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September 06, 2025
 

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PARENTHOOD

A child plays with sand near a couple taking part in a pre-wedding photoshoot on a beach in Qingdao, Shandong province, China, in April.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 18, 2024
China launches survey to understand 'fear of having children'
Beijing is trying to encourage young couples to have children after China posted a second consecutive year of population decline in 2023.
Interest has grown worldwide in the genetic testing of embryos for couples trying to conceive through IVF.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 17, 2024
Testing for desirable embryos inconsistent and unreliable, new study says
In recent years, interest has grown worldwide in the genetic testing of embryos among couples trying to conceive through IVF.
A woman holds a banner during a demonstration in support of surrogate motherhood in Rome on April 5. The banner reads: "We are families not crimes."
WORLD / Society
Oct 17, 2024
Italy extends ban on surrogacy to couples who seek arrangements abroad
The highly divisive bill makes Italians who seek surrogacy in other countries liable for prosecution on their return home.
Japan has been trying to boost its fertility rate for 30 years and now the rest of the rich world is, too.
WORLD / Society
Oct 14, 2024
Can the government get people to have more babies?
The number of babies born in Japan last year fell to the lowest level since the government started collecting statistics in 1899.
Helping your child through their first experience with a school bully can be a difficult situation to navigate — doubly so if you're trying to do so as a non-Japanese resident in Japan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 30, 2024
What’s a mother to do when your non-Japanese child is bullied in school?
The school experience in conformist Japan can be difficult for students who don't share things like skin color and language in common with their fellow classmates.
A woman walks in front of the Kremlin's Spasskaya tower (left) and St. Basil's cathedral in downtown Moscow on Monday.
WORLD / Society
Sep 25, 2024
Russia takes aim at those without children — while sending young men to war
Proposals to ban "the ideology of childlessness" resemble legislation passed more than a decade ago that banned "propaganda" about LGBTQ relationships.
Chen Hualiang (right), his wife Mao Li (left), and children posing at their home in Shanghai. Chen takes on household tasks many Chinese fathers tend to leave to their wives, bucking a deep-rooted patriarchal tradition and even inspiring a hit TV show.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 19, 2024
China's 'full-time dads' challenge patriarchal norms
Social norms in China have for centuries dictated that men are the breadwinners, while women take care of the household and children.
A child consultation center in Fukuoka Prefecture. Households frequently relocating within short periods experienced a lack of proper handovers of child abuse cases between local governments.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 12, 2024
Over 40% of fatal child abuse victims under age of 1, survey shows
Excluding cases of murder-suicide, the number of children in Japan who died from abuse stood at 56.
By 2018, the number of children registered for adoption had dropped to around 15,000, down from about 44,000 in 2009, according to official statistics.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 6, 2024
China stops foreign adoptions, ending a complicated chapter
The ban raises questions for many of the hundreds of families in the United States who were in the process of adopting children from China.
If the number of births falls at a similar pace in the second half of 2024, the annual total could fall below 700,000 for the first time.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 31, 2024
Births in Japan hit record low for January to June period
If the number of births falls at a similar pace in the second half of 2024, the annual total could fall below 700,000 for the first time.
A lack of affordable child care is cited as one of the top concerns among working parents in South Korea.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 30, 2024
World’s lowest birth rate spurs South Korea to hire foreign nannies
South Korea plans to bring in about 1,200 foreign nannies by the first half of 2025.
The number of children on nursery waiting lists as of April dropped 4.2% from a year before, marking the lowest level since records began in 1994.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 30, 2024
Number of children on nursery waiting lists in Japan hits new low
The figure apparently reflects a decrease in the number of preschool children, stemming from the country's low birth rate.
People shop at a flea market hosted by Bunjang, an e-commerce platform for secondhand sales, in Seoul on Aug. 3.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 28, 2024
South Korea's birth rate drive struggles to sway 'YOLO' generation
Asia's fourth-largest economy plans to launch a new government ministry dedicated to demographic challenges.
Revised guidelines on municipal governments' postpartum care programs will likely include care for women who temporarily stay at their parents' homes to give birth.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2024
Japan to revise guidelines for local government postpartum care
The upcoming revision comes as some local governments face difficulties implementing postpartum care projects by themselves.
Schoolchildren eat free dinner at a cafeteria for economically challenged families in Osaka.
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2024
Japan to boost efforts against child poverty
Once established, the working group will promote efforts toward eliminating child poverty by gathering opinions from local governments.
Women with children interact in a lounge at a postpartum care facility in Ikoma, Nara Prefecture.
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2024
Private companies increasingly expanding into postpartum care
Companies such as Nestle Japan and Mitsubishi Estate have launched initiatives aimed at mothers and children
A line of children's clothes featuring slogans about lazy, uninvolved fathers have sparked an online backlash.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 1, 2024
Japan store pulls 'lazy dad' kid clothes after backlash
Some commentators called them an affront to hard-working fathers, while others said they highlighted the country's childcare gender gap that weighs heavily on women.
Passengers exit trains at Hamamatsucho Station in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 1, 2024
Paternity leave uptake in Japan hits record 30%
The new record represents a 13 percentage point increase from the previous year.
Hungary, which has increased its birth rate since 2010, has adopted policies that support those who want or have children, including financial incentives, housing subsidies and better work-life balance.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 31, 2024
Why do young people in Hungary want kids more than in Japan?
Marriage and birth rates are plummeting in Japan, while many young people in Hungary want families thanks to measures that support their choices in life and at work.
U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, addresses a crowd of supporters during a campaign event at Radford University in Radford, Virginia, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 27, 2024
J.D. Vance’s ‘cat ladies’ insult sparks criticism of Trump’s VP pick
Comments JD Vance made in 2021 disparaging "childless cat ladies” are drawing criticism from not only Democrats, but also some members of his own party.
Bangladesh is a South Asian time bomb
Many Bangladeshis hoped that the overthrow of long-time leader Sheikh Hasina last year would revitalize the country’s democracy after an authoritarian lurch under the “iron lady.” Instead it has led to proliferating human-rights abuses, intensifying repression and widespread Islamist violence.
‘Confugenics’ and East Asia's demographic crisis
East Asia’s fertility plunge is driven not just by financial costs but by perfectionist cultural expectations that burden parents with intense educational and social demands.
Tropical Storm Peipah brings heavy rain to parts of western Japan
Tropical Storm Peipah made landfall in western Japan on Friday, prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to issue warnings of landslides and other disasters due to heavy rainfall in several areas.
Trump signs order reducing tariffs on Japanese autos
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, shake hands.
Tamagotchi hatches 100 million shipments worldwide thanks to ’90s nostalgia
The latest version of Tamagotchi, called Tamagotchi Paradise, is awarded the best digital toy at Tokyo Toy Show on Aug. 28.
London’s calling and sumo’s top division — along with Hello Kitty — are ready to answer
Yokozuna Hoshoryu and Hello Kitty, an ambassador for sumo's upcoming tour to London, at Tokyo's Kokugikan on Tuesday
Resonac creates 27-member consortium to pursue advanced chip developments
Representatives from member companies of JOINT3, a consortium working together on semiconductor-related developments announced by Resonac, pose for a photo in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Haru Nemuri’s radical new album refuses easy listening
Musician Haruna Kimishima, better known as Haru Nemuri, confronts Japan’s politics, nationalism and censorship on her recent output.
Overseas sluggers step up to bat in small-town Hokkaido
The Betsukai Pilot Spirits welcomed new players (left to right) Yuta Yamanaka, Roman Guthrie, Scott Bellina and Leo Jiminian this year, pictured here with Yassir Lachkar of the Ishikari Red Phoenix.
Xi — joined by Kim and Putin — delivers stark warning at military parade
Chinese leader Xi Jinping walks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing on Wednesday.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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