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An elementary school teacher holds items purchased out of pocket for use at work, in the city of Hiroshima in June.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Oct 13, 2025

Many public school teachers pay out of pocket for work-related costs

Payments for expenses related to classes made up 58.8% of the cases, the highest rate.
Passengers wait for Uber rideshare cars in Los Angeles. A California jury says Uber is not liable in the first U.S. trial over driver sexual assault claims.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2025

Uber found not liable in first U.S. trial over driver sexual assault claims

The case was the first to go to trial out of more than 500 lawsuits consolidated in California state court.
The Pokemon mascot Pikachu wearing a Chicago Cubs jersey attends the Tokyo Series at Tokyo Dome in March. As the world rediscovers Japan, it’s learning that many preconceptions no longer apply.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 1, 2025

Is Japan finally back? That’s the wrong question.

Almost three decades after prices first fell into negative territory, they’ve now risen every month for the past four years.
Director Park Chan-wook and the cast of his latest film “No Other Choice” attended the Busan International Film Festival’s glittering opening ceremony where the film’s lead actor, Lee Byung-hun, served as host.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2025

Revamped Busan film festival turns 30 with expanded cinematic showcase

Since its inception, BIFF has been a launchpad for Asian cinema. This year, it grew bigger and brighter with a new Competition section, 90 world premieres and high-profile guests.
Anshul Chauhan’s Japanese film “Tiger” won the Hylife Vision Award for independent films at this year’s Busan International Film Festival.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 4, 2025

Japanese films win crowds but few prizes at Busan festival

From art house cinema to commercial hits, 24 films showcased Japan’s range at the 30th edition of the Busan International Film Festival.
Young people from Okinawa in the Kansai region dance during the first Eisa festival in Osaka’s Taisho Ward in September 1975.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Oct 20, 2025

Taking pride in its Okinawan roots, Osaka’s Eisa festival marks 50th year

The festival celebrating the traditional Okinawan summer dance was created for young workers to resist discrimination and reclaim pride in their roots.
Ryan Gander’s “The Find” transforms Okayama into the site of a scavenger hunt for coins that anyone is free to take home.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 5, 2025

Artists turn Okayama into Murakami-esque city of wonder

The fourth edition of the triennial Okayama Art Summit transmutes the sensibility of Haruki Murakami’s “1Q84” into an urban art program.
A member of the Chinese People's Liberation Army stands as a DF-17 hypersonic missile is displayed during a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Beijing on Sept. 3.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 5, 2025

The missiles threatening Taiwan

China is transforming parts of its east coast into a platform for potential missile strikes against Taiwan and the nearby seas as it eyes taking the democratic island.
A Xiaomi SU7 model electric car is displayed at the Beijing Auto Show in Beijing in April last year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 6, 2025

Porsche and Xiaomi face off over custom-model buyers in China

Xiaomi is competing for consumers who may otherwise opt for an individualized Porsche or another premium European brand.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako visit the Future of Life pavilion featuring androids and robots at the Osaka expo on Monday.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2025

Imperial couple make second visit to Osaka Expo

The emperor showed his fascination at an android modeled after Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), saying that the Japanese novelist "continues to live on."
The oil tanker Eagle S sails alongside a Finnish border guard ship and tugboat in the Gulf of Finland on Dec. 28. The vessel was seized by Finland on suspicion of damaging underwater cables in the area at the time.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2025

Russia’s hybrid war looks increasingly like the real thing

European officials are warning that Moscow appears to be “at war” with countries it hasn’t invaded yet.
Resonac President and CEO Hidehito Takahashi (front row, third from left) in Tokyo on Sept. 3 along with officials from companies participating in a joint framework to develop chipmaking equipment
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 8, 2025

Japanese chemical firms seeking partnerships over next-gen chips

Companies are taking measures with others, such as setting up a joint framework, to speed up the development of related materials
Bontan Ame candies are promoted at a convenience store in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward in August, with advertising slogans recommending concert and moviegoers to take the sweet with them.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Oct 27, 2025

Bontan Ame gains popularity for rumored powers to suppress the urge to pee

Articles compiling the locations in Japan where people can get Bontan Ame can be found on South Korean websites.
Abbi Pulling, seen after a W Series race, finished 17th in Formula E's rookie test in July. She was the highest-placed woman.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Oct 9, 2025

Formula E chief rejects idea of creating female-only series in motorsports

Formula E's Girls on Track, in its seventh year, has supported over 4,500 young people aged 12 to 18 in a sport in which women make up only 3% of licensed competitors worldwide.
Ghost of Yotei, the follow-up to 2020's smash hit Ghost of Tsushima, is a violent, vengeful and engaging romp through 17th-century Hokkaido that fails to stick the landing on its most sensitive cultural material.
LIFE / Digital
Oct 11, 2025

Ghost of Yotei’s bloodstained fun sidesteps Ainu identity

Set in Ezo (modern-day Hokkaido), the highly anticipated samurai action-adventure game contains familiar thrills but subpar substance.
This year’s World's 50 Best Bars list features bars from 29 cities worldwide, including debuts from Eastern Europe.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 10, 2025

Tokyo earns three spots on World’s 50 Best Bars list

Bar Benfiddich climbs ranks, but Hong Kong steals the show with Bar Leone making history as the first bar in Asia to be named No. 1 in the listing.
Jin Mingri, the head pastor of the Zion Church in Beijing, has been detained by Chinese authorities on "suspicion of the illegal use of information networks."
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 14, 2025

China detains prominent underground pastor in crackdown

Jin Mingri, who founded the unregistered Zion Church, has been detained on "suspicion of the illegal use of information networks."
Large self-deprecating advertisements for Fuji Baking’s Snack Sand products at JR Sendai Station
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Oct 27, 2025

After 50 years, Snack Sand sandwiches embrace their roots

The idea for crustless, sealed sandwiches came to the creator after his brother returned from the U.S. and mentioned the hot sandwiches he had seen there.
Tohoku University researchers say a band of underground solidified magma that collapsed may have supercharged the 2024 earthquake on the Noto Peninsula.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 16, 2025

Ancient magma may have supercharged Noto quake, Japan researchers say

The findings help explain why a series of small earthquakes over a period of about three years suddenly culminated in the magnitude 7.6 Noto Peninsula quake in January 2024.
Hisako Aihara looks at a photo of central Sendai taken by the U.S. military before the July 1945 air raid on the city, at Sendai's War Reconstruction Memorial Hall.
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Nov 3, 2025

How a family in Sendai narrowly escaped a U.S. air raid in 1945

While the city was reduced to ashes, Hisako Aihara and her family managed to evacuate in time thanks to a tipoff from a worker at a military facility.
Manabu Ohuchi (center, left) and Andry Fanambinantsoa Rakotoarison (center, right) check a medical device during Ohuchi's visit to the University Hospital Center Professor Zafisaona Gabriel in Mahajanga, Madagascar, in August.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Nov 3, 2025

Firm helps clinical engineers from Madagascar receive technical training

Together with JICA, the company is teaching personnel how to maintain medical devices in the ultimate hope of saving lives in the impoverished nation.
Tokyo's Jimbocho neighborhood is a haven for book lovers, its rows of secondhand bookstores spilling over with printed materials.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 18, 2025

What does Jimbocho think of its unexpected ‘cool’ status?

The book town's residents weigh in on their home topping Time Out magazine's “coolest neighborhoods” list.
U.S. President Donald Trump attends the world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war and securing a
ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Oct. 13.
EDITORIALS
Oct 17, 2025

Trump’s Middle East breakthrough may prove fragile

Hamas is unlikely to give up its weapons. Its existence is predicated on armed resistance to the Jewish state and disarmed it will be prey to its enemies among the Palestinians.
Scammers are using AI-generated content of baseball stars like Shohei Ohtani to pull in users.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 20, 2025

Scammers drawing in fans with fake AI content of MLB stars during playoffs

Experts warn that this strategy of pulling in users can be used to grow accounts that are later sold or rented to more nefarious disinformation campaigns.
South Korean singer Chanyeol made his Japanese-language solo debut with the EP “Hibi,” which features six tracks inspired by his love of Japanese music.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 23, 2025

K-pop idol Chanyeol does J-pop his own way on ‘Hibi’

The South Korean singer explores his creative growth on a Japanese-language EP inspired by a desire to put his own spin on J-pop.
Tourists take pictures as cloud-clad Mount Fuji is seen in the background from Oishi park in the town of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Oct. 18.
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2025

Mount Fuji sees snow for first time this winter, 21 days later than usual

This year's snowfall came two weeks earlier than 2024, when snow settled on the 3,776-meter (12,388-foot) mountain only on Nov. 7, the latest since records began.
A South Korean soldier stands next to a TV broadcasting a news report about a possible summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, at the main railway station in Seoul on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 24, 2025

Stars align for Kim-Trump meeting — but any talks will be on N.K. leader’s terms

Experts say that while the U.S. president may look to return to talks with the North Korean leader, he’s unlikely to convince him to give up his nukes through summitry.
Kunio Komesu, a member of the Sea Turtle Association of Japan, at a beach in Ogimi, Okinawa Prefecture, in October
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Nov 10, 2025

Sea turtle eggs in Okinawa being damaged by waves due to coastal erosion

If the erosion persists, the three types of turtles — which are listed on the Environment Ministry’s Red List of endangered species — might stop laying eggs there.
Hikaru Kawase and the Hawks will try to finish the job in this year's Japan Series after falling short in 2025.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 24, 2025

Hawks motivated to take down Tigers after last year's Japan Series collapse

Fukuoka hosts Hanshin Tigers in Game 1 of the Japan Series on Saturday night — and is determined to finish the job this time.
Members of hibakusha groups collect signatures for the abolition of nuclear weapons at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Nov 10, 2025

A year after Hidankyo’s Nobel win, A-bomb survivors pin hopes on youth

While support for nuclear-weapons abolitionist groups is increasing, the average age of hibakusha has exceeded 86.

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