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A poster for digital coupons at a store in the city of Fukushima
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Mar 11, 2024

Fukushima’s welfare coupon campaign highlights digital divide

A call center dedicated to the initiative received so many calls that telephone lines were overloaded.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has upended Communist Party norms since consolidating power and installing a coterie of loyalists in 2022, marking a shift from the more collective decision-making that helped propel China’s economic rise.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 1, 2024

Xi’s one-man rule over China’s economy is spurring unrest

While the Chinese leader attempts to put the China's economy on a more sustainable footing, he is failing to convince the nation that's a good idea.
Alex “Rami-chan” Ramirez
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / The Big Questions
Mar 1, 2024

Baseball star Alex Ramirez’s NPO helps special kids

Founder of Vamos Together, Venezuelan Alex Ramirez played for Yakult Swallows and Yomiuri Giants, then became manager of the Yokohama DeNa BayStars
Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in Ottawa in May 2009.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 1, 2024

Brian Mulroney, former Canadian prime minister, is dead at 84

Mulroney was known as the Canadian leader who led the country into the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Mexico.
Gregory May, U.S. consul general in Hong Kong, takes part in an interview in the city on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 2, 2024

Top U.S. envoy in Hong Kong warns of creeping internet curbs

In his first interview since taking up the post in 2022, U.S. Consul General Gregory May said that connectivity and data security issues are growing.
Remember, Vladimir Putin ridiculed the idea that he would invade Ukraine, right up until he ordered close to 200,000 troops over the border.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2024

Would Putin stop if he wins in Ukraine? Let’s not find out.

Just because the Russian leader is a serial liar doesn’t prove he is being untruthful now.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang speaks during the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 4, 2024

China scraps premier's briefing, breaking years of convention

The decision removes a rare platform for investors to learn more about the nation’s policy direction under President Xi Jinping.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that he recognized China's advances in development and in alleviating poverty, but urged that such policies be accompanied by reforms "to align relevant laws and policies with international human rights standards."
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 5, 2024

U.N. says China violating 'fundamental rights' in Xinjiang, Tibet

The U.N. human rights chief also asked Beijing to release rights defenders arrested under the "vague" offense of "picking quarrels and making trouble."
Three years ago, Sean Ono Lennon became intrigued by the possibility of expanding the message of “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” the 1971 protest song by his parents, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, through a narrative film. The resulting work is the 11-minute film “War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko,” directed by Dave Mullins.
CULTURE
Mar 7, 2024

How Sean Ono Lennon helped his parents send a message

To keep their legacy relevant for a new generation, he worked on the short “War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko.” Now it’s up for an Oscar.
The Hong Kong flag and surveillance cameras outside the Central Government Offices in Hong Kong
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 8, 2024

Hong Kong government issues draft of new national security law

It includes sentences of up to life imprisonment for treason, 20 years for espionage and 10 years for state secrets offenses.
An ukiyo-e print by Utagawa Kuniteru depicts the assault of Asano Naganori on Kira Yoshinaka, an incident that triggered the tragedy of the 47 Ronin and one that was re-created in the play “Chushingura.”
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Mar 8, 2024

Revenge: A dish seldom served in Japanese history but still cold as ice

When Confucius was asked, "Should we kill those who are evil?" The response came, "What need is there for you to kill?"
Both China and Russia may believe there will never be a more opportune moment to overthrow American dominance than now. And should the two combine their forces, they could represent the most serious challenge to the global economic and strategic order since 1945.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2024

The threat to American hegemony is real

Russia and China might be tempted to threaten America's hegemony with a simultaneous and coordinated challenge.
From left: Hong Kong's Secretary for Justice Paul Lam, Chief Executive John Lee and Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung hold a news conference regarding national security laws, in Hong Kong on Jan. 30.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 9, 2024

Hong Kong fast-tracks new security law at Beijing’s urging

The legislation would impose life sentences for crimes such as treason and give police expanded powers.
Alexei Navalny looks out of the window of his cell in a detention center in Moscow on Dec. 8, 2011.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 12, 2024

Putin's opposition: Dead, jailed or exiled

Putin's staunchest critic of the last decade, Alexei Navalny, died last month in a prison colony. Dozens of others remain behind bars.
Chojuro Kawarasaki plays Kuranosuke Ooishi in Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1941 film “Genroku Chushingura” (The 47 Ronin). The story, sometimes told with 46 retainers, has fascinated Japanese audiences since first being performed as a puppet play in 1748. 
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Mar 15, 2024

Edo samurai spirit: From the battlefield to the stage

Life under the Tokugawa shogunate wasn't exactly freedom but neither was it constant war. The Japanese instead sated their bloodlust with theater.
Phytochemical Products CEO Makiko Kato (second from right) and Chief Technology Officer and professor Naomi Kitakawa (right) at the startup's laboratory in Sendai
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Mar 18, 2024

Tohoku University startup opens path to waste oil recycling

Its proprietary technology allows it to extract useful compounds from waste oil to produce biofuel and other products.
Wakana Nukui has been described as having a knack for storytelling and vividly sharing her vision with those around her.
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Mar 24, 2024

A social entrepreneur who is determined to lift Cambodian women's status

Wakana Nukui has fostered new talent in design while opening shops dedicated to local products.
The Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani(left) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto pose for a portrait on media day at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 21.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 14, 2024

See-through baseball pants become eye-opening controversy for MLB

The league's new uniforms have dominated the conversation during spring training.
Takashi Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus One,” which won an Academy Award for best visual effects earlier this week, was made for a reported $15 million — a small fraction of the budgets used by its Hollywood competitors.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 14, 2024

'Godzilla Minus One' fought the odds and won big at the Oscars

Once mocked, the long-running monster franchise took on Hollywood's behemoths — and won.
Plaintiffs of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a ban on same-sex marriage and their supporters hold a banner calling for authorities to allow such unions in front of the Tokyo District Court on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 14, 2024

Ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, Sapporo High Court rules

This is the first such ruling by a high court in Japan in favor of plaintiffs challenging the ban.
Built for two artists, Ishii House is a simple, rectangular timber structure with a double-height window facing the veranda.
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 16, 2024

Architecture of community won Riken Yamamoto the Pritzker Prize

Unlike many other laureates, Yamamoto is not a household name. But his work and approach have long been admired within the Japanese architectural scene.
Yuji Takahashi says there is a culture of passing down good furniture for generations in places like northern Europe. He wants such practice to be the norm in Japan as well.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Mar 25, 2024

Craftsman’s works spreads nationwide through furniture with no nails

Yuji Takahashi uses a traditional technique called "sashimono," by which grooves are carved and joints fitted together.
Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani arrives at Incheon International Airport in South Korea ahead of the MLB's Seoul Series, on Friday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 19, 2024

All eyes on Ohtani on eve of MLB's Seoul Series

The Dodgers star touched down in South Korea to a welcome worthy of a K-pop act
 A cow is prepared for slaughter at a facility in Corbas, France.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2024

Does religious freedom trump animal welfare?

The European Court of Human Rights found that protecting the welfare of animals is part of the legitimate government objective of protecting public morals.
Shizuo Aishima's son speaks to reporters next to a photo of his father in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 21, 2024

Ohkawara execs to file criminal complaint against Tokyo police

The complainant's lawyer said that the execs hope to kick-start an internal investigation into the department’s misconduct.
“Blue Imagine” centers on a young actor (Mayu Yamaguchi) who finds support at a communal living space after she is sexually assaulted by a well-known director while participating in his actors’ workshop.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 23, 2024

'Blue Imagine' gives voice to victims of sexual abuse in the film industry

Urara Matsubayashi's debut feature finds the beauty in women coming together in solidarity to publicly speak out against abusers.
People gather near lit candles outside the Crocus City Hall concert venue on Sunday, declared a day of mourning declared following a deadly shooting, in the Moscow Region, Russia.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 25, 2024

Concert hall attack revives terrorism fears for Russians in Moscow

A series of terror attacks that began in the late 1990s spread a climate of fear across the country as Putin was rising to power.
The Central business district of Hong Kong. Hong Kong IPOs have dried up as stock prices slump and economic prospects wane.
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2024

Once high-flying bankers in Hong Kong become a lost generation

The damage is underscored by the barrage of layoffs, the retreat of global capital, and the city’s diminishing role as an international financial center.
A worker helps assemble the fuselage of a BK117 helicopter at Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ Gifu plant in Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Apr 1, 2024

Kawasaki Heavy’s Gifu plant produces helicopters for disaster aid

The company's BK117 aircraft has been adopted by Gifu Prefecture and many other municipalities for disaster aid.
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said that a person reposting online critical statements issued by foreign countries and people overseas might be committing an offense, depending on their "intention and purpose."
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 25, 2024

Online criticism could breach new Hong Kong law, official warns

A person might be committing an offense if they repost critical statements issued by foreign countries and people overseas.

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