Japan

[ad_1] Japan ranked 30th in labor productivity among the 38 Organization for Economic Cooperation Development members in 2022, down two spots from the previous year and to a new lowest-ever position, a Tokyo-based group has said. Measured by the worth of goods or services a worker can produce per hour, labor productivity totaled $52.30 in Japan, the lowest calculated among the Group of Seven advanced economies since 1970 when comparable […]

[ad_1] South Korea’s regulator is launching a wider probe into local banks and brokers which sold exotic notes linked to Chinese stocks amid concerns that the securities may saddle investors with heavy losses.Authorities will start investigating 12 institutions on Monday to determine if there was any wrongdoing over the sale of equity-linked securities that are tied to the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, according to a statement from the Financial […]

[ad_1] Los Angeles – Renowned Japanese anime giant Hayao Miyazaki won the best animated film award at the U.S. Golden Globes competition on Sunday, marking his comeback as the winner of a major international contest.The 124-minute fantasy "The Boy and the Heron" marked the first time a film by a Japanese director has won the award in the category that was created in 2007.Toshio Suzuki, producer of Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki's […]

[ad_1] Fukuoka – Blowflies may be carriers of avian influenza viruses, a Japanese research team said recently, as the country grapples with infections that have led to widespread bird culls and driven up food prices.With new outbreaks reported late last year following heavy culls the previous season, the research team led by Ryosuke Fujita, an associate professor at Kyushu University's Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, is urging chicken […]

[ad_1] Akasaki, Ishikawa Pref. – The New Year's Day earthquake demolished wooden buildings all across Japan's Noto Peninsula but thanks to decades-old smart architecture, one small fishing village stood strong.A few roof tiles came loose but not one of around 100 structures in the windswept Akasaki district in Shika, on the western coast of Ishikawa Prefecture collapsed during the magnitude 7.6 quake whose epicenter was only a few kilometers away.Masaki […]

[ad_1] Amid a chorus of European club managers complaining about the midseason loss of key Japanese players, the Samurai Blue are looking to lift the Asian Cup in Qatar en route to their pursuit of an even loftier goal: the 2026 World Cup.Managing Asian football's highest-placed team in the FIFA rankings (17th), Hajime Moriyasu has pulled some surprises but "assembled the best members to win" the Asian Cup, with the […]

[ad_1] In early November, Yoshihiro Watanabe, 33, worked silently at his home in the city of Kumamoto, concentrating for two hours as he cut out a sheet of colored paper. Without any sketch on the paper, he made a cutout using a pair of scissors as if drawing with a single stroke of a brush.What came out was a detailed cutout of a dinosaur, an instantly recognizable triceratops. Watanabe, who […]

[ad_1] Cape Canaveral, Florida – The first American spacecraft to attempt to land on the moon in more than half a century is poised to blast off early Monday — but this time, private industry is leading the charge.A brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur, should lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:18 am (0718 GMT) for its maiden voyage, carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine […]

[ad_1] New York – Left-hander Shota Imanaga is continuing to draw interest from the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels, San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox ahead of Thursday's deadline to sign him under the posting system, MLB.com reported. The New York Mets have agreed to a two-year deal with southpaw Sean Manaea and their starting rotation, which includes Kodai Senga, is believed to be complete, according to the report […]