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Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a joint news conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol (center) and Chinese premier Li Qiang at the Blue House presidential office in Seoul on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 27, 2024

In rare talks, Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing agree to step up cooperation

While Monday's summit didn't result in any breakthroughs, it is seen as an important step to stem the deterioration of Japan and South Korea's ties with China.
A peace rally on Constitution Memorial Day in Tokyo on May 3. Japan’s identity as a pacifist nation is shifting as the government strengthens its military, but many don’t agree with the policy.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 27, 2024

Government and society are at odds on national security

Tokyo posits itself as a mutual defense ally of the U.S., but polls show that while the public wants a stronger military, changes should align with the peace Constitution.
Toyota, Idemitsu Kosan, Eneos and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said they have teamed up to research carbon-neutral fuels for automobiles.
BUSINESS
May 28, 2024

Toyota and partners launch joint study on carbon-neutral fuels

Toyota will also independently develop engines that can use e-fuels efficiently
The homes and farmland of the plaintiffs are near a proposed viaduct construction site for Central Japan Railway's magnetic levitation train line.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 28, 2024

Court rejects residents' bid to halt maglev train construction

The Kofu District Court said there is "high public interest" in the project and found no illegality that would warrant a suspension of construction.
Damaged and corrupted houses are seen in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture in March
JAPAN / Society
May 28, 2024

Publicly paid demolitions without full consent OK'd for Noto Quake

Previously, consent of all owners concerned was required in principle for publicly paid demolitions, carried out for destroyed and severely damaged buildings.
Some experts are concerned about the potential for worldwide conflict within the next few years as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are likely preparing for major confrontation.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2024

Echoes of 1962, the Berlin crisis and a world teetering on war

There is the potential for worldwide conflict within the next three years as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are likely preparing for major confrontation.
Yasukazu Hamada, parliamentary affairs leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who is also former Defense Minister, will chair a nonpartisan lawmaker group that will request the government to form an organization to investigate UFOs.
JAPAN / Politics
May 28, 2024

Japan lawmakers to create group for government probes into UFOs

The group will hold its founding general meeting on June 6 after Tuesday's preparatory meeting, which was held in parliament.
Wanxiang America’s Neapco manufacturing plant in Belleville, Michigan
BUSINESS / Companies
May 29, 2024

Once embraced, Chinese companies now shunned in U.S. on security fears

It doesn’t matter if it’s mining or health care, even Chinese furniture could one day be seen as a national security issue, a lawyer who represents Chinese clients said.
Mainland Chinese tourists on a converted car ferry in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor on April 19, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 29, 2024

Business-first Hong Kong now comes with a catch: Beijing politics

The former British colony is hewing closer to mainland China, blurring distinctions that once cemented the city’s status as mostly free from Chinese politics.
LignoSat, the world's first wooden satellite, unveiled at Kyoto University in Kyoto on Tuesday
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 29, 2024

Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry unveil world's first wooden satellite

LignoSat is developed with the aim of combating space clutter and promoting more environmentally friendly space activity.
Nawaf Al-Osimy, chief technical officer of the Jazlah Water Desalination plant, which draws vast quantities of water from the Persian Gulf and makes it drinkable, in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, on March 4.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
May 30, 2024

Saudi Arabia eyes a future beyond oil

The kingdom is trying to juggle its still-vital petroleum industry with alternative energy sources like wind and solar as it faces pressure to lower carbon emissions.
Chinese electric vehicles bound for shipment at the Port of Taicang in China
BUSINESS / Tech
May 30, 2024

EU seeks roadblocks for Chinese EVs without sparking trade war

Crucially, the bloc must strike a balance with its aim for more Europeans to drive EVs as it prepares to outlaw the sale of new fossil fuel-powered cars from 2035.
Massive oil reserves mean the U.S. is less enthusiastic about energy transition than China, which is charging ahead with clean technology.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2024

America is joining its frenemies back in the fossil fuel club

For most nations, the energy transition isn’t just sought for climate reasons, it’s also a strategic and economic necessity.
A ground crew worker refuels a plane at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 31, 2024

Waste-to-fuel company that raised $1 billion verges on collapse

Fulcrum BioEnergy has recently laid off nearly all of its staff of about 100 and halted most of its operations, according to more than a half-dozen former employees.
Kanoa Igarashi, who earned a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is excited to get another shot at gold at this year’s Summer Games.
MORE SPORTS / Surfing
May 31, 2024

Kanoa Igarashi ready to challenge Teahupo'o in search of gold at Paris Olympics

Igarashi earned the silver medal in the inaugural Olympic surfing competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators hold a rally on London’s Waterloo Bridge on May 11. The current protests have many similarities to the student uprisings of the late 1960s, only the latter envisioned a new political movement to ameliorate the ills of their time.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2024

