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Japan and South Korea are in their most fragile political states in decades just as their ally, the United States, enters the second administration of President Donald Trump.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 5, 2025

Japan and South Korea in the age of ‘America first’

Japan and South Korea are at their most fragile political states in decades just as their ally, the United States, has begun the second administration of Donald Trump.
Sony Group President Hiroki Totoki told a news conference last month that the Playstation maker had been preparing for tariffs by building up inventory from its gaming and electronics divisions in the United States.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Mar 6, 2025

Sony and Suntory build U.S. stockpiles as Japan faces Trump tariff threat

In his latest trade salvo this week, U.S. President Donald Trump hinted that he might target Tokyo next, after imposing tariffs on Mexico and China.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino unveils Brazil as the winner of the bid to host the 2027 Women's World Cup at the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok on May 17, 2024.
SOCCER / Women's World cup
Mar 6, 2025

Japan shut out of bid process for hosting 2031 World Cup

Japan Football Association President Tsuneyasu Miyamoto said in an interview last year that Japan wanted to host the 2031 event to "raise the value of women's football here."
Masamune Goto (front) pilots his boat during a powerboat racing competition at Tokyo's Tamagawa boat course on Feb. 23.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 6, 2025

Powerboat racing revs up bid to shed shadowy reputation in Japan

Powerboat racing started more than 70 years ago under a special gambling law that classifies it alongside horse racing, speedway and cycling in Japan.
Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Mar 7, 2025

Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly

Despite longstanding taboos, evolving attitudes toward women's health highlight shifting cultural norms.
Ayako Urasawa shows a skirt with a pocket too shallow to hold a smartphone.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 7, 2025

Women in Japan call for clothing that has pockets

Many women's jackets, pants and skirts either lack pockets or have only shallow pockets.
Firefighters battle a wildfire in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, on Thursday.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2025

Japan partially lifts wildfire evacuation orders

Wet weather, which began Wednesday following a record dry period, is helping firefighting efforts.
Trade Minister Yoji Muto speaks during a meeting with steel and aluminum company executives on Feb. 25.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 8, 2025

Japan to send trade minister Muto to U.S. amid tariff tensions

The visit is set to take place from March 9 to March 11, just before the extra levies on steel and aluminum are expected to kick in on March 12.
Japanese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Akio Isomata (left) and secretary to Sri Lanka's Finance Ministry, Mahinda Siriwardana, attend a joint news conference after the signing of debt restructuring agreements between the two countries in Colombo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 8, 2025

Sri Lanka signs $2.5 billion debt deal with Japan

Japan said it was granting concessions on a ¥369.45 billion ($2.5 billion) loan under a comprehensive debt treatment plan.
Former Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said Japan must fix "any misunderstanding" held by U.S. President Donald Trump that its central bank was intentionally weakening the yen with monetary policy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 8, 2025

Japan must fix 'misunderstanding' it is manipulating yen, says ex-BOJ chief Kuroda

Trump said he had told Japan and China they could not continue to reduce the value of their currencies, as doing so would be unfair to the United States.
Concept art for the renewed National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2025

Japan's territory museum to reopen in April following renovations

The museum in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward is designed to publicize Japan's position on disputed territories.
Trade minister Yoji Muto says his talks in Washington with U.S. officials didn’t result in any confirmation to exclude Tokyo from upcoming tariff measures.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 11, 2025

Japan's trade minister fails to win tariff exemption assurance from U.S.

New duties on car imports would deal a direct blow to the economy of Japan, which is already bracing for an indirect impact from tariffs the U.S. is imposing on other nations.
South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun speaks during an interview on Feb. 27 in Seoul.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 11, 2025

South Korean lawmakers to visit Osaka Expo

Lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun said he will encourage South Koreans to visit Japan for the expo.
A Vietnamese worker harvests tomatoes at a farm in the city of Asahi, Chiba Prefecture, in 2018.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2025

Amid labor shortage, Japan approves guidelines to upskill foreign workers

The new program aims to nurture trainees into skilled workers to motivate them to remain in the country.
Many in Japan are increasingly concerned that under the Trump administration's shifting policies, the U.S. may no longer be a reliable ally, raising fears of a weakened security partnership amid rising threats from China and Russia.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 11, 2025

Japan reels from — and steels for — U.S. policy shifts

“What Japan has learned from the Ukraine war is that the era where we could rely entirely on the U.S. is over.”
People observe a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. on Tuesday in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, when the Great East Japan Earthquake hit 14 years ago. Behind them is a pine tree dubbed "the miracle tree" that survived the tsunami.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 11, 2025

Japan marks 14 years since 3/11 earthquake, with over 27,000 still displaced

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he will pass down the lessons of the disaster to future generations.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday
BUSINESS
Mar 12, 2025

Lack of exemption from U.S. steel tariffs 'regrettable,' says Japan

Top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said the two nations would continue to discuss details of the duties, which came into force at midnight U.S. time.
Sources say a hui suo — a private club, which in Japan caters mainly to Chinese businesspeople — will soon open on the upper floors of the Moutai Building in the Ginza district of Tokyo.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 16, 2025

Private clubs quietly open in Tokyo for free-spending Chinese businesspeople

With the economy weak in China and opportunities harder to come by there, more wealthy individuals have been flocking to Japan.
A construction site in Tokyo in July 2018. Businesses failing to take measures to prevent severe heatstroke among employees will be subjected to criminal punishment from June.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 13, 2025

Japan to get tough on businesses not taking heatstroke countermeasures

Violators will be punishable with up to six months' imprisonment or a maximum fine of ¥500,000 ($3,380).
Toyota vehicles are loaded onto a ship at the Port of Nagoya in June last year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 13, 2025

Concerns grow over possible U.S. tariffs on Japan's auto sector

U.S. President Donald Trump has pointed out that the U.S. is importing a "very big" amount of Japanese cars while other countries are not really buying American cars.
Some 40% of online casino users are unaware that gambling via the casinos is illegal, a survey by the National Police Agency shows.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2025

3.37 million in Japan use overseas online casinos, police survey suggests

Around 40% of respondents in the survey said they were unaware using paid services offered by such sites was illegal, according to the National Police Agency.
The Great Wall of China near Beijing. Two Japanese tourists were detained in China for taking photos showing exposed buttocks at the World Heritage site.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2025

China deports Japanese tourists over Great Wall buttocks pic, reports state

The tourists reportedly told the Japanese embassy they did it as a prank.
Urbanization is amplifying pollen-related allergies as grasslands and soft soil give way to concrete and asphalt.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 14, 2025

As pollen season peaks, Japan's allergy struggle emerges from hibernation

In Tokyo and Sendai, high cedar pollen levels will persist into late March, followed by cypress pollen peaking from late March to early April.
Yoji Muto
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 15, 2025

Japan, China and South Korea eye trade ministers meeting

Japanese trade minister Yoji Muto will attend the envisaged meeting if he receives parliamentary approval.
Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time” won the award for best film at the 48th Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 15, 2025

‘A Samurai in Time’ wins top prize at Japan’s premier film event

This country’s answer to the Oscars also saw awards go to “Oppenheimer” and “Faceless.”
U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, holds an executive order about a tariffs increase in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Feb. 13.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 15, 2025

U.S. commerce chief rules out auto tariff exemption for Japan

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick linked the 25% tariffs on car imports, set to begin on April 2, to cutting the U.S. trade deficit with Japan.
The logo of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, better known as the Unification Church, is seen at the entrance of its Japan branch headquarters in Tokyo in October 2023.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Mar 15, 2025

Unification Church faces dissolution in Japan

The dissolution would remove the church's tax-exempt status while branding the organization a harmful entity.
While climate demonstrations around the world often draw thousands of participants, in Japan such demonstrations rarely break the 100-person barrier.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 16, 2025

Japan’s youth climate activists still searching for a breakthrough

With Japan endorsing climate targets criticized as unambitious, activists are looking to education and more tailored strategies to make an impact.
Bank of Japan headquarters building in February. In January, the BOJ voted to raise its short-term policy rate to 0.5% from 0.25%, taking it to the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 17, 2025

Bank of Japan unlikely to raise rates this week as trade war intensifies

The central bank voted to raise its short-term policy rate to 0.5% from 0.25% in January, taking it to the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis.
Johan Leutwiler checks a sword he made at his workshop studio in the Kui district of Mihara, Hiroshima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Mar 24, 2025

Japan's first foreign swordsmith opens workshop in Hiroshima Prefecture

Johan Leutwiler hopes to promote the charm of Japanese swords following the completion of his five-year apprenticeship.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear