Search - 2020

 
 
The entrance of the COP29 United Nations climate change conference venue in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Friday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 23, 2024

Wealthy countries' $300 billion offer seeks to end COP29 stalemate

The two-week talks have been marked by division between wealthy governments resisting a costly outcome and developing nations pushing for more.
High-end wagyu products from Japan are sold at prices about 2.5 times those of U.S. and Australian wagyu, according to Japan's Agriculture and Livestock Industries Corp.
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2024

JETRO draws up guidelines for wagyu labeling in U.S.

The move by JETRO comes as wagyu is not necessarily recognized as being of Japanese origin in the United States.
While the ETH Zurich is an outlier for now in Switzerland, the decision has shone a spotlight on how universities in the German-speaking world are attempting to balance national security concerns with academia’s imperative to pursue open scholarship and collaboration across borders.
WORLD / Society
Nov 23, 2024

Swiss university applies stricter measures to Chinese students

Switzerland’s top technical university justified the move as complying with laws to counter international espionage.
Titan Cement's factory in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Egypt
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 23, 2024

How big fossil-fuel-producing countries export emissions abroad

A loophole in the 2015 Paris accord has allowed countries to say they are making climate progress while also exporting fossil fuels at breakneck pace.
Delegates applaud during a closing plenary meeting of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sunday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 24, 2024

Developing nations blast $300 billion COP29 climate deal as insufficient

The deal reached at the close of the two-week COP29 summit in Azerbaijan resulted from fractious and at times openly hostile negotiations.
Yisrael Medad, an activist and writer on Israel's political right, looks at a book in his home in the Israeli settlement Shilo, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Nov. 13.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 24, 2024

Israeli settlers set sights on Trump support for full control of West Bank

Settlers have celebrated Trump's nomination of a clutch of officials known for pro-Israel views.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in Washington on July 24. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, a former Israeli defense minister, for crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 24, 2024

Legal threats close in on Israel's Netanyahu and could impact ongoing wars

Netanyahu is due to testify in a corruption trial that has dogged him for years and could end his political career if he is found guilty.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump approaches to embrace Donald Trump Jr. at his campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 4.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 25, 2024

Trump's son helping him pick most controversial Cabinet of modern times

Donald Trump Jr. is helping contenders sink or rise to the fore, according to a half dozen sources with knowledge of his role.
Fujikura's headquarters in Tokyo's Koto Ward. The company's share price has surged by more than 400% this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 25, 2024

AI boom makes 139-year-old cable maker Japan’s hottest stock

Fujikura, which makes narrow wire cabling, is the best performer on the Nikkei stock index this year due to a boom in demand for data centers.
Hong Kong's main financial district in October 2023. U.S. lawmakers say the city "has shifted from a trusted global financial center to a critical player in the deepening authoritarian axis” of China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 26, 2024

Hong Kong a ‘global leader’ in financial crime, U.S. lawmakers say

The city's shift from a trusted global financial center raises questions on whether longstanding U.S. policy toward it is appropriate, they say.
An IBM research facility in Albany, New York. Despite some continuity between the first Trump administration and Biden's policies on critical and emerging technologies, the outgoing president placed more emphasis on cooperation with allies.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Nov 26, 2024

Will Trump change course on critical and emerging tech?

Washington's policies to protect key tech fields have not just hurt China, but U.S. allies too, leading to a form of cooperation with friction whose future is uncertain.
Vegetable intake by Japanese adults has sunk to the lowest level on record, a government survey shows.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 26, 2024

Average vegetable intake among adults in Japan sinks to record low

By age group, the average vegetable intake was lowest among respondents in their 20s. The older the respondents, the more vegetables they consumed.
Trucks wait near the Zaragoza-Ysleta border crossing bridge to cross into the U.S., in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 27, 2024

Trump tariffs would harm all involved, U.S. trade partners say

Officials warn a trade war could erupt and damage economies, and seek talks with Trump after his surprise announcement of hefty tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.
Keiichi Kaburagi (Ryusei Yokohama) goes on the run after being sentenced to death for a triple murder he insists he didn’t commit in Michihito Fujii’s “Faceless.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2024

‘Faceless’: Fugitive thriller turns a blind eye to hard truths

Michihiro Fujii’s latest offers stylistic flourishes while treading the familiar terrain of the fugitive film.
Elliott Investment Management's stake in Tokyo Gas is centered around getting the utility to sell off its real estate holdings, including Shinjuku Park Tower, which houses the Park Hyatt Hotel Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2024

Real estate worth ¥25 trillion puts Japan companies in spotlight

The hidden value of property on corporate balance sheets is a theme behind some of the biggest activist campaigns and mergers and acquisitions in Japan.
Nobuo Hara, the head of a group seeking to halt the No. 2 reactor at Tohoku Electric Power's Onagawa nuclear power plant, speaks at a news conference on Wednesday in Sendai after the Sendai High Court ruled against them.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2024

Court rejects request to halt restarted Onagawa nuclear reactor

A judge said there was "no concrete proof" that an incident that could not be handled under an established evacuation plan would occur.
Workers install solar panels at the Khavda Renewable Energy Park of Adani Green Energy in the village of Khavda, in India, on April 12.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 28, 2024

Adani allegations cast light on barriers to India's ambitious solar drive

India's states are unprepared for a rapid rise in renewable generating capacity, lack adequate transmission infrastructure and storage.
Check-in counters at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. The tourism industry expects the demand for China travel to increase as Beijing resumes its visa exemption for Japanese citizens.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2024

Travel firms optimistic China's resumption of visa waivers will boost demand

China decided to resume the exemption for Japanese citizens after requests by Tokyo and business leaders, and will extend the period for visa-free stays to 30 days.
Trump faced a barrage of lawsuits that slowed down his ability to turn campaign promises into reality the last time he was in the White House, even if those challenges ultimately fell short.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 28, 2024

Trump agenda set to collide with slow pace of U.S. legal system

The stubborn realities of litigation stymied the president-elect’s ability to carry out quick changes during his first term.
High-rise buildings in Tokyo. Through faking documents and passports a criminal group conspired to pose as the owner of a real-estate plot and buildings in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward in 2017, defrauding Sekisui House of ¥5.5 billion.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 28, 2024

Real-life ‘Tokyo Swindlers’ ordered to pay ¥1 billion in damages

The Tokyo District Court ruled that the defendants knew they were engaging in a fraudulent scheme in their dealings with Sekisui House.
Hiroshi Kurosaki’s Netflix series “Beyond Goodbye” centers on a woman (Kasumi Arimura, left) who discovers her dead lover’s heart saved the life of a quiet pianist (Kentaro Sakaguchi).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Nov 29, 2024

Hiroshi Kurosaki looks beyond Japan for heart-wrenching drama

The director’s Netflix series relies on lush visuals and truths about love and loss to appeal to an overseas audience.
Officers from the Self-Defense Forces visit a Chinese air force facility in Tianjin, China, on Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2024

SDF officers visit Chinese military in exchange program

SDF members have inspected an army unit in Beijing and plan to visit a naval facility in Guangzhou.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group took a 15% stake in WealthNavi earlier this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2024

MUFG considering bid for Japanese robo-adviser WealthNavi

MUFG took a 15% stake in WealthNavi earlier this year
Simona Halep speaks to the media after a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne on Feb. 9.
TENNIS
Nov 29, 2024

Simona Halep questions process after Iga Swiatek's one-month ban in doping case

Halep was provisionally suspended in October 2022 and later banned for four years.
In an interview in Tokyo with the BBC that was published on Thursday, Fast Retailing CEO Tadashi Yanai said the company does not source cotton from China's Xinjiang region.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2024

Uniqlo criticized in China after CEO says retailer does not use Xinjiang cotton

Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing, said it does not source cotton from the region, which has faced allegations of forced labor.
Should Trump-o-phobes emulate Ellen DeGeneres, the comedian and ex-talk show host, who has apparently bolted for Britain to avoid the incoming administration?
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2024

Do you dislike Trump so much you’d quit the U.S. like Ellen?

DeGeneres’s escape from Trump may look like a political statement, but she’s not really a desperate pilgrim in reverse, risking all for new beginnings.
Syrian jihadis in the streets of the northern city of Aleppo on Saturday. Jihadis and their Turkish-backed allies reached Syria's second city of Aleppo earlier, as they pressed a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed government.
WORLD
Nov 30, 2024

Jihadis and allies breach Syria's second city in lightning assault

The fighters took control of "half of the city of Aleppo" as regime forces withdrew, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
U.S. President Joe Biden with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in July 2022.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 30, 2024

Saudi Arabia abandons pursuit of U.S. defense treaty over Israel stalemate

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has again made recognition of Israel conditional on it taking concrete steps to create a Palestinian state.
Pete Hegseth, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be secretary of defense, speaks to reporters at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington on Nov. 21.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 30, 2024

Pete Hegseth’s mother accused her son of mistreating women for years

She said on Friday that she regretted the 2018 email and had apologized to him.
Lower House member Hiroaki Tabata holds a news conference on Friday in Toyama.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 30, 2024

LDP member reportedly tried to hide membership scandal

Hiroaki Tabata admitted during a news conference Friday night that his office had signed people up for LDP membership without their consent.

Longform

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