On a humid June morning in Tottori Prefecture in western Japan, hundreds of would-be teachers filed into exam halls to ...

When Lexi Smith, a 24-year-old teacher from Atlanta, began feeling burned out by long hours and low pay, she decided to make a change. Smith told CNBC that she "wasn't quite loving the school system" ...

In Tokyo, Levi Pells, 32, was managing a small team and earning more than he ever imagined. He noticed his happiness depended on his quarterly performance.

There were a couple of noteworthy caveats. The unemployment rate increased to a four-year peak of 4.4 percent, suggesting ...

Uchiyama Seichi began re-evaluating his life in 2011. In March of that year, the Tohoku Earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Japan and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 20,000 people.

Families in the U.S. and around the world are having fewer children as people make profoundly different decisions about their lives. NPR's series Population Shift: How Smaller Families Are Changing ...

Families in the U.S. and around the world are having fewer children as people make profoundly different decisions about their lives. NPR's series Population Shift: How Smaller Families Are Changing ...

Members of a university kanto club perform in Akita Prefecture, Japan. Tradition and religion dictate that only men are allowed to be sashite or pole carriers. Anthony Kuhn is NPR's correspondent ...