Japan

[ad_1] More than a week has passed since a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake turned New Year's Day into disaster in Ishikawa Prefecture, where at least 202 have died and about 100 remain missing.Over the three-day weekend, a team from The Japan Times reported from the hard-hit Noto Peninsula — including the city of Wajima, where buildings were flattened and a major fire destroyed the central morning market. In Wajima and […]

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[ad_1] Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed Tuesday as a rally in technology companies helped push the blue-chip gauge to its highest level since the nation’s bubble economy era more than three decades ago.The gauge rose 1.2% to close at 33,763.18 in Tokyo, a level unseen since March 1990, after the Nasdaq 100 Index rebounded from last week’s slump and U.S. Treasury yields dropped. The benchmark Topix index, which some […]

[ad_1] Police on Tuesday began combing the burned-down remains of a market devastated by fire in Ishikawa Prefecture following the massive New Year’s Day earthquake, while authorities said the overall death toll had risen above 200.The number of dead was especially high — 81 — in the hard-hit coastal city of Wajima, where the quake sparked a massive blaze that tore through the popular tourist market.The number of those missing […]

[ad_1] Seoul – South Korea's parliament on Tuesday passed a bill banning breeding, slaughtering and selling dogs for their meat, a traditional practice that activists have long called an embarrassment for the country.The National Assembly passed the bill by a 208-0 vote. It will come into effect after a three-year grace period and after it receives final approval from President Yoon Suk-yeol.Breeding, selling and slaughtering dogs for their meat will […]

[ad_1] Taipei – A Chinese satellite launch triggered Taiwan's emergency phone alert system on Tuesday, days before the self-ruled island holds a crucial presidential election that has heightened security worries around the region.Chinese state media said that Beijing had successfully launched the "Einstein Probe satellite using the Long March-2C carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.""The satellite entered its designated orbit," CCTV reported, adding that the launch was a […]

[ad_1] A typical one-liter bottle of water contains some 240,000 plastic fragments on average, according to a new study. Many of those fragments have historically gone undetected, the researchers determined, suggesting that health concerns linked to plastic pollution may be dramatically underestimated. The peer-reviewed study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to evaluate bottled water for the presence of "nanoplastics” — […]

[ad_1] Iwata, Shizuoka Pref. – Midfielder Yasuhito Endo, who was capped a record 152 times for Japan and played in a record 672 J-League first-division games, has retired, his J1 club, Jubilo Iwata, announced Tuesday. The 43-year-old Endo turned pro in 1998 straight out of high school with the now-disbanded Yokohama Flugels. He won J-League championships with Gamba Osaka in 2005 and 2014 and an Asian Champions League title in […]

[ad_1] Duolingo, the maker of language-learning software, is cutting some contractors as the app uses generative artificial intelligence to create more content. About 10% of contractors were "offboarded,” a company spokesperson said Monday. "We just no longer need as many people to do the type of work some of these contractors were doing. Part of that could be attributed to AI,” the spokesperson said. CEO Luis von Ahn said during […]