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People walk past a damaged wall at the West Kowloon Regional Police Headquarters following Typhoon Saola in Hong Kong on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 2, 2023

Typhoon Saola weakens but still a threat in southern China

Saola had triggered Hong Kong's highest threat level on Friday evening — issued only 16 times since World War II.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel talks to local fishermen on Thursday to show his support for the water discharge from the nearby Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 5, 2023

Fukushima water disposal is leadership opportunity for Japan

Some 1,000 storage tanks that hold the water are almost full and more tanks can’t be installed as they would interfere with the plant’s decommissioning.
The seat reserved for Myanmar is left empty during the retreat session of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Jakarta on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 5, 2023

ASEAN leaders meet at summit dominated by Myanmar crisis

The Philippines has said it is ready to replace the Myanmar's junta rulers as chair of the bloc in 2026.
A joint study by consultant McKinsey and data firm NielsenIQ earlier this year found that 78% of U.S. consumers say a sustainable lifestyle is important to them.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Sep 8, 2023

Shoppers say they want sustainable goods, but won't pay more

When push comes to shove, manufacturers sometimes find consumers aren't buying their sustainable products.
More cooks are pursuing careers in cooking for wealthy clients, but the glitz that makes it into viral TikTok videos isn’t always the whole picture.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 10, 2023

Private chefs toe the line between occupation and isolation

A new chapter in the age of food celebrity is unfolding online as more cooks take up careers as private chefs and go public with the perks of the job.
A woman in front of her earthquake-damaged house in the old city in Marrakesh on Saturday
WORLD
Sep 10, 2023

Death toll of powerful Morocco earthquake exceeds 2,000

Near the epicenter of the country's deadliest quake in more than six decades, Moroccan earthquake survivors prepare to spend a night outside.
Fukuoka, known for its outdoor food stalls, is a popular destination for Japanese tourists, but now it's starting to draw more international travelers, too.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 9, 2023

Beyond its yatai, Fukuoka hosts travel pleasures aplenty

Tourists come for the city’s lauded cuisine, its casual atmosphere, vibrant arts and nightlife scenes and temperate climate.tk
Mohamed Sebbagh, 66, stands in front of his destroyed house on Sunday, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, in Amizmiz, Morocco.
WORLD / Society
Sep 11, 2023

Morocco survivors seek aid as earthquake toll passes 2,100

Relief workers face the challenge of reaching hard-hit villages in the High Atlas, where settlements are often remote and where many houses crumbled.
The incoming and outgoing presidents of Johnny & Associates, Noriyuki Higashiyama and Julie Keiko Fujishima, bow at a press conference on Sept. 7.
PODCAST / deep dive
Sep 14, 2023

Johnny’s talent agency has admitted to a past of abuse. What next?

Karin Kaneko joins the show to update us on how the story is unfolding.
History recorded the thoughts and actions of rulers and warlords, but what did the average folk think in that time? Were their days filled with angst, passion or poignancy?
JAPAN / History
Sep 17, 2023

Writers find a new muse in the 20th century: the ordinary person

The past at its very best spread its benefits thinly, leaving the masses to make the best of things beyond the reach of civilization’s light.
Visitors climb the slopes of Mount Fuji on Aug. 31. The mountain has long been a popular destination for both domestic and international travelers.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 17, 2023

Tourists have returned to Mount Fuji. Is that sustainable?

A spike in visitors has created various challenges, including overcrowding, littering, strained infrastructure and a shortage of guides and rescue teams.
A car sits precariously above debris in Libya's eastern city of Derna on Monday following deadly flash floods.
WORLD / Society
Sep 19, 2023

A week after floods, Libyans haunted by fate of the missing

Thousands are dead and thousands more missing. Officials using different methodologies have given widely varying figures of the tolls.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen (right) and AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda take part in a fan event in Tokyo on Wednesday, ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, at the weekend.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Sep 21, 2023

Red Bull's march to the title in focus as F1 arrives in Japan

The team will be looking to secure a second straight constructors' championship on the home turf of its engine supplier, Honda.
Leaves of marijuana plants from which hemp fibers are extracted at Japan's largest legal marijuana farm in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, on July 5, 2016
PODCAST / deep dive
Sep 21, 2023

Does a university cannabis scandal point to a larger trend?

