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Every time Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda has made an announcement since taking up his post, that information has appeared initially not in the public domain, but in the pages of the fourth estate.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 2, 2023

Bank of Japan leaks are making an awful mess

Central bank decisions can move billions of dollars and with the BOJ, the closely watched outlier that it is, its conclusions have more impact than most.
Members of the international press gather on a hill in Sderot, Israel, with a view of the Gaza Strip, on Oct. 28.
WORLD
Nov 4, 2023

In Israel-Hamas war, recycled images from past conflicts can undercut true toll

Videos and photos of the conflict are competing with misappropriated depictions of unrelated tragedies.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa attends a news conference during the Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday. The Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas on Israel fundamentally changed the nature of this year's meeting.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 9, 2023

Dispelling myths about Japan’s ‘balanced’ Middle East diplomacy

Unfortunately, many in the Japanese media do not seem to understand what is really happening in the Middle East.
A man, who said he was jailed for two years, speaks on condition of anonymity in temporary housing for former prisoners in Tokyo. Criminal recruits in Japan are being "exploited and disposed of as pawns" by gang leaders, the National Police Agency has said.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 24, 2023

Why Japan's gangs are recruiting online

For Japan's criminal underworld, social media offers an anonymous way to connect with anyone willing to commit crimes to earn money.
Researchers eager to be hailed as the next world-changing genius may cut corners they shouldn’t — and that reflects badly on science.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2023

Science hype and celebrity culture make a bad pair

There is a broad problem of questionable research results being published in prestigious journals, with some prioritizing sensational findings.
Elon Musk waits backstage before being interviewed at the 2023 New York Times DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 30, 2023

Elon Musk says advertiser boycott may kill X

Earlier this month, Musk agreed with a post that said Jewish people hold a "dialectical hatred” of white people.
Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, is interviewed at the 2023 New York Times DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 1, 2023

More advertisers likely to flee X after Musk tirade at conference

Elon Musk unleashed a profanity-laced rant against advertisers for fleeing the platform and accused the brands of "blackmail."
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Dec 2, 2023

The entertainment story of the year is long overdue

As entertainment heavyweights Johnny & Associates and Takarazuka Revue are hit by scandals, hope for reform emerges with changing attitudes toward abuse.
Chinese influencer Li Ying used social media to help tell the world about last year’s protests in China. Now in exile, he has been threatened and lost his livelihood for his defiance.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 12, 2023

‘I have no future’: China’s rebel influencer is still paying a price

To some Chinese, painter and art school graduate Li Ying is a superhero who stood up to their authoritarian government and leader.
Media mogul Jimmy Lai, the founder of now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and one of the most prominent Hong Kong critics of China's Communist Party leadership, has faced a salvo of litigation since a wave of pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 15, 2023

China crackdown on Hong Kong in focus as Jimmy Lai goes on trial

Media tycoon faces possible life imprisonment on charges he colluded with foreign forces, including the U.S.
X owner Elon Musk
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 19, 2023

EU targets Musk's X in first illegal content probe

The probe will focus on countering the dissemination of illegal content and the effectiveness of measures taken to combat information manipulation.
The New York Times headquarters in New York. The New York Times has sued Microsoft and OpenAI for using its content to help develop artificial intelligence services, in a sign of the increasingly fraught relationship between the media and a technology that could upend the news industry.
BUSINESS
Dec 28, 2023

NYT sues Microsoft and OpenAI for copyright infringement

While OpenAI has been sued by prominent authors, the suit is the first challenge to its practices by a major media organization.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 8, 2024

Storage media from offices of arrested LDP lawmaker were found damaged

Prosecutors believe that Yoshitaka Ikeda or his staff damaged the storage media in an attempt to destroy evidence.
Elon Musk attends an interview in New York on Nov. 29.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 10, 2024

SEC’s ‘compromised’ account amplifies X mistrust, security concerns

The high-profile breach comes at a time when X and billionaire owner Elon Musk are seeking to win back trust from both users and advertisers.
Sony had been expected to benefit from Zee’s deep library of content in regional Indian languages and its dozens of local television channels.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 22, 2024

Sony sends termination letter to Zee over India merger

The entertainment giant cited conditions of the merger agreement not being met as the reason for ending the deal with the Indian media network.
Toshinori Yashiki, deputy director-general at the Financial Services Agency, urged lenders to pay particular attention to highly-leveraged borrowers.
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2024

