Search - shop

 
 
A Russian military vehicle heads toward Hmeimim air base in Latakia, Syria, on Dec. 15.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 3, 2025

Russia gambles to keep military bases in post-Assad Syria

Syria's interim president wants to renegotiate the 49-year lease for one base and an indefinite lease for the other to secure better terms.
Seven & I has spent months fending off Couche-Tard’s takeover bid with complex maneuvers, but instead of chasing defensive strategies, it should focus on strengthening its core convenience-store business, which still has untapped potential.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 4, 2025

7-Eleven’s time-wasting isn’t so convenient

Retail is a fast-moving industry — and months spent fending off Couche-Tard means less focus on strategy.
Qianmen street, Beijing, in March 2023. Though the immediate shock has passed, COVID-19's legacy continues to reshape global economies and markets.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 8, 2025

Five years on, the economic impact of COVID-19 lingers

Though the immediate shock has passed, COVID-19's legacy continues to reshape global economies and markets.
Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko attend a memorial service in Tokyo's Sumida Ward on Monday to mourn the estimated 100,000 victims of the U.S. military's air raid on Tokyo 80 years ago.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2025

Crown Prince Akishino joins in mourning victims of the 1945 Tokyo air raid

An estimated 100,000 people died on March 10, 1945, after about 300 U.S. B-29 bombers dropped bombs on Tokyo.
Artificial intelligence is set to disrupt white-collar jobs, making it crucial for knowledge workers to embrace AI, develop backup plans and adapt to an evolving job market.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2025

How to hedge against AI stealing your job

"Knowledge workers" need a back-up plan as artificial intelligence keeps getting better.
College roommates Yumi (Shiori Kubo, left) and Ruka (Yuna Taira) become close friends despite being as different as night and day in “Nemurubaka: Hypnic Jerks.”
CULTURE / Film
Mar 13, 2025

‘Nemurubaka: Hypnic Jerks’: Opposites come together with quips and dry humor

“Baby Assassins” director Yugo Sakamoto swaps action for emotion in his coming-of-age film centered on two college roommates with different levels of ambition.
According to the Nippon Bonsai Growers Cooperative, there were about 30 cases of bonsai theft last year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 14, 2025

Bonsai thefts sweep Japan as miniature trees grow more popular

About 30 cases of such theft occurred last year, according to the Nippon Bonsai Growers Cooperative.
Artist Adrian Steckeweh 3-D prints otherworldly clothes and accessories for himself, in a way augmenting his reality with tangible objects.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 16, 2025

Augmented reality artist Omega C navigates a precarious scene for XR art

Just this year, XR art featured heavily in the digital art festival Dig Shibuya and is the focus of the ongoing “Machine Love” exhibition at Mori Art Museum.
Kyoko Watanabe made a home for herself in Ishinomaki after moving there to participate in disaster relief efforts following 3/11, and now operates a business focused on the creative reuse of <i>akiya</i> (abandoned houses).
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 17, 2025

From abandoned houses to ‘creative communities’: An Ishinomaki entrepreneur's vision for rural Japan

Kyoko Watanabe moved to Miyagi Prefecture to help with disaster relief efforts following 3/11. She ended up building a company and a vision for revitalizing rural Japan.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer takes part in a television interview at the Capitol in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 15, 2025

Relief as U.S. Congress averts government shutdown

Lawmakers already reeling from President Donald Trump's radical federal spending cuts voted to keep the lights on through September.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei looks on during a meeting with students in Tehran on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 15, 2025

Despite tough talk, economic woes may force Iran to bargain with Trump

Behind the defiant rhetoric of Iran's leaders in public, there is a pragmatic willingness within Tehran to strike a deal with Washington.
Chelsea Shubert stops traffic for pedestrians to cross the road during her shift as a school crossing patrol outside a school in Chatham, Britain, on Thursday.
WORLD / Society
Mar 17, 2025

U.K. faces hard choices over soaring disability costs

Annual spending on incapacity and disability benefits already exceeds the country's defense budget.
The buildings sector consumes 32% of the world's energy and contributes 34% of CO2 emissions.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Mar 18, 2025

'More and faster': U.N. calls to shrink buildings' carbon footprint

CO2 emissions from the building sector rose around 5% in the last decade when they should have fallen 28%, according to a new report.
Visitors at Myoko Suginohara Ski Resort in Myoko, Niigata Prefecture, on March 5
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2025

Myoko ski resort area feels trepidation as foreign money pours in

Many locals fear Myoko could go the way of Niseko.
Behind Mixue’s growth is an army of franchisees. The company barely manages any stores itself. Rather, almost all of its revenue came from selling store supplies.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2025

How to make billions selling $1 lemonade

Behind Mixue’s growth is an army of franchisees. The company barely manages any stores itself. Rather, almost all of its revenue came from selling store supplies.
A college student (Mizuki Yamashita, right) falls hopelessly in love with a stoic yet kindhearted high school student (Ryuto Sakuma) in “My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999.”
CULTURE / Film
Mar 21, 2025

‘My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999’ shows that even stoic gamers can fall in love

Yuka Yasukawa’s sweet rom-com with feather-light comedy offers more than a pastel-hued romantic fantasy.
AMKK’s latest exhibition, “X-Ray Flowers,” is the culmination of seven years of work aided by CT technologists, who help with the highly specialized imaging techniques.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 21, 2025

Avant-garde botanists AMKK illuminate the inner worlds of flowers

The punk florists' latest exhibition immerses visitors in darkness, bathed only in the glow of X-rays and CT scans of plants and flowers.
Rengo President Tomoko Yoshino speaks at a Democratic Party for the People convention in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, on Feb. 11.
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Apr 6, 2025

Breaking with tradition: From the shop floor to fighting for millions

Tomoko Yoshino has rubbed shoulders with political heavyweights and business leaders as the first female leader of Rengo.
A bill calling for decency in election campaign posters is passed at the Upper House plenary session on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 26, 2025

Upper House passes bill calling for decency in election posters

The bill came in the wake of last summer's Tokyo gubernatorial election, in which posters featuring indecent content were put up.
Shogo Yamaguchi shares his love of traditional Japanese culture with an audience of nearly 2 million YouTube subscribers.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 29, 2025

Shogo Yamaguchi: ‘Traditional culture thrives in a peaceful society’

The Kyoto-based content creator shares travel tips and reminisces on the path that led him to where he is today.
Medical workers treat a earthquake survivor on a bed in the compound of a hospital in Naypyitaw on Friday, after an earthquake in central Myanmar.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 29, 2025

Massive quake kills at least 150 in Myanmar and Thailand

The quake flattened buildings, downed bridges and cracked roads across swathes of Myanmar, and even demolished a 30-story skyscraper under construction in Bangkok.
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 31, 2025

A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime

Since 2009, Ken Theriault has been keeping himself busy maintaining Costco's American charm and catering to the needs of the Japanese consumer as the wholesaler's boss in Japan.
Japanese desserts have been turning heads in recent months for a series world-firsts.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 6, 2025

‘Japanese pastry has matured into its own distinct identity’

“There’s been a shift over the years where Japanese pastry chefs are moving away from simply replicating French techniques,” says chef Koichi Katsumata.
Wall Street banks, under political pressure and tempted by short-term gains, are abandoning climate commitments and pouring billions into fossil fuels, risking both environmental catastrophe and massive future economic losses.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2025

Wall Street will regret helping the world burn

For an industry in the business of money, it sure has a funny way of ensuring its destruction. 
Bento boxes and other food items attract visitors at the Sera roadside station in Hiroshima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Apr 21, 2025

10 years on, Hiroshima-Shimane highway boosts logistics and tourism

The Chugoku Yamanami Highway has played a crucial role in regional development since its full opening in 2015.
Caddie Carl Jackson carries the bag of former champion Ben Crenshaw during the first round of the 2011 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Apr 10, 2025

Augusta National celebrates legacy of Black caddies at Masters

Until 1982, every golfer playing in the Masters had to use an Augusta National caddie.
A vandalized sign indicating an ultralow emission zone in west London.
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 10, 2025

Clean streets versus business woes: Pollution charge divides Londoners

The plan in London requires motorists to switch to low-emission vehicles or face a daily charge.
Signs advertising the upcoming World Expo in Osaka have proliferated in the city's different neighborhood for the past few years.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 11, 2025

I’ve only just come back from Osaka, but I’m ready to hit the Expo

The term “bakari” can be used in several different ways to emphasize and define the limit of a range.
The Penghu Islands coast at low tide, located off the coast of Taiwan. Although the exact location is unknown, the fossilized mandible of a male Denisovan, an extinct archaic human, was discovered off the coast of this island.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Apr 11, 2025

Jawbone from Taiwan shows geographic reach of enigmatic archaic humans

Confirmed Denisovan fossils have been identified from only two other places — Denisova Cave in Russia and Baishiya Karst Cave in China's Gansu province.
People visit the Osaka Expo on the first day it opened to the public, in the city of Osaka on Sunday.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2025

Osaka Expo throws open its doors as mega-event kicks off

A steady rain failed to dampen the spirits of organizers and expo early-birds as 160 countries, regions and organizations showed off their best tech and culture.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan