Search - article

 
 
Students engage in group work during a class at Ogawara Elementary School in Ogawara, Miyagi Prefecture, in September.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Nov 20, 2023

Small Miyagi town excels in national test amid education reforms

This year the average percentage of correct answers by Ogawara's sixth graders in the National Achievement Test was one of the highest.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets with Hamas' top leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in June. Both men met again in early November during which the former told the latter that Iran would not intervene directly following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 16, 2023

Iran's 'Axis of Resistance' against Israel faces trial by fire

Iran has built a military alliance over four decades to oppose Israeli and American power in the Middle East.
An Israeli armored vehicle rolls past Palestinians fleeing Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip, on foot amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militants on Saturday in this image taken from video.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 19, 2023

Tentative Gaza deal reached to free hostages, pause fighting: report

However, both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. officials said no deal had been reached yet.
Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missiles take part in a nighttime military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army in Pyongyang in this undated photo released in April 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 19, 2023

North Korea marks missile holiday with silence as Kim absent 29 days

Missile Industry Day was not mentioned in state-run media on Sunday, as leader Kim Jong Un remained out of the public spotlight for nearly a month.
Japan's culture of floor-sitting stretches back to ancient times. Only in the last 60 years has it faced off against a new lifestyle brought along by the rapid spread of chairs and other high furniture.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Nov 20, 2023

Has Japan mastered sitting?

Sitting is a deceptively simple act. But the story of sitting in Japan spans centuries of culture, politics and religion.
Communicating over the phone, a necessity for businesspeople, is a headache for many young people.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Nov 27, 2023

Many young people in Japan scared of telephone calls

For some, their heart skips a beat when they hear phones ringing and they hesitate to make calls, fearing they might be considered a nuisance.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump in Edinburg, Texas, on Sunday
WORLD / Politics
Nov 20, 2023

Not just Biden: 77-year-old Trump also under age scrutiny

Externally, it's unclear if Trump's gaffes indicate fatigue or decline.
OpenAI said it fired chairman Sam Altman after it concluded that he was not candid with the company's board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2023

Profit, not progress, animates the tech world

Reliable sources said Altman's firing came amid difference in views about the speed at which OpenAI should push its artificial intelligence.
NATO forces have to navigate a variety of national regulations before ammunition can be shipped.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 24, 2023

NATO urges members to get their logistics homework done

Red tape hindering troop movements across Europe could cause major delays if a conflict with Russia erupts, logistics chief says
Hang Dara, an electrician-turned-fisherman, passes the two active coal-fired power plants in Sihanoukville’s Steung Hav district.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Nov 26, 2023

Cambodia's big bet on the dirtiest fossil fuel faces major delays

Large projects are facing long delays amid uncertainty over foreign funding.
As technology and politics increasingly force society to determine truth from fiction, Merriam-Webster's dictionary has selected the word "authentic" as word of the year.
WORLD / Society
Nov 28, 2023

Merriam-Webster crowns 'authentic' as word of the year

The winner beat "deepfake," "rizz" and "coronation" for honors as the word that most often sent people to the dictionary.
South Korean and U.S. soldiers stand guard next to the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission building on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone at Panmunjom in July 2017.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2023

South Korea’s lessons for Ukraine’s reconstruction

Ukraine needs ironclad security guarantees, specifically NATO membership and the collective security that ensures.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a meeting at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's far eastern Amur region on Sept. 13.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Dec 5, 2023

The China-Russia-North Korea triangle looks unlikely to last

Despite a recent raft of leaders' visits and a warming of ties, the three nations still have their own agendas.
Pages from a new Otaku Dictionary catalog the lexicons of Japan’s various subcultures.
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 30, 2023

A problematic otaku dictionary and the Japanese approach to sitting

An “Otaku Dictionary” has Japan’s subcultures upset at an attempt to define them.
People run for cover following the resumption of Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday.
WORLD
Dec 1, 2023

Israel resumes fighting against Hamas in Gaza as truce ends

Palestinian media and Gaza's interior ministry reported Israeli air and artillery strikes across the enclave after the cease-fire expired.
Tokyo Healthcare University professor Takayuki Mifune explains how he is trying to re-create bonito broth from 1,300 years ago.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Dec 4, 2023

