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Telecoms giant KDDI plans with Mitsubishi to take convenience store operator Lawson private could help it as it currently stands behind FamilyMart and Seven & I Holdings in a three-horse race.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 14, 2024

There are clouds on the horizon in Japan’s 'conbini-land'

Industry consolidation has pushed minor players out of the conbini game.
Motenashi Kuroki's smart new premises boast an eye-catching window display, aptly enough featuring a colorful display of ramen bowls.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 18, 2024

Motenashi Kuroki finally has a place worthy of its premium ramen

Naohito Kuroki has finally found a worthy location for his ever-popular, self-named ramen shop.
Police officers detain a woman during a gathering in memory of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, near the Wall of Grief in Moscow on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 18, 2024

Risking arrest, Russians mourn Navalny in small acts of protest

Bouquets at the Wall of Grief become a form of dissent in a country where such action could result in detention.
The Japan Tourism Agency plans to offer subsidies to develop travel products combining culinary and traditional cultural experiences in rural areas.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2024

Japan tourism agency to promote gastronomy tourism

As foreign tourists numbers spike post-pandemic, culinary travel has grown increasingly popular, especially among wealthy travelers.
Wim Wenders (left) co-wrote the script for “Perfect Days” with top advertising creative Takuma Takasaki. Japanese star Koji Yakusho (right) won best actor at Cannes last year for his performance as the film’s protagonist, a taciturn toilet cleaner in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2024

Oscar-nominated 'Perfect Days' is 'not about toilets,' Wenders says

The director's film about a taciturn cleaner who keeps Tokyo's public toilets spotless prompts reflections on urban solitude, community and growing older.
Michelin-starred tempura experiences abound in Tokyo, but some of the best of the genre can be found in the city's more down-to-earth eateries.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Top 5
Mar 3, 2024

Go old school with these affordable tempura spots

Once a plentiful dish for the poor, tempura has been dragged upward through the classes to become a dish beloved by all.
The pandemic forced Rene Redzepi and Noma to adjust their 2023 pop-up from autumn to spring. Later this year, the restaurant will be returning to Kyoto to execute its preferred fall menu.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 6, 2024

Rene Redzepi is bringing Noma back to Kyoto this fall

One of the world's best chefs just can't seem to stay away from Japan's ancient capital.
The Bank of Japan in January. The BOJ is monitoring wage trends closely for signs of a virtuous cycle linking higher pay with demand-led price gains.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 7, 2024

Japan wage growth beat forecasts in January, in fastest rise since June

The data comes as annual wage negotiations between firms and unions are reaching their climax, with the first results expected next week.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks during a news conference in Sao Paulo in February.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2024

BOJ bets swing toward March rate hike

Bets on the March 18-19 meeting are gaining traction.
Italian women are having fewer children — with some eschewing motherhood altogether.
WORLD / Society
Mar 11, 2024

Italian women are burying the myth of the mamma

Italy has one of the lowest birthrates in the world at 1.24 — well below the level needed for the population to sustain itself without immigration.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 12, 2024

Japan firms across sectors offer pay hikes of up to 12% in spring talks

Early wage deals with unions reflect a recovery in earnings from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as a sense of crisis over labor shortages.
Children play around the giant Squid King statue in the town of Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Feb. 27.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 13, 2024

Noto symbol 'Squid King' stands resolute amid quake devastation

Once criticized as "wasteful," the statue's steadfast presence has become a source of solace for local residents as they strive toward recovery.
Despite Japan's still-nascent domestic winemaking scene, wine drinkers in the country have long enjoyed an obsession with obtaining certifications around the beverage.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 17, 2024

What’s driving Japan’s love affair with wine certifications?

Studying wine is an extremely popular pastime in Japan — despite the number of students without a professional need to do so.
A closed McDonald's in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, amid an outage that affected stores in Japan and abroad on Friday. The chain resumed operations on Saturday at almost all of its outlets in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 16, 2024

McDonald’s Japan resumes operations after outage

The recovery comes after McDonald’s was hit by a system outage that appears to have started in the Asia-Pacific region Friday.
A closed McDonald's in Tokyo on Friday after a tech issue forced outlets of the burger chain to shut around the world.
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2024

Big Mac goes Big Tech — with a few hiccups

McDonald's reliance on tech backfired on Friday when an outage forced it to shut stores around the world.
High-end tourism is becoming more about the kinds of experiences that Japan's lesser-known places can provide.
LIFE / Travel / Longform
Mar 25, 2024

Can Japan lure the jet-set class off the beaten path?

High-end travelers are looking for sustainability, wellness and adventure when they head abroad. Japan hopes to deliver in places other than Tokyo.
Some 43% of Gen Z and 41% of millennials say they suffer from a flawed perception of their finances.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2024

'Money dysmorphia' traps the younger generations

Some 43% of Gen Z and 41% of millennials say they suffer from a flawed perception of their finances.
Two people try to take a selfie under the illuminated cherry blossoms in Kyoto’s Gion district last year.
PODCAST / deep dive
Mar 25, 2024

Sakura stories revisited: Getting in the mood for hanami

We are revisiting some past content on the science, economics and culture of cherry blossom season.
Joel Vaudreuil's "When Adam Changes" won the grand prix at this year's Niigata International Animation Film Festival, the largest festival devoted to feature-length animation in Asia.
CULTURE / Film / CULTURE SMASH
Mar 28, 2024

Niigata film festival showcases cutting-edge overseas talent

The six-day event dedicated to feature-length animation presented a lineup of stories that were psychologically rich and emotionally dark.
Inmates in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Centre mega-prison southeast of San Salvador on Aug. 21, 2023.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 28, 2024

El Salvador's two-year push has crushed street gangs but at a high price

Deployment of the military and police dealt a heavy blow to the structures of the gangs but at the cost of human rights, and poverty remains a major issue.
A mural showing Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani is seen on the side of the Miyako Hotel in Little Tokyo, downtown Los Angeles, on Thursday. The mural is by artist Robert Vargas and is 46 meters tall.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 1, 2024

Ohtani’s arrival brings hope and nostalgia home to Little Tokyo

In Los Angeles, home to one of the nation’s oldest Japanese American enclaves, rooting for the Dodgers is a cherished tradition.
Around 90% of China’s increased oil demand between 2021 and 2024 comes from chemical feedstocks, driven by the manufacturing of products such as those sold by fast-fashion retailers Shein and Tamu.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2024

China's Shein and Temu are driving oil, not Toyota and GM

The cause behind recent a surge in China's oil demand is not to be found in people's transport habits, including car use, but in fast-fashion clothing.
Workers prepare processed crickets at Hygente Technology in Shinjo, Yamagata Prefecture, in November.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Apr 8, 2024

Next-gen protein sources explored as meat replacements in Tohoku

While proponents tout the benefits of edible insects and plant-based meat, getting consumers to change their eating habits remains an uphill task.
World Central Kitchen’s damaged vehicle hit by an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday
WORLD / Politics
Apr 4, 2024

Strikes in Gaza and Iran show limits of Biden’s leverage on Israel

They draw scrutiny to the question of how much leverage the U.S. president has over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and whether he’s willing to exert it.
“Extremely Inappropriate!” centers on Ichiro Ogawa (played by Sadao Abe), a crude high school teacher who is chain-smoking his way through 1986. He accidentally ends up on a bus that turns out to be a time machine, which drives him to 2024.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / Wide Angle
Apr 5, 2024

‘Extremely Inappropriate!’ took a big swing. TV is better for it.

The drama — which features a fish-out-of-water protagonist and satirizes social issues — is the most divisive Japanese TV show of the year so far.
Yayoi Kusama’s “Pumpkin,” once the victim of high waves that dragged it into the sea, sits at the end of a pier on the south side of Naoshima.
CULTURE / Art / Longform
Apr 6, 2024

Why is the most exciting art in Japan so hard to get to?

Japan has a unique movement of public art projects and festivals that are a slog to get to — by design. A writer examines the country's “inconvenient art."
3M’s Cottage Grove, Minnesota factory had been churning out varieties of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS since the 1950s.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 9, 2024

PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ pervasive in water worldwide, study finds

The study of over 45,000 water samples worldwide found that about 31% of groundwater had levels of the chemicals considered harmful to human health.
Speculation has been swirling for months over the fate of Ito-Yokado, which was Seven & I's original retail franchise before it bought 7-Eleven and turned it into a large, successful business.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 10, 2024

Seven & I set to split 7-Eleven from original Ito-Yokado stores

Ito-Yokado was the company’s original franchise before it bought 7-Eleven and turned it into a successful business.
A soldier resting after returning from a front-line position in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region in November 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 12, 2024

Russian attacks on Ukraine stoke fears army near breaking point

Low on ammunition and manpower, Ukraine may soon run out of options in Russia's invasion.
In a Kyoto long past, the "hyakki yagyō" (100 demon night parade) haunted a sleepy corner of Kyoto. Now, one enterprising monster enthusiast has won a small batttle to keep the march alive.
LIFE / Travel
Apr 17, 2024

Kyoto’s demon night parade lives to haunt another day

Held this year on April 20, an ancient Kyoto monster march has overcome obstacles to continue going bump in the night.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami