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April 30, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2023

The outlook for 2024 appears grim — but nothing is preordained

Given the complex landscape of 2024, we can expect to navigate uncertainty, geopolitical shifts and a myriad of pivotal elections.
Though ChatGPT debuted in late 2022, it was really in 2023 that we started to get a sense of what large language models could do, including diagnosing complex medical issues.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2023

The 10 most intriguing science breakthroughs over the past year

As 2023 has drawn to a close, let’s look back on some of the astounding breakthroughs we’ve seen in the last 12 months.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 2, 2024

Who might succeed Fumio Kishida in 2024?

Several names have emerged as potential candidates for prime minister in the wake of a political funds scandal enveloping the LDP.
A consumer market in New Delhi on Dec. 12, 2023. Long-term investment in India by businesses is stagnant, and foreign money is falling, even as the government is driving growth with infrastructure spending.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 2, 2024

India is chasing China’s economy. Something is holding it back.

While money is flying into India’s stock markets, long-term investment from overseas has been declining.
Yuki Kondo-Shah beside the U.S. Embassy where she works in London on Dec. 22. As U.S.-China tensions rise, national security employees with ties to Asia say U.S. counterintelligence officers wrongly regard them as potential spies and unfairly ban them from jobs.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 2, 2024

Asian American officials cite unfair treatment in China tensions

Federal employees say they are being blocked from jobs for security reasons because of their ties to Asia, even distant ones.
Cargo ships wait in the anchor zone to cross the Panama Canal from the Pacific entrance near Panama City, Panama, on Sept. 1, 2023. Ships have been waiting for days as the congestion to cross from both sides increase due to intense droughts in the country.
WORLD / Society
Jan 3, 2024

Saving the Panama Canal will take years and cost billions, if it’s even possible

Climate change-induced drought is limiting the number of ships on the waterway, which handles about 46% of containers moving from Northeast Asia to the U.S. East Coast.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Woodside, California, in November. After another year marked by great-power rivalries and rising security risks, the role of hegemonic, middling and rising powers has become more fluid than at any time since the end of the Cold War.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2024

The shape of power in 2024

Thinkers ponder whether the coming year will confirm that the world is quickly moving toward greater multipolarity or “nonalignment.”
Claudine Gay, former president of Harvard University
WORLD / Politics
Jan 4, 2024

Harvard chief’s abrupt exit exposes decade-spanning rifts

The school’s first Black leader resigned after just six months due to plagiarism allegations and anger over her handling of antisemitism on campus.
Scientists announced on Wednesday that they have identified genetic variations associated with human bisexual behavior.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 4, 2024

Scientists discover genetic underpinnings of bisexuality

Data has revealed the proportion of people reporting both bisexual and homosexual behavior has been rising for decades.
“The First Slam Dunk” was animated in a style known as 3DCG anime, which combines the hard outlines and flat planes of traditional 2D animation with 3D models and movement.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 5, 2024

Anime is going digital. Fans are wary.

As the industry continues to embrace computer-generated work, some audiences struggle to accept the change.
Carbon capture could help mitigate emissions at polluting power plants, but with the technology largely unproven at scale, it also risks extending their lives.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 5, 2024

The world’s next big carbon capture challenge? Figuring out how to use it

Fossil fuel industry's involvement raises fears that the technology might be used to prolong oil and gas extraction, while costs and scalability could limit its utility.
A victim of an explosion at a nickel smelter furnace owned by Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel lies inside an ambulance at a hospital in Morowali, Indonesia, on Dec. 26.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 7, 2024

Indonesia blast puts battery ambitions in spotlight ahead of vote

Just weeks ahead of a presidential election, the deadly explosion triggered angry protests and demands for action in Jakarta and Beijing.
China is the world’s second-largest investor in research and development, having spent $410 billion in this area in 2022, 10% more than the previous year.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2024

China is lowering transaction costs for greater innovation

With projects such as a cooperation zone between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, China is championing small- and medium-sized firms as the engine of innovation.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2024

Japanese government to give preferential treatment to quake victims

The government also plans to designate the earthquake as a disaster of extreme severity to raise its subsidy rate for restoration projects conducted by local governments.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers his Quad Fellowship Announcement as the leaders of the United States, India and Australia look on after meeting in Tokyo in May 2022.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 8, 2024

Dialogue can boost security where military deterrence can’t

Military buildup without dialogue is too risky — civil society actors in East Asia understand this better than their governments.
Consumer price gains in Tokyo slowed for a second month in December.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 9, 2024

Tokyo inflation slows as thrifty consumers curb some outlays

Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 2.1% in the capital, decelerating from 2.3% in November.
Columbia University researchers have found that on average, bottled water contain 110,000 to 370,000 tiny plastic particles in each liter, 90% of them nanoplastics.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jan 9, 2024

Bottled water has more plastic particles than previously thought

The discovery of nanoplastics, which could not be detected until recently, suggests that health concerns linked to plastic pollution may be dramatically underestimated.
The Pilbara Minerals Pilgangoora lithium project in Port Hedland, Western Australia
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2024

Lithium’s promised land looks more like the old country

Two decades ago, Australia mined less than a fifth of the world’s lithium. In 2021, it dug more than every other country put together.
Tourists fill Kiyomizuzaka street near Kiyomizu Temple in the city of Kyoto in November.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2024

Kyoto becoming more proactive in tackling overtourism

Threatening social and cultural conflicts, issues arising from overtourism include public transportation congestion.
The Shika nuclear plant in Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 4
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2024

Three-meter tsunami recorded at Japan nuclear plant after quake

The plant is 11 meters above sea level and protected by a 4-meter seawall built after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Activists protest outside the offices of the Australian Immigration Department in Sydney in February 2016
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2024

The danger of talking down immigration Down Under

Australians are facing an economic dilemma Down Under amid an unsettling debate over immigration policies.
British lawmakers are calling for billions of dollars of government contracts with Fujitsu to be reexamined amid public outrage over the scandal, ignited by a hit TV drama aired last week.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 11, 2024

Japan tech firm Fujitsu in firing line over U.K. Post Office scandal

Its faulty software had resulted in hundreds of local post office managers being wrongly convicted for theft and false accounting between 1999 and 2005.
Security guards along the Bund in front of buildings in the Lujiazui Financial District in Shanghai on Tuesday. The pivot away from China may accelerate as positive catalysts are missing at a time when the U.S. Federal Reserve shifts toward monetary easing.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 11, 2024

China is fast losing its place as a must-have in global portfolios

An analysis of filings by 14 U.S. pension funds with investments in Chinese stocks show most of them have reduced their holdings since 2020.
U.S. President Joe Biden gives a thumbs-up as he walks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at Filoli estate on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, in Woodside, California, on Nov. 15. Their meeting attempted to calm the waters and tried to convey a sense that the U.S. and China could effectively manage their differences.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 11, 2024

In 2024, U.S.-China ties likely to get worse before they get better

The trajectory of Washington and Beijing's relationship this year will have profound effects on Japan's own policies going forward.
The yen's exchange rate against the dollar on Wednesday. The yen declined from ¥103 against the dollar in 2020 to as little as ¥151 in late 2023.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 11, 2024

Is a weak yen good for Japan’s economy?

The yen's fast depreciation is boosting overseas investment and sectors like tourism, but could also trigger inflation. In response, the BOJ should raise interest rates.
A Tokyo Gas Co. storage tank at the company's Setagaya facility in Tokyo
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 12, 2024

World trying to quit fossil fuels gets flood of gas instead

Formerly a sluggish sector, global events spurred LNG's expansion
Climate activists install a portrait of French President Emmanuel Macron at Trocadero Square in front of the Eiffel tower to mark the fifth anniversary of the 2015 United Nations Paris Agreement, in December 2020.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2024

We need to remain true to the pillars of green wisdom

While the Group of Seven countries bear the greatest CO2 responsibility, China, which is now the second-largest emitter in history, must be fully committed, too.
People cool off on a beach in Rio de Janeiro in November amid a heat wave.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 13, 2024

El Nino could make 2024 hotter than record-setting 2023

The U.S. NOAA predicted there is a 1 in 3 chance that 2024 will be warmer than 2023 — and a 99% certainty that 2024 will rank among the five warmest years ever.
As Kura has grown, so has the hype, with diners sometimes enduring seven-hour waits to try its automated sushi-serving machines and dishes under plastic domes brought to the table on a revolving belt.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 13, 2024

Kura Sushi must live up to high hopes after wowing Wall Street

Kura shares have surged more than sixfold since their 2019 debut, climbing from an initial public offering price of $14 to $88.55.
Whereas obtaining a test was often difficult in early 2020, now the abundance of cheaper rapid kits in grocery stores and home medicine cabinets has led to a new concern — they don’t seem to work.
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jan 13, 2024

Our bodies are responding differently to COVID. Testing for it needs to catch up.

The abundance of cheaper rapid kits in grocery stores and home medicine cabinets has led to a new concern — they don’t seem to work.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami
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.
Counting the reasons why there are so few American cars in Japan
Tesla's store in Tokyo's Shibuya district. While sales of American cars in Japan appear to be shrinking, Tesla's presence in the country is growing.
Shohei Ohtani's example could change Japan's views on paternity leave
Shohei Ohtani and Mamiko Tanaka announced the birth of their first child on April 19.
Nearly half of workers in Japan engage in ‘quiet quitting’
"Quiet quitting" is most common among the younger generation, with 46.7% of respondents to a survey in their 20s identifying with the practice, reflecting a less-motivated workforce more focused on work-life balance.
China seizes disputed reef near key Philippine military outpost
China Coast Guard officers unfurl a national flag on Sandy Cay reef, near the Philippine-held Thitu Island, in disputed waters of the South China Sea this month in this screen shot taken from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Shohei Ohtani's example could change Japan's views on paternity leave
Shohei Ohtani and Mamiko Tanaka announced the birth of their first child on April 19.
Counting the reasons why there are so few American cars in Japan
Tesla's store in Tokyo's Shibuya district. While sales of American cars in Japan appear to be shrinking, Tesla's presence in the country is growing.
Nearly half of workers in Japan engage in ‘quiet quitting’
"Quiet quitting" is most common among the younger generation, with 46.7% of respondents to a survey in their 20s identifying with the practice, reflecting a less-motivated workforce more focused on work-life balance.
U.S. secretary of the navy weighs ‘dual-use’ shipbuilding with Japan
John Phelan at a Senate confirmation hearing for U.S. secretary of the navy in Washington in February
Expo '25 gives the world a masterclass in mascots
2025 Osaka Expo mascot Myaku-Myaku dances on the stage during the event's official opening ceremony on April 12.

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One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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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
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society
Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

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