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A female soccer player controls a ball during a training session at the Golab Trust Sport Complex in Kabul, Afghanistan on March 10, 2014. Many women's soccer players have since fled the country after fear of persecution when the Taliban retook control of the Afghan government in 2021.
SOCCER
Mar 26, 2025

Afghan women players call for global support as they seek FIFA recognition

Many players from the Afghanistan women's team fled the country for fear of persecution when the Taliban took control of the Afghan government.
The Gateway Park at Takanawa Gateway City on Tuesday
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2025

JR's 'futuristic' Takanawa Gateway complex set to open in Tokyo

Takanawa Gateway City is a long-planned redevelopment project from JR East that integrates residential, commercial and cultural facilities.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba pose for photos before their joint news conference at the Akasaka Palace state guest house in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 27, 2025

Brazilian leader's Tokyo visit lifts ties to new heights

The two leaders have adopted a five-year action plan and a flurry of agreements as the countries mark their 130th anniversary year of diplomatic relations.
Osamu Murata (left), the acting chairman of nonprofit Ashinaga, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Wednesday. Ashinaga, which provides financial aid to children, conducted a survey among parents and guardians of recipients to determine the challenges they face.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 27, 2025

Japan’s single parents struggle to raise children, survey finds

Such households grapple with economic hardship, "time poverty" and social isolation, according to a nonprofit that provides financial aid to children.
Kimio Hanawa (left), an honorary professor at Tohoku University and chair of the Meteorological Agency’s climate change advisory panel, expressed concern over rapid warming at a news conference on Wednesday in Tokyo.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 27, 2025

Without new countermeasures, Japan’s temperature could rise 4.5 C by 2100

The warmer surface temperature would lead to 17.5 more extremely hot days per year and 46.2 fewer winter days, according to the Meteorological Agency and other institutions.
The Hawks' Ryoya Kurihara fields a ball during spring camp in Miyazaki on March 7.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 27, 2025

Incumbent Hawks face fresh challenge from rising Fighters in Pacific League

Flamboyant manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo and his up-and-coming Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters may finally be ready to pose a challenge for the favored Hawks.
Shogo Yamaguchi shares his love of traditional Japanese culture with an audience of nearly 2 million YouTube subscribers.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 29, 2025

Shogo Yamaguchi: ‘Traditional culture thrives in a peaceful society’

The Kyoto-based content creator shares travel tips and reminisces on the path that led him to where he is today.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the seventh inning of Los Angeles' win over the Tigers on Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 28, 2025

Ohtani and the Dodgers power past Tigers in Blake Snell's debut

Ohtani hit his second home run in the third game of the season as the Dodgers played at home for the first time in 2025.
At Japan's top cocktail bars, ice is as important an ingredient as any bottle you'll see on the shelf.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 30, 2025

The cold complexity of 'pure' Japanese cocktail ice

To some Japanese bartenders, the secret to a great cocktail lies not just in the mixologist's skills but also the quality of the ice.
Demonstrators gather in front of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, on Thursday, during a rally in support of Istanbul's arrested mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2025

Inside Turkey’s executive coup

After 23 years in power, and with Turkey’s economy collapsing, Erdogan knows that no election — even a rigged one — is safe.
BYD's Neta S is presented at the 2025 Bangkok International Motor Show on Monday. China, led by BYD, has become the global EV leader, while other countries, including Japan, struggle to keep up with the shift toward electric vehicles.
EDITORIALS
Mar 28, 2025

In the EV race, China's BYD is leading the pack

BYD’s strong performance reflects its dominance in China’s domestic auto market, the world’s largest and most competitive for electric vehicles.
Yuki Tejima, who runs the Instagram account booknerdtokyo, hesitated to try her hand at literary translation until she won an award at the International Translation Contest.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 29, 2025

Yuki Tejima's metamorphosis from bookworm to literary translator

An Instagram “bookfluencer” and professional translator for over 10 years, Tejima’s love of books was, strangely enough, a hurdle to working in literary translation.
Fluffy, low-hanging clouds generally have a cooling influence. They are big and bright, blocking and bouncing back incoming sunlight.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 30, 2025

Clouds changing as world warms, adding to climate uncertainty

Cloud behavior is notoriously complex to predict and remains a great unknown for scientists trying to accurately forecast future levels of climate change.
Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Mar 31, 2025

The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan

A growing industry quietly erases the final traces of those who die alone, exposing deep societal fractures.
Customers browse Amorepacific cosmetics at the store inside the company's headquarters in Seoul.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 31, 2025

Seoul overtakes Paris in beauty boom with dealmakers rushing in

South Korea last year became the top exporter of cosmetics to the United States, overtaking France, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.
A whirling dervish stands in front of Turkish anti-riot police officers during a rally in support of Istanbul's arrested mayor in the city on March 23.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 31, 2025

In Turkey, new technologies reinforce repression

People have been arrested in predawn raids at their homes after being identified from footage or photos taken by the police during demonstrations.
A clean-shaven Trey Cabbage poses during his introductory news conference with the Giants on Jan. 30 in Kawasaki.
BASEBALL / Sac Bunts
Mar 31, 2025

Giants' new players make strong first impression on opening weekend

A group of new faces helped the Kyojin sweep their season-opening series for the first time since 2012.
Damar Hamlin poses with students at The American School in Japan in Chofu, western Tokyo, on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Apr 1, 2025

NFL comeback star Damar Hamlin shares life-saving message in Tokyo

Hamlin’s comeback is bigger than football. It is also a vehicle for him to do something he has done his entire life — help others.
Rapidus is gearing up to mass produce semiconductors using 2-nanometer processes in 2027, which on paper would match Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 2, 2025

Rapidus begins pilot production of 2-nanometer chips in Hokkaido

The 2-year-old company aims to mass produce the next-generation semiconductors — vital for technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous driving — in 2027.
All eyes will be on Yuki Tsunoda as he makes his Red Bull debut at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Apr 1, 2025

No longer a 'bridesmaid': Yuki Tsunoda prepares for the Red Bull pressure cooker

New Red Bull driver Tsunoda tells The Japan Times he started to believe that a promotion to the senior team might never come — until it did.
A drone view shows a coffee plantation in Guaxupe, Brazil, on Feb. 17.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 1, 2025

Brazil's coffee farmers turn to costly irrigation to quench global demand for the brew

Most farms in the western part of Bahia — a new frontier for coffee growing in Brazil — are now irrigated.
The bus stop sign for the Ghibli Museum at Mitaka Station. The viral trend of AI-generated Ghibli-style images reflects both a longing for comfort in uncertain times and the ongoing debate over AI’s impact on art.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 2, 2025

For a brief moment, everything was Ghibli

ChatGPT will make almost anything Ghibli-ish, but it won’t draw Totoro.
Marine Le Pen’s embezzlement conviction and election ban intensify France’s political divide, challenge French President Emmanuel Macron’s government and set the stage for a far-right succession battle.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2025

Le Pen’s MAGA-style martyrdom is new risk in France

One big factor could complicate Le Pen’s pivot to MAGA martyrdom, however: The antics of Trump himself.
Wall Street stocks sank in early trading on Thursday, joining a global equity selloff after U.S. President Donald Trump's latest tariff announcement exacerbated worries about a trade war.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 4, 2025

S&P 500 suffers worst drop since COVID as tariffs rattle traders

The S&P 500 Index sank 4.8% — its biggest drop since June 2020 — to enter a technical correction again following a brutal global rout in markets from Tokyo to London.
Lawyer Shoichi Ibuski (right) speaks during a news conference in Tokyo along with Wayomi, younger sister of Wishma Sandamali who died in 2021 while in detention.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 4, 2025

Family of Sri Lankan woman who died in custody to sue Japan for footage

Attorney Shoichi Ibuski, representing the family, told reporters that the government's refusal suggests there may be “inconvenient information for immigration authorities.”
Bickering siblings Sota (Masaaki Nakano, left) and Akira (Hirota Otsuka) attempt to dispose of their father’s body in “The Brothers Kitaura.”
CULTURE / Film
Apr 10, 2025

‘The Brothers Kitaura’: A sordid tale of filial impropriety

Masaki Tsujino’s dark comedy of errors unpacks family dysfunction and middle-class mediocrity.
Workers build an expanded breakwater at San Antonio Port in Chile on March 13.
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 5, 2025

Rising seas test defenses of South American ports

The state-run port, which handles 1.7 million containers annually, is frequently lashed by swells several meters high as climate change wreaks havoc.
Honda Racing President Koji Watanabe says the carmaker's development on the next generation of Formula One engines is proceeding as planned ahead of sweeping regulation changes in 2026.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Apr 5, 2025

Honda looks toward its F1 future as Red Bull partnership nears end

Honda Racing President Koji Watanabe discusses the carmaker's past and future in Formula One as its Red Bull partnership draws to a close.
Military personnel stand guard at a nuclear facility in the Zardanjan area of Isfahan, Iran, in April 2024 in this screen shot taken from video.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 6, 2025

Iran seeks indirect talks with U.S., warns regional countries over strikes

Although Iran has rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's demand for direct talks, it wants to continue indirect negotiations through Oman.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs for Washington, at Palm Beach International Airport in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 7, 2025

Trump team rejects market fears, projecting defiance on tariffs

U.S. President Donald Trump’s top economic officials dismissed investors’ fears of inflation and recession, insisting a boom is on the horizon.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji