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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2023

The Group of 20 could use a 'G Minor' grouping to represent emerging economies

While the G20 represents the world's largest economies, it's time to think of a group that could represent the needs of emerging and developing countries.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2023

Key takeaways from Japan-U.S. talks worth noting

The fact that Japan and the U.S. do not require continuous renegotiation of their standing agreements is an important one, and shows the strength of the alliance.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2023

Environment education that connects all the dots

Currently, students in Japan are taught the facts, but not necessarily how they are linked to political and social changes around the world.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 17, 2023

Japanese football given chance to measure progress at Dream Bowl

When the Japanese team takes the field for the Japan-U.S. Dream Bowl at Tokyo's National Stadium on Sunday, it will offer a brief look at the nation’s collective football might in international competition.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2023

Satellite-saving robots can turn killer, too

Orbiting machines used to repair other spacecraft can just as easily be used to destroy them and will require new international rules to keep the peace.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jan 17, 2023

Thousands sign petition to save Tokyo's 'sacred' Jingu Stadium

Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played at the legendary venue in 1934 as part of a Japanese tour, making the stadium only one of a handful remaining where Ruth played.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 17, 2023

Scientists use laser to guide lightning bolt for first time

A team of scientists from six research institutions have been working for years to replace the humble lightning rod with a far more sophisticated and precise laser.
Japan's household spending fell 0.1% from a year earlier in April, as the elevated cost of living weighs on consumer spending.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 6, 2025

April household spending drop deals blow to Japan's shrinking economy

Domestic demand will likely be a key factor in determining whether a technical recession can be avoided after the economy shrank in the first quarter.
Demonstrators sing the "Glory To Be Thee, Hong Kong" protest song during a flash mob in 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 21, 2023

Hong Kong court says protest song is matter of national security

The city’s High Court on Friday heard the government’s argument for why it should be illegal to perform or broadcast Glory to Hong Kong with criminal intent.
Members of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild take part in a picket line outside Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California, on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2023

AI shines a spotlight on Hollywood hypocrisy

Studios haven’t informed or paid background actors properly for being digitally scanned, yet they want the same courtesy from AI companies.
Many economies in Asia have invested at much lower levels on defense than the U.S., expecting the support of Washington’s military might.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 6, 2025

Asia sees Trump’s 5%-of-GDP defense spending goal as unrealistic

In interviews, key defense officials in Asia have been clear: The ambition is understood, but the math just doesn’t add up.
An extreme heat warning in Death Valley, California, on July 15
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2023

Our civilization was built for a climate that’s vanishing

Weather disasters linked to climate change like those unfolding across the northern hemisphere will affect more and more of us.
A Mercedes-Benz production line in Rastatt, Germany, earlier this month. European auto suppliers alone have filed hundreds of requests to China for rare earths since early April, with only about a quarter granted.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 6, 2025

The world's auto supply chain is in the hands of a few Chinese bureaucrats

China holds a near-monopoly on rare earth magnets — a crucial component in EV motors — and it added them to an export control list in April.
Fast fashion concept. Woman chooses jeans in a store. Lots of clothes in the store. Fast Fashion Destroying Planet
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 21, 2023

Fashion, fast and slow: Discussing shopping ethics in Japanese

Whether it’s a trendy top from a chain store in Shibuya or a vintage piece from the backstreets of Kichijoji, know how to shop with a mind to sustainability in Japanese.
Takuya Haraguchi, head of ReFruits, speaks while looking at the kiwifruit vine at his farm in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, on April 24. A newcomer to farming, he hopes to revive the area by growing kiwifruits in this former no-go zone.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2025

'Moving forward': the Gen Z farmer growing Fukushima kiwifruits

Fukushima is renowned for its delicious fruit, from pears to peaches, but the nuclear disaster led many people in Japan to shun produce grown there.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange building in Tokyo. Stock traders are looking for signs of activist holdings in Japanese firms, with more than 80% of Tokyo-listed companies, whose fiscal year ends in March, expected to hold shareholder meetings in the last five days of June.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 6, 2025

Traders scouring annual meeting filings for traces of activist shareholdings

Multiple stocks jumped last week after activist investor Aya Nomura’s name appeared in annual general meeting letters, listed as a stakeholder.
The community pool is a great place for exercise and meeting your neighbors.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jul 31, 2023

Figuring out the rules at a Japanese community pool can be an ongoing education

If you’re headed for the community pool, be prepared: Japanese pool rules are an ongoing education.
Japan's exports in terms of value dropped 3% in the first 20 days of May from the same period a year earlier, indicating the impact of U.S. tariffs.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 6, 2025

Japan’s early May exports drop as tariff woes upend commerce

Exports measured by value dropped 3% in the first 20 days of May, which compared with a 2% rise for April.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2023

Government explains radar deployment plan to residents of Okinawan island

The Defense Ministry stressed the need to build a tight surveillance system in the Pacific, where the Chinese military is increasing its activities.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 21, 2023

Mental evaluation begins for GSDF fatal shooting suspect

The June 14 shooting during a live-fire training session left Master Sgt. Yasuchika Kikumatsu and Sgt. Kosuke Yashiro dead, and another 25-year-old sergeant seriously wounded.
Kenji Yanobe’s spacesuited cats are the main characters of  “Ship’s Cat Island,” the inaugural exhibition at Hyper Museum Hanno in Saitama Prefecture.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 7, 2025

What can Kenji Yanobe’s cosmic cats teach us about humanity?

The spacesuited felines will be familiar to those who have visited the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka or Tokyo’s Ginza Six shopping complex last year.
Nissan will adopt Tesla's electric-vehicle charging technology in the U.S. and Canada, becoming the first Japanese carmaker to take up the technology.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 20, 2023

Nissan to adopt Tesla EV-charging design from 2025 in U.S. and Canada

Starting in 2025, the firm will equip its electric vehicles with the Tesla-developed North American Charging Standard (NACS) port.
Canada defender Alphonso Davies (left) dribbles the ball during the second half of a CONCACAF Nations League semifinal match against Mexico at SoFi Stadium in California on Mar. 20.
SOCCER
Jun 6, 2025

Soccer surging in Canada a year from World Cup hosting

Data ranks soccer as the most popular sport among Canadian youth and, while the country retains its love for ice hockey, families increasingly struggle to take part.
Rengo members cheer during their annual May Day rally to demand higher pay and better working conditions, in Tokyo on April 29.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2023

Japanese unions urge employers to continue wage hikes next year and beyond

Rengo made the demand as it reviewed the results of its annual spring wage talks that concluded earlier this month, which saw major companies agree to the largest raises in 30 years.
Iryna Mudra (center), the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential administration, and others prepare for a photo shoot at an international peace conference at The Hague, Netherlands, in April last year.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 6, 2025

Ukraine hits out at Europe's payout from frozen Russian cash

Compensating private investors before victims of war sends the wrong signal, says Iryna Mudra, a deputy head of Ukraine's presidential administration.
Residential buildings in the Kachidoki area of Tokyo. The average unit price of newly supplied condominiums in the greater Tokyo area in the first six months of this year reached the highest level for the six-month period due to rising material and labor costs and higher land prices.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2023

Tokyo's new condo prices surge 60% to a record in first half of year

The average price of a new apartment in central Tokyo jumped 60% to ¥129.6 million ($930,000) in the January to June period.
Many curry shops are going bankrupt in Japan as prices of mainstay ingredients have gone up due to a rice shortage, adverse weather and a weak yen.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 6, 2025

Soaring rice prices take a bite out of Japan's beloved curry shops

A total of 13 shops with more than ¥10 million in debt filed for bankruptcy in the year ended March — a record high for a second consecutive year.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic