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Shu Yamamoto runs a ramen shop in the city of Hiroshima by renting a barbecue restaurant during its off hours.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
May 26, 2025

Off-hours property rentals take off in Hiroshima

The renter can cut down on startup costs for their business while the owner can earn extra income, though it means sharing responsibilities.
Tsuruha shareholders approved a merger plan with Welcia, which will result in an effective acquisition by supermarket chain Aeon.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2025

Tsuruha shareholders approve future merger with rival drugstore Welcia

Tsuruha, based in Sapporo, has announced it will integrate its operations with Welcia, the biggest force within the Japanese pharmacy industry, in December.
A broker in the city of Osaka displays a sign for religious corporation deals.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Jun 9, 2025

Religious corporation sales rising in Japan amid tax evasion concerns

There are increasing concerns that buyers may exploit the tax privileges granted to religious corporations.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (center), locks hands with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (left) and Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah during a group photo at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 27, 2025

As ASEAN touts unity, Philippines seeks consensus on South China Sea

Manila’s call on the 10-member bloc comes as the situation between China and the Philippines has turned particularly tense.
Evacuees stand in line to receive water from a water tank car at an evacuation center in the aftermath of an earthquake, in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 4, 2024.
JAPAN
May 28, 2025

Japan enacts legislation aiming to strengthen disaster preparedness

The legislation was compiled based on lessons learned from the Noto Peninsula earthquake in January 2024.
Silversea Cruises' culinary program takes guests on a rich gourmet experience at wellness retreat Zenbo Seinei, where the local produce is presented in an eight-course meal.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 1, 2025

Waves of umami: Awaji Island's culinary trove

Silver Nova, one of Silversea Cruises’ newest vessels, takes guests on a food excursion on the largest island of the Seto Inland Sea with an immersive gourmet program.
A notice sent from the Sendai Municipal Government to those denied entry to an after-school care facility
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Jun 16, 2025

Sendai faces growing waitlist at after-school care facilities

The Sendai government has been working to expand the capacity of such programs, but many of them are still full.
A revised pension reform bill that calls for a measure to shore up basic pension benefits passed the House of Representatives plenary meeting on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 30, 2025

Japan's Lower House OKs revised pension reform bill

The bill, which comes amid concerns over pension shortfalls due to Japan's aging population, is expected to be enacted later in the spring.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton is seen before the Monaco Grand Prix on May 25.
MORE SPORTS
May 30, 2025

Lewis Hamilton labels rumors of friction with Ferrari engineer as 'noise'

Hamilton said he and Riccardo Adami were learning more and more about each other and adapting the way they worked.
South Korea will hold its next presidential election on Tuesday. Whoever wins will have to confront numerous intertwined challenges head-on.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2025

South Korea faces a triple challenge ahead of its election

South Korea will hold its next presidential election on Tuesday. Whoever wins will have to confront numerous intertwined challenges head-on.
Members of the Japan Self-Defense Forces prepare to load boxes of medical relief supplies onto a helicopter in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in September last year.
JAPAN / FOCUS
May 31, 2025

SDF ramps up campus outreach amid recruitment slump

Officials say the initiative is an effective way to foster a stronger connection between the public and the SDF.
Artists offer their own interpretations of Japan's most famous monster at "Godzilla The Art Exhibition."
CULTURE / Art
May 31, 2025

'Godzilla The Art Exhibition' reimagines film icon as monstrous muse for modern art

The Mori Arts Center Gallery exhibition takes Japan's most famous monster beyond the world of filmmaking and asks nine artists to interpret the beast from their own point of view.
Yasuhiko Morine (left), Esperanza Morine (center left), Lydia Morine (center right) and Naoaki Morine on the island of Linapacan in the western Philippines on May 25
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2025

Some descendants of Japanese in Philippines still without Japan nationality

As this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the government is strengthening support for those seeking Japanese nationality based on their ancestry.
The Switch 2 is Nintendo's first new gaming console in eight years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 4, 2025

Nintendo’s Switch 2 console is finally here

The long-awaited gaming console hits shelves Thursday, with booming orders and tariffs making for a complicated debut.
Japan’s three megabanks are discussing jointly operating ATMs.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 4, 2025

Japan’s top banks consider teaming up on ATMs to cut costs

The banks are seeing whether costs can be reduced for tasks needed to run ATMs such as monitoring, security and cash transportation.
Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Jan. 28
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 8, 2025

Meta in talks for Scale AI investment that could top $10 billion

The financing could exceed $10 billion in value, some of the people said, making it one of the largest private company funding events of all time.
A woman near the Kremlin in Moscow on May 19
WORLD / Politics
Jun 9, 2025

Russian intelligence says it collects WeChat data. What does that mean?

