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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 22, 2021

China’s regulatory war on Ant Group

Once the powerful central bank publicly turned against Ant, bureaucrats who had endorsed the group fell silent and other departments began to jump on the bandwagon.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 22, 2021

Myanmar activists plan new protests after weekend bloodshed

At least 250 people have now been killed since the coup, according to figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 22, 2021

U.S. Democrats inch toward possible historic move on filibuster

The fatal shootings in Atlanta last week have led one of the Senate’s long-standing Democrat supporters of the filibuster rule to say she’s now open to discussing potential changes to that process.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 22, 2021

Vaccine battle heats up with EU ready to halt U.K. shipments

Both sides have blamed each other for export curbs and nationalism, posing a risk to the fragile post-Brexit trade relationship agreed on only in December.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Mar 21, 2021

Same-sex parenthood draws unexpected support in Hungary

The Family Is Family campaign has enlisted 140 companies so far, up from 40 in February, in response to steps by the prime minister to effectively ban adoption for same-sex partners.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Mar 21, 2021

The NCAA sees its worst fears realized in a canceled tournament game

It was a Faustian bargain that college basketball made last autumn when it plowed ahead with a season into the headwinds of the coronavirus pandemic. There would be games, college sports administrators declared, because there needed to be a path to the NCAA men’s tournament, which the governing body...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 21, 2021

China and U.S. to work on climate, Beijing says after rancorous meeting

Beijing and Washington will set up a joint working group on the issue, in a potentially positive takeaway from the high-level meeting.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2021

In ‘Klara and the Sun,’ Kazuo Ishiguro questions what it means to be human

There’s a moment in “Klara and the Sun,” Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017, in which the protagonist, Klara, and another character, The Father, are discussing whether artificial intelligence may ever fully replicate what it means to be human. The...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 20, 2021

Oral hygiene habits in Japan reflect the cold reality of COVID-19 pandemic

Sales of personal toothpaste products have exceeded those targeting families for the first time.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA
Mar 20, 2021

Serene, centered Giannis Antetokounmpo making things fun again for Bucks

Fun Giannis is bad news for the rest of the league.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 20, 2021

Musk says Tesla would be shut down if cars used for spying

His comments came less than 24 hours after news broke that Tesla's cars have been banned from Chinese military complexes and housing compounds over espionage concerns.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Kenyan President William Ruto attend a welcome ceremony at The Great Hall of The People on April 24 in Beijing.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 30, 2025

Xi is trying to turn world against U.S. as Trump cuts deals

Chinese officials are racing to turn foreign governments against the U.S.
Amazon packages at a distribution center in Washington
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 30, 2025

Amazon denies tariff label pivot after Trump called to complain

The administration’s broadsides against Amazon on Tuesday highlighted the potential political risk for companies if they decide to break out the cost of tariffs for customers.
Trade minister Yoji Muto
BUSINESS
Apr 30, 2025

Japan keen to team up with ASEAN for free trade system

ASEAN said it will continue constructive dialogue with Washington while maintaining the rules-based multilateral trade system.
Podcast hosts Terence Chia (left) and Haresh Tilani discuss their show "Yah Lah But" in their studio in Singapore.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 30, 2025

Mic check: Singapore's podcast boom amplifies opposition voices

Mainstream election coverage of Singapore's opposition parties has improved over the past decade, with its news podcasts showing a willingness to feature alternative voices.
Fuhin, one of the giant pandas at Adventure World in Wakayama Prefecture, when she was a baby
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2025

Chinese official positive about new giant panda contract with Japan

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Tuesday that Beijing welcomes Japan's continued interest in international cooperation on giant panda conservation.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers speak to reporters in parliament on Wednesday after submitting a bill in the Lower House to allow married couples to retain different surnames.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 30, 2025

CDP submits bill proposal on separate surnames, but challenges remain

Japan remains the only country in the world that forces couples to use one surname after marriage.
Japan's proposed "one-theater" defense strategy, linking the East China Sea, South China Sea and Korean Peninsula has raised concerns, particularly in South Korea, about its implications for regional security.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 30, 2025

Japan’s ‘one-theater’ defense concept rattles South Korea

Continuing expansion of SDF roles and missions is consistent with adoption of the "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" construct that guides Japanese security policy.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama (left), who also chairs the Japan-China Parliamentary Friendship Association, meets with Zhao Leji, the third-ranked official in the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, in Beijing on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 30, 2025

Communist China’s quiet influence on Japanese politics

China Communist Party influence operations have been embedded in the Japanese government and political structures for 75 years.
Indian military personnel stand guard near a border crossing near Amritsar on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 1, 2025

U.S. urges India and Pakistan to de-escalate amid fears of clash

Relations between the longtime adversaries have rapidly deteriorated in the wake of last week's attack in Kashmir.
Police officers work on-site a day after a deadly shooting at Vaksala Square in Uppsala, Sweden, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 1, 2025

Sweden arrests teen after triple killing

Swedish police have arrested a teen suspect after three youths between the ages of 15 to 20 were killed in a shooting at a hair salon on Tuesday.
Armed Druze men stand at a checkpoint in Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, Syria, on Friday.
WORLD
May 1, 2025

Israel strikes Syria, saying it hit group that attacked Druze

Since Assad was ousted in December, Israel has seized ground in the southwest and vowed to protect the Druze.
U.S. President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 1, 2025

Trump says tariffs politically risky, but he’s not rushing deals

Trump said there was a significant political risk to his efforts, but added that he remained determined to push on.
A street in Kyoto in March 2023. An Israeli tourist was asked to sign a document stating that he had not committed war crimes when he checked in at a Kyoto guesthouse in April, prompting a response from Israel's ambassador.
JAPAN / Society
May 1, 2025

Israel protests after Kyoto inn seeks war crime declaration from tourist

The guesthouse said the purpose of the document was to ensure a safe stay for other guests and not due to discrimination.

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