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Labor Party MP for Bennelong Jerome Laxale and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong pose for pictures with residents in Sydney in February.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 4, 2025

In a tight Australian election, a Chinese app could make a difference

Politicians are turning to Xiaohongshu, a Chinese lifestyle app also called RedNote, to appeal to Chinese communities who will be a crucial voting bloc.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday extended by 75 days a deadline for ByteDance to sell U.S. assets of the popular TikTok short video app to a non-Chinese buyer, or face a ban that was supposed to have taken effect in January under a 2024 law.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 5, 2025

TikTok deal put on hold after China indicated it would reject it over tariffs

Trump extended by 75 days a deadline for ByteDance to sell U.S. assets of the popular short video app to a non-Chinese buyer.
The TikTok logo is seen outside the Chinese video app company's Los Angeles offices on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 7, 2025

Trump says China tariff objections stalled TikTok deal

ByteDance is required to divest TikTok’s U.S. unit but the company has balked at selling a business valued in the billions.
Two Japanese men are suspected of helping an IT worker from North Korea create an account for a job-matching service by sending driver's license photos and other information to the IT worker in September and October 2020.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 8, 2025

Pair suspected of helping North Korean IT worker pose as a Japanese citizen

Police in Tokyo believe the IT worker was involved in North Korea's efforts to obtain foreign currency.
A man walks past a board displaying average stock prices at the Taiwan Stock Exchange in Taipei on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 8, 2025

Taiwan says China using AI to 'divide' the island with disinformation

In a report to parliament, the security bureau said it had detected more than half a million pieces of "controversial messages" so far this year.
Associated Press photographer Alex Brandon is denied access to the White House "press pool" as journalists move to U.S. President Donald Trump's motorcade at the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 9, 2025

Judge lifts Trump White House restrictions on AP while lawsuit proceeds

The White House imposed restrictions on the Associated Press over the news agency’s decision to continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico in its coverage.
Protestors demand the conviction and imprisonment of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, in Quezon City, Philippines, last month.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 11, 2025

Fake accounts drove Duterte praise and now target Philippine election

New research says around a third of accounts discussing Duterte's arrest on X, mostly praising the former president, were fake.
Journalists Sergei Karelin, Antonina Favorskaya and Artem Kriger, accused of taking part in the activities of an "extremist" organization founded by late opposition politician Alexei Navalny, attend a court hearing in Moscow on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 16, 2025

Russian journalists jailed for 5½ years for alleged extremist ties to Navalny

Moscow has intensified pressure on domestic and foreign reporters since the start of its war in Ukraine.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a government meeting on crime prevention measures at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 22, 2025

In fight against fraud, Japan seeks new weapon: undercover bank accounts

The government is looking to allow the police to set up bank accounts under false names to track the movement of funds obtained by fraudsters.
Climbers gather on the first day of the climbing season on the Yoshida Trail at the fifth station on the slopes of Mount Fuji in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, on July 1, 2024.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2025

Man rescued from Mount Fuji twice in one week, local media reports

Police could not immediately confirm reports saying the man had returned on Friday to retrieve his phone.
The café space at the Osaka Expo's British pavilion
JAPAN
May 2, 2025

Britain responds after Expo 2025 afternoon tea brews outrage

Earlier this week, a post deploring the overall quality of the pavilion's tea set — including "a tea bag stuck in a paper cup" — went viral on X.
The headquarters of Fuji Media Holdings, Fuji TV's parent, in Tokyo's Minato Ward
JAPAN / Media
May 13, 2025

Nakai's lawyer refutes third-party report finding 'sexual violence'

The lawyer demanded that the committee disclose the evidence behind its report, which was released in March, by May 26.
A survey showed that 47.7% of respondents exposed to examples of false and misleading information were likely to consider such information to be true or probably true.
JAPAN / Society
May 14, 2025

Misinformation still fools many, Japan survey reveals

Of respondents who were exposed to false information, 25.5% also said they have spread the information to their families or on social media.
A projected 8 million deepfakes — manipulated video or audio made using artificial intelligence — will be shared worldwide in 2025, about a fifth of which will be part of romance scams, according to cyber firm McAfee.
WORLD / Society
May 19, 2025

Deep love or deepfake: Dating in the time of AI

Scammers are increasingly using deepfakes — manipulated video or audio made using artificial intelligence — to look and sound real on dating apps.
A third-party committee set up by Fuji Television Network said in a statement Thursday that its recognition of sexual violence was based on the World Health Organization's definition because Fuji TV and its parent, Fuji Media Holdings, needed to fulfill their accountability to global shareholders.
JAPAN / Media
May 23, 2025

Fuji TV panel defends conclusion of 'sexual violence' by Nakai

The committee rejected the request from Nakai's lawyer to disclose interview records and other evidence, claiming that it would undermine its independence and neutrality.
Mixue, a Chinese bubble tea chain, has become the world’s largest food and beverage chain, with tens of thousands of stores all over Asia. The company is just one example of the increasing reach and popularity of Chinese cultural exports across the globe.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 23, 2025

How China’s soft power is rewriting Asian culture

Chinese cultural exports are becoming increasingly popular across the world and especially Asia. Do they promote cross-border understanding or are they tools for propaganda?
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio buttons his jacket at the start of a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in Washington on May 21.
WORLD / Politics
May 28, 2025

U.S. suspends student visa processing as Trump ramps up social media vetting

A U.S. diplomatic cable has ordered embassies and consulates not to allow "any additional student or exchange visa ... appointment capacity until further guidance is issued."
Members of a group working for the reconstruction of the Machinomachi district of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, attend training for the opening of a temporary disaster broadcasting station, in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, on May 16.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 4, 2025

Quake-hit residents eyeing reconstruction through power of radio

A group of people, mainly residents of Wajima's Machinomachi district, are preparing to open a full scale emergency broadcasting FM radio station in mid-June.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said that an undercover investigation helped identify a suspect in an attempted scam case in the greater Tokyo area.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 10, 2025

New police method reveals shady part-time job suspect

It was the first time for police to detect a suspect under the investigation method introduced in January.
Kimiko Nishimoto poses next to a picture of her on a sliding window at her house in the city of Kumamoto in January 2018.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 13, 2025

Japan's 400,000-follower 'Insta-gran' dies age 97

Dubbed the "selfie queen" by Japanese media, Kimiko Nishimoto's posts showed her in various candid poses.
The Trump administration's decision to ban The Associated Press from the White House press pool over a style guide dispute is part of a long and troubling history of presidents retaliating against journalists who displease them.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 13, 2025

Presidents have been treating journalists badly since Lincoln

Indeed, long before there existed a White House press corps, presidential peevishness led to the punishment of newspapers.
Citing challenges such as a declining workforce and rising costs, four major newspapers will discontinue their Saturday evening editions from August, in a shift away from a publishing tradition that has endured for decades in Japan.
JAPAN / Media
Jun 18, 2025

Four newspapers in Japan to cease Saturday evening editions from August

The announcements mark a shift away from a publishing tradition that has endured for decades in Japan, where evening newspapers had been a staple of the media landscape.
Eight banks have entered into an agreement with the National Police Agency to share information on suspicious accounts as part of efforts to combat special fraud schemes.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 18, 2025

Major banks team up with police to combat special fraud

Under a new agreement, the banks will send information on suspicious accounts directly to the police instead of channeling it through the Financial Services Agency.
The Fuji TV building in May. The company has taken responsibility for having enabled "sexual violence" toward an unnamed victim, who is a former Fuji TV worker, along with causing her emotional distress due to its initial reactions to the incident.
JAPAN / Media
Jun 20, 2025

Fuji TV settles ‘sexual violence’ case with apology and compensation to victim

Fuji TV President Kenji Shimizu apologized to the unnamed woman over the incident and how the company handled it.
Kari Lake, senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, said the Voice of America staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of U.S. President Donald Trump's agenda to cut staffing at the agency and Voice of America to a statutory minimum.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 21, 2025

Voice of America parent terminates over 600 more staff in likely death knell

The move likely marks an end to the broadcasting network that was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda.
Aichi police have arrested two elementary school teachers for allegedly taking "upskirt" photos of children and sharing them through a private social media group.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 25, 2025

Two elementary school teachers arrested for sharing ‘upskirt’ photos of children

Investigators said the two were part of a group chat that included multiple teachers from elementary and junior high schools.
Regarding news genres that respondents want to avoid, with multiple answers allowed, war and other conflicts were mentioned by 18.9%. "News that is meant to be touching or news that foments anger" was cited by 18%.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 26, 2025

Almost a fifth of people in Japan may avoid news, industry survey suggests

When asked why they avoid news, with multiple answers allowed, 60.8% of those surveyed said it makes them feel depressed and sick.
Tomonobu Kojima, admitted his involvement in the "Luffy" cases at the first hearing of his trial at Tokyo District Court on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 2, 2025

Senior member of 'Luffy' crime ring pleads guilty at hearing

Tomonobu Kojima, 47, said, "There is no mistake" regarding his charges of aiding robberies and committing fraud.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (left) and his daughter Kim Ju Ae (front right) visiting the Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist area in Kangwon Province, North Korea, on June 24.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 2, 2025

North Korea opens massive beach resort, state media reports

The Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area can accommodate nearly 20,000 people, according to Pyongyang.
Xu Pengcheng (right), model Mao Yi and Nono walk along a corridor inside an abandoned hotel in Shanghai on May 24.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 6, 2025

China's abandoned buildings draw urban explorers despite risks

Urban exploration is growing in popularity in China, where a yearslong property sector crisis has left many cities dotted with empty buildings.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’