Japan regulator will probe risks to banks from higher rates

The Bank of Japan is expected to make its first rate hike since 2007 within a few months, raising the possibility that borrowers will struggle with higher interest payments.
Photographer Robert Beck took the famous photo of Brandi Chastain celebrating the United States' victory in the Women's World Cup final in 1999 that appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
SPORTS
Jan 25, 2024

The Sports Illustrated cover, a faded canvas that once defined sports

Sports Illustrated's power to define sports discourse been steadily eroding, but it is hard to overstate the power it once had.
A test-firing of the submarine-launched cruise missile "Pulhwasal-3-31" at an undisclosed location in North Korea on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 29, 2024

North Korea tested submarine-launched cruise missiles, state media says

Kim Jong Un supervised the test of the missiles, which were identical to the strategic cruise missiles the North said last week were under development.
Following the death of manga artist Hinako Ashihara, X users are going in search of clues, treating the internet as a virtual crime scene — and appointing themselves the arbiters of law and order.
CULTURE / Wide Angle
Jan 31, 2024

The internet goes in search of blame after the death of Hinako Ashihara

To piece together what happened, social media users are going in search of clues, treating the internet as a virtual crime scene.
While online influence campaigns are increasingly common as powerful people and governments around the world seek to manipulate public opinion, experts tracking such operations say China is one of the biggest sources of such drives alongside Russia and Iran.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 8, 2024

Chinese firm behind ‘news’ sites pushes pro-Beijing content globally, report says

Spread over websites in 30 countries, the propaganda material is interspersed with news aggregated from local news outlets and Chinese state media.
Soldiers stand next to military vehicles in Yangon, Myanmar.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 14, 2024

Myanmar junta plans mandatory military service, media says

Some retired members of the security forces may also have to return to the army.
The National Police Agency conducted its first survey on social media-linked investment frauds and romance scams as the amount of damage from such cases surged last year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 7, 2024

Damage from investment and romance scams in Japan hits ¥45.5 billion

The figure was higher than ¥44.12 billion stolen in remittance and other special fraud cases, according to police data.
Left: A man protesting the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games clashes with police on Aug. 8, 2021. Right: An AI-generated version of the photo to the left is included to show the difference between real and fake images in news reporting.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2024

Stranger than fiction: How AI threatens photojournalism

AI images will increasingly replace photos of real events in news reporting, posing an existential threat to photojournalism's accuracy and integrity.
Several U.S. lawmakers along with TikTok creators hold a news conference to voice their opposition to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act in Washington on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 13, 2024

America’s TikTok addiction isn’t just China’s fault

If you’ve spent time on the platform, you will know how addictive TikTok is. With 170 million users, at least one in three Americans have accessed it.
TikTok creators gather before a news conference to voice their opposition to a pending crackdown legislation on TikTok in the House of Representatives, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Mar 15, 2024

TikTok bill sets up fight over free speech protections of U.S. Constitution

Opponents could argue it infringes free speech by preventing users from expressing themselves and businesses from using the app to promote their products.
U.S. lawmakers last week overwhelmingly backed a bill to ban TikTok unless Chinese parent company ByteDance divested itself within six months.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 18, 2024

Monsters, asteroids, vampires: AI conspiracies flood TikTok

YouTube tutorials show users how to create "viral conspiracy theory videos" and profit off TikTok's Creativity Program.
Mamiko Tanaka (right), wife of Los Angeles Dodgers Shohei Ohtani, arrives at Incheon International Airport on Friday ahead of the 2024 MLB Seoul Series baseball games.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 18, 2024

A mystery no more: What we know about Ohtani’s wife

No one in the sports world is receiving as much attention right now as baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani — that is, besides his wife, Mamiko Tanaka.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2024

Imperial Household Agency to launch Instagram account in April

The agency will post photos related to the activities of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako.
Myanmar's military high ranking officials attend a ceremony to mark the country's 78th Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 28, 2024

Myanmar army behind Facebook pages spewing hate speech: U.N. probe

In 2021, Rohingya refugees sued Facebook for $150 billion (¥22.6 trillion), claiming it had failed to stem the hate speech directed against them.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako speak with evacuees at a junior high school serving as an evacuation shelter in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on March 22.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 1, 2024

Japan's imperial family makes Instagram debut

More than 180,000 people have followed the Imperial Household Agency account.

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’