The disclosure highlights the rising level of concern about Chinese influence in Russia as the two countries deepen their relationship.
Expectant parents Masataka and Saki Ohita look at ultrasound images of their unborn twins.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jun 23, 2025

Childbirth facilities disappearing from Fukushima towns

With just 26 facilities in the prefecture that can handle deliveries, there is concern that the trend could accelerate population decline.
Yoshiko Goya speaks of her wartime experience during an interview in Nishihara, Okinawa Prefecture, on May 23.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Jun 23, 2025

Battle of Okinawa 1945: Memories of fire, flight and loss

As an 8-year-old, Yoshiko Goya fled her birthplace with six other family members and relatives. In the end, only three survived.
Apple’s delayed AI rollout in China, hindered by regulatory hurdles and declining local popularity, may still succeed through a partnership with Alibaba.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2025

Can Apple salvage the AI iPhone in China?

Despite earlier reports that Apple Intelligence could launch in the country in May, the lack of a fresh announcement isn’t a total shock.
Morning commute traffic streams past the Meta sign outside the headquarters of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc, in Mountain View, California, in 2022.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 12, 2025

Meta taps top researchers from Google and Sesame for new AI lab

The new group is part of an ambitious, and costly, effort by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to gain ground on rivals like Google and OpenAI.
The first Lawson store at the time of its opening, in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 13, 2025

Lawson celebrates 50 years since first store opening

Lawson is now focusing on addressing social problems to carve out new roles in a steadily aging society, such as opening stores even in depopulated areas.
A 250-meter-long bus stop roof using perovskite solar cells in the city of Osaka
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 13, 2025

Government paper seeks to link next-gen energy tech to business opportunities

The white paper stated that Japanese products are leading the world in terms of their durability and larger sizes, which are key features for commercialization.
"In My Closet" by the artist Noumra is on display at Tokyu Plaza Harajuku's Harakado space until June 18.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 14, 2025

At Tokyo Pride’s first queer art exhibition, intimacy and resistance share the wall

A vibrant, community-sourced exhibition in Harajuku showcases queer art that spans the political, absurd and deeply personal.
The classic red brick arches of Tokyo’s first “gādo-shita,” built in 1910, are what most Japanese people think of when they think about commercial spaces under elevated railways.
LIFE / Style & Design / Longform
Jun 16, 2025

Revitalizing the space under Tokyo’s train tracks

Rail underpasses in big cities are being transformed into vibrant spaces for artisans, foodies and travelers — without erasing their past.
Shingo Kato, assistant manager at Homechigiru Driving School in Ise, Mie Prefecture, rides in a training vehicle with a smartphone equipped with the school’s translation app.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Jun 30, 2025

Translation apps help break language barriers at Chubu driving schools

Some driving schools have refused enrollment of foreign nationals with limited Japanese skills, sources have said.
With people growing increasingly wary of unknown callers and not answering their doors, more and more agencies and pollsters tasked with collecting data are using online surveys, though that comes with its own set of challenges.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jun 17, 2025

Faced with dwindling response rates, pollsters turn to online surveys for data

Problems with the new wave of online surveys include fresh biases in the data, confusion over questions that a computer cannot address and gaining trust.
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani at bat during the second inning against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jun 17, 2025

Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge dominate initial All-Star Game vote

Ohtani, who has amassed a MLB-best 73 runs to go with a.297 batting average, 25 homers and 11 steals, paces all National League players with 1,398,771 votes.
Citing challenges such as a declining workforce and rising costs, four major newspapers will discontinue their Saturday evening editions from August, in a shift away from a publishing tradition that has endured for decades in Japan.
JAPAN / Media
Jun 18, 2025

Four newspapers in Japan to cease Saturday evening editions from August

The announcements mark a shift away from a publishing tradition that has endured for decades in Japan, where evening newspapers had been a staple of the media landscape.
Protesters from the Socialista National Confederation of Labor, angered by China's actions in the South China Sea, hold a rally outside the Chinese Consulate in Makati City, Metro Manila, in June 2015.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2025

Beijing's peace message on South China Sea contradicts its actions

The four principles articulated in a recent Chinese paper are propaganda and concocted realities of communist thinking.

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