japan

Companies Might Have to ‘Lean In’ to Transparency by Reporting Salaries 

For all the leaning in, women still made 82 cents on the dollar in 2017. Women of color fared even worse.

U.N. Environment Assembly Begins in Nairobi

Thousands of officials, including heads of state and business leaders, are in Nairobi this week for the UN’s Environment Assembly.

Cleaning Up After the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

After the biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, Japan is continuing its clean-up of Fukushima. And it’s getting a little assistance from an unlikely helper: robots.

Studio 360 considers the strange force of cuteness, and our biological urge to say, “awww!” or sometimes “ugggh” when we encounter the cute. And in Japan, anxieties about the atomic bomb may be masked in cuteness. Plus, a live set of smart indie pop from the band “Stars.”

Hedge fund poetry and the secrets of old Japan. Find out how a job in the complicated world of high finance inspired the poet Katy Lederer. Despite 20 years of living in Japan, writer Pico Iyer embraces his outsider status there. The ancient Japanese tea ceremony finds a place in the modern world. And hear […]

Studio 360 is big in Japan. Kurt Andersen hits the streets of Tokyo in search of cutting-edge art and design. Female art stars take on the schoolgirl stereotype; young rebels scream against an economic system that failed them. And Kurt goes undercover at the epicenter of all things nerdy to get a taste of otaku […]

Studio 360 is big in Japan. Kurt Andersen hits the streets of Tokyo in search of cutting-edge art and design. Female art stars take on the schoolgirl stereotype; young rebels scream against an economic system that failed them. And Kurt goes undercover at the epicenter of all things nerdy to get a taste of otaku […]

Studio 360 is big in Japan. Kurt Andersen hits the streets of Tokyo in search of cutting-edge art and design. Female art stars take on the schoolgirl stereotype; young rebels scream against an economic system that failed them. And Kurt goes undercover at the epicenter of all things nerdy to get a taste of otaku […]

This week, Studio 360 gets obsessed about fandom: a look inside the world of black cosplayers at ComicCon, Kurt visits a Japanese pop culture paradise, and an atheist proselytizes “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

President Trump’s declarations on Asia have caused much uncertainty in the region. To better understand the hopes, fears, and concerns on both sides of the Pacific, America Abroad convened a bi-national town hall bringing together audiences and experts in both Honolulu and Tokyo.

President Barack Obama’s visit to Hiroshima in Japan will be the first ever by a sitting US president, remembering the hundreds of thousands of lives lost and scarred when the United States became the first and (thus far) only power to use nuclear weapons, dropping two in August 1945 to force Japan’s surrender, ending World War II. Critics complain that Obama’s visit makes the US look weak. Supporters call the visit inspired, a sign of respect for a close ally, recognition of pain and loss, a realization that how and what societies remember, shapes their future. They say facing history is not only a sign of strength, but of moral leadership.

Japan’s economic growth is anemic, its population is aging and shrinking, and some Japanese wonder if Japan will still matter, as the century moves ahead. One way it does is as an example to China of what works and what doesn’t, in managing an economy at home and power projection abroad. Japan also stands as an object lesson: A rise that looks inevitable may not be.