search

 
 
SOCCER / World cup / From the Spot
Mar 25, 2022

Battle-tested Samurai Blue eager for deep World Cup push

After perhaps the most unconventional, daunting and frustrating qualifying campaign in team history, Samurai Blue have qualified for a seventh straight FIFA World Cup.
Japan Times
SOCCER
Mar 25, 2022

American bidders ready for final round in battle for Chelsea ownership

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich put the club up for sale after Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted the U.K. government to place him under far-reaching sanctions for his ties Putin.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA
Mar 25, 2022

Hawks and Warriors set for battle to seize playoff position

The Warriors beat the Hawks 127-113 on Nov. 8 in their previous meeting. Atlanta had won the three previous meetings and swept the series in the 2020-21 season.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2022

Shionogi signs supply deal with Japanese government for COVID-19 pill

The government is considering buying a million doses of the drug, pending regulatory approval.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2022

SoftBank is seeking at least $60 billion in Arm IPO

Valuing Arm at more than $60 billion is a gambit for SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who acquired the business in 2016 for about $32 billion.
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2022

Tohoku Electric LNG tender shuts out Russian gas

Until now, traders haven't seen a purchase tender that has been so specific in avoiding the country.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 25, 2022

Coronavirus rules are swiftly falling away in Asia, with a big caveat

Many Asian-Pacific countries are dismantling thickets of COVID-19 rules at bewildering speeds, even though the omicron variant of the coronavirus is still raging in parts of the region.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 25, 2022

Russia’s war forcing U.S. to reevaluate revival of Iran nuclear deal

Two weeks after talks to revive the agreement were suspended, diplomats say it's not clear when negotiators might return to Vienna.
Japan Times
Special Supplements
Mar 25, 2022

Agon Shu festival focuses on wishes, hopes in difficult times

A man dressed as a yamabushi (mountain priest) picks up a wooden votive tablet that has fallen beside one of two huge bonfires. He makes a silent prayer as he holds it reverently in both hands before tossing it into the flames. The gomagi joins hundreds of other such tablets being cast into the bonfires...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2022

Tokyo inflation hits fastest clip in two years on energy

Consumer prices excluding fresh food climbed 0.8% in the capital in March from a year earlier, fueled by higher electricity bills and more expensive natural gas.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 25, 2022

New EU rules regulating U.S. tech giants likely to set global standard

Europe's antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager on Thursday won backing from European Union members and EU lawmakers for her proposal, the Digital Markets Act, to reign in firms' powers.
While the health ministry has been distributing educational material on blood donation to high school students since fiscal 1990, this will be the first time the campaign is extended to middle school students.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 2, 2024

Health ministry aims to educate middle schoolers in bid to raise blood donation rate

The ministry aims to have educational material on blood donation ready for middle schoolers in fiscal 2025 to encourage students to be future donors.
Shogi star Sota Fujii holds a board with his new title "eisei Kisei" after a match in Nagoya on Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2024

Shogi star Fujii becomes youngest winner of 'Eisei' status

Fujii gained the eisei Kisei status at the age of 21 years and 11 months by winning the title for five straight years, starting with his first win in July 2020.
Japan skateboarding national team coach Daisuke Hayakawa performs at a skateboard training area in Tokyo on June 12.
OLYMPICS / Skateboarding
Jul 2, 2024

Japan's skateboarding youth turn street culture into Olympic gold

National team coach Daisuke Hayakawa said that the number of skaters in Japan had tripled since the Tokyo Games.
Palestinian lightweight boxer Wassim Abu Sal ahead of a training session at a gym in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on June 22
OLYMPICS / Boxing
Jul 2, 2024

First Palestinian Olympic boxer fights hurdles before history

For Waseem Abu Sal, traveling abroad to train or compete comes with its own difficulties.
"Khaing," a former teacher with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), sits in a restaurant where she works after fleeing from Myanmar to Thailand to avoid conscription by Myanmar's military junta, in Bangkok on June 4.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 2, 2024

'Can't go back': Myanmar conscription exiles struggle in Thailand

Myanmar's junta says it wants to enlist 5,000 people a month aged between 18 and 35, but details are vague.
Ayaka Saito works on a lathe to make a part for a ship at Ena Seisakusho in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture. Saito, who has a 1-year-old child, takes comfort in the fact that her employer allows time off for workers for parenting duties.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jul 8, 2024

Special skills allow Fukushima mother to shine in full-time job

Her employer also lets her take time off to care for her child, a rare policy seen as pivotal in getting more women back to the workforce.
The focus on artificial intelligence comes as the Self-Defense Forces grapple with concerns about recruitment and its abilities to harness the power of new technologies.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2024

Japan’s Defense Ministry unveils first basic policy on use of AI

The new policy comes as Japan looks to stave off a manpower shortage and keep pace with China and the U.S. on the technology’s military applications.
U.S. President Joe Biden in the Oval Office in Washington. The idea that the U.S.-China hotline can bridge communication gaps during crises rings hollow.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2024

If a phone rings in a forest and no one answers, is it a hotline?

Hotlines allow states to talk in crisis situations. But China often doesn't pick up when the U.S. calls, raising doubts about the utility of the communications link.
No matter the outcome of the snap parliamentary elections in France, President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist project has failed to convince voters.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2024

Why Macronism failed

With a second round of voting in the French parliamentary election this week, no matter the outcome, Macron hasn't convinced voters that centrism is the way forward.
Economic security minister Sanae Takaichi speaks at a panel meeting on economic security information at the Prime Minister's Office last week.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 2, 2024

Takaichi gearing up for LDP presidential election this autumn

The economic security minister is set to deliver a speech in Tokyo on July 16, followed by ones in Miyagi on July 21, Okinawa on July 28 and in Hyogo on Aug. 3.
The Otemachi One Tower building, which houses the Norinchukin Bank head office, in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 2, 2024

Norinchukin is at risk of downgrade by Moody’s on bond losses

The unlisted agricultural bank warned last month that it may incur losses of ¥1.5 trillion ($9.3 billion) this fiscal year.
Honda has already announced plans to buy back up to ¥300 billion of its shares during the current financial year, a move that could help absorb some of the impact from the sale.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 2, 2024

Major Japanese insurers to offload $3.1 billion of Honda shares, sources say

The sale of shares of a high-profile company is the latest sign that the unwinding of cross-shareholding is gaining pace in Japan.
Sanuki Kagari Temari sold at a store in Haneda Airport
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2024

Traditional Japanese crafts catching on among tourists at Haneda Airport

Their delicate craftsmanship and colors are attracting many foreign visitors to a specialty store at an airport in Tokyo.
A firefighter in the aftermath of an attack in the Starokostiantyniv, Khmelnytskyi Region, Ukraine, on Aug. 6, 2023
WORLD / Politics
Jul 3, 2024

China can end Russia’s war in Ukraine with a phone call, Finland says

Finnish President Alexander Stubb's comments reflect growing frustration among Ukraine’s allies over China’s perceived support for Russia.
A boy injured in a stampede at a religious gathering reacts as he is brought to a hospital in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 3, 2024

At least 116 people killed in stampede at Hindu religious event in India

The stampede happened in a village in Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh, about 200 kilometers southeast of the national capital New Delhi.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’