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The proposal reportedly calls for a legal framework that would obligate telecom operators to store communication records for a fixed period.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 18, 2025

LDP proposal would require telecom companies to store usage records

The proposal calls for a legal framework that would obligate telecom operators to store metadata and usage records for a fixed period.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife Mamiko Tanaka attend a Lakers game in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 2024.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 20, 2025

Shohei Ohtani announces birth of daughter

Ohtani announced the birth of his first child in a post on social media.
Takuro Tamayama’s sculpture “Models (Pair, 6 sets, 12 rings)” comes with a mathematical formation that scales it for different spaces.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 20, 2025

The floor is art: Takuro Tamayama transforms mundanity

With “Takuro Tamayama: Floor,” the artist, at 34, has become the youngest person to ever hold a solo show at the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
Takaaki Nezu, executive director of Maruto Group Holdings, says it is the company’s social responsibility to help tackle the falling birth rate.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
May 5, 2025

Fukushima firms seek ways to encourage marriages

One supermarket chain has said such moves reflect a corporate responsibility to tackle the nation’s chronically low birth rate.
Next year’s FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the U.S., will test whether America — with President Donald Trump pushing tariffs and tough immigration policies — can draw global fans or drive them away.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2025

The White House just kicked a World Cup own-goal

Next year’s FIFA World Cup will test whether the U.S. — with President Donald Trump pushing tariffs and tough immigration policies — can draw global fans or drive them away.
Asuka Tsuzuki (left), the principal of Linden Hall School's secondary school, and Kota Sugimoto, the school's head chef, display the Japanese Agricultural Standards certificate the school obtained for its lunches.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
May 5, 2025

In a national first, Fukuoka school obtains organic lunch certificate

A Fukuoka school has become Japan’s first to earn JAS certification for organic school lunches, using seasonal and local produce to promote environmental education.
A manhole card and a manhole cover featuring characters from "Sailor Moon," on Feb. 10. The cards were handed out by Tokyo's Minato Ward, where the series is set.
JAPAN
May 4, 2025

Manhole cover designs recognized as tourism assets in Japan

The initiative to create specially designed manhole covers began as a public relations campaign to improve the image of the sewage industry.
Apartments in the district of Miyazato in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, where many students live
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
May 12, 2025

Rents soar in northern Okinawa ahead of Junglia theme park opening

While large-scale hiring may help to revitalize the area, it is also creating a housing supply shortage, affecting students and others who are moving in.
Kawasaki Frontale players celebrate after defeating Qatar's Al-Sadd in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday.
SOCCER
Apr 29, 2025

Hasebe determined to fly East Asian flag in face of Saudi dominance

Progress to the semifinals after three quarterfinal appearances marks a significant result for Kawasaki Frontale's coach.
The long-awaited India Pavilion has finally opened. A model of the Chandrayaan-3 unmanned probe, which made an unprecedented landing near the moon's south pole in 2023, is displayed, on Thursday in the city of Osaka.
JAPAN
May 1, 2025

India Pavilion opens at Osaka Expo

The pavillion features space exploration technologies and information technologies, areas in which the South Asian country has excelled.
Since 2017, Kotomi Li has won some of Japan’s top literary awards and built a formidable career in the face of persistent online harassment. “Authors are tenacious creatures to begin with,” she says.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 5, 2025

Kotomi Li: 'I refuse to choose death'

The Taiwanese writer reflects on the importance of queer community, her ascent in Japan’s literary world and her ongoing battles against online harassment.
Elementary school children receive checkups from dental students in Tra Vinh, Vietnam, in March.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional voices: Chubu
May 19, 2025

Dentists pass Japan-style oral health care to children in Vietnam

Surveys show nearly 90% of elementary school students in Vietnam have tooth decay.
In France, a state-of-the-art rare earths plant to extract key minerals like dysprosium and terbium is being built with French and Japanese support — the first of its kind outside China. Its significance goes beyond the project itself.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 5, 2025

New rare earth plant shows strength of Japan-France cooperation

In France, a state-of-the-art rare earths plant is being built with French and Japanese support, showing the way for those who see the benefits of working together and not alone.
Apple Music personalities (from left) Ebro Darden, Kentaro Ochiai, Zane Lowe and Mino came together for a special recording in late April to discuss music and celebrate the newly opened Apple Music studio in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Music
May 8, 2025

With a new Shibuya studio, Apple Music bets big on Japan

Streaming numbers are up, world tours are growing, and now, Tokyo has a new studio aimed at amplifying Japan’s voice.
The Osaka Expo, which opened last month, runs through mid-October.
JAPAN
May 8, 2025

Man admitted to 2025 Osaka Expo with 85-year-old ticket

Previous expos in Japan have had similar policies of giving "invitation tickets" to people holding passes for the 1940 event, expo organizers said.
China's Black Pearl Restaurant Guide held its award ceremony overseas for the first time, picking the dining capital of Singapore to promote its brand to an international audience.
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 11, 2025

In China’s ‘Michelin Guide,’ Tokyo leads overseas listings with 30 entries

Tailored to the Chinese palate, the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide looks to expand its regional influence by rating restaurants in Japan and Southeast Asia.
A former nonregular government employee, who cooked lunch for a public school in the Tohoku region, says she was dismissed after she was made to take an open recruitment exam.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
May 19, 2025

Civil service contract workers fear lack of job security

Contracted civil servants are paid about half the salaries of regular staff or even less, and a fear of being dismissed hangs over their heads.
Yi Liu (right), one of 10 directors involved in Taiwanese television series "Zero Day," works on post-production with colorist Liang Yu Fang in Taipei on March 5.
CULTURE / Film
May 13, 2025

Taiwanese war drama 'wake-up call' to Chinese invasion threat

The on-screen chaos of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is the basis of a new Taiwanese television series called "Zero Day."
The beach on Aka Island, Okinawa Prefecture, where U.S. forces first landed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
May 26, 2025

How a remote island escaped mass suicide in Battle of Okinawa

Residents had been told that, if captured, women would be assaulted and men mutilated by U.S. soldiers.
Supervisor David Lindsay in the chilling plant beneath the headquarters of the United Nations in New York
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 13, 2025

As world heats up, U.N. cools itself the cool way — with water

As more and more people want to stay cool in a planet that is steadily heating up, energy experts point to this kind of water-based system as a good alternative.
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng attends a meeting with global business leaders at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 28.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2025

China surrounded Xi aide with seasoned experts to seal U.S. deal

The crew engaging with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was on public display for the first time Sunday.
TDK will begin shipping its third iteration of silicon-anode batteries by the end of June, Chief Executive Officer Noboru Saito said.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2025

IPhone supplier TDK readies batteries geared for thin AI gadgets

TDK’s battery technology is helping the world’s biggest smartphone makers slim down their gadgets without shortening battery run times.
Okasan Securities and Iwai Cosmo Securities said they had been hit by fraudulent trading, indicating the hacking of online trading accounts is expanding to mid-sized brokerages.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2025

Hacking of trading accounts in Japan spreads to midsized firms

The hacking of online trading accounts has exploded in Japan, surging more than 10-fold in April from March.
Tesla's story about keeping used cars for "robotaxis" fits a long pattern of unfulfilled promises to deploy self-driving vehicles — most recently announced for June in Austin, Texas.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2025

Tesla took back leased cars for use as 'robotaxis,' but sold them instead

Despite repeated promises, the robotaxis never came and Tesla flipped many of the off-lease cars to new buyers.
An illustration of Nipponopterus mifunensis, a new genus and species of pterosaur
JAPAN
May 19, 2025

Pterosaur fossil found in Japan identified as new species

This is the first time that a pterosaur has been named based on a fossil found in Japan.
The crowded center circle of the Kansai Pavilion at the Osaka Expo, featuring photos and videos of various prefectures
JAPAN
May 25, 2025

Osaka Expo highlights uniqueness of Kansai region

The Kansai Pavilion offers numerous experiences to allow visitors to understand the rich history and culture of the region.
Huawei Technologies has unveiled its first in-house operating system for personal computers.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 20, 2025

Huawei unveils in-house operating system to replace Windows

The rollout of HarmonyOS on the company's new laptops comes as China pushes to replace American technologies amid rising geopolitical tensions.
Kimihiro Matsuzaki prepares dishes at his half-century-old restaurant, Yanagi, in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jun 2, 2025

Profitable Fukushima companies closing due to lack of successors

According to Teikoku Databank, more than a third of the companies that went out of business in the prefecture in 2024 were in the black.
Thai film "A Useful Ghost" won top prize in the Critics' Week sidebar section of the Cannes film festival.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
May 22, 2025

LGBTQ Thai ghost story wins prize in Cannes

Film director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke says he hoped his LGBTQ story could touch more on politics.
The entrance to a cave on Okinawa’s main island where a former Japanese soldier confessed to having killed a mother and child during World War II
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Jun 2, 2025

How the scars of war in Okinawa are being healed by a psychologist

A clinical psychologist has formed grief care groups for survivors of war across Okinawa to help try to heal their emotional scars.

Longform

Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo” was released Nov. 23, 1985, and though it wasn’t a hit at the time, it has gained a cult following in the years since.
Eat, slurp, love: 'Tampopo' turns 40