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Yosuke Kubozuka plays a university professor with some unorthodox theories about the ancestry of Japanese people in “The Killer Goldfish.”
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2025

‘The Killer Goldfish’: The future of cinema, or just indie cosplay?

If veteran director Yukihiko Tsutsumi and his collaborators want to upend the Japanese film industry, they’re going to have to come up with something better than this.
LeBron James will take his time to decide if he wants to return for a 23rd NBA season.
BASKETBALL / NBA
May 1, 2025

LeBron James to take time to decide future after Lakers' playoff exit

James, who turned 40 on Dec. 30, averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game this season.
An open-pit mine in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, on April 23. The financial payoff from the deal may take a decade or longer to materialize.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 2, 2025

U.S. and Ukraine may wait decade or more to see revenue from minerals deal

While the financial benefits from the deal are uncertain, officials in Ukraine believe it will help shore up U.S. support for Kyiv.
“‘Future of life,’ by Ishiguro,” the World Expo pavilion by roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, displays humanlike androids.
LIFE / Travel
May 2, 2025

Want to see the future at the Osaka Expo? Get in line.

Androids and lab-grown heart cells: A dispatch from the world fair.
In a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, Tokie Tanaka, 64, details her allegations of sexual abuse against a Catholic priest.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 2, 2025

Woman says archbishop of Tokyo ignored her pleas after priest allegedly raped her

The woman's lawyer blamed the archbishop for failing to take appropriate actions after the woman told the congregation about the alleged abuse.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has been a staunch advocate for constitutional reform.
JAPAN / Politics
May 3, 2025

Despite shifts in Japan's political landscape, constitutional revision still far off

Weak political leadership, traditional sensitivity around the issue, and new policy priorities have forestalled a larger debate over the Constitution.
A China Coast Guard helicopter is seen near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Saturday.
JAPAN
May 3, 2025

China Coast Guard helicopter enters Japanese airspace near Senkakus

The incursion near the Japanese-controlled, Chinese-claimed islands on Saturday was just the fourth such flight by Chinese aircraft since the end of World War II.
Al-Ahli's players celebrate winning the Asian Champions League final over Kawasaki, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.
SOCCER
May 4, 2025

Al-Ahli downs Kawasaki Frontale to lift Asian Champions League title

Al-Ahli was the heavy favorite with a lineup featuring an expensive array of foreign talent and eventually broke through against Frontale.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with his partner Jodie Haydon (right) and his son Nathan Albanese (left) at the Labor Party election night event in Sydney on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 5, 2025

Albanese landslide offers rare chance to fix Australia’s economy

Albanese’s center-left government has the best chance in years to take the hard steps economists have called for to ignite growth.
Emperor Emeritus Akihito with Empress Emerita Michiko during a public appearance at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Jan. 2
JAPAN
May 5, 2025

Emperor emeritus to be hospitalized for heart tests

The former emperor has been diagnosed with a high probability of myocardial ischemia, which occurs when blood flow to the heart is insufficient.
Suntory Sunbirds Osaka players celebrate after winning the title.
MORE SPORTS / Volleyball
May 6, 2025

Sunbirds and Marvelous each secure titles for Osaka in inaugural SV. League

The SV. League was launched last year with the aim of becoming the world's most popular volleyball league by 2030.
Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko stroll in the garden of Nikko Tamozawa Imperial Villa Memorial Park in the city of Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, on May 28, 2024.
JAPAN
May 6, 2025

Emperor emeritus is hospitalized for a heart exam

In July 2022, the emperor emeritus was diagnosed with right heart failure caused by tricuspid valve insufficiency.
Bolstered by a strong turnout last year, Raw Wine Tokyo, a natural wine festival, is returning to quench the thirst of natural wine lovers.
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 9, 2025

The world’s biggest natural wine festival returns to Tokyo

After impressing the city’s wine buffs last year, Raw Wine is back with more than 80 natural wine producers from around the world.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba meets with Vietnamese President Luong Cuong in Hanoi on April 28. Ishiba’s visit to Vietnam and the Philippines highlighted Japan’s enduring Indo-Pacific strategy amid rising regional uncertainty.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 8, 2025

Japan’s durable 'Free and Open Indo-Pacific' strategy brings stability

So while Ishiba’s visit to Southeast Asia may have just seemed like another round of trips during a holiday week, they were emblematic of something much more than that.
Emperor Emeritus Akihito, 91, rides in a car with Empress Emerita Michiko, 90, after he was discharged from the University of Tokyo Hospital on Saturday following an examination for suspected myocardial ischemia.
JAPAN
May 11, 2025

Emperor emeritus diagnosed with silent myocardial ischemia

Emperor Emeritus Akihito, 91, was diagnosed with the condition where blood flow from the coronary arteries to the heart muscle is reduced due to excessive exercise.
A Japan Coast Guard vessel sails in front of the Uotsuri islet, one of the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. Concerns are growing in Tokyo after a Chinese government helicopter violated Japan's airspace around the uninhabited islets.
JAPAN / FOCUS
May 12, 2025

Escalation fears rise in Japan following Chinese moves near Senkakus

Beijing sent a government helicopter to the area for the first time, while Chinese government ships have been spotted in the area for more than 170 straight days.
A stolen Kanzeon Bodhisattva statue in Daejeon, central South Korea, in January
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 11, 2025

Stolen Buddha statue handed over to Japan in South Korea

South Korea's Supreme Court recognized the Japanese temple's ownership of the statue in 2023, rejecting claims that it was stolen by Japanese pirates in the 14th century.
Philippine Army Brig. Gen. Michael Logico, who was involved in managing the latest iteration of the Balikatan U.S.-Philippine drills, told The Japan Times that he expects military ties with Japan to surge even further once Tokyo ratifies a key visiting-forces agreement with Manila.
JAPAN
May 12, 2025

Japan set for bigger role in Philippines after SDF’s debut in key drills

A top Philippine general has said he expects the Self-Defense Forces’ involvement in both bilateral and multilateral activities to grow substantially.
An electric vehicle factory in Ningbo, China, on April 9, 2024. For years, Xi Jinping, the leader of China, has planned to make the world dependent on its exports and know-how, but the strategy has costs for his own country.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 12, 2025

This is the trade conflict Xi Jinping has been waiting for

A willingness to weaponize the supply chain may be one of the starkest examples of how Xi is redefining China’s relationship with the world.
Rory McIlroy plays a shot during the third round of the Truist Championship golf tournament in Philadelphia on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
May 13, 2025

McIlroy looks to the future after post-Masters thrill ride

"I honestly could not be in a better place in my life professionally, personally, all of it," Rory McIlroy said.
A Warren Buffett Squishmallow is displayed during a Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, in May 2023. Buffett’s $25 billion bet on five Japanese trading houses reflects his belief that the country’s overlooked market rewards patient investors who embrace its unique business culture.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 13, 2025

Buffett’s little Japan handbook — and other lessons

The legendary investor recently revealed what inspired his interest in Tokyo’s trading houses — and offered a host of tips for would-be followers.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
May 13, 2025

Consumption tax set to dominate Upper House election debate

Broaching the subject has traditionally been seen as akin to kicking a hornet's nest.
India's air conditioner market is set to grow from the current 14 million units to 30 million units in terms of volume by 2030, driven by hotter summers and rising disposable incomes.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 13, 2025

Indians buy 14 million air conditioners a year, and need many more

A record 14 million AC units were sold in India last year, with a ninefold increase in residential ownership forecast by midcentury.
The motorcade of U.S. President Donald Trump is parked next to a 12-year old Qatari-owned Boeing 747-8 that Trump was touring in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb. 15.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2025

Trump’s freebie Qatar jet is the stuff of nightmares in spyworld

"If we had built the plane, knowing it was going to a foreign government, we would probably have bugged it,” said Thad Troy, a former station chief with the CIA.
Former Uruguayan President Jose Mujica reacts after receiving a tribute in Montevideo on March 26. Mujica, a former guerrilla fighter and icon of the left in Latin America, died at the age of 89 on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2025

Latin America mourns world's 'poorest president' Mujica, dead at 89

The iconic 89-year-old died of cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment.
A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker is tugged toward a thermal power station in Futtsu, Chiba Prefecture, in 2017.
BUSINESS
May 14, 2025

Japan under pressure from U.S. to invest in Alaska LNG pipeline

Doubts over the pipeline's profitability and viability leaves Japan's participation in the $44 billion (nearly ¥6.7 trillion) project uncertain.
Masataka Yuhara, secretary-general of the Friends of Lee Teng Hui Association in Japan, which has been calling for "Taiwan" to be permitted as a place of origin in family registers.
JAPAN
May 14, 2025

Japan to recognize Taiwan as place of origin in family registration system

Residents of Taiwanese descent in Japan and their support groups have welcomed the change.
The government should "design a specific system by around fiscal 2026 to make standard childbirth expenses free of charge,” an expert panel said, as the aging nation seeks to reverse its declining population and shrinking pool of tax-paying workers.
JAPAN
May 15, 2025

Expert panel suggests Japan’s government make childbirth free

The proposal follows a child care policy package adopted in 2023 to reverse Japan’s declining birthrate by supporting families with young children.
Scott Callon, CEO of Japan Display Inc, will step down on June 1 to take responsibility for the company's poor performance.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2025

Japan Display to cut 1,500 jobs in Japan on consecutive years of losses

The struggling maker of small and midsize liquid crystal display panels reported a consolidated net loss of ¥78.2 billion ($538.7 million) for fiscal 2024.
As Japan heads into summer elections, debate over the consumption tax has intensified, with opposition parties demanding cuts to ease pressure on households and the government defending the levy as essential amid rising debt and economic uncertainty.
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2025

Don’t overreact to the consumption tax debate

Economic uncertainty in combination with rising prices are squeezing the budgets of households, businesses and the government.

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