Search - :https

 
 
A man walks past a TV broadcasting a report about North Korea's failed rocket launch, at the main railway station in Seoul on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 24, 2023

North Korea fails in latest attempt to put spy satellite into orbit

Pyongyang said it would try again in October, after the failed launch prompted Japan to issue an emergency warning for Okinawan residents to take shelter.
A transfer student (Yuta Kishi, bottom center) hoping to find romance at his new school gets more than he bargained for in Toichiro Ruto’s manga adaptation, “G-Men.”
CULTURE / Film
Aug 24, 2023

‘G-Men’: Pop heartthrobs surprise in silly smackdown

Toichiro Ruto’s film about a class of delinquent high-school brawlers scrapes by with a passing grade.
Guy Perryman hosts the Tokyo-based "Guy Perryman Show" on InterFM on Friday mornings.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Aug 26, 2023

Guy Perryman: ‘Sound and rhythm are ingrained in our DNA’

Radio personality Guy Perryman says around 99% of his audience consists of Japanese people who want to listen to English content.
Koji Suzuki rides on his surfboard in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2023

Fukushima surfer hangs loose about treated water release

Koji Suzuki, 68, fled the tsunami in his car but was back riding the waves off Minamisoma four months after the disaster.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 26, 2023

With Prigozhin’s death, Putin projects a message of power

The Kremlin appears to be sending the signal that no degree of effectiveness can protect someone from punishment for disloyalty.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 31, 2023

Japan announces new fishing industry aid after China ban

The new aid follows a ¥30 billion fund aimed at countering reputational damage. Another ¥50 billion had been earmarked to support the fishing industry.
Items from the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake are on display at the memorial museum in Yokoamicho Park in Tokyo. Here, a warped clock is frozen minutes after the quake struck at 11:58 a.m. on Sept. 1, 1923.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 31, 2023

The Great Kanto Earthquake: A wall of fire, a picture of hell

On Sept. 1, 1923, a massive earthquake struck off the coast of Kanagawa Prefecture. It came to be defined by fire and vigilantism.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 1, 2023

China banned seafood from Japan. Some tourists are eating it in Tokyo.

Travelers from China seem largely unfazed despite the ban, with many local seafood restaurants seeing little impact so far.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 1, 2023

Rapidus breaks ground on key Hokkaido chip factory

Rapidus aims to position itself as a prominent worldwide supplier of cutting-edge 2-nanometer-wide semiconductors.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 2, 2023

Nihon University suspends football team over cannabis allegations

Tokyo police searched the team's dormitory on Aug. 22, after more players were suspected of possessing cannabis, investigative sources said.
Children learn about nature on one of Odyssey's fishing trips in 2022.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Sep 6, 2023

After 3/11, an environment education rethink takes shape in Japan

The thinking behind Odyssey is that interacting with nature will foster an ability to think critically about current socioenvironmental issues.
The typical priority seat section on a Japanese train will be well marked in numerous languages.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 8, 2023

The priority seats: Are they fair game on an empty train?

Japan is a society with many unspoken rules. Are you aware of the norms that govern your place of business?
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 9, 2023

Japan top diplomat makes first visit to Ukraine since war's start

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi met with a number of high-ranking officials in Kyiv, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A paramilitary parade is held in Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square to mark the 75th founding anniversary of North Korea in this photo released Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 9, 2023

North Korea stages paramilitary parade on founding anniversary

The 75th anniversary parade was attended by leader Kim Jong Un and a slew of high-ranking Chinese and Russian officials.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with U.S. President Joe Biden upon his arrival at the Bharat Mandapam convention center for the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 11, 2023

At G20 summit, India sought to loosen China’s grip on Global South

The U.S. and other G7 members stayed largely in the background at the gathering, allowing India to take a global leadership role.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves as he departs by train from Pyongyang for a visit to Russia in this image released Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 12, 2023

North Korea's Kim arrives in Russia for talks with Putin

Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia aboard his luxury armored train Tuesday, with a possible arms deal likely at the top of the meeting's agenda.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 12, 2023

More companies move away from Johnny’s over sex abuse scandal

Many firms say they won't work with the agency again until it hears how Johnny's will help the victims and prevent further incidents.
Russian President Vladimir Putin greets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Vostochny Сosmodrome in Russia's far eastern Amur region on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 13, 2023

At talks, Putin tells Kim Russia could help North Korea build satellites

Kim Jong Un met Russian President Vladimir Putin amid warnings by the U.S. against a possible arms deal that the two leaders were reportedly seeking.
Passengers wait for their train in front of a TV broadcasting a news report on North Korea firing a ballistic missile, at the main railway station in Seoul in July.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 13, 2023

North Korea fires off two ballistic missiles as Kim visits Russia

Both missiles appeared to have landed outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its coast.
Arata Oshima follows the events of Sept. 27, 2022 — the day of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s funeral — to capture the state of the nation in the documentary, “The Day of the State Funeral.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 14, 2023

‘The Day of the State Funeral’ bears witness to the end of the Abe era

Arata Oshima’s documentary about the official send-off for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is a portrait of a nation adrift.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Sep 16, 2023

Rugby turns 200: A history of the sport in Japan

As the sport of rugby turns 200, Japan hopes to celebrate its own success in a game that first arrived in the 1860s.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accompanied by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and other officials, inspects a Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile put on display at the Knevichi aerodrome near Vladivostok, Russia, on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 16, 2023

North Korea's Kim gets close-up look at Russian hypersonic missiles

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was given a close-up look at Russia's powerful Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and a tour of one of its a warships.
A Taiwanese pilot runs toward an F-16V fighter jet for an evening take off as part of a combat readiness mission at the airbase in Hualien, Taiwan, in August last year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 18, 2023

Taiwan detects 'recent high' 103 Chinese warplanes near island

The incident happened hours after China's top envoy told the U.S. national security adviser that Taiwan is "the first red line that must not be crossed."
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday after a major reshuffle of his Cabinet.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 18, 2023

Japan voters unhappy with Kishida's price policies, poll shows

About 77% of respondents to the survey said they didn’t rate his price policies positively, compared with 17% who said they did.
A Philippine Coast Guard member cuts a rope connecting a floating barrier that was installed near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, in this undated photo released late Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 26, 2023

Philippines removes floating barrier in South China Sea

Manila said Tuesday said it had conducted “a special operation” to remove a 300-meter floating barrier installed by China.
Members of the United Auto Workers pickett outside of the Michigan Parts Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 27, 2023

Japanese automakers stand to gain from Detroit’s labor strike

Many firms receive a large percentage of their overall revenue from U.S. markets, so the labor action there may give a tailwind to Japanese carmakers.
A screen in a shopping area in Beijing broadcasts news footage of military drills by China's People's Liberation Army around Taiwan on Aug. 19.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 27, 2023

China says drills near Taiwan target 'arrogance' of separatists

Taiwan has said this month that it had observed dozens of fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships operating nearby.
A Chinese coast guard vessel (rear center) shadows Philippine fishing boats anchored near the Chinese-controlled Scarborough Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea on Sept. 21.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 27, 2023

China's coast guard pursue Filipino fisherman in disputed waters

Since 2012, China has deployed vessels to block or restrict access to a fishing ground that has been tapped by generations of Filipinos.
Johnny & Associates' outgoing head Julie Keiko Fujishima and its new chief, Noriyuki Higashiyama, bow to express their apology during a news conference in Tokyo last month.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2023

Johnny's looks toward a revamp as it seeks to salvage tarnished brand

Recent attempts to distance the agency from the long shadow of its namesake have been met with public backlash.
Philippine Coast Guard personnel retrieve the body of a crew member of a Filipino fishing boat on Wednesday. Three fishermen are dead after their boat was "rammed" by a foreign commercial vessel in the South China Sea, the Philippine Coast Guard said on October 4.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 4, 2023

Three Filipino fishermen dead after boat 'rammed' in South China Sea

Manila said the vessel that collided with the boat in the flash point waterway was an oil tanker registered under the flag of the Marshall Islands.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan