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September 15, 2025
 

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ISLANDS

Sailors aboard the U.S. Navy's guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn conduct a small boat operation during a "Maritime Cooperative Activity" with the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Osumi tank-landing ship and the Philippine Navy's Jose Rizal frigate in the South China Sea on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 14, 2025
Beijing denounces joint U.S.-Japan-Philippines patrol of South China Sea
China criticized the joint trilateral exercises, alleging that Manila has “frequently colluded with non-regional countries” to organize the patrols.
A reporter records video over Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea in February 2024.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 13, 2025
U.S. rejects China nature reserve plan in South China Sea area near Philippines
The U.S. called China’s plan to create a national nature reserve at Scarborough Shoal in the disputed sea area "destabilizing.”
A Chinese Navy ship speeds past a Philippine fishing boat while the Philippine, Australia and Canadian navies conduct a joint drill near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea on Sept. 2.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 10, 2025
Manila working on new protocols for dealing with Beijing in South China Sea
As tensions heat up in the waterway, the Philippines is updating its existing rules of engagement as part of a whole-of-government approach.
A Philippine Navy sailor looks at a China Coast Guard vessel just off the coast of Pag-asa Island in the disputed South China Sea last month.
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Sep 1, 2025
Surrounded by Chinese bases, a tiny Philippine island stands firm
Pag-asa Island — population 400 — sits on the front line of a simmering territorial dispute between Beijing and Manila in the flash point South China Sea.
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2025
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
A decision is expected in the “coming months,” a senior government official in Manila said, following an inspection of the Abukuma-class destroyer escorts.
Japan has lodged a protest with China over the latter's unilateral development of gas fields in disputed waters between both countries.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 26, 2025
Tokyo lodges protests with Beijing over gas field in East China Sea
Japan says China is unilaterally setting up drilling rigs in the area where their exclusive economic zone claims overlap.
Shoichi Takahashi holds a photo of himself when he was younger, in Otaru, Hokkaido, on May 17.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2025
103-year-old remembers Soviet attack right after WWII
"Since we had been fighting Americans, it was beyond my imagination that Soviets launched an attack on us three days after the end of WWII," Takahashi said.
This handout video grab released and taken on Monday by the Philippine Coast Guard shows a Chinese Coast Guard ship with a damaged bow following an incident with a Chinese Navy vessel, as seen from a Philippine fisheries boat near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 13, 2025
China's military says it 'drove away' U.S. destroyer near Scarborough Shoal
The shoal has been a major source of tension in the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.
This handout video grab released and taken on August 11, 2025 by the Philippine Coast Guard shows an incident between a Chinese Navy vessel (left) and a Chinese Coast Guard ship as seen from a Philippine fisheries boat near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 11, 2025
Chinese vessels collide while pursuing Philippine boat in South China Sea
Video released by Manila showed a China Coast Guard ship and a much larger vessel bearing the number 164 on its hull colliding with a loud crash.
An Indian Naval officer stands behind Philippine and Indian flags at the international port of Manila on Friday. India's naval vessels arrived in Manila for a port visit late last week.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 4, 2025
Philippine and Indian navies begin first joint South China Sea patrols
The Philippines has heightened defense cooperation with a range of allies over the past year after a series of clashes in the South China Sea.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas attends a meeting in Brussels on July 14.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 23, 2025
China singled out at EU-Japan summit
The two sides reiterated their opposition to “any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion” in the East and South China seas.
Marine biologist Teina Rongo on his boat passing the research vessel MV Anuanua Moana in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, on June 12. Mining exploration has left many Cook Islanders such as Rongo fearing deep-sea mining could taint their precious ocean forever.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 23, 2025
The Pacific island nation that wants to mine the ocean floor
Research vessels roam the seas around the Cook Islands in search of deposits of battery metals, rare earths and critical minerals.
Evacuees wishing to voluntarily return to Akuseki Island in Kagoshima Prefecture get on a ferry in the city of Kagoshima on July 16.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2025
Evacuees from quake-hit Tokara Islands to return
Seismic activity near the islands has slowed in recent days, giving islanders the opportunity to return.
Kunashiri, one of the four islands seized by Russia in the last days of World War II, is visible from the Shiretoko Peninsula in northeastern Hokkaido.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Jul 22, 2025
Ex-residents of Russian-controlled islands off Hokkaido want grave-site visits resumed
Now in their advanced years, the former residents want the visits to be restored for them to honor their ancestors whose grave sites are located on the four islands.
Former residents of Russian-held islands claimed by Japan hold a memorial service aboard the exchange ship Etopirika, which arrived off Kunashiri, part of the Northern Territories, on Sunday.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2025
Ex-residents of Japan-claimed isles hold memorial at sea
Former Japanese residents of the Russian-held islands cannot return to their hometowns because exchange programs between the two countries have been suspended.
The Solomon Islands. A team from the U.S. nonprofit Ocean Exploration Trust has discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki on the deep seabed off the Solomon Islands as the 80th anniversary of the war's end approaches.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 18, 2025
Sunken WWII Japanese warship Teruzuki found off Solomon Islands
The Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer was discovered at a depth of more than 800 meters off the small island nation northeast of Australia.
A Chinese JH-7 fighter-bomber flies close to an Air Self-Defense Force YS-11EB intelligence-gathering surveillance aircraft over the high seas in the East China Sea on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2025
China says Japanese ‘harassment’ behind close encounter with ASDF spy plane
The Defense Ministry in Beijing said “close-in reconnaissance and harassment” by the Japanese side was “the root cause” of the latest incidents.
A Chinese JH-7 fighter jet makes an near an Air Self-Defense Force YS-11EB surveillance aircraft over the East China Sea this week in this image released Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2025
Chinese fighters came within 30 meters of Japanese spy aircraft, Tokyo says
Chinese fighter jets twice risked collisions with ASDF surveillance aircraft over the East China Sea on Wednesday and Thursday, the Defense Ministry in Tokyo said.
"The aggressiveness of China has been several years in the making," Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said virtually at the Reuters NEXT Asia summit in Singapore on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 9, 2025
Philippine defense chief rules out U.S. as factor in China's 'expansionist' agenda
Despite rising tension in the regional flash point of the South China Sea, the Philippines' top defense official also dismissed fears that conflict was on the horizon.
Evacuees from Akuseki Island, in the Tokara chain, which has been hit by swarms of earthquakes in recent days, arrive at Kagoshima Port on Friday afternoon.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2025
More residents evacuate quake-hit remote islands in Japan
The series of earthquakes with their epicenters in the seas around the Tokara chain — including two powerful quakes on Sunday — began on June 21.
Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens?
Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life and 7-Eleven, a chain that began in the U.S. in 1927, opened its first store in Japan in 1974 — and then became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005 through parent company Seven & I Holdings.
Japan's cutting-edge railgun successfully strikes target vessel
The Defense Ministry’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) conducted a ship-board railgun shooting test from June to early July this year with the support of the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
People rush to make furusato nozei donations ahead of tighter rules
A booth from the town of Betsukai in Hokkaido at an Amazon Japan furusato nо̄zei promotion event, on Sept. 5 in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
Strikes on Qatar and Poland shake U.S. sway among friend and foe
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Museum of the Bible in Washington on Sept. 8. Israeli strikes in Qatar and Russian drone incursions into Poland have challenged the U.S. leaders claims of global respect.
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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’
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