AP A car bomb exploded outside a mosque Sunday, killing at least 37 people and wounding another 141 in a mostly Shiite Muslim neighborhood in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi — the third mass-casualty attack on the minority sect in the country this ...
It's a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chinese warships in the East China Sea challenged Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces patrols in a manner deemed threatening. And on Feb. 12 came North Korea's nuclear test.
Here's an open secret: Japanese men have a bad international reputation on the romance front.
SELLING WOMEN: Prostitution, Markets and the Household in Early Modern Japan, by Amy Stanley. University of California Press, 2012, 282 pp., $49.95 (hardcover) In the vast cultural landscape, Japan fascinates the mainstream with manga and anime, the martial arts, Zen and kimono. Of course, ...
Kenta Maeda shook off worries about his form with five shutout innings as Japan beat China 5-2 in first-round Pool A of the World Baseball Classic on Sunday at Fukuoka Dome. Japan improved to 2-0 following a tough win over Brazil in Saturday evening’s ...
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China has a "deeply ingrained" need to spar with neighbors over territory, because the Communist Party uses the disputes to maintain strong domestic support, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says.
The White House announces new efforts to fight the theft of trade secrets, in a broad but relatively restrained response to an emerging global problem that was brought into sharp focus by evidence linking online stealing to China's military.
The prosecution case against Oscar Pistorius begins to unravel with revelations of a series of police blunders and the lead investigator's admission that authorities have no evidence challenging the double-amputee Olympian's claim he killed his girlfriend accidentally.
Three death-row inmates are hanged, in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, the first executions carried out under the new Liberal Democratic Party-led government.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. takes the wraps off the PlayStation 4, marking the first overhaul of its home gaming machine since the 2006 release of the PlayStation 3.
A Japanese nuclear power company has taken the rare step of selling some of its uranium, apparently to help repay loans amid its faltering business conditions, according to sources. Japan Atomic Power Co. apparently needs to secure money to repay loans due in April ...
A U.S. think tank says North Korea has resumed activity at a nuclear site following its globally condemned atomic bomb test, fanning fears it is gearing up for another detonation.
The Kobe District Court dismissesd a case against a former senior police officer over a 2001 fatal mass crush after a fireworks display in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, because the statute of limitations has expired.
Japan manager Koji Yamamoto makes his final roster cuts ahead of the 2013 World Baseball Classic
Japan registers its largest-ever monthly trade deficit of ¥1.6294 trillion as costs of fossil fuel imports surged with the yen sliding sharply, despite a mild export rebound.
Bartolo Colon knew he had failed a drug test for about six weeks before he got hit with a 50-game suspension last season. He made several starts for the Oakland Athletics while knowing he probably wouldn’t participate in the pennant race. “I continued to ...
The yen's slide may ripple through domestic firms beyond exporters, underscoring pressure on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to prevent the currency rebounding from close to its lowest level since 2010.
Bayern Munich seized on the uncertainty sweeping through Arsenal to claim a 3-1 victory in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 match on Tuesday, enhancing the German side’s status as one of the favorites for the title. Germany internationals Toni Kroos and ...
Pro-Pyongyang high schools are banned from the government's tuition-waiver program, almost three years after every student in Japan was declared eligible to receive the financial aid.
At the end of last November, a flock of Canadians descended on concert venue Duo Music Exchange in Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya district. It wasn’t an attack of any sort; the Canuck invasion was only peppered with spirited calls to “Clap with us!” The event ...
The economy may be heating up, the weather outside may be chilly, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sticks to the middle of the road: lukewarm water. In a Tuesday Facebook entry from the prime minister’s office, Abe wrote that the contents of the thermos ...
Once you see the paintings of Paul Delvaux you are unlikely to forget them. The dreamlike mood and quaint atmosphere is unique and hypnotic. But where does the mysterious power of his art come from? The exhibition “Paul Delvaux: Dream Odyssey” at the Museum ...
The health ministry confirmed Tuesday that the tick-borne disease thrombocytopenia syndrome, or SFTS, was responsible for the death of an adult male in Hiroshima last summer, bringing the number of known domestic fatalities to four. Nine other similar deaths are being investigated. Here are ...
When Silvio Berlusconi put his foot in his mouth yet again last week, claiming that kickbacks are a normal part of doing business abroad, Italy waited for a crushing rebuke from his main opponent in this month’s election. But Pier Luigi Bersani is not ...
Mineo Nakajima, president of Akita International University and former president of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, died of pneumonia on Feb. 14 at a hospital in the city of Akita. He was 76. Nakajima was a scholar in modern Chinese studies and an avid ...
The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization on Wednesday unveiled a series of robots and systems to help deal with disasters such as the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and reduce the danger for workers. The robots, developed under a one-year project, ...
British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the site of a colonial-era massacre in India on Wednesday, describing the episode as “deeply shameful” while stopping short of a public apology. On the last leg of a three-day trip aimed at forging deeper economic ties, Cameron ...
How much weight does an endorsement from a lame-duck pope carry in the upcoming election? No, not that election — the one to pick the next leader of the Catholic Church. Another key ballot is looming even closer, when Italians go to the polls ...
Ray Emery held the puck in his outstretched glove for one sweet moment, then let it fall to the ice. It was time to celebrate. The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 in a shootout Tuesday night to make it 16 straight games ...
When Venezuela seized billions of dollars in assets from Exxon Mobil and other foreign companies, Chinese state banks and investors didn’t blink. Over the past five years they have loaned Venezuela more than $35 billion. Elsewhere around the Caribbean, as hotels were struggling to ...
Rory McIlroy put a new putter in his bag and a new shaft in his driver. He has no way of knowing whether that means his second tournament of the year will last any longer than his first one. The world’s No. 1 player ...
The textile work of Junichi Arai is renowned for its complexity and innovation. Often three-dimensional in nature, his fabrics appear as undulating landscapes of puckering, crumpling, puffs, pleats and protruding felted yarns. Many of them glimmer with metallic or translucent sheens, some seem understated ...
Seafood company Rumi Japan has started exporting frozen yellowtail to Israel, seeking new foreign markets for the fatty white-fleshed fish. The company, based in Imabari in Ehime Prefecture, on Tuesday held a tasting event for food industry officials at the official residence of the ...
Traditionally, the dolls at the annual March 3 doll festival are displayed in tiers. But those currently on exhibit in Gujo, Gifu Prefecture, are acting out ordinary human activities, from drinking to washing. Some are even playing soccer. The unique “performances” of some 2,000 ...
Japanese TV makers are desperately seeking new strategies to revive their flagging operations, and some of the key points include expanding screen sizes, boosting image quality and making them “smarter” and more user-friendly. With midsize televisions barely turning a profit, the nation’s electronics giants ...
Regardless of whether you are a bigger-name draw or a smaller, emerging band, planning — and more importantly financing — international gigs is no easy task. But since last year, things have gotten a bit easier for Korean acts touring abroad. In March 2012, ...
Japanese researcher Yoshihisa Okumura and four others received the prestigious Charles Stark Draper Prize at a ceremony in Washington on Tuesday for pioneering contributions to the world’s first cellular telephone networks, systems and standards. Okumura, an 86-year-old honorary professor of Kanazawa Institute of Technology, ...
Without doubt, Takahiro Fujita is the most prominent newcomer in the world of Japanese contemporary theater. To a considerable extent that’s because the 27-year-old playwright/director has an unusual trademark style — to create works that often have the same lyrical phrases and series of ...
The antiwhaling activist group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society accused a Japanese whaling vessel of intentionally ramming two of its ships Wednesday near Antarctica. The Fisheries Agency, however, blamed the protesters for the collisions. Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said he was aboard the ship ...
Hiroto Oyama frequently dreams about his mother floating on the surface of water and his father standing on the gallows. “I wake up by my own shouting voice,” the 24-year-old Oyama said. His father, Kiyotaka Oyama, 51, was convicted of killing his wife (Hiroto ...
The French government on Tuesday bestowed the Commander of the Order of Arts and Literature on kabuki actor Bando Tamasaburo for his achievements in arts and culture. “I believe my collaborations with a variety of people from around the world have led to the ...
President Barack Obama is looking for a new candidate to lead U.S. and allied forces in Europe after his first choice, Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, bowed out Tuesday and announced his intention to retire for what he called personal reasons. The move further ...
Gerald Curtis, a veteran scholar of Japanese politics, has predicted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will take a pragmatic approach to running his government, but cautioned that the “comfort woman” issue has significant bearing not just for Tokyo’s relations with its Asian neighbors, but also ...
Joe Johnson came through twice with big shots and helped the Brooklyn Nets end a long losing streak to the Milwaukee Bucks. Johnson hit a tying 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter and then his buzzer-beating jumper at the end of ...
A 44-year-old man serving a life sentence in a prison in the Chugoku region believes that continuing to live a respectable life is the only atonement he can make for the families of the two people he killed. The inmate, who has now served ...
When the armored car set off for the Brussels airport carrying $50 million worth of precious stones from Antwerp’s diamond district, eight gunmen knew all about it. One of the biggest diamond heists in recent memory was about to go down. The thieves surely ...
When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe travels to Washington this week for a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama, his first job may be to convince the president he’s not a rightwing fanatic seeking confrontation in East Asia, but rather a calm partner who can ...
Microsoft is so confident it has the Internet’s best email service that it is about to spend at least $30 million to send its message across the U.S. The barrage began Tuesday when Microsoft’s twist on email, Outlook.com, escalated an assault on rival services ...
Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) is well-known for the opulence and eroticism of his works, which often focused on the female nude, and for his preoccupation with themes of death. This exhibition, which commemorates the 150th anniversary of Klimt’s birth, focuses on the ...
A gunman killed three people in California on Tuesday, including at least one execution-style, in a series of shootings and carjackings before taking his own life, police said. At least two other people were injured as the gunman fired randomly at other vehicles on ...
The 1964 Summer Olympics will forever be remembered as one of the most important events in Japan’s postwar history. To Japan, hosting the Olympics was the nation’s opportunity to prove to the world that it had strength and power to recover and progress from ...
Apple said it was hit by hackers who wormed their way into the company’s system but evidently failed to steal any data. The firm said Tuesday it is working with law enforcement officials to hunt down the hackers, who appeared tied to a series ...
Oscar Pistorius portrayed himself as a lover caught in tragedy, wielding a pistol and frightened as he stood only on his stumps, then killed his girlfriend after mistaking her for an