Carmaker gives one of biggest warnings yet of conflict’s impact on businesses while Trump tariffs also take tollToyota has reported a £3bn hit from costs from the war in Iran, as prices of parts and materials soared and sales dropped.The world’s bigges…
Lee Sang-il’s heartfelt drama spans 50 years following the bond and rivalry between two brothers who play the rigorously observed female roles in the traditional art formLee Sang-il’s heartfelt and muscular epic (whose title means “national treasure”) …
Is this the ultimate location for contemplative art? Our writer travels to the legendary island of Naoshima – and meets the great creator of its most spellbinding works. Will he step through the arch and find nirvana?The island of Naoshima used to be h…
There is less daffy humour in this sequel than in the 2023 original, but some sublime animationBy the demented standards of fantasy anime, this is fairly straight; the weirdest thing on show here is probably a unicorn-wolf who scoffs pink frosted dough…
The Tale of Kaho, out in July, will be 16th novel by Japanese author who has faced criticism for portrayal of womenThe Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami will publish his first novel to feature a woman as the main character this summer.The Tale of Kaho …
Developments in Berlin and Tokyo show how far the strategic environment has shifted in response to authoritarian threat and American unpredictabilityWhen Donald Trump hosted Sanae Takaichi, the Japanese prime minister, last month, he could not resist a…
Democrat led Hawaii from 1973 to 1986, coinciding with the party’s rise to power in the stateGeorge R Ariyoshi – Hawaii’s former governor and the nation’s first Asian American governor – has died at age 100.Ariyoshi, a Democrat who led the state from 1…
People in affected areas are still urged to evacuate after quake registering 7.7 magnitude Australian officials in Japan are urgently following up on the tsunami warning off the northeastern coast of the island of Honshu.The Australian government said:…
A 1,200-year dataset shows the ‘peak bloom’ is arriving earlier. Global heating is unsettling nature’s rhythms – and their cultural meaningA picture posted on social media last April by Prof Yasuyuki Aono of a spreadsheet, with its blank row for 2026, …
Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days Continue reading…
Elderly people take advantage of courses on how to navigate mobile devices and avoid ‘analogue isolation’It’s not only young people whose gaze is fixed on tiny screens. But for these users in Tokyo, clicking and scrolling is anything but second nature….
Prof Yasuyuki Aono’s meticulous work charted shifting bloom dates as a marker of climate changeEven in his final months, he counted the days until the cherry blossoms. Prof Yasuyuki Aono of Osaka Metropolitan University spent his career gathering data …
Japanese carmaker will add self-driving abilities to 90% of cars in future and cut a fifth of its modelsBusiness live – latest updatesNissan has said it will add self-driving abilities to the vast majority of its cars and cut a fifth of its models in t…
Ultra-low rates turned the yen into easy cash for bankers. But the carry trade now binds global markets to decisions in TokyoIn 2015, Clyde Prestowitz’s book Japan Restored imagined a Japanese century emerging from upheavals such as an Israeli att…
Geisha rehearse for a traditional dance that has been performed annually for more than 150 years Continue reading…
From farms in New Zealand to factories in Delhi, the effects of the oil crisis triggered by the Iran war are rippling across Asia Continue reading…
A death rate of up to 90%, attributed to warming seas, is threatening the trade in Hiroshima prefecture, which produces most of the country’s farmed oystersThe Kure oyster festival is doing a brisk trade in beer and grilled meat on sticks. But the long…
Top notch choreography features heavily in tale of a student who is inhabited by an assassin’s spirit determined to wreak revengeOn her way home from a bad day at work and a disappointing drinks date with a sleazy social media influencer (Hidenobu Aber…
A talking balsam flower asks an elderley yakuza to weigh up a life of violence and kindness in Baku Kinoshita’s quietly contemplative taleAn original story from director Baku Kinoshita and writer Kazuya Konomoto, this is the kind of quiet, contemplativ…
US president was meeting with Japanese PM when he said: ‘Who knows better about surprise than Japan?’Middle East crisis – live updatesSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxIt would be funny if it wasn’t so Trumpy….