The quest to re-create what the Japanese ate 1,300 years ago

Professor Takayuki Mifune and his team are hoping to understand, in minute detail, the culinary habits of our Japanese ancestors.
A radar facility set up for coastal surveillance by the Ground Self-Defense Force's Yonaguni base on Yonaguni island in Okinawa Prefecture.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Dec 14, 2023

Acquiring counterstrike capabilities is no simple matter for Japan

Under its defense and security strategies, deterrence by denial and deterrence by punishment are the essence of Japan’s deterrence capabilities.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno attend a Cabinet meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 8, 2023

Kishida walks tightrope after new funds allegations against Matsuno

The top government spokesperson is believed to have received kickbacks from his faction totaling more than ¥10 million over the last five years.
Ground Self-Defense Force personnel take part in a military drill involving a V-22 Osprey aircraft in June 2022.
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2023

The Osprey crash has lessons for the U.S.-Japan alliance

The U.S. and Japan bungled the initial response to the crash of an Osprey aircraft in Japan. Both must learn to improve communication in the future.
A United Nations Security Council meeting to debate a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza at U.N. headquarters in New York on Friday
WORLD
Dec 9, 2023

U.S. vetoes Security Council move calling for Gaza cease-fire

Washington dashed a growing clamor for an immediate cease-fire that had been led by U.N. chief Antonio Guterres and Arab nations.
A China Coast Guard vessel uses a water cannon against a Philippine supply boat as it carries out a mission to deliver provisions to the Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed South China Sea on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 11, 2023

Manila summons Chinese envoy after tense weekend in South China Sea

The moves came after the Philippines said one of its vessels was rammed and others "directly targeted” by a China Coast Guard ship with a water cannon.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 11, 2023

U.N. General Assembly to meet Tuesday on ongoing Gaza conflict

On Friday the United States vetoed a cease-fire resolution proposed at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
The Royal Theater in the city of Gifu screens 35-millimeter films.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Dec 18, 2023

Mini-theater showing 35mm films is struggling to survive

Massive amounts of funds are needed to renovate the aged facility and people involved in the theater are seeking ways to keep the place alive.
A Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric vehicle charges at Chaevi Stay Charging Station in Seoul on Oct. 18
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 12, 2023

South Korean auto-battery firms cautious on challenging China rivals

Feeding their worries is slowing growth in electric vehicle sales, price competition and the potential for changes in United States subsidies.
Naoya Maekawa, an associate professor at Fukushima University, speaks of the importance of passing on lessons from Japan's 2011 disasters.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Dec 18, 2023

Knowledge of 2011 disaster declining among young, survey shows

An academic behind the survey says memories of the disaster are fading.
U.S. President Joe Biden greets his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Woodside, California, on Nov. 15 during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 19, 2023

Thaw in U.S.-China ties driven by domestic issues

There were no breakthroughs in Biden-Xi summit. But since then, there has been a lowering of tension and a rare sense of stability in the relationship.
Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe vies for the ball during the team's Champions League group match against Borussia Dortmund in Dortmund, Germany, on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Dec 14, 2023

PSG and Porto into Champions League last 16 as Newcastle exits

PSG drew 1-1 away to Group F winners Borussia Dortmund to go through as runners-up after Milan came from behind to beat Newcastle.
Media mogul Jimmy Lai, the founder of now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and one of the most prominent Hong Kong critics of China's Communist Party leadership, has faced a salvo of litigation since a wave of pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 15, 2023

China crackdown on Hong Kong in focus as Jimmy Lai goes on trial

Media tycoon faces possible life imprisonment on charges he colluded with foreign forces, including the U.S.
Toyota dealer Hiroshima Toyopet has installed air conditioners at all 30 of its maintenance facilities in Hiroshima Prefecture to ensure mechanics can work comfortably during the summer.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Dec 25, 2023

Hiroshima car dealers seek ways to attract mechanics

Since many people use their cars as a daily means of transportation, it is essential to secure a stable pool of mechanics.
An Israeli soldier rides in a Stryker fighting vehicle, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near the border with Gaza, in southern Israel, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 16, 2023

Hamas turns Gaza streets into deadly maze for Israeli troops

Hamas has used a big weapons stockpile, its knowledge of the terrain and a vast tunnel network to kill more than 100 Israeli soldiers.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building