Japan

[ad_1] Paris – Scrumhalf Maxime Lucu will start France's Six Nations opener against Ireland this week, as the French begin the campaign without talismanic captain Antoine Dupont, head coach Fabien Galthie said on Wednesday. Lucu will stand in for Dupont as the former World Rugby Player of the Year misses the tournament in order to prepare to play Rugby Sevens at this year's Paris Olympics. The 31-year-old will partner Bordeaux-Begles […]

[ad_1] Japanese filmmakers have been shooting abroad for decades but typically on studio projects that use their foreign settings as exotic backdrops.Kah Wai Lim, a Malaysian director who has long been based on Osaka, makes indie films that are the very definition of borderless, including his Balkan trilogy: “No Where, Now Here” (2018), “Somewhen, Somewhere” (2019) and his latest, “Everything, Everywhere.”Shot with a skeleton crew and using local non-professionals to […]

[ad_1] Television dramas have been an effective recruitment tool for hospitals — and emergency rooms in particular. From George Clooney in “ER” to Ryohei Suzuki in “Tokyo MER,” successive generations of TV doctors and nurses have brought an aura of glamor to a profession more often defined by endless night shifts, impossible workloads and lousy pay.Early on during Takuro Adachi’s “Sono Kodo ni Mimi wo Ateyo” (which translates to “listen […]

[ad_1] 100 YEARS AGOTuesday, Feb. 12, 1924Strenuous efforts are being made by willing workers to reach the eighteen men trapped a mile in from the entrance by the caving of the Tanna railway tunnel on Sunday. It is the hope of the rescue workers that the men are still alive and will be reached in time to snatch them from death, although the best that can be hoped for that […]

[ad_1] Project Syndicate – For nearly 50 years after the end of World War II, the United States led the effort to liberalize global trade through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.In 1994, the U.S. rallied 123 countries to sign a multilateral treaty establishing the World Trade Organization, which subsumed GATT while expanding its scope to cover services trade and intellectual property.Paradoxically, America’s current industrial policy poses an existential […]

[ad_1] Prime Minister Fumio Kishida faced off against Japan's main opposition party Wednesday over the government’s disaster response one month after the New Year’s Day earthquake on the Noto Peninsula, as well as his handling of the political funds scandal that has engulfed the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.Kenta Izumi, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, called on the government to raise the value of reconstruction grants given to […]

[ad_1] Beijing – New Japanese Ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi met Tuesday with a compatriot who has been detained in Beijing on suspicion of espionage for the first time since the envoy assumed duties last month, a Japanese government source said.Kanasugi's move followed a meeting in November between his predecessor Hideo Tarumi and the man, a senior Astellas Pharma employee. The latest meeting was believed to show the new ambassador's […]

[ad_1] In a dismal year for China’s export economy, two categories stood out for their rapid growth: cars, and cheap, direct-to-consumer parcels.The two segments grew 29% and 69% respectively last year and represent the fastest expansion among sectors, with an export value of at least $10 billion, according to an analysis of Chinese customs data.The explosive pace, which runs counter to the overall downward trend in Chinese exports, underscores how […]

[ad_1] Nintendo's recent climb to a record high is looking increasingly stretched as investors wait for news on the successor to its aging Switch game console.Shares of the Mario and Zelda creator have soared 47% in the past year, compared with a 28% gain in Topix. Expectations for a new machine that some have already dubbed the "Switch 2” have fueled gains, although there has been no official word yet […]