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A survey showed that some potential homebuyers in Tokyo are delaying purchases while others are wary of missing out on opportunities posed by rising home prices.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 17, 2025

Tokyo homebuyers split on purchase plans as living costs soar, survey shows

Some are delaying purchases while others are wary of missing out on opportunities posed by rising home prices.
Refugees and migrants, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, crowd a platform at a train station in Budapest in September 2015. Hungary's focus on pro-natalist policies and minimal immigration has led to a significant improvement in its fertility rate compared to Japan.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 15, 2025

Asia can learn from Europe’s immigration mistakes

The result is dangerous confusion where legitimate policy debates about labor shortages become entangled with xenophobic fears about cultural invasion.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order on tariffs at the White House on April 2. Trump's protectionism is rippling through labor markets and dampening consumer demand around the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 14, 2025

Is the global economy as resilient as it seems?

U.S. economic expansion is losing steam as the Trump's erratic economic policies, harsh immigration tactics and cuts in social expenditures take a toll on growth and employment.
After a run-up marked by apathy, organizers soon found they had the opposite problem as crowd control became a concern.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 12, 2025

As the Osaka Expo comes to a close, what will its legacy be?

The mega-event was a resounding success, taking in some 25 million visitors over 184 days. But how its legacy will look in the decades to come remains a question mark.
The U.S. Capitol in Washington on Friday. The White House is making good on threats to fire thousands of federal workers amid a government shutdown now in its 10th day, with job cuts across federal agencies.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 11, 2025

Trump fires federal workers amid shutdown fight with Democrats

The firings mark the first large-scale layoffs of federal employees during a funding lapse in modern history.
Visitors lounge on the grassy hill on the top of the Grand Ring during the 2025 Osaka Expo in the city of Osaka in May.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 10, 2025

‘Save the Ring’ calls intensify as Osaka Expo’s end nears

The prefectural and city governments of Osaka have announced they will retain just a 200-meter portion of the world's largest wooden structure.
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks in New York on Oct. 1.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 10, 2025

Letitia James, New York's attorney general and Trump foe, indicted over mortgage fraud

The Trump administration has sought to use government power against those who have pursued investigations into Trump or resisted his agenda.
Tourists in front of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Sept. 10. Increased spending by foreign visitors and brisk home sales are behind an improvement in economy-watcher sentiment, a survey has shown.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 8, 2025

Economy-watcher sentiment improves in September

Looking ahead, concerns remain over the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff measures.
A crime scene technician prepares to document evidence at the site of a shooting in West Baltimore in May 2015. U.S. cities are seeing murder rates fall sharply from post-2020 highs thanks to local violence-reduction efforts and pandemic-era investments.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2025

What’s behind the great American murder decline?

Homicides are plummeting in many places. The explanation may be the sheer volume of different efforts to reduce violence.
Ana and Maria, (not their real names), victims of sex trafficking from Latin America, clean dishes in Tirane on Aug. 1.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 7, 2025

'I found hell': the women ensnared in Albania's global sex trade

Empowered by the global reach of cybercrime, criminal networks are using Albania as a transit point to exploit women from other nations around the world.
Remittance inflows to low-income countries have boosted welfare, reduced poverty and strengthened economic resilience, but the Trump administration’s 1% tax on the transactions threatens to undermine these critical benefits.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2025

Trump’s beggar-the-poor remittance tax

America is now the world’s top remittance-sending country, with at least 134 recipient countries in 2021, the most recent year with reliable bilateral data.
Andy Weyman and Terry Davis are among the many people in Malibu, California, who are waiting to rebuild their home after this year’s California wildfires.
WORLD
Oct 5, 2025

The LA fires destroyed 11,000 homes. Less than 10% have permits to rebuild

People trying to restore their homes are grappling with slow permit approvals, high costs and low insurance payouts.
Moroccan youth from a collective calling itself GenZ 212 chant slogans as they rally for a seventh straight day to demand reforms to public health care and education.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 5, 2025

Gen Z anger at ruling elites is erupting across the world

There has been a surge in Gen Z demonstrations in Africa and Asia against aging leaders and corruption.
A Swedish snowboard instructor works at the Niseko ski resort area on Hokkaido, in Kutchan, in December 2022
JAPAN / Society
Oct 4, 2025

A Japanese ski resort town is roiled by a debate over immigration

Residents are protesting a planned housing facility for foreign workers, exposing the conflict between labor needs and worries over immigration.
AI chip giant Nvidia announced last week that it would invest $100 billion to help OpenAI, the front-runner in generative AI, build data centers.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 3, 2025

Boom or bubble: How long can the AI investment craze last?

AI-related spending is soaring worldwide, expected to reach approximately $1.5 trillion by 2025, research has shown.
Timber from the Grand Ring, a symbol of the 2025 Osaka expo, will be reused in public housing to support recovery efforts in Ishikawa Prefecture, which was hit by disasters last year.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2025

Osaka Expo's Grand Ring timber to be reused for housing in Ishikawa

Suzu, an Ishikawa city heavily damaged in the disasters, will receive the dismantled timber from the world's largest wooden architectural structure free of charge.
A woman visits an exhibition of North Korean art at a museum in Moscow on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 30, 2025

A secret no more: Russia and North Korea's battle against Ukraine is celebrated in Moscow exhibit

For months, Russia and North Korea sought to keep secret the role Pyongyang's soldiers played in helping Moscow push Ukrainians out of Kursk in western Russia.
With the average farmer in Japan over 65, the agricultural sector, like others, faces the challenge of demographic decline as an aging workforce strains productivity and growth.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 30, 2025

Graying Japan needs both globalization and immigration

Japan has the highest ratio of elderly to working-age people in the world — over 50% — meaning there are only two workers for every person over 64.
An Iranian woman walks in front of a billboard depicting slain Lebanese Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah (center), his successor Hashem Safieddine (right) and the late Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, in Tehran on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 29, 2025

Iran's clerical leaders face existential crisis amid nuclear deadlock

The United Nations reimposed sanctions on Iran on Saturday.
Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Sep 29, 2025

Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?

Soaring property costs, foreign investment and scarce supply are reshaping who can afford to live in central Tokyo.
Bipinkumar Padaya (center) sits with his wife and son at home in Dharavi, a slum settlement in Mumbai.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 27, 2025

In India's Mumbai, the largest slum in Asia is for sale

The plan to redevelop Dharavi, led by Mumbai authorities and billionaire tycoon Gautam Adani, reflects modern India — excessive, ambitious, and brutal.
The Miyagi Disaster Mental Health Care Center, which will close at the end of September, in Sendai on Sept. 1
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2025

Miyagi mental care center to close, 14 years after 2011 disaster

The Miyagi Disaster Mental Health Care Center had offered consultations for about 63,000 cases by early this month.
A bipartisan group of economic experts urged the Supreme Court not to let U.S. President Donald Trump fire Fed Gov. Lisa Cook.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 26, 2025

Economic luminaries enter legal battle over Fed independence

The Supreme Court this year has largely sided with Trump in his firing decisions, but the justices have previously said the Fed is a "uniquely structured, quasi-private entity.”
Smoke rises from a missile strike after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 25, 2025

Israeli tanks push deeper into Gaza City as Trump talks peace

Urging the population to move south, Israel has pressed on with its military campaign on Gaza City despite repeated calls for it to pull back.
Bartender and raconteur Shingo Gokan wants his new Tokyo bar, Sangai, to tell the story of Japan's terroir.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Kanpai Culture
Sep 23, 2025

With new Tokyo bar, Shingo Gokan's bartending journey comes full circle

After a nomadic career, a charismatic bartender now finds home to be a vibrant source of tippling inspiration.
Marriage is rapidly declining in South Korea as rising education and career aspirations collide with traditional gender norms.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2025

South Korea’s baby bust threatens its demographic future

At 1.2 births per woman, Japan is still reproducing faster than South Korea, where the birth rate has dropped to just 0.75 — the lowest in the world.
Kazuya Okuda shows photos he took of damage from last September's heavy rain disaster in the Okunoto region of Ishikawa Prefecture as he talks about revitalizing the region one year on.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2025

Under-40 population plummets in disaster-hit area in Ishikawa Prefecture

The Okunoto region in the Noto Peninsula marked on Sunday one year since it was battered by torrential rains as the area's population outflow continues.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks to reporters alongside President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on Sept. 15.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 21, 2025

Trump publicly urges U.S. Justice Department to charge his enemies

The U.S. president is demanding action against two Democrats who have been accused by Trump ally of mortgage fraud.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Chequers, in Aylesbury, central England, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Sep 20, 2025

Trump’s economic team is short some key players amid staff churn

Vacancies stretch across agencies from the Internal Revenue Service to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, both of which are without permanent leaders.
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference in New York in February 2024.
WORLD
Sep 20, 2025

Top U.S. prosecutor overseeing Letitia James case resigns after Trump threat

Trump said he had soured on Erik Siebert after learning that Virginia's two Democratic U.S. senators supported his nomination.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building