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Korean Canadian director, playwright and screenwriter Celine Song walks on the stage to pose for photos after a screening of her film, "Past Lives" in Seoul last week.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 7, 2024

Oscar-nominated Korean diaspora film follows 'lives we leave behind'

"Past Lives," which marks Celine Song's debut as a director, is one of several recent films that address the Korean diaspora.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 15, 2024

Biden’s best shot against Trump lies in ‘blue wall’ states

In Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, his campaign sees signs for optimism.
The outdoor version of an "instant house," developed and set up by architect Keisuke Kitagawa in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2024

'Instant Houses' used widely in Noto quake-hit areas

The structure, which can be erected in an hour, is 4 meters tall with a floor area of 20 square meters.
As of December 2022, the village of Zamami, Okinawa Prefecture, had in its stockpile six of the nine items listed in a survey as necessary for women and 10 of the 11 items listed as necessary for babies and infants, doing much better than other municipalities in the prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Apr 1, 2024

Municipalities push gender-inclusive disaster risk management

Some areas in Okinawa involve more women in decision-making and make an effort at stockpiling relevant items.
Wildlife researcher Amelia Hiorns says Japan's bears feel the pressure of human presence and have learned that encountering us is not worth their time.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 30, 2024

Amelia Hiorns: 'Guiding and introducing people to Japan's nature has been rewarding'

Wildlife researcher Amelia Hiorns shares how separate interests in Japan and in bears culminated in conservation work in the mountains of Nagano.
Beijing-based Chinese influencer Chang Feifei has taken on many jobs to promote travel destinations in Japan, including from Universal Studios Japan and the Hankyu and Hanshin department stores.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Mar 28, 2024

Influencers — Japan’s secret weapon to promote niche tourism spots

Followers' trust in — and reliance on — social media for travel info, even when the content is sponsored, is a key factor.
Climate change, with its natural disasters, is putting nuclear facilities and weapons complexes at risk.
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2024

Climate change and nuclear waste are a toxic stew

Nuclear power could be a crucial part of a clean-energy transition, but not if it comes with a high risk of multiple Fukushima-like catastrophes.
If it's too hot to do much (and the costs for air conditioning continue to surge) during the day, it might be time to consider shifting the bulk of our activities to cooler nighttime hours.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 6, 2024

A solution for scorching days: Do everything at night.

Working night shifts, however, comes with a host of health problems, increasing the risk of diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.
A lone Tesla charges in the basement of a commercial property in Tokyo. One of Japan’s biggest obstacles to electric vehicles is subpar charging infrastructure.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 8, 2024

How three high-tech countries became laggards in electric vehicles

Japan's slow adoption traces back to a decade-old bet on hydrogen fuel-cell technology, while U.S. and South Korea have hit bottlenecks.
Haruko Obokata speaks to reporters in the city of Osaka in 2014. Ten years after the STAP scandal, structural problems that led to the scandal persist, leaving ample room for researchers to tamper with research data, experts say.
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Apr 9, 2024

Little change in Japan’s research sector 10 years after stem cell fraud

A decade after the STAP scandal, there is still a lot of leeway for researchers to tamper with data.
A street floods earlier this month in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, China. A 12-hour stretch of heavy rain, starting from 8 p.m. Saturday, battered the central and northern parts of nearby Guangdong province.
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 21, 2024

Massive river flooding expected in China's Guangdong, threatening millions

Guangdong officials urged departments in all localities and municipalities to begin emergency planning to avert natural disasters.
A prisoner stands behind the door of a cell in the isolation section of the Villepinte detention center in Villepinte, near Paris.
WORLD / Society
Apr 27, 2024

Ahead of Olympics, a packed Paris prison braces for crowds of inmates

Many of the events are being held in Seine-Saint-Denis, which has the highest ratio of immigrants among France's departments and is also the poorest.
The trial hearing of Masumi Hayashi, who denied killing four people and poisoning 63 at a festival by lacing a pot of curry with arsenic, was the focus of The Japan Times’ front page of May 14, 1999.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
May 1, 2024

Japan Times 1999: Hayashi admits fraud, denies curry murders

The disturbing case of the Wakayama curry killer would continue for years, resulting in the eventual execution of the woman convicted of the crime.
Much like other hot spots across Okinawa, Onna has diligently strived to captivate both domestic and international tourists, while at the same time grappling with the environmental strain induced by the influx of visitors.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
May 5, 2024

As visitors surge, Japan seeks ways to make tourism eco-friendly

A record tourism boom has raised concerns over the enormous stress visitors put on the environment.
A meteor is seen in an aurora borealis above Lausanne and the Jura from the Tour de Gourze in Riex, Switzerland, on Saturday.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 11, 2024

