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Onosato will be making his <i>yokozuna</i> debut during the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament, which begins Sunday.
SUMO
Jul 11, 2025

Nagoya Basho shaping up to be another red-hot affair at new venue

With the IG Arena promising a far more pleasant viewing experience, anyone lucky enough to get tickets for the upcoming Nagoya tournament should be in for a treat.
Businesses who cater to fandoms gathered at Tokyo Lifestyle Week for the second annual Oshikatsu — Merch Collection Expo, a trade show devoted to fandom goods.
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Jul 12, 2025

Music idol and anime fandom merch is big business

Over 100 booths showed off the latest in acrylic stands, binoculars and cheering items such as glow sticks and flags at the second Oshikatsu — Merch Expo.
Evgeniya Mayboroda sits in the defendant's dock during the announcement of the verdict in her case at the municipal court of Shakhty, Rostov Oblast, Russia, on Jan. 29, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 8, 2025

The strange case of Evgeniya Mayboroda, Russia's rebel retiree

The 72-year-old's transformation from fan to critic says much about the state of today's Russia under Vladimir Putin.
After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
COMMUNITY / Issues / Longform
Jul 14, 2025

How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan

Remote work is reshaping how Indian professionals navigate life, family and identity in a post-pandemic Japan.
In a report Friday, Goldman Sachs economists noted that it’s reasonable to expect the Bank of Japan to start gradually selling ETFs in fiscal 2026 to minimize its loss and the impact on the stock market.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2025

BOJ finishes offloading bank stocks, bringing attention to ETFs

The BOJ’s holdings of the shares purchased from banks hit zero as of July 10, falling from ¥2.5 billion ($17.4 million) 10 days ago, according to its balance sheet report.
The house of the wife of the late Chizuo Matsumoto, the now-defunct Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult's founder, in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, in July
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 16, 2025

Tens of millions of yen found at home of Aum Shinrikyo founder's wife

Chizuo Matsumoto was executed in 2018 over a series of incidents involving the cult, including the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway system.
Egyptian wrestler Osunaarashi has some fun with children during a special Japan Sumo Association event in 2017.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jul 16, 2025

JSA’s 100th anniversary event is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for sumo fans

People in attendance for the celebration will get a chance to see the rare "sandangamae" performance and demonstrations of ancient sumo.
Mod's memoir “Things Become Other Things” chronicles his walking trips across the Kii Peninsula, surveying “a graceful end to a certain life cycle.”
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2025

Craig Mod's life in motion in a disappearing Japan

In “Things Become Other Things,” the longtime resident of Japan captures that grace that lingers in slowly vanishing countryside towns.
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Bangkok on July 9
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 16, 2025

Thai ex-PM Thaksin appears on stand in royal defamation case

Thaksin faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted in the closed-door trial in Bangkok, where he stands accused of breaching strict lese majeste laws.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron hold a news conference in London on July 10 after wrapping up a joint military visit.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2025

France and U.K. tighten nuclear ties amid questions over U.S. commitment

While France and the U.K. are taking a positive step for European security, the announcement is both more and less than it seems.
A statue of Park Chung-hee, the former South Korean dictator, in Gumi, South Korea, in 2016.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 17, 2025

South Korea retries ex-spy chief over 1979 presidential assassination

Park had ruled the country with an iron fist for more than 15 years when he was shot and killed by his head of intelligence and trusted aide Kim at a dinner in 1979.
Solar power more than doubled to 24% of Pakistan's energy mix in the first five months of 2025, becoming the largest source of energy production for the first time.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Jul 17, 2025

Pakistan's quiet solar rush puts pressure on national grid

Solar power more than doubled to 24% of Pakistan's energy mix in the first five months of 2025, becoming the largest source of energy production for the first time.
Kiyoshi Shibata stands in front of one of the rice paddies in Murayama, Yamagata Prefecture, where he produces the prefecture's signature rice brand Tsuyahime.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 17, 2025

Japan's rice farmers are confounded by Shinjiro Koizumi’s policies

Farming communities, a key base for the Liberal Democratic Party, are increasingly voicing their distress at how the rice situation is being handled.
Members of a former nurse’s legal team hold up a sign reading “Victory against the prefecture” after the Otsu District Court ruled in their favor on Thursday. 
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 18, 2025

Shiga government ordered to compensate ex-assistant nurse acquitted of murder

The plaintiff side argued the police officers who were in charge of investigating the former assistant nurse intentionally led her to make a false confession.
Mazda employees walk at the company's main plant in the town of Fuchu, Hiroshima Prefecture, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 18, 2025

Japan voters see little hope for tariff reprieve in carmaker Mazda's hometown

The economic engine of Hiroshima Prefecture faces U.S. tariffs of 25% on cars, a dispiriting prospect for an electorate already battling inflation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on June 26. The Donald Trump-ordered strikes on Iran, said to be an example of the “Trump Doctrine,” ignore decades of failed U.S. attempts to force adversaries to back down through short bursts of military power. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2025

The 'Trump Doctrine' is wishful thinking

The Donald Trump-ordered strikes on Iran, claimed to prove a unique “Trump Doctrine,” ignore decades of failed U.S. attempts to force adversaries to back down.
WNBA All-Stars Caitlin Clark (right) and Kelsey Plum prior to the All-Star Game in Indianapolis on Saturday.
BASKETBALL
Jul 20, 2025

Clark urges more pay for WNBA players as labor talks intensify

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert struck a positive tone with reporters, saying she felt a recent meeting with players had been productive.
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Jul 20, 2025

Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate

The debate over the damage sunscreens cause to the marine environment is heating up as some regions ban certain chemical ingredients.
In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jul 21, 2025

The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan

AI chatbots are becoming stand-ins for pets and partners — offering comfort, connection and raising new concerns.
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya in Tokyo on Sunday night
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

‘Japanese First’ Sanseito emerges as powerful force after Upper House poll

The small rightwing populist party led by firebrand Sohei Kamiya won 14 seats in Sunday’s Upper House election.
Commanders helmets are seen on the field during training camp in Ashburn, Virginia, in July 2022.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jul 21, 2025

Trump threatens stadium deal unless Commanders revert to Redskins name

The NFL team dropped the name Redskins in 2020 after decades of criticism that it was a racial slur with links to the U.S. genocide of the Indigenous population.
England's Jess Carter attends a news conference in June.
SOCCER
Jul 21, 2025

England's Jess Carter receives racist abuse during Euro 2025

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer posted his support for Carter on X.
A demonstrator holds the Mohawk Warrior Flag during a protest in front of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario against the federal government’s Bill C-5, as members of the Canadian Armed Forces fire cannons in the background during a celebration marking Canada Day in Toronto on July 1.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

Indigenous people in Canada challenge fast-track mine and energy projects

The tensions between the government and Indigenous communities reflect longstanding concerns over consultation and the environmental impact of mining projects in Canada.
Ichiro Suzuki will soon become the first Japanese player to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
BASEBALL
Jul 22, 2025

Induction of Ichiro has Cooperstown fretfully preparing

The star's entry into baseball's Hall of Fame could bring an influx of fans from far away.
England flanker Guy Pepper runs with the ball past Argentina fly-half Santiago Carreras during an international rugby test match in San Juan, Argentina, on July 12.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Jul 22, 2025

England players suffered racist abuse from fans in Argentina, World Rugby says

"While it is clear that an incident took place, we regret that the individuals responsible could not be identified," World Rugby said.
Yuriy Lutovinov, former minister-counselor at the Ukrainian Embassy in Japan, was appointed as Ukrainian ambassador to Japan.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 22, 2025

Zelenskyy taps fluent Japanese speaker as new envoy to Tokyo

Yuriy Lutovinov, former minister-counselor at the Ukrainian Embassy in Japan, could take up his new post as early as September.
Silver Dania, a Norwegian-owned ship suspected of cable sabotage in the Baltic Sea, whose crew are Russian citizens, in the port of Tromso, Norway, where it has been brought for investigation, on Jan. 31.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 22, 2025

Lawmakers want U.S. tech CEOs to address concerns about submarine cables

Washington has been sounding the alarm about the network of more than 400 subsea cables that handle 99% of international internet traffic and about threats from China and Russia.
Ozzy Osbourne performs with Black Sabbath as part of "The End" tour at Madison Square Garden in New York in 2016.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jul 23, 2025

Heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne dead at 76

Ozzy Osbourne, the legendary frontman of heavy metal group Black Sabbath, died just weeks after he had played a farewell concert.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to London earlier this month to meet with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer shows how a changing Europe and shifting global threats could let Britain move past Brexit and help shape a new European security order.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2025

Britain and Europe are changing together

Britain can help shape the continent’s new security order, so long as it banishes the Brexit mindset.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who is unable to satisfy his supporters’ demands for answers he can’t deliver, is now trapped by the very Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy he once promoted.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2025

Trump can’t put the Epstein genie back in the bottle

Trump now finds himself in the unusual position of trying to stuff the Epstein genie back into a bottle that he helped uncork.

Longform

"Shake hands with Lima-chan," a statue that shares the name of the Peruvian capital looks in the direction of Peru, where a sister statue, "Sakura-chan," is located. Erected in Yokohama's Rinko Park in 1999, it commemorates Peruvian-Japanese friendship.
The journey of Peru’s Nikkei: Finding identity in Japan