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Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 12, 2023

U.S. to boost military capabilities in Japan and step up cooperation amid China worries

Tokyo and Washington agreed to deploy a more agile and capable U.S. Marine unit to Okinawa, ramp up joint surveillance operations and expand the shared use of military facilities.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2023

Samurai swords and ancient scrolls hit by global energy crisis

The Tokyo National Museum expects utility costs to more than double the budget allocated for this year ending in March.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Jan 5, 2023

Listen up! Podcasts can help with that perennial resolution to learn Japanese

It's New Year's resolution time, did you make yours? If you're looking to improve your Japanese listening skills in 2023 then these podcasts have you covered.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 31, 2022

Business is booming for TikTok tutors

Want to be a social media star? There are plenty of online teachers willing to teach you how — for a price.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2022

Fusion skepticism follows a century of genius, fraud and hype

Before we shrug off the latest fusion achievement as just another small step on a long road, consider the miles we've come since the idea of tapping the power of the sun was first conceived.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 21, 2022

Politics and Islam bring Indonesian compromise on criminal code

The so-called morality code is just one part of the legislative overhaul that the Indonesian parliament ratified this month.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 20, 2022

From 'zero-COVID' to no plan: Behind China’s pandemic U-turn

Xi's own formula for beating back COVID may have inadvertently set China up for this jolting and potentially devastating turn.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 19, 2022

China hints at pro-business push and support for property market in 2023

Officials have pledged to revive consumption and support the private sector, a marked shift from recent years.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Dec 16, 2022

Is it too late to save the Japanese giant salamander?

Environmental journalist Mara Budgen comes on the show to talk about the Japanese giant salamander, which is well-protected within Japan through various laws but is still at risk of becoming an endangered species.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 11, 2022

Recruited for Navy SEALs, many sailors wind up scraping paint

The high failure rate of the elite U.S. SEALs' selection course shunts hundreds of candidates into low-skilled jobs.
A rendering of the "big right whale of Sapporo," whose fossils have been found to be a new type of right whale
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2025

Fossils unearthed in Hokkaido revealed to be of new whale species

The fossil bones were first discovered by a local citizen along the Toyohira River in Sapporo in October 2008.
Articles in World War II-era women’s magazines emphasized their responsibilities in supporting soldiers and their roles at home bearing and rearing children.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Oct 6, 2025

Lingering ‘Showa Model’ gender roles keep women sidelined

The idea of husbands working while women stay home goes back to the prewar Civil Code, which stated that women were subordinates who required their husband’s permission to work.
Demonstrators protest at the port of Mutsu-Ogawara in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, in March 1997, as a British freighter arrives with processed nuclear waste, whose fissile elements can be 
fabricated into new nuclear mixed-oxide fuel.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 23, 2025

Could pacifist Japan ever arm itself with nuclear weapons?

It has always been a question of having the will to act and the belief that the U.S. nuclear deterrence commitment to Japan was beyond question.
The Sapporo Family Court on Friday ruled that a legal provision requiring individuals to undergo genital surgery to change their legal gender is unconstitutional and invalid.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 25, 2025

Court rules sex change appearance requirement unconstitutional

A court said that the world has made advances in medicine since the law was established, so genital surgery may not be necessary in some cases.
A Russian MIG-31 fighter jet flies above the Baltic sea after violating Estonian air space last week.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 26, 2025

Europeans privately tell Russia they’re ready to shoot down jets

NATO’s eastern members have faced a series of airspace violations this month that have posed an unprecedented test of the alliance’s resolve.
Liberal Democratic Party presidential candidates attend a debate at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 26, 2025

'Speed dating' — with an LDP twist

It feels like one of the speed dating events that used to be on Japanese television years ago, where the candidates court prospective partners one after the other.
Data storage tapes at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center facility in Berkeley, California. Data centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water, and that will only rise as generative artificial intelligence takes off in earnest.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Sep 28, 2025

Japan faces fresh energy challenge as it seeks to expand power-hungry data centers

The growth could have major effects on both Japan’s standing in the fight against climate change and its industrial competitiveness on the world stage.
Huawei Technologies is regarded as China’s best hope of weaning itself off the foreign chips that power the world’s second-largest economy.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 30, 2025

Huawei to double output of top AI chip as Nvidia wavers in China

The Chinese company plans to make about 600,000 of its marquee 910C Ascend chips next year, a feat that would represent a technical breakthrough for it.
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.
With the average farmer in Japan over 65, the agricultural sector, like others, faces the challenge of demographic decline as an aging workforce strains productivity and growth.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 30, 2025

Graying Japan needs both globalization and immigration

Japan has the highest ratio of elderly to working-age people in the world — over 50% — meaning there are only two workers for every person over 64.
Labor union members hold placards on the day of a rally in support of federal workers during a rush hour protest outside the L'Enfant Plaza Metro Station in Washington on March 24.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2025

U.S. government faces brain drain as 154,000 federal workers exit this week

The loss of expertise is making it harder for many agencies to carry out their work and serve the American public.
U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House in February. The next prime minister faces the dual challenge of managing a volatile U.S. relationship under Trump while addressing trade and national security concerns.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 1, 2025

Could the Trump factor be a wild card in the LDP race?

The ability to handle the Americans has been a core element of the prime minister’s portfolio.
An aerial view shows the contrast between the green zone and the desert landscape of the Kubuqi Desert, in Ordos, in China's northern Inner Mongolia region.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 3, 2025

China's 'Great Green Wall' brings hope but also hardship

While the project has been credited with "greening" over 90 million hectares, it risks erasing the traditional nomadic practices of ethnic Mongolians.
Construction is underway on a Project Stargate AI infrastructure site, a collaboration between three large tech companies — OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle — in Abilene, Texas, in April.
BUSINESS
Oct 5, 2025

Trump targets deals in pharma, AI, energy and mining before midterm elections

Washington is pursuing deals across up to 30 industries, involving dozens of companies deemed critical to national or economic security.
French President Emmanuel Macron has reappointed most senior members from the Cabinet of ousted premier Francois Bayrou in a clear continuation of his centrist policy aims.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 6, 2025

Macron’s continuity Cabinet risks another government collapse

Most senior members from the Cabinet of ousted premier Francois Bayrou were renamed to their posts in a clear continuation of Macron’s centrist policy aims.
Sanae Takaichi, leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has said that the government bears responsibility for both fiscal and monetary policy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 9, 2025

BOJ meddling by Takaichi seen as unwise and ineffective

It's her versus the markets and inflation-weary Japanese households.
A screen outside a Tokyo securities firm shows the Nikkei 225 Stock Average on Oct. 6. As Japan's financial markets reacted to Sanae Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party presidential win, much of the media's focus was on the falling yen, downplaying the surge in equities to record highs.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 12, 2025

Sanae Takaichi gets 'the Abe treatment'

Given that she is frequently labeled a "Shinzo Abe protege," the media coverage of her so far reminds me of how they reported on Abe himself throughout his second term.
A 1978 picture shows King Charles III, then the Prince of Wales, wearing a Barbour jacket as he attends a cross country hunt event in Cirencester, England. Barbour jackets can be worn for decades because one can get them rewaxed.
BUSINESS
Oct 14, 2025

This old thing? Why brands are hyping well-worn, heritage hand-me-downs

Shoppers, particularly Gen Zers, are becoming more attracted to used items, even paying top dollar for weathered jeans and jackets.
Masanori Murakami became the first MLB player from Japan when he made his debut with the Giants on Sept 1, 1964.
BASEBALL
Oct 16, 2025

New film explores how Japan and the U.S. found common ground through baseball

Baseball has been a shared love between Japan and the United States for over 150 years — a sport that has connected the nations despite disagreements large and small.

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