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The Japanese antitrust watchdog said that Google forced smartphone makers to preinstall its search app on their devices, sources say.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 23, 2024

Japan accuses Google of violating antimonopoly law

The Japanese antitrust watchdog said the U.S. company forced smartphone makers to preinstall its search app on their devices.
Christians take selfies after a Christmas Eve Mass at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, on Tuesday, ahead of the 20th anniversary of a magnitude 9.1 earthquake that struck the coast of Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004, triggering a huge tsunami across the Indian Ocean.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 25, 2024

Blogs to Bluesky: Social media shifts responses after 2004 tsunami

In two decades, the online social media landscape has experienced a vast change, allowing information — as well as rumor and misinformation — to flow in real time.
Tomoko Tabata brings verve and emotion as 11-year-old Renko in “Moving,” Shinji Somai’s forgotten classic from 1993.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2024

‘Moving’: A profound, poetic coming-of-age masterpiece restored in 4K

The 1993 film by Shinji Somai is rekindling interest in the late director as a generational talent.
The central Hokkaido city of Asahikawa made headlines this year when one of its suburbs was named as the best place to live in Japan — a ranking earned in part due to the community's many outstanding restaurants and cafes.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 28, 2024

How Hokkaido quietly became a culinary treasure trove in 2024

Food trucks, morsels with cutesy cues from nature and more helped Japan’s northernmost island have a stellar year.
A Nissan dealership and a Honda dealership in Tokyo. As the two firms negotiation a potential merger, Nomura Holdings is advising Honda, while Nissan has retained Mizuho Financial Group and Bank of America.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 28, 2024

Honda-Nissan deal sets up next fight for bankers in Japan M&A boom

At roughly $200 billion, the volume of transactions including mergers and acquisitions in the country is up 48% this year.
A poster depicting the characters of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" in Tokyo's Shibuya Station in 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 28, 2024

Sony's Crunchyroll finds its early lead in anime under attack

Netflix, Walt Disney and Amazon are all digging into their deep pockets to license shows, making it more expensive for anime-steaming site to compete.
A woman walks past a store of Ukraine's telecommunications company Kyivstar in Kyiv on Dec.12, 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 31, 2024

Starlink to roll out direct-to-cell services in Ukraine

Ukraine will be one of the first countries in the world with direct-to-cell connectivity and the first conflict zone where Starlink will roll out this technology.
A Starlink antenna placed at a public facility in disaster-hit Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Dec. 10
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2024

Ishikawa municipalities weigh Starlink service one year after earthquake

Municipal officials think that Starlink is effective in securing communication methods in the early days of a disaster.
Photos taken from the same place but at different times in the Noto Peninsula towns of Wajima (left) and Suzu illustrate the progress made following the devastating earthquake that hit these areas of Ishikawa Prefecture on Jan. 1, 2024.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 1, 2025

A year after a deadly earthquake, Noto Peninsula still faces long road to recovery

Reconstruction remains a prolonged and complex ordeal for cities in the worst-hit areas, with recovery further hampered by torrential rains in September.
Police investigators surround a white truck in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 2, 2025

FBI probes New Orleans truck ramming as IS-inspired terrorist attack

A U.S. Army veteran drove into the city's French Quarter on New Year's Day, killing 15 in what officials suspect might be a coordinated attack inspired by the Islamic State group.
A police officer enters a vehicle on Thursday at the location where a truck was driven into a crowd of New Year's Day revelers in New Orleans, Louisiana, a day earlier.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 3, 2025

Texas man behind New Orleans attack acted alone, FBI says

The suspect, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texan who once served in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in Cape Canaveral, Florida
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 6, 2025

Italy plans $1.6 billion SpaceX telecom security services deal

In 2024 alone, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has added more than 20 nations to its Starlink satellite internet service.
Paloma Rheem Holdings is offering to buy Fujitsu General, Fujitsu’s air-conditioner unit.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 7, 2025

Japanese oven maker to buy out Fujitsu General for $1.6 billion

Paloma Rheem Holdings is offering to pay Fujitsu General stockholders ¥2,808 a share, or as much as ¥164.7 billion.
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.
Runaway youths have recently been gathering in areas such as the Toyoko area of the Kabukicho entertainment district in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, where they often get into trouble.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2025

Japan to allow youths to stay at shelters without parental consent

Those under the age of 18 will be able to use shelters even if obtaining prior consent from those with parental authority is expected to be difficult.
A Tesla showroom in Beijing in January 2024. In today's world, the car isn’t the biggest moneymaker for automakers; instead, it is the services attached to the connected vehicle.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2025

China’s EVs may change the world in unimaginable ways

China has about 100 EV brands and they claim about 80% of the new electric vehicle market.
Manabu Sasaki, a 39-year-old CEO of a painting company, have been rearrested on suspicion of assaulting his former employee, 56-year-old Osamu Takano, before allegedly orchestrating his death in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward in December 2023.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 8, 2025

Trio who allegedly orchestrated coworker's death rearrested in Tokyo

Police investigating the events leading to the death of 56-year-old Osamu Takano uncovered new evidence of his abuse at the hands of his colleagues.
An apartment building burns during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area of Los Angeles county, California, on Wednesday.
WORLD
Jan 9, 2025

Los Angeles under siege as wind-driven wildfires upend city

The fires, which burned more than 26,000 acres by Wednesday afternoon, has upended life in America’s second-largest city.
Migrants queue to board a bus that will take them to a shelter after turning themselves in to agents of Mexico's National Institute of Migration to look for a permit which would allow them to cross the country and reach the northern border with the U.S., in Tapachula, Mexico, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 9, 2025

Anxious but undeterred, migrants brace for Trump presidency

Trump has pledged tougher border controls and immigration enforcement and to launch a mass deportation operation.
The Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 is anchored near the city of Granaa in Jutland, Denmark, on Nov. 20. Sweden's foreign minister said last month that China had denied a request for prosecutors to conduct an investigation of the ship linked to recently severed Baltic Sea cables.
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2025

Be ready for the new Cold War, under the sea

In the South China Sea, a least one cable fault is reported in the waterway every few weeks; in other parts of the world it’s one incident a year.
Ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada with the countdown clock for the launch of the startup's lunar lander, in Tokyo's Chuo Ward on Thursday
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 10, 2025

Japanese space startup readies for second lunar lander launch

Ispace's Resilience lander will lift off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Competitors are interviewed after a women's esports event in Beijing last month.
MORE SPORTS / esports
Jan 12, 2025

China's women esports players defy sexism for love of the game

For female esports players in China, mastering the game is just the first hurdle to carving out a space for themselves in the male-dominated field.
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.
People hold an anti-Japan rally in Seoul in July 2019 following Tokyo's decision to tighten controls on exports to South Korea.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2025

North Korea incited anti-Japan sentiment in the South

North Korea aimed to fan the flames of anti-Japanese sentiment over issues like wartime labor and the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Firefighters battle flames during the Eaton Fire in Pasadena, California, on Jan. 7
WORLD / Society
Jan 16, 2025

Hundreds of firefighters 'just get up and go' to aid Los Angeles

"We all got into this as a service, to make somebody's day better at the worst time."
One of the brighest spots of Japan's indie gaming landscape in 2024 was Sonokuni, and with more incubators and other avenues of support springing up, there may be more games like it in the future.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Jan 21, 2025

Japan-made games part of a rising tide of indie greatness

With games developed by lone individuals rivaling the quality of major studios, it's time to reconsider what makes an indie game indie.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen is one of the leading candidates for the NFL MVP award this season.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jan 17, 2025

Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson headline high-profile showdown in divisional round

Both players epitomize the modern preference for quarterbacks who can not only throw with pinpoint accuracy but can also be a threat running the ball.
An Israeli military vehicle uses a laser, on the day of an Israeli raid in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday.
WORLD
Jan 22, 2025

Israel launches 'significant' military operation in West Bank

The move into Jenin, where the Israeli army has carried out multiple raids and large-scale incursions in recent years, comes two days after the start of a ceasefire in Gaza.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on Stargate, as Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman look on in the Roosevelt room at the White House.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 22, 2025

SoftBank to help fund and lead Trump-backed Stargate AI project, a $500 billion venture

The president said it will be the largest AI infrastructure ever built and that it will help counter technology threats from China and other countries.
TV star Masahiro Nakai abruptly announced his retirement Thursday as the fallout from sexual misconduct allegations against him continued to expand.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2025

Ex-SMAP member Masahiro Nakai to retire amid sexual misconduct allegations

The 52-year-old former SMAP member said his contracts had been wound up, and that negotiations with sponsors were in progress.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.