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Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 28, 2020

With money and waste, China fights for chip independence

In every corner of the country, investors, entrepreneurs and local officials are in a frenzy to build up semiconductor abilities, responding to a call from Xi Jinping.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / Beyond COVID-19
Dec 27, 2020

How might COVID-19 change the world?

No country will be safe from COVID-19 until all are. It's a global problem demanding a global solution.
Japan Times
SATOYAMA CONSORTIUM
Dec 27, 2020

Small but creative Toyooka has outsized presence

The small coastal city of Toyooka has developed renowned presence by imaginatively developing the vitality of its economy and community.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 26, 2020

Top 5: Food trends our critics want to see Japan embrace in 2021

Eyes (and stomachs) are already turning to 2021. Five of The Japan Times' critics share the dining trends they'd like to see the country embrace.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Dec 26, 2020

20 Questions: The best answers of 2020

The 20 Questions format aims to get people in Japan to tell us about their thoughts and beliefs in their words. Here are some of the most interesting answers from 2020.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 26, 2020

In 2020, kids still say the drollest things

2020 was a year to forget, if only we can u2026
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2020

Suga urges caution over New Year's break as COVID-19 cases keep rising

Officials say the surge in new infections is already affecting local health care systems and overwhelming hospitals at a time of the year when staffing is limited.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2020

Abe apologizes at the Diet for false statements on dinner party funding

The long-running scandal has tainted the legacy of Abe's administration, corroded his credibility and cast a shadow over his successor.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 25, 2020

'Like water eroding rocks': Thai protesters prepare for long fight

As they paraded through a Bangkok shopping mall in crop tops to mock Thailand's king, protesters made an incongruous sight among the festive decorations.
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2020

Domestic sponsors agree to extend contracts for delayed Tokyo Games

Tokyo 2020 organizers expect more than u00a522 billion in additional contributions from them.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 25, 2020

How Brexit talks overcame suspicion, resentment and fish

At times, mutual suspicion and paranoia over listening devices made Brexit look like a chapter from the Cold War, all heightened by COVID-19 restrictions.
The Bank of Japan's latest <i>tankan</i> survey beat consensus forecasts as the economy held up better than expected.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 1, 2025

Large Japanese companies surprisingly optimistic as U.S. tariffs bite 

In the tankan survey, automakers and smaller companies were relatively pessimistic.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, leaves for Washington on Thursday for his seventh round of trade talks with the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 1, 2025

Japan-U.S. trade negotiations stall as Trump fumes 

The two sides remain far apart, and no new talks are scheduled.
A front-page article from July 1950 reported that Kyoto's historic Kinkakuji had been "totally razed" in a fire.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Jul 5, 2025

Japan Times 1950: Kyoto’s ‘Golden Temple’ burns to the ground

The historic Kinkakuji was destroyed in an act of arson in July 1950, a shocking event that would serve as the inspiration for a novel by Yukio Mishima.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 2, 2025

Trump doubles down on Japan again by threatening 35% tariff

Japan is currently subject to 25% auto tariffs and a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum, as well as a 10% reciprocal tariff that could return to 24% if no deal is struck by July 9.
Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe comes onto the pitch after a substitution on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Jul 2, 2025

Mbappe edging closer to full fitness as Real reaches last eight

Mbappe made his long-awaited debut in the tournament as a second-half substitute following a bout of gastroenteritis that sidelined him during the group stage.
Reito Watanabe, who allegedly stabbed his coworker, Daiki Yoshino, to death in a Tokyo law office, is escorted by police on Tuesday in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 2, 2025

Suspect in Tokyo law firm stabbing held grudge against victim, police say

The 50-year-old man, who is an employee of the firm, said unpleasant experiences at work involving the victim, his coworker, had brought him to his limit.
Blue Impulse, the Air Self-Defense Force's aerobatic team, performs ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, in September 2023.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2025

ASDF's Blue Impulse to perform for Osaka Expo on July 12 and 13

The aerobatic team will also fly over top tourism sites in the city and the 1970 Expo site in nearby Suita.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office in June.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 2, 2025

Japan’s record tax haul leaves questions over Ishiba’s handout pledge

Ishiba’s plan to distribute cash handouts of ¥20,000 per adult is expected to cost around ¥3.5 trillion, according to his Liberal Democratic Party.
CIA director John Ratcliffe departs after a briefing with members of Congress in Washington on June 27.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 3, 2025

Trump’s CIA backs 2016 assessment that Putin wanted him to win

The latest findings put CIA director John Ratcliffe in a bind with Trump, who has called Russian election interference "a total hoax” and blasted the original conclusions.
Ex-serviceman Izumi Murakami speaks of his experience during World War II, when he was still a child, in an interview in Kasuga, Fukuoka Prefecture, in May.
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Jul 14, 2025

Man inspired as a boy by WWII-era commando questions Japan's past actions

Izumi Murakami, now 92, joined the Air Self-Defense Force, but he concedes now that "there is nothing good that comes out of war."
Emperor Naruhito speaks during a news conference at the Imperial Palace on Wednesday ahead of his visit to Mongolia together with Empress Masako from Sunday.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2025

Emperor to mourn Japanese detainees who died in Mongolia

The Emperor last visited Mongolia in 2007, when he was Crown Prince.
Microsoft’s gaming division began cutting hundreds of employees on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 3, 2025

Microsoft makes deep Xbox job cuts and cancels games

Microsoft announced Wednesday that it’s eliminating 9,000 workers companywide in its second wave of layoffs this year.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends tactical training by military special forces and a firing drill by tank units at an unknown location in North Korea on May 13.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 3, 2025

Russia could soon get up to 30,000 more North Korean troops, reports say

The addition would almost triple the total number of North Korean soldiers directly fighting alongside Russia in its war against Ukraine.

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