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Koichi Katsumata is the first chef to receive a Michelin star in Japan for an 'assiette dessert' (dessert course) restaurant
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 8, 2024

Welcome to Yama, Japan’s first Michelin-starred dessert restaurant

“We don’t just serve food — we serve memories, stories and a sense of place,” says chef Koichi Katsumata.
Every Tokyo transplant has their favorite comfort food spot, and it seems Kanye West has found his at Good Wood Terrace.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 8, 2024

Did Kanye West really discover Tokyo’s best jerk chicken spot?

Social media in Japan has become fascinated with Good Wood Terrace after Ye’s visit, with many visiting to try it out themselves.
People walk around an outlet mall in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture. At stores across Japan, clerks use a form of polite language called "manyuaru keigo," literally, “manual honorifics,” named for the service manuals they study it from.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 6, 2024

Japan's honorific language can be challenging for native speakers, too

According to surveys, more than half of those in their teens, 20s and 30s, believe they cannot use "keigo," or honorific language, appropriately.
Starbucks Coffee Japan will replace paper straws with plant-based biomass plastic straws from next month.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 6, 2024

Starbucks in Japan to ditch paper straws for plant-based biomass plastic in 2025

The coffee company says the new straws are fully biodegradable in seawater and soil, and will not soften like paper ones.
Insurance tycoon Douw Steyn’s 250 million rand home overlooks the luxury residential estate bearing his name near Johannesburg, South Africa.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2024

Luxury estates for the rich are a booming business in South Africa

Despite a 20% decline in South Africa’s millionaire population over the past decade, it remains a hub for the continent’s high-net-worth individuals.
A restaurant owner waits for customers at her empty restaurant in Seoul on Oct. 31.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 11, 2024

South Korea's fading nightlife signals shift in hard-drinking culture

The change has been driven by corporate Korea's slowdown on after-work drinking sessions, younger female workers' refusal to partake and inflation.
The East Japan Railway Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. Within the next 10 years, JR East will develop automated walk-through gate technology so that passengers can enter the train platform without having to tap their Suica card or phone on the ticket gates.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 11, 2024

JR East announces 10-year plan to drastically overhaul Suica

Dubbed the "Suica Renaissance," the plan involves redesigned ticket gates, new payment features and a subscription service.
Business sentiment among large manufacturers in Japan improved for the first time in two quarters, the Bank of Japan's tankan survey for December showed Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 13, 2024

Japan business mood improves slightly, but global risks cloud outlook

The Bank of Japan tankan survey results come ahead of a two-day policy meeting next week, when its board will debate whether to lift rates from the current 0.25%.
Numbered evidence markers indicate where bullet casings were located at the crime scene outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot, Dec. 4.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 13, 2024

Suspect in UnitedHealthcare shooting visited Japan, then vanished

New details are emerging about Luigi Mangione’s growing impatience with "a capitalist society” and his search for refuge in the mountains of Japan.
Protesters calling for the ouster of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol react after the result of the second impeachment vote outside the National Assembly in Seoul on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 14, 2024

Protesters in South Korea rejoice as lawmakers impeach Yoon

Saturday was a big day in Seoul, where many thousands have gathered over the past couple of weeks to voice their displeasure for — or support of — Yoon.
Disney and Oriental Land executives pose with Disney characters at the unveiling of an expanded cruise line, in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, earlier this year.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Dec 16, 2024

Tokyo Disney Resort operator eyes cruises for new growth

The company plans to invest approximately ¥330 billion in the project, hoping to launch services in fiscal 2028.
A date night on Christmas Eve typically starts with a romantic dinner at a restaurant often with a great view or a private space.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 18, 2024

Silent night? Not if you want to impress your Christmas Eve date.

In Japan, a date night on Christmas Eve typically starts with a romantic dinner at a restaurant often with a great view or a private space.
The Dubai skyline on Dec. 15, 2023. For years, Dubai has been an ideal rear base for trafficking and money laundering, with little risk of being extradited for lack of satisfactory judicial cooperation, according to European investigators and magistrates.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 19, 2024

End of the Dubai dream for Europe's drug lords?

The Gulf emirate has been a haven for some of Europe's biggest drug traffickers, but the tide may be turning.
Muharram Idris, a former commander of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), near Banda Aceh, Indonesia's Aceh province, on Nov. 22. Idris once led 3,000 men to fight Indonesia's army in separatist Aceh, but now serves as a local official after the legacy of a devastating tsunami two decades ago brought peace to the province.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 19, 2024

'Peace was born': How the 2004 tsunami changed Indonesia's Aceh

The giant waves that engulfed the impoverished province killed tens of thousand — and paved the way for an end to three decades of conflict.
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 20, 2024

Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024

This year’s health and wellness fads point to a Japan that desires more wholesome lifestyles but doesn’t have the time or resources to go about it in traditional ways.
Some of the same mistakes made during COVID-19 can be seen in the U.S. government's response to H5N1, which started in poultry before a new variant began infecting the nation’s dairy cows.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2024

Another pandemic is inevitable, and the U.S. isn't ready

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s picks to lead the nation’s top public health agencies also don’t inspire confidence.
A bluefin tuna from Oma, Aomori Prefecture, was sold for ¥207 million during the first auction of the year at Tokyo's Toyosu Fish Market on Sunday.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2025

Bluefin tuna fetches ¥207 million at Toyosu's first auction of the year

The bid was around 1.8 times higher than last year's, and second only in price to 2019's top catch, which sold for ¥333.6 million.
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.
A Hindu devotee looks on as he takes part in a religious procession of Naya Udasin Akhara ahead of the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj, India, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jan 13, 2025

Indian Hindu pilgrims take the plunge ahead of largest gathering

Organizers expect up to 400 million pilgrims from India and beyond in the six weeks running from January 13 to February 26.
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."
Israeli tanks near the border with Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 22, 2025

Hamas' tight grip on Gaza complicates plan for lasting peace

Hamas remains deeply entrenched in Gaza and its hold on power represents a challenge to implementing a permanent ceasefire.
Syrian police members attend their graduation ceremony at the Police Academy under the Syrian Salvation Government in Damascus, Syria, on Jan. 14.
WORLD
Jan 24, 2025

Syria's new leaders turn to Islamic law in effort to rebuild Assad's police

Syria's new authorities are using Islamic teachings to train a fledgling police force.
With abundant rains and formidable humidity in summer, Japan does not seem to be an ideal land for wine, but winegrowers in Yamanashi Prefecture have gradually been able to adapt.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 26, 2025

Of sake and spirits: Indulging in Yamanashi’s best

Visits to Grace Wine’s vineyard and the Suntory Hakushu Distillery turn a tour of the mountainous prefecture into a gourmet treat.
Musashi Winery is known for its 'shōkōshi' wines.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 26, 2025

Where to begin when it comes to Japanese wine

Buying your first Japanese wine? Let your own palate lead the way.
A worker assembles temporary shelters in preparation for mass deportations at the U.S.-Mexico border in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 27, 2025

Wall Street banks on Trump not following through on immigration pledges

Mass deportations would likely upend industries as varied as service-heavy hospitality and leisure, labor-intensive agriculture, food production, manufacturing and construction.
"We want to welcome many people from all over the world, so we want to make Osaka a city where people feel safe with smoke-free streets," said Hideyuki Yokoyama, mayor of the city of Osaka, in early January.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2025

Osaka bans street smoking ahead of Expo 2025

Expo 2025 has struggled with slow ticket sales and public concern over the construction budget.
Brookfield Asset Management has bought a stake in Gajoen, a mixed-use luxury complex in Tokyo, and plans to ramp up real estate investments in Japan.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2025

Brookfield seeks to buy more property in Japan after $1.6 billion in deals

There has been a trend of increased foreign investor activity in Japanese real estate in recent years, buoyed by the weak yen and cheap financing.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (second from right) at a press event in Tokyo on Junglia Okinawa, a new theme park that will open in northern Okinawa Prefecture in July
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 29, 2025

Junglia Okinawa theme park to open July 25

Junglia will have 22 attractions including "Dinosaur Safari," in which visitors can enjoy the thrill of being chased by a dinosaur.
Billed as a “cultural bridge that connects Japan and Vietnam,” Tet Viet Saitama drew tens of thousands of attendees from across the Kanto region.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 2, 2025

Home away from home: My first time at a Tet festival in Japan

A longtime resident of Japan attends Saitama’s first public celebration of Vietnam’s most important holiday.
The Bird of Peace monument, made of collected guns, in Podgorica, Montenegro, on Jan. 10
WORLD / Society
Feb 3, 2025

Mass shootings horrify the Balkans, but illegal guns still thrive

The region is littered with millions of firearms left over from regional conflicts, and the culture of weapon ownership runs centuries deep.

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