A drugs scandal at Japan’s biggest university draws attention to a troubling statistic: Cannabis use among young people is on the rise.
British consumers have seen the price of a classic English breakfast — with ingredients like bacon, sausages, orange juice, baked beans and mushrooms — increase by almost 12%.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 21, 2023

Brits see cost of English breakfast soar amid food inflation

The total cost of a basket of goods needed to make the fry-up rose by 57 pence, almost 12%, to £36.15 in August.
Sogo & Seibu’s flagship store in Ikebukuro is closed due to a strike on Aug. 31. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 19, 2023

As goes the Sogo department store, so goes Japan

The number of department stores located outside Japan's 10 biggest cities has dropped by 30% in the past decade.
Katsuura in Chiba Prefecture — around 90 minutes by express train from Tokyo — has never seen the mercury climb above 35 degrees Celsius, a benchmark the meteorological agency uses to describe “extremely hot” weather, since records began in the city in 1906.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Sep 24, 2023

Japan’s endless summer pushes some toward cooler places

Amid a summerlong heat wave, more people are showing interest in moving to places like Katsuura that are known for their milder temperatures.
Women with portable electric fans in the Yurakucho district of Tokyo on Sept. 12. In Japan, Cool Biz became especially popular with women, who tended to wear lighter clothes and often complained about the cold temperatures needed to make business suits comfortable for their male colleagues.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 24, 2023

Where did all the dark-suited Japanese businessmen go?

Under Cool Biz, salarymen and government workers don short-sleeved shirts in the summer as offices are kept above 28 degrees Celsius to save energy.
A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) banner outside the party's state office in Kolkata, India.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 26, 2023

Modi's ruling BJP plots election drive of epic scale

Growing anti-incumbency sentiment is conspiring with a newly formed national alliance to pose what BJP officials say will be Modi's toughest test by far.
A worker in a factory that makes seats for BMW in Shenyang, China, on Sept. 11. China, facing an economic slump, wants to make its industrial northeast more productive, turning to policies that some economists say have outlived their time.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 27, 2023

Slowing and in debt, can China’s industrial heartland be revived?

The country, facing an economic slump, wants to make its northeast more productive, turning to policies some economists say have outlived their time.
China's COSCO Shipping Ports is the world’s largest shipping company and port terminal operator.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2023

China’s port investments and risks to national security

The gray area between domestic and foreign jurisdictions and private and state-owned enterprises should be cause for concern.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has overseen foreign policy successes during his two years in power, including on the nation's approach to development aid and climate change.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 28, 2023

Kishida's mixed bag of successes and shortcomings

Kishida has also been adept in terms of diplomacy in at least four areas: the war in Ukraine, the Taiwan issue, development aid and South Korea relations.
Mori Building's Azabudai Hills complex in Tokyo's Minato Ward, which will house offices, shops, apartments, hotels and a school, is set to open in November
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 2, 2023

While Manhattan’s offices stay empty, Tokyo keeps building

Remote working has decimated offices in cities like New York and London. But Tokyo's workspaces have bounced back, also thanks to new builds.
Sosuke Ikematsu plays two pianists — or is it just one? — pursuing dreams of becoming a jazz musician in late-1980s Tokyo in “Between the White and Black Keys.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 5, 2023

'Between the White and Black Keys': Offbeat biopic will have you seeing double

Masanori Tominaga’s free-spirited film about jazz pianist Hiroshi Minami captures the vibe of 1980s Tokyo nightlife but remains mostly on the surface.
Rows of sequins affixed to Faig Ahmed’s “Door to Yourself” gives the work its sparkle.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 6, 2023

Oku-Noto Triennale brings art into stark relief against rocks and sea

Taking place in the remote city of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, the contemporary art event's pretty program aims to instill pride in the local community.
The Singapore skyline
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 6, 2023

The rich are flocking to Singapore as bankers stick with Hong Kong

From Singapore’s earliest years as an independent state, it has aimed to be one of the key locales through which the world’s money flows.
Buildings in Xiamen, China, seen from Kinmen, Taiwan
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 6, 2023

Even China's closest supporters in Taiwan are turning wary

The shifting attitudes reflect a generational change, with younger people wanting to protect freedom and democracy.
A mother sits next to her daughter while she receives treatment for dengue fever in Dhaka on Tuesday. More than 1,000 people in Bangladesh have died of dengue fever this year, the country's worst recorded outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Oct 6, 2023

Bangladesh swamped by record deaths from dengue fever

More than 1,000 people have died this year in the nation's worst recorded spate of the mosquito-borne disease, with climate change playing a role.
Mysteriously suspended on the water of the Fugan Canal in Kansui Park, Hiroko Kubo’s “Mountain Dogs” (2023) are made from materials that reflect the industries of Toyama.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 7, 2023

An introspective Go For Kogei turns its attention to Toyama

The craft-art festival focuses on the historically industrial city to explore the Hokuriku region's crafts in an urban setting.
Dendrobium orchids — highly sought after due to their use in traditional Chinese medicine — growing in the wild in Nepal.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Oct 8, 2023

The orchid obsession: How science and smuggling meet in a global trade

Love of the flowers has a dark side, with the desire for rare varieties underpinning a robust illegal trade believed to have wiped out entire species.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes