Â鶹´«Ã½

Home page

 
Â鶹´«Ã½
Search
 
Â鶹´«Ã½
Search
Tokyo Weather 29¡æ
TOKYO
August 12, 2026
The Independent Voice in Asia
August 12, 2026
Foreign residents
Yen
Takaichi
Latest News
 

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has had a relatively successful run in the post, but with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi considering a Cabinet shake-up, his future remains uncertain.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Koizumi exceeded expectations as defense minister. Will he stay on?
By Michael MacArthur Bosack
The defense minister has enjoyed a relatively successful outing, maintaining public visibility, avoiding gaffes and representing Japan in security engagements globally.
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has had a relatively successful run in the post, but with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi considering a Cabinet shake-up, his future remains uncertain.
A soldier keeps watch as rescue efforts continue at the site of a damaged building following an earthquake, in Cali, Colombia, on Tuesday.
WORLD
¡®Waiting for any sign of life¡¯: Colombia reels after earthquake
By Matthew Bristow
Rescuers are scouring mountains of rubble in search of survivors following Monday¡¯s magnitude 7.4 quake.
News coverage showing file footage of a North Korean missile launch is seen on a screen at the main rail station in Seoul on Aug. 6.
ASIA PACIFIC
North Korea fires off second missile in less than a week
By Jesse Johnson
The missile was believed to have fallen outside Â鶹´«Ã½ exclusive economic zone, the Defense Ministry in Tokyo said.
Hiroshi Okuda joined Toyota just as it began establishing itself as a manufacturing powerhouse in the post-World War II era and rose through the ranks to become president in 1995.
BUSINESS / Companies
Hiroshi Okuda, Toyota chair who pushed for the Prius, dies at 93
Okuda was the first person to helm Toyota from outside the company¡¯s founding family in a generation.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi answers questions during an Upper House budget committee session in parliament in Tokyo on April 7.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Why Takaichi can¡¯t be the next Shinzo Abe
Yuichi Hosoya
Takaichi¡¯s success will ultimately depend not on becoming the next Shinzo Abe, but on proving that his strategic legacy can evolve to meet a new era.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi answers questions during an Upper House budget committee session in parliament in Tokyo on April 7.

JAPAN

More people age 19 and younger in Japan are undergoing cosmetic surgery in recent years.
More young people in Japan undergoing cosmetic surgery
The most popular procedure is double eyelid surgery, clinics say.
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
By Mai Yoshikawa
Technical wreck diver Kingo Wakasa, 56, is going against all odds to document the rusted hull of the USS Emmons destroyer on the seabed off northern Okinawa.
Chiba woman arrested over 89-year-old mother¡¯s 2024 killing
Gut bacteria may be behind many of Â鶹´«Ã½ colorectal cancer cases
Severe tropical storm Chan-hom makes landfall near Tokyo
Japan mulls use of domestic AI in SDF command system

BUSINESS

A CoCo Ichibanya curry house in Tokyo.
New ¡®Katsu Curry Index¡¯ aims to show how weak the yen really is
One bank strategist argues that an international price comparison for the pork-and-rice dish ¡ª rather than burgers ¡ª gives a better sense of how the yen¡¯s retreat feels.
Aviation fuel surcharges are calculated based on the averages of aviation fuel market prices and of foreign exchange rates over the previous two months.
JAL and ANA to cut fuel surcharges below ?60,000 on flights to U.S. and Europe
Both airlines had raised the surcharges on the routes for tickets issued in July and August to a record ?65,000 from ?56,000 for May and June.
Rakuten¡¯s shares plunge after mobile losses fuel investor fears
What is Unitree and why are China¡¯s humanoid robot makers racing to list?
By Eduardo Baptista
World youth unemployment rate rose last year, U.N. agency says
Japan end of June government debt hits record ?1.3 trillion

WORLD

An Indian soldier at the regional headquarters of the Indian Army's training mission in Bhutan, in the town of Haa, near a border area claimed by both India and China in 2017.
India warns incidents on disputed border will affect China relations
By Sudhi Ranjan Sen
During the foreign ministry¡¯s biweekly briefing, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal did not deny that a fresh border incident had occurred.
A member of the former rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stands guard near an image of Syria's Bashar Assad at the fourth division headquarters in Damascus on Jan. 23, 2025.
Syria sentences Bashar Assad to death in absentia over atrocities
The ruling is the first of its kind under Syria¡¯s transitional leaders, who ousted Assad in 2024, vowing to provide justice and accountability for crimes committed under his rule.
Johannesburg¡¯s water crisis angers voters while driving rich off-grid
By Tim Cocks
Assad ruled Syria with iron fist before defeat in civil war
Trump¡¯s secret plane swap triggers questions and confusion
Zelenskyy: Ukraine has given U.S. negotiators proposals for ending the war with Russia

Sports

Naomi Osaka hits a shot against Elena Rybakina during their quarterfinal match at the Canadian Open in Toronto on Tuesday.
Naomi Osaka falls against Elena Rybakina in Toronto
Rybakina, the reigning Australian Open champion from Kazakhstan, fired 13 aces in a 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory.
Warriors planning for star guard Stephen Curry to finish career with team
LeBron to make Sixers debut against defending champion Knicks on opening night
White Sox celebrate ¡®Pope Night¡¯ with holy hat giveaway
Veteran Justin Rose pushing to remain among golf¡¯s elite well into 40s

Opinion

Potential health care workers hoping to find work in Japan take Japanese language instruction in Jakarta. Not all applicants for permanent residency should be expected to reach this level of proficiency.
What Â鶹´«Ã½ language rules for permanent residency should look like
Midori Inagaki
The main question is how Japanese language ability will be assessed. Japan must avoid turning the Japanese Language Proficiency Test into a de facto national filter.
Colombia¡¯s new right-wing government faces an uphill battle
By Jose Antonio Ocampo
Saudi Arabia can break the Houthis¡¯ grip on the Red Sea
By James Stavridis
At Jensen Huang¡¯s favorite Japan pub, it¡¯s not last call yet
By Gearoid Reidy
How disinformation on X imperils Â鶹´«Ã½ democracy
By Stephen R. Nagy

ENVIRONMENT

A combine harvests wheat in a field in the Rostov Region, Russia, on July 18.
Inventories and farming method gains bolster food system against ¡®super¡¯ El Nino
Still, wars in the Middle East and the Black Sea region that impact fertilizer availability temper optimism, experts have warned.
Italy¡¯s record-low Po River forces farmers to weigh crop switch
By Alberto Brambilla
Scientists turn to sharks to improve hurricane predictions
By Marta Serafinko
British Columbia declares state of emergency as more than 20,000 flee wildfires
As the Danube hits record lows, every centimeter of river counts

CULTURE

Tadao Tsuge, one of the leading figures of the "gekiga" manga movement, often depicts postwar harsh realities in his works.
How war shaped the manga of Tadao Tsuge
By Marta Fanasca
The ¡°gekiga¡± pioneer drew on memories of war, hunger and poverty to chronicle Â鶹´«Ã½ overlooked lives.
Too much music, not enough weekend: A guide to Summer Sonic 2026
By Patrick St. Michel
A Yukio Mishima stage adaptation pulls genre-bending strings
By Kris Kosaka
¡®Till We Meet Again on the Starry Hill¡¯: Time-travel kamikaze romance gets a pointless sequel
By James Hadfield
¡®Ghost of Ueno¡¯: A human drama about the invisible among us
By Mark Schilling

LIFE

At Smoke Craft, a craft beer brewery in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, music isn't just a background to the brewing process ¡ª it's an ingredient.
Â鶹´«Ã½ brewers experiment with a secret ingredient: music
By Gabrielle Doman
It might sound like pseudoscience, but there could be more to the idea of brewing with music than meets the ear.
?6,000 for shaved ice: Is luxury ¡®kakig¨­ri¡¯ worth it?
By Weiwen Lin
Locked up in luxury at the new Hoshinoya Nara Prison hotel
By Owen Ziegler
How Â鶹´«Ã½ racehorses find second careers away from the track
By Rachel Teo
Speaking Japanese at the movies with ¡®Chiikawa¡¯
By Yuko Tamura

COMMUNITY

Volunteer Vicky Parthasarathy (right) believes that people from various cultures can understand each other better through food.
This children¡¯s cafeteria in Shikoku serves up free meals and global perspectives
By Jacob Meyer
As immigration becomes an increasingly contentious issue in Japan, a children¡¯s cafeteria in Shikoku is bridging cultural gaps, one hot meal at a time.
This pup has a new take on life
How foreign workers became an essential part of Â鶹´«Ã½ ubiquitous konbini
By Yumi Wijers-Hasegawa
The 180-day locals: Life on Â鶹´«Ã½ digital nomad visa
By Mai Yoshikawa
A friendly ¡®peaches-and-cream¡¯ fellow

Editors' Picks

COMMUNITY
Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?
By Yumi Wijers-Hasegawa
The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that allows burials, albeit with conditions for the deceased, including foreign nationality and permanent residency in Kanagawa Prefecture.
COMMUNITY
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
By Jessica Speed
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
ENVIRONMENT
As Â鶹´«Ã½ concrete jungles sizzle, urban forestry offers an all-natural fix
By Tomoko Otake
People and birds find relief from the sun in Tokyo's Nakano Ward earlier this month. While experts agree that urban greening is crucial to mitigating the impact of climate change, trees are becoming even more scarce in Japanese cities.
LIFE
Â鶹´«Ã½ brewers experiment with a secret ingredient: music
By Gabrielle Doman
At Smoke Craft, a craft beer brewery in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, music isn't just a background to the brewing process ¡ª it's an ingredient.
JAPAN
As countries ban social media for children, Japan mulls a different approach
By Jessica Speed
Data from NTT Docomo¡¯s Mobile Society Research Institute released in June found that 55% of respondents across all age groups said they fiddled with their phones when they had nothing to do, even when another person was in front of them.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

JT Directory Service

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

COMFACTS

Japanese Microalgae Meets American Formulation Science at Chicago¡¯s IFT FIRST
Japanese Microalgae Meets American Formulation Science at Chicago¡¯s IFT FIRST
SPACE SEED HOLDINGS CO., LTD.

WHAT¡¯S TRENDING

COMMUNITY
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
By Jessica Speed
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
JAPAN
Yasukuni Shrine introduces ban on military attire and cosplay
By Kenji Yoshida
People gather in front of thousands of lanterns on display at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on July 15 during the Mitama Matsuri, one of the capital's largest summer o-Bon festivals.
JAPAN
Many Indonesians named after Japanese anime characters
Some people in Indonesia are named Doraemon, the name of a lead character of the blockbuster anime series with the same title.
JAPAN
Strong wind and heavy rain forecast as tropical storm approaches Japan
By Kanako Takahara
Tropical Storm Chan-hom is expected to make landfall in northern Kanto between late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
JAPAN
Severe tropical storm Chan-hom makes landfall near Tokyo
Severe Tropical Storm Chan-hom made landfall around Ibaraki Prefecture, near Tokyo, on Tuesday night.