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September 26, 2025
 

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WOMEN'S ISSUES

Kellyann Ball competes at the Venus Sumo Festival in Tachikawa, western Tokyo, on Saturday.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Sep 24, 2025
Rising U.S. women's sumo team hopes to spread the word about Japan’s national sport
American sumo star Kellyann Ball was impressed by a major Japanese tournament for women held this past weekend. Now she's working on creating a similar future in the United States.
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.
Women in the U.K. still tend to handle the weekly shop, meaning they’re the first to feel the pinch from higher grocery, water and transport bills — the main drivers pushing inflation to its highest since early 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 22, 2025
Women turn away from Labour as they lose faith in economy
Already, Britain's government has lost nearly half of the female voters who helped it win power just a year ago, according a political strategy and communications consultancy.
Hard-line conservative lawmaker Sanae Takaichi has consistently been a public favorite in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election scheduled for Oct. 4.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 20, 2025
Japan may see its first female PM despite limited progress on gender gap
For a country that has seen limited progress on gender equality, a win by Takaichi could represent a watershed moment.
Gold medalist Faith Kipyegon celebrates after winning the women's 1,500 meters at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Tuesday.
MORE SPORTS / Athletics
Sep 17, 2025
Faith Kipyegon cements place as supreme champion and role model for mothers
Kipyegon, a three-time Olympic champion, took her fourth world title at 1,500 meters on Tuesday in dominating fashion.
Menstrual cups are seen as the next growth engine for auto-parts maker GomunoInaki.
BUSINESS
Sep 16, 2025
Toyota supplier shifts gears with menstrual cups in Asian markets
GomunoInaki plans to debut the cups in Singapore and Vietnam by year-end.
The U.S. Air Force's Kadena Air Base in Kadena, Okinawa Prefecture. Brennon Washington, who was stationed at the base, was handed a five-year prison sentence over the kidnap and sexual assault of a girl under the age of consent.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2025
Five-year term upheld for U.S. airman over Okinawa sexual assault
A judge rejected the defense's appeal and upheld the Naha District Court's ruling in the trial of 26-year-old Brennon Washington.
Emergency room visits for self-harm and suicide attempts have been rising since 2019, with the sharpest increases observed among young people and women, a report revealed on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 10, 2025
More people being hospitalized in Japan for self-harm, attempted suicide: report
In 2023, a total of 42,977 people were taken to hospital, 2,721 more than the previous year, according to the Japan Suicide Countermeasures Promotion Center.
A building slated for demolition that was once a clinic for sex workers hired to serve U.S. soldiers protecting Seoul from North Korea
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 10, 2025
South Korean women target U.S. military in landmark forced prostitution lawsuit
Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving U.S. troops stationed in the country.
Hideo Kojima, a former mayor of the town of Ginan in Gifu Prefecture who resigned over 99 sexual harassment allegations, has been elected as a town councilor, officials said Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 9, 2025
Ex-mayor in Gifu with 99 harassment complaints wins town council seat
The election of Hideo Kojima, who stepped down last year after an official investigation, has sparked anger and outrage online.
A <i>shunga</i> work by Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825) is on display at an exhibition of erotic Japanese art in the Kabukicho red-light entertainment area in the Shinjuku district of central Tokyo.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 8, 2025
Traditional Japanese erotic art exhibition puts female pleasure in focus
An erotic form of ukiyo-e, shunga is often dismissed as mere pornography. An exhibition in Kabukicho aims to highlight its artistry.
Hindu brides participate in a mass wedding ceremony in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, in December 2009. Despite being outlawed more than 60 years ago, dowry remains deeply entrenched in India’s patriarchal society, fueling violence that kills around 20 women every day.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2025
Dowry-related violence continues to claim the lives of India's daughters
An average of 20 women die every day from dowry-related violence in the country, according to official statistics.
Itochu has raised ¥15.2 billion ($103 million) from a sale of Japan’s first so-called orange bonds to fund gender equality projects.
BASEBALL
Sep 5, 2025
Itochu sells Japan’s first orange bonds for gender equality
The Japanese trading house raised ¥15.2 billion ($103 million) from the debt sale, more than the initial plan for a ¥10 billion offering.
“Swallows” examines the intersections of class and reproductive issues with a focus on its protagonist who is talked into becoming a surrogate for a wealthy couple.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 5, 2025
‘Swallows' untangles the murky ethics of selling motherhood
“Swallows” examines the intersections of class and reproductive issues with a focus on its protagonist who is talked into becoming a surrogate for a wealthy couple.
U.S. military personnel join Japanese officials and residents for a one-off joint nighttime patrol on the streets of the city of Okinawa in April, following sexual assault cases involving U.S. service members.
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2025
Pentagon begins probe of crimes involving U.S. troops in Japan
The review will "examine the performance, training and criminal history of service members who committed violent crimes against Japanese nationals," according to a Pentagon memo.
Australian players line up before an Olympic group stage match against the U.S. in Marseille, France, in July 2024.
SOCCER
Sep 4, 2025
'Biggest' Women's Asian Cup can help drive change, says top official
Australia will host the 12-team competition from March 1 to 21, having successfully staged the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2023 along with New Zealand.
Women holding up brooms and placards shout slogans during a protest against lawmakers' perks and police brutality, outside the Indonesian parliament building in Jakarta on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 4, 2025
Brandishing brooms, Indonesian women join Jakarta protests
Protest organizer The Alliance of Indonesian Women said the brooms symbolized a need to "sweep (away) the state's dirt ... and the repressiveness of security forces."
A research team led by the University of Tokyo’s Miyuki Harada has developed artificial intelligence models that can help deliver personalized infertility treatments by predicting the number and quality of eggs that a woman has.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 3, 2025
Japan team develops AI models to help deliver personalized infertility treatment
The group study led by a University of Tokyo researcher found their models to be more accurate than the standard method of assessing ovarian function.
Flood-affected victims rest under a shelter at a makeshift relief camp in the Kasur district of Pakistan's Punjab province on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 1, 2025
Floods leave women struggling in Pakistan's relief camps
Pregnant women are vulnerable to infectious diseases, according to doctors in a medical camp set up by a local NGO.
Autumn to be cut short as harsh winter arrives suddenly
A short-lived autumn is expected this year, with temperatures staying unseasonably high through October before plunging in late November, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Tim Cook arrives in Tokyo as Apple prepares to reopen Ginza store
Apple is reopening its redesigned store in Ginza, Tokyo, on Friday. The location holds special importance for the company — it was its first overseas store, which originally opened in 2003.
Taiwan isn’t as susceptible to invasion as one would think
Soldiers participate in a military exercise in Miaoli County, Taiwan, in July 2022. While China may desire to unify the island, military, geographic, political and economic factors make a successful invasion unlikely.
Osaka Expo tickets being resold at exorbitant prices as closing date nears
With just three weeks left until the closing of the Osaka Expo, most admission slots are nearly fully booked. On auction sites, however, many reserved tickets are being traded at high prices.
South Korea’s baby bust threatens its demographic future
Marriage is rapidly declining in South Korea as rising education and career aspirations collide with traditional gender norms.
As Japan keeps buying gas, Aboriginal Australians pay the price
Paulina “Jedda” Puruntatameri with Antonia Burke and Tiwi fisher Clinton offshore of Melville Island, one of the Tiwi Islands, in Australia's Northern Territory. Together with other Tiwi, Jedda has been campaigning for years to stop Australian company Santos and its backers, including Japanese investors, from drilling for natural gas at the Barossa gas field.
Who’s who in the LDP presidential race?
(Clockwise from top left) Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi; former foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi; Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi; former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi; and former minister of state for economic security Sanae Takaichi
Tax-advantaged investments no lost cause for U.S. residents of Japan
While some American taxpayers assume they are ineligible to participate in Japan’s tax-deferred savings schemes, certified public accountant Rick Gundlach says that this is no longer the case.
Aichi Triennale’s message from the world: Free Palestine
“Between Currents and Bloom,” an eye-popping crocheted seascape by Indonesian artist Mulyana, dazzles with Instagram-ready cuteness while recalling a vibrant ocean now threatened by warming seas.
Twice-a-year injection could make HIV prevention easier, developer argues
Jared Baeten, Gilead Sciences' senior vice president and virology therapeutic area head, hopes regulatory approval elsewhere for lenacapavir as a preexposure prophylaxis — for reducing the risk of contracting HIV — could lead to real discussions toward ending HIV in Japan.

Podcast

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

Longform

"Shake hands with Lima-chan," a statue that shares the name of the Peruvian capital looks in the direction of Peru, where a sister statue, "Sakura-chan," is located. Erected in Yokohama's Rinko Park in 1999, it commemorates Peruvian-Japanese friendship.
The journey of Peru’s Nikkei: Finding identity in Japan
By Christoph Sponsel

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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