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U.S. President Donald Trump greets Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the tarmac after they arrived for a meeting on Ukraine at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 17, 2025

European leaders to join Zelenskyy for key meeting with Trump

The move comes as European nations shift their focus toward providing Ukraine with robust security guarantees as Trump pushes for a quick peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv.
A third-party probe into the Fuji TV scandal had reported about a dinner hosted by an executive attended by “a powerful male cast member,” since revealed to be singer and actor Masaharu Fukuyama.
JAPAN / Media
Aug 19, 2025

Masaharu Fukuyama admits to attending Fuji TV dinner

The singer-actor said he was the “powerful male cast member” referenced by a third-party panel investigating the broadcaster, but denied involvement in any harassment.
A worker displays a handful of shredded hard drive pieces for e-waste processing at a facility in Festac, Nigeria, in 2020.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 21, 2025

Urban mining eases the critical minerals crunch 

Governments are waking up to the potential of e-waste recycling, and Japan is leading the way.
A-Style President Kenichiro Kawakami applies a heat-shielding film to a window.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Aug 25, 2025

For this Fukuoka company president, preventing heatstroke is personal

Kenichiro Kawakami lost his mother to heatstroke in 2017, inspiring him to launch the service of applying heat-shielding films to windows.
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hand with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as they meet to negotiate for an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, last week.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 22, 2025

Was Trump’s Russia-Ukraine summit doomed from the beginning?

Negotiations are doomed to fail if you neglect both reality and standard practices that must never be ignored.
Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a news conference in New York in July 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 23, 2025

U.S. Justice Department releases Ghislaine Maxwell transcripts

The accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein said U.S. President Donald Trump was friendly with the convicted sex offender but was "never inappropriate with anybody."
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a news conference following their meeting to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 23, 2025

With no Ukraine peace deal, Trump again threatens Russia sanctions

U.S. President Donald Trump renewed the threat, if there is no progress toward a peaceful settlement in Ukraine in two weeks, amid frustration with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Hiroyuki Adachi, managing director of Shelter, a wooden architecture construction firm in Yamagata, speaks during a seminar in Sendai in July.
BUSINESS / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Sep 1, 2025

Wooden high-rise buildings increasing in Tohoku amid decarbonization trend

Major real estate developers and construction companies are focusing on wood, pushed by legislation and systems encouraging the use of domestically produced lumber.
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Sep 8, 2025

Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service

Hotels hit by labor shortage hope to reduce their burden, while restaurants and the local community aim to attract more visitors.
Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook attends the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's 2025 Jackson Hole economic symposium, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 26, 2025

Trump to fire Fed board's first African-American woman over mortgage allegations

The unprecedented step could test the boundaries of presidential power over the independent monetary policy body should it be challenged in court.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba arrives at a photo session for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa reacts, in Yokohama, last week.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 26, 2025

Misinformation over JICA’s Africa ‘hometown’ initiative sparks controversy

Media reports claiming the initiative would include a special visa category for skilled Africans who want to come to Japan exacerbated the confusion.
Lisa Cook (right) is sworn in to become a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by Powell, at the central bank's headquarters in Washington on May 23. Trump this week said he is firing Cook over alleged improprieties in obtaining mortgage loans.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Aug 27, 2025

Fed's credibility is an asset whose decline could be costly

Once eroded, markets will see monetary policy decisions from the central bank as likely to be more politically motivated.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang addresses the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 26, where he emphasized “the deep integration of AI with the real economy” and its relevance to daily applications.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2025

Al and our brave new world of ‘weaponized interdependence’

In the U.S.-China race for AI dominance, failure is not an option.
Nadia, a military radio operator who served until she was eight and a half months pregnant, with her son Pavlo, 6, at their home in Lubny, Ukraine, on Jan. 28.
WORLD
Aug 28, 2025

Expecting on the front lines: Motherhood in Ukraine’s military

Despite the hardships they face, many pregnant soldiers say they are motivated to serve for the future of Ukraine — and their children.
Hidetada Yoshida, 95, speaks of his experience mining for uranium ores in Fukushima Prefecture during World War II.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Sep 22, 2025

Memories of man's WWII mining experience are hazy, but pain persists

As a student mobilized to mine ores, Hidetada Yoshida, now 95, suffered an injury so severe it still wakes him at night.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greet one another at the start of a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington in February.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 31, 2025

The Nobel Prize and a testy phone call: How the Trump-Modi relationship unraveled

The fallout of a disputed between the two leaders risks pushing India closer to American adversaries in Beijing and Moscow.
Voters look at posters of candidates for an Upper House election outside a polling station in Tokyo on July 20. The young abandoned the ruling Liberal Democratic Party for other conservative and newer parties in the recent poll. REUTERS
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 31, 2025

What is a ‘Japanese conservative’ in this day and age?

My view is that younger voters saw the LDP as a group of elderly, self-absorbed elitists who were out of touch with the issues that mattered to them.
A boy mourns his father, who was killed in a strike in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, on May 15. Israel's military action in Gaza has killed about 63,000 people.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 2, 2025

Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, scholars' association says

Israel's Foreign Ministry called the statement disgraceful and "entirely based on Hamas' campaign of lies."
U.s. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore in June 2018. Trump approved a 2019 Navy SEAL operation to plant a listening device in North Korea, a mission that unraveled amid a series of mistakes and resulted in the SEALs killing North Korean civilians.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 6, 2025

How a top secret SEAL Team 6 mission into North Korea fell apart

The 2019 operation, greenlit by President Donald Trump, sought a strategic edge. It left unarmed North Koreans dead.
Indian Ambassador to Japan Sibi George is interviewed in Tokyo in August.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2025

Departing Indian envoy calls Japan 'steadfast partner'

He underscored the significance of the two nations revising a joint declaration on security cooperation for the first time in 17 years.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has responded cautiously to a possible warming in relations with the U.S. following weeks of tensions over tariffs.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 8, 2025

India proceeds with caution after Trump softens his rhetoric

U.S. President Donald Trump called his Indian counterpart a "great prime minister” and said he would always be friends with him amid tensions over tariffs.
Kansas City Chiefs' Travis Kelce kisses partner — now finacee — Taylor Swift as they celebrate after his team won Super Bowl LVIII in 2024.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 10, 2025

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s announcement hits all the right notes in Japan

Japanese culture is in the depths of a nostalgia wave, and the engagement announcement for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce fits in with it nicely.
A Self-Defense Forces officer tries driving a passenger bus during an internship session in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Oct 6, 2025

Bus and taxi firms look to retiring SDF members to fill driver shortage

Many SDF officers retire in their mid-50s, and most of them hold a driver’s license for large vehicles, creating the potential for them to work as drivers.
Defending champion javelin thrower Haruka Kitaguchi is likely to be the center of attention for Japanese fans during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
SPORTS / Athletics
Sep 12, 2025

10 stars to look out for at the 2025 World Athletics Championships

The world championships are back in Tokyo for the first time since 1991.
A university student delivers a speech during protests in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sept. 4. Gig workers joined students and laborers in protests that forced lawmakers to scale back official perks and oust some politicians from parliament.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 16, 2025

More protests planned as anger sweeps Indonesia’s gig drivers

Poorly paid and largely uninsured, gig workers are increasingly angry at the government over its failure to create enough jobs for the country’s workforce.
Japan’s high-tech toilets, from bidets to innovative public lavatories, offer a unique lens through which to explore the country’s culture, technology and even soft power.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 16, 2025

‘Perfect Days’ spent pondering the Japanese potty

The Japanese toilet is an engineering and technological marvel that transforms daily ablutions.
Ukrainan Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga (right) and his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski (center) look at drones as they visit an exhibition showcasing Ukrainian unmanned vehicles in Kyiv on Sept. 12.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 17, 2025

Trump's public shrug over drone incursion in Poland fuels unease in Europe

Many NATO members already question U.S. President Donald Trump's commitment to their defense in the event of an actual Russian attack.
Itsumi Tanaka smiles as she is complimented during lunchtime at Grandma’s Cafe in the city of Fukuoka.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Sep 29, 2025

‘Grandma’s Cafe’ offers purpose and income for elderly

A company in Fukuoka Prefecture is operating unique eateries where elderly women, some with dementia, welcome guests with homestyle cooking.
A woman walks past the poster of Lee Sang-il’s kabuki drama "Kokuho" outside a cinema in Tokyo's Roppongi district.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Sep 18, 2025

From high risk to record-breaker, ‘Kokuho’ defied expectations to become a megahit

Lee Sang-il's three-hour kabuki drama overcame doubts over subject matter to find its audience.
Candidates take part in the Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership race in September 2024 at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, including many of the contenders for next month’s contest. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 19, 2025

LDP candidates through a 'Japanese conservative' lens

The three key elements of Japanese conservatism are preserving national identity and traditions, sustaining the imperial succession and affirming the Self-Defense Forces’ role.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building