First 'extreme' solar storm in 20 years brings spectacular auroras

The "extreme" geomagnetic storm is the first since the so-called Halloween Storms of October 2003.
A Palestinian student, who plans to return to his homeland after graduation and who wishes to remain anonymous, poses for a portrait while wearing a kaffiyeh along with his commencement cap at the Auraria Campus in Denver on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
May 13, 2024

Campus Gaza rallies may subside, but experts see possible 'hot summer of protest'

Academics say it's difficult to maintain the people-power energy on campus if most of the people are gone.
U.S. President Joe Biden touts the economic benefits of semiconductor investment at Intel’s Ocotillo Campus in Chandler, Arizona, on March 20.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 13, 2024

Global chips battle intensifies with $81 billion subsidy surge

The rush of funding has hardened battle lines in the U.S.-China trade war, including in nations like Japan.
Penny Sackett, a former director of the Australian National University’s Mount Stromlo Observatory, in the remains of the observatory, which was destroyed by a wildfire in 2003, just outside Canberra on May 6.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 14, 2024

Alarmed by climate change, astronomers train their sights on Earth

Seeing how climate change has impacted the earth, many astronomers have left science to become full-time activists.
Visitors walk along the ground-level pathway at the newly expanded Benjakitti Park in central Bangkok, where trees and wetlands now thrive on the site of a former cigarette factory.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 17, 2024

Big, smoggy Bangkok gets a badly needed breath of fresh air

In the heart of a megacity, an industrial site has been turned into an oasis for residents, as well as birds, bats and mosquito-eating dragonflies.
Catherine Wallace
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / The Big Questions
May 27, 2024

Hitotsubashi’s Catherine Wallace on business ethics

Active in cross-cultural collaboration, innovation and sustainability, Wallace worked as a diplomat and is now a professor at Hitotsubashi University
The wealthy don’t live only in global glamour cities, and family offices are now popping up in places like Perth in Western Australia.
BUSINESS
May 28, 2024

Catering to the ultrarich is a booming business in Western Australia

After an almost two-decades-long mining boom, Perth has 64 centimillionaires, and family offices are now popping up in the city.
Whether you get your goosebumps from horror movies, the dark or even historical battle sites, there are lots of ways to express fear in Japanese.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 31, 2024

Using intransitive verbs to make Japanese ghost stories extra spooky

Since intransitive verbs don't need to take a subject, they are best at describing things that happen of their own accord.
Farm labourers, with their faces covered for protection from heat, work in a field on a hot day in Karnal, India, on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 7, 2024

Everyone you know will eventually be highly vulnerable to extreme heat

Intense heat waves in recent years offer a stark warning of what’s at stake for humanity and particularly the vulnerable elderly population.
Tourists visit Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Kyoto, where popular sites feel increasingly unmanageable.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 8, 2024

Japan likes tourists, just not this many

The country has politely handled travelers for years, but as visitors spill into previously untouristed spots, some residents are frustrated.
People wait for the main act to begin at Summer Sonic, which holds simultaneous music festivals for those in Tokyo and Osaka.
CULTURE / Music / Longform
Jun 9, 2024

Can Japan's summer music festivals adapt to a post-pandemic reality?

Soaring temperatures, the cheap yen and a dearth of headline options may require reshaping the outdoor concert formula.
Traffic at the Dubai International Financial Centre. Last year, it opened the DIFC Family Wealth Center, a registry for family offices that also offers advisory services, workshops, mentoring, dispute resolution and certification based on how "structured” their governance is.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 10, 2024

Dubai takes on Abu Dhabi in race for supremacy in family offices

Last year, the number of registered foundations in Dubai rose by 53%. In rival Abu Dhabi, the number jumped by 35%.
Here are a handful of places around Tokyo where you can treat the dad in your life to the pampering they deserve.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 12, 2024

Retro barbers, executive facials: Pamper dad with a Tokyo spa day

Despite forward-thinking on male grooming, Japan markets these pampering services largely toward women — but here are a few places dad might enjoy this Father's Day.
Recently, Japan designated Hokkaido Prefecture (including its capital, Sapporo), Fukuoka, Tokyo and Osaka as special zones for financial and asset management businesses. Kumamoto Prefecture was also named a national strategic zone for semiconductors.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 14, 2024

International social infrastructure key to Japan’s high-tech future

Across the globe there is an ongoing search for talent, especially in high-tech sectors, and Japan is no different.
A potato field in summer in Hokkaido. The prefecture is a significant source of food and produced 81% of Japan's potatoes in 2022.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Jun 24, 2024

Hokkaido's farmers look for a silver lining to climate change disruption

As the prefecture becomes warmer, it could produce more apples and sweet potatoes, agricultural cooperative officials say.
Pedestrians shelter from the sun in Tokyo's Ginza district on Sunday. On average, the rainy season begins on June 7 in the Kanto region where Tokyo is situated, but as of Thursday, the Meteorological Agency has yet to declare the start of the season in the capital.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 20, 2024

Japan’s rainy season is significantly late this year

The rainy season is already two weeks overdue in the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years