, Takahiro Shikine, Kyosuke Matsuyama and Kazuki Iimura celebrate after winning in the Olympic men's foil team gold medal bout against Italy at the Grand Palais in Paris on Sunday.
OLYMPICS / Fencing
Aug 5, 2024

Japan wins historic gold in men's foil team event in Paris

It was Japan's fifth fencing medal in Paris, and its eighth medal overall in Olympic fencing.
The Mefeego pill pack
JAPAN / Society
Aug 5, 2024

Japan's health ministry considers wider availability for abortion pill

Currently, the medication can only be administered in hospitals with inpatient capabilities.
Map exercises for evacuations, simulating a situation in which an armed attack is expected, are conducted at the Okinawa Prefectural Government office in Naha on Jan. 30.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2024

Japan works on evacuation plans in event of Taiwan contingency

Issues such as stockpiling food and being able to swiftly evacuate all residents of the islands in Okinawa remain as Japan considers various contingencies.
Japan's Koki Kano (right) battles Yannick Borel of France in the gold-medal bout of the men's individual epee at the Paris Olympics on July 28.
OLYMPICS / Fencing
Aug 5, 2024

How a grassroots push helped Japan's fencers become world-beaters

Japan bagged five fencing medals in Paris to put it atop the medal table in the sport, the first time a non-European nation has done so.
Japan's Shinnosuke Oka poses with his gold medal during the podium ceremony for the artistic gymnastics men's horizontal bar event of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena in Paris on Monday.
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Aug 5, 2024

Japan's Shinnosuke Oka wins third gold at Olympics on horizontal bar

The 20-year-old scored the same 14.533 score as Colombia's Angel Barajas, but took gold due to his higher execution mark.
Ngun Nei Par, the general manager at Ginshotei Awashima in Numata, Gunma Prefecture, graduated from a university in Myanmar with a degree in geography.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 6, 2024

Japan needs foreign workers, but it might not want them to stay long

Japanese politicians remain reluctant to create pathways for foreign workers, especially those in low-skill jobs, to stay indefinitely.

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