Eating disorders affect athletes at rates two to three times higher than nonathletes. In Japan, two champions share what it takes to recover — and why the silence around the issue remains so dangerous. 👉 ebx.sh/Ww4CFR

The Guardian US is releasing a new tool today, a tracker tallying the arrests, detentions, and deportations since the start of the second Trump admin. We are going to continue to update as the admin releases new data: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

The courage of these parents should be applauded. I hope they inspire more to come forward. And kudos to Mai Yoshikawa for her thoughtful interviews and well-told story. A must-read.

It has been 80 years, but Hideo Shimizu still remembers the 4½ months he spent with Unit 731, the biological and chemical warfare unit of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army, like they were yesterday.

If you need an extra reason to visit Toyama, then Himawari Shokudo 2, The Japan Times’ 2025 Destination Restaurant of the Year, should fit the bill.

Venezuelan detainees at Texas center spell out SOS with their bodies

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Lisa Rothstein. #NewYorkerCartoons nyer.cm/QAnwGsj

Totally fine. Totally chill.

Flash debut. Don’t worry. She’s just chilling.

“In the four years to June 2024, Russia accounted for more than 60% of takedown requests.”

In livestreamed chat between Sam Altman and Masayoshi Son, ChatGPT's top investor reassured the world that there is nothing to fear about AI developing emotions, explaining that protein isn't AI's source of energy. Altman tries to lighten the mood: "So AI won't eat humans. Confirmed." 🧟

“The public should wake up to the fact that this is not a one-off accident.”

He will be missed but his unique brand of surreality will live on every time we describe things to be Lynchian.

The probability that a Nankai Trough megaquake will occur in the next 30 years in Japan has risen to “around 80%,” according to new research released by a government expert panel.

Many good pull-quotes in this one. One of my faves: ... unlike many retired athletes, Hanyu didn’t experience an existential crisis when he ended his competitive career. “Maybe because I didn’t retire into the broadcast booth like many athletes do,” he says. “The butterflies are still there.” 🦋

According to cookbook author Sonoko Sakai, adding a touch of Japanese style to your daily favorites should be as natural as reaching for the salt and pepper.

Zuckerberg holds a majority of voting power in his company. That he should see it as “out of touch” isn’t a criticism of woke Dems. It’s a criticism of the way he himself capitulates and blows with the political winds. He's at war with himself. Has been for years. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

It's getting hot in here

The Great North calls ...

I ain't particularly afraid of no ghosts.

This warning was part of the fact-filled lecture I sat through when I recently renewed my driver's license in Tokyo. The lecturer also said they were predicting fewer traffic accidents as cars get smarter .... and, I assume, better at detecting sleeping obstacles.

Matsudo-san, the bouncy businessman mascot of Matsudo City, pulls a rickshaw.

It's a New Scientist Weekly holiday special 🎄 @rowhoop and team discuss the best of New Scientist in 2024: ⚛️The quest for gold hydrogen ☠️How neanderthals died out 🌌Why the universe might vanish at any moment 🧠Reanimating dead brains www.newscientist.com/podcasts/wee...

ANN News in #Japan has released this artist depiction of the bear found under a kotatsu at a home in Fukushima yesterday

Me (groggy at 5 am, wearing dental night guard): Alexa, what time is it? Alexa: "Ick" is an expression of distaste. Example: "Alexa's farts give me the ick." True story.

"It's not only the numbers. It's also the mindset, the culture. We have to go global."

Walked out of Shibuya’s Food Show, one of Tokyo’s best depachika, with unintentional echoes of headlines: a Middle Eastern/Korean dinner. And it was gooood. Also had picked up a few weird brews.

People of Bluesky 🦋! We'd love some feedback. Can you spare 5 minutes? 👉 forms.gle/E5mGrnDuXQRM...

20 Questions for comedian Yurie Collins: "I don't have the same set of jokes in the two languages. There's a couple of jokes that work for me in both, but overall I just have a different sense of humor in English and Japanese."

"... In this case, we are not asking to take black and call it white. I am innocent from the start." What's really tragic is that it takes minutes to scroll through a depiction of decades lost to a coerced confession. www.asahi.com/special/haka...

Mayor wanted. No experience necessary. Must be able to relocate.

Cotton-and-squid-bone sponge can soak up 99.9% of microplastics, scientists say

In securities filings, Trump Media strangely claims it doesn't track the number of active users. That's like a TV network not tracking viewers. But @ProPublica.org found that the Truth Social company DOES track these numbers — and the active user count is a tiny fraction of its competitors’.

Syrians just opened up Assad’s presidential garage. This is what the Ba’ath Party’s Arab Socialism looks like.

My weapon of choice in the battle against blandness. It has never ever failed me. #yuzulove

theeeeey’re heeeeere

Kanpai to that! 🍶

A London-based man won a $24m Ukrainian state contract for a project meant to defend Dnipro power plant from Russian attacks while secretly helping Moscow’s spy services to launder money and evade sanctions. Wild scoop w/ my colleague Miles Johnson @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/57a3...

It's fascinating to me that Japan's reputation as the paragon of very low birth rates has survived in pop culture - it's had a higher birth rate than almost anywhere else in developed East Asia for two full decades, and a higher one than China for several years!

A (slightly hammered) witness to history. Good stuff.

So here’s my morning after immediate analysis of why Yoon Suk Yeol’s self coup of December 3-4, 2024 failed. I’ll try to highlight 5 things, but they are not mutually exclusive. 1/

It's exciting to get live coverage/commentary on Bluesky, especially these sharp "scattered thoughts" as the surreal events unfold in Seoul.

It took only ~2.5 hrs for the National Assembly to gather a majority of members (190 of 300) and generate a unanimous vote (190 of 190) to vote down the emergency martial law. The law says the president "shall comply" with parliament's vote, but doesn't specify a time frame.

Fresh updates to a rapidly developing story in Seoul.

Great presentation, worth 5 min of your time.

“Uragane mondai,” “kasuhara” and “tokuryū” were in the headlines more, but maybe “Mō ē deshō”? Subjectively, in terms of interesting coinages, I’d vote for “sofuto rōgai.” And what’s not to love about “neko mīmu”?

First rule of Polite Club: Please don’t talk about Polite Club. Many thanks in advance and enjoy the rest of your day.

Read the book?

Why is Tokyo so fashionable? Some theories. 🧵

“Whether it succeeds in the long run really depends on whether it gets baked into Japanese culture.”