Echoes of despair amid global outrage over Gaza conflict

Everyone knows that the situation in Gaza is unacceptable. But a great deal of energy has been devoted to postponing the kind of intervention that the crisis requires.
As mind-numbingly big as the clean-energy price tag may be, it’s actually a bargain compared with the potential economic destruction of unabated climate change.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2024

$215 trillion to save the planet is a bargain

And as mind-numbingly big as $215 trillion may be, it’s actually a bargain compared with the potential economic destruction of unabated climate change.
Greek-flagged bulk cargo vessel Sea Champion is docked to the port of Aden, Yemen to which it arrived after being attacked in the Red Sea in what appears to have been a mistaken missile strike by Houthi militia, in February.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 1, 2024

How Red Sea disruptions are driving up carbon emissions

A surge of attacks on ships traveling the waters of the Red Sea is forcing shippers to reroute their vessels, driving up emissions.
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara delivers a speech during the Shangri-La Dialogue regional security conference in Singapore on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 1, 2024

Japan defense minister warns of ‘simultaneous crises’ in Asia and beyond

Defense chief Minoru Kihara said Tokyo is “ready to lead the way” in preserving and strengthening a free and open international, rules-based order.
China's Chang'e 6 lunar probe on the launch pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan province on May 3
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jun 2, 2024

China lands on moon's far side in historic sample-retrieval mission

The mission "involves many engineering innovations, high risks and great difficulty," China's space agency said in a statement on its website.
A new bus service was introduced in Kyoto as part of the city's efforts to address overtourism.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 2, 2024

Overtourism-hit Kyoto launches new bus service for tourists

The new line is part of the city's plan to thin the crowds of tourists clogging local buses that residents rely on.
Pedestrians holding umbrellas during a downpour in Tokyo in June 2023
JAPAN / Science & Health / OUR PLANET
Jun 2, 2024

The growing link between extreme rain and respiratory health in Japan

Researchers have found a strong association between respiratory mortality and severe downpours of the kind being made worse by climate change.
The ultimate challenge for the next government is to balance infrastructure investment with measures that improve household financial stability and income.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2024

India’s election winner has a repair job waiting

The ultimate challenge for the next Indian government is to balance infrastructure investment with measures that improve household financial stability and income.
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean defense chief Shin Won-sik attend a trilateral meeting on sidelines of the Shangri-la Dialogue security conference in Singapore on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 2, 2024

Japan, South Korea and U.S. unveil new initiatives to cement defense ties

The three partner nations agreed to develop a framework to institutionalize trilateral cooperation within the year.
An earthquake-damaged area in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, in May 2023. The Noto Peninsula has been experiencing an ongoing “seismic swarm” since late 2020.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / OUR PLANET
Jun 3, 2024

How rain and snow play a role in Noto’s ‘seismic swarm’

The seismic activity in the region is synchronized with changes in underground pressure, which is influenced by seasonal patterns of precipitation.
A North Korean soldier is seen at a guard post inside the country in this picture taken from Paju, South Korea, near the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas in June 2020.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 3, 2024

Seoul to suspend inter-Korean military pact with Pyongyang over balloons

South Korea said the halt will last "until mutual trust between the two Koreas is restored,” after the North sent trash-filled balloons across the border over the last week.
Tokyo Gas storage tanks in Tokyo. The firm is looking to add more U.S. natural gas assets.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 3, 2024

Tokyo Gas seeks more U.S. natural gas assets, president says

Japan's top city gas supplier is aiming to expand its gas-related businesses in North America after its recent acquisition of a U.S. shale gas producer.
A hydrogen storage tank and loading system at a liquefied hydrogen receiving terminal in Kobe. Japan and the European Union have agreed to work together on policies related to clean hydrogen.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Jun 4, 2024

Japan and EU agree to work on creating hydrogen demand and supply

Tokyo sees hydrogen as a new and cleaner source to gradually substitute liquefied natural gas, part of Japan's path to carbon neutrality by 2050.
Transport ministry officials head to Toyota's headquarters in Aichi Prefecture on Tuesday for on-site inspections.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 4, 2024

Auto certification in spotlight as Toyota raided over data tampering

Questions have emerged over whether Japan's regulatory standards and their subjective interpretation might be hindering automakers.
The Bank of Japan's headquarters in Tokyo. Some investors are expecting the central bank to cut bond purchases this month and then raise rates in July.
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2024

BOJ weighs reducing bond buys as early as June meeting

The bank will conclude its two-day policy meeting on June 14.

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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