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A screen displays trading information about the shares of Truth Social and Trump Media & Technology Group, outside the Nasdaq Market site in New York on March 26.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 18, 2024

Truth Social and late calls take over economists’ lives under Trump

The end goal for economists is to produce accurate forecasts to help traders, businesses and governments navigate the new chaotic world.
Sony already has a 2% stake in Kadokawa and a stake in Kadokawa subsidiary FromSoftware, the developer of Elden Ring.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 19, 2024

Sony in talks to buy media powerhouse behind Elden Ring, sources say

The talks between the two sides are ongoing and, if successful, a deal could be signed in the coming weeks.
Messages from so-called Active Clubs surged on Telegram over the past month.
WORLD / Society
Nov 22, 2024

Extremists on Telegram pose as fight clubs, raising alarms in U.S.

The loosely organized network in the U.S. and Canada consist of men who say in online forums they’re working to stop the elimination of the white race.
A blue sheet obscures a stone pillar that bears the name of the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, after graffiti was found on it on Aug. 19.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 22, 2024

Tokyo police obtain warrant for Chinese youth over Yasukuni graffiti

The youth is suspected of writing Chinese words, including one meaning toilet, on a stone pillar and its base at Yasukuni Shrine at around 10 p.m. on Aug. 18.
Former Amagasaki Mayor Kazumi Inamura speaks to her supporters after she lost her bid to become Hyogo governor, on Nov. 17 in Kobe.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 23, 2024

Failed Hyogo governor candidate's team questions X account suspension

According to the group supporting former Amagasaki Mayor Kazumi Inamura, it set up an X account on Nov. 5, but it was suspended the following day.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas, on Nov. 19.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 27, 2024

Musk pushes his preferred political picks via X. Trump isn't always swayed.

Several high-profile cases show some early limits to the billionaire's influence even as he has emerged as one of the president-elect's most powerful allies.
In an interview in Tokyo with the BBC that was published on Thursday, Fast Retailing CEO Tadashi Yanai said the company does not source cotton from China's Xinjiang region.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2024

Uniqlo criticized in China after CEO says retailer does not use Xinjiang cotton

Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing, said it does not source cotton from the region, which has faced allegations of forced labor.
Hiroyuki Fukuda is due to become the new president of Nippon Television Holdings in April.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 30, 2024

Four Nippon TV affiliates to integrate management in April

The aim of the merger is to stabilize their business base and address the increasingly tough business environment resulting from media diversification.
Sadao Abe, who played the role of a time-traveling Showa Era teacher transported to present day in a popular TV drama, receives the 2024 buzzword of the year award for the word "futehodo," the nickname of the series.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 2, 2024

Japan’s 2024 buzzword of the year urges a reevaluation of past norms

“Futehodo” — a nickname for a TV drama that depicts the generational gap between the Showa and Reiwa eras — has been crowned the most trending word of 2024.
Ten people are suspected of forcibly entering a club in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward on Dec. 17 last year and assaulting a male security guard.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 6, 2024

Alleged operator of anonymous X account arrested over club assault

Z-Ri, a pun on the name of the kung-fu actor Jet Li, is an influential account that posts about the inner workings of Japan's underworld.
The decision significantly raises the prospects of an unprecedented ban in just six weeks on a social media app used by 170 million Americans.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 7, 2024

U.S. appeals court upholds TikTok law forcing its sale

The decision is a major win for the Justice Department and opponents of the Chinese-owned app and a devastating blow to TikTok parent ByteDance.
Students from Yamagata Prefectural Kamo Fisheries High School experience simulated pelagic tuna fishing using VR headsets in August.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2024

VR used to stir young people's interest in fishing industry

VR headsets allow users to see how workers catch tuna and do other work with a 360-degree view from aboard a ship.
Yutaka Mataebara (second from left) dines with his managerial colleagues at an event celebrating the 100th anniversary of The Japan Times.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 13, 2024

Here's to Yutaka Mataebara, the 'iron man' of The Japan Times

Mataebara was a pillar of the JT: During his 44 years at the paper until he retired in 2006, he worked in a variety of departments, including as the editor in chief.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during an Upper House Budget Committee meeting on Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2024

Opening ethics panel hearings to media could allay public suspicions, Ishiba says

Of the 27 scandal-hit Upper House lawmakers willing to face ethics panel hearings, 23 have sought for the sessions to be held behind closed doors.
A screen shot from YouTube user @lagelda shows the simplicity of going viral in Japan in 2024: A cat dancing to EDM in front of a green screen.
LIFE / Digital / Japan Pulse
Dec 17, 2024

Curiosity didn’t kill the meme: Why cats still rule Japanese YouTube

Cat memes continued to thrive and evolve in 2024. In Japan, they're not just for jokes — they’re for storytelling, venting and a little therapy.
Fire trucks gather around a building in Sapporo’s Susukino entertainment district on Nov. 26.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 20, 2024

Sapporo arson suspect dies in hospital

Police still intend to submit the arson case to prosecutors and are committed to piecing together the events that led to the blaze.
International students and others participate in a disaster preparedness drill in Osaka City, where disaster information was conveyed in foreign languages.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2024

Noto quake inspires more focus on getting disaster info to non-Japanese

The earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula on Jan. 1 highlighted the need to help foreign nationals who do not speak Japanese be more informed.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump filed a brief on Friday urging the Supreme Court to pause a law that would ban TikTok the day before his Jan. 20 inauguration if it is not sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 28, 2024

Trump asks Supreme Court to pause law threatening TikTok ban

Trump said the court should give him time after his Jan. 20 inauguration to "seek a negotiated resolution” of the dispute over the social media platform.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends a conference organized by the European Jewish Association in Krakow, Poland, in January 2024.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 4, 2025

Musk projects his hard-right influence in Europe

The multibillionaire has demanded new elections in Britain, promoted Germany's far-right, blasted the European Commission — and that's just the start.
TikTok has discovered that their TikTok Live feature has facilitated money laundering, allowed users to sell drugs and fund terrorism, according to a new lawsuit, which also accuses the social media company's livestream feature of exploiting and "grooming” minors to perform sexual content.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 6, 2025

TikTok’s live video feature ‘groomed’ minors, Utah AG claims

Tiktok has emphasized its commitment to enforcing its policies and said it shut down more than 45 million streams last year.
Signage at the TikTok offices in Singapore, on Aug. 4, 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 7, 2025

TikTok ban thrusts Apple and Google into U.S.-China geopolitical fray

TikTok creators are posting videos promoting ways to get around a looming shutdown of the app in the U.S., which could spell trouble for companies required to enforce the ban.
The U.S. Supreme Court justices on Friday expressed skepticism about a challenge from TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 13, 2025

What happens after the TikTok ban?

TikTok's future in the U.S. is uncertain as the Supreme Court weighs security concerns, with a potential ban or forced sale looming on Jan. 19. Here's how it could play out.
By selling video content to AI companies, YouTubers have a way to diversify their income beyond advertising deals with brands.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 13, 2025

YouTubers are selling their unused video footage to AI companies

Unused video created for networks like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, is selling for somewhere between $1 and $2 per minute.
The TikTok logo is displayed outside the offices of the social media app's company offices in Culver City, California, in 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 14, 2025

China discusses sale of TikTok U.S. to Elon Musk as possible option

Under one scenario that’s been discussed by the Chinese government, Musk’s X would take control of TikTok U.S. and run the businesses together.
Elon Musk, left, with Vivek Ramaswamy on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 5.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 15, 2025

SEC accuses Elon Musk of bilking Twitter investors out of millions

The agency’s complaint accuses Musk of failing to promptly report that he had amassed more than 5% of the social media platform’s stock in early 2022.
If it is banned in the United States, TikTok plans that users attempting to open the app will see a pop-up message directing them to a website with information about the ban.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 16, 2025

TikTok preparing to shut down app in U.S. on Sunday, sources say

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering issuing an executive order to suspend enforcement of a shutdown for 60 to 90 days.
Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has expressed ambitions to build an "everything app," and adding TikTok to X, formerly Twitter, could bring him closer to that vision.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2025

Elon Musk won’t save TikTok

A Musk takeover of TikTok remains far from a done deal. It would require a wildly complex spinoff and it’s not immediately clear how he would fund a purchase.
The TikTok ban results from an April law signed by President Joe Biden and is the first time the United States has attempted to shut down access to an app with such a large user base — roughly 170 million domestic users.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 17, 2025

How a TikTok ban would work — and why user workarounds won't

TikTok reportedly plans to shut down the service and will show users a message about the law and offer to let them download their personal data.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s potential role in any plan to save TikTok remains both intriguing and complicated. The ban is set to take effect just one day before his inauguration, and while it has been reported that President Joe Biden won’t enforce the ban on day one, the decision on what to do long-term will become Trump’s problem almost immediately.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 18, 2025

TikTok’s fate rests on Trump after U.S. Supreme Court upholds law

U.S. President -elect Donald Trump’s potential role in any plan to save TikTok remains both intriguing and complicated.
After months of legal tussles, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law that would ban TikTok in the name of national security.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 19, 2025

TikTok shuts down U.S. access as Trump seeks app's reinstatement

Only months after overwhelmingly backing the law, lawmakers are now fretting about the ban, with all eyes on whether Trump can swoop in and find a way to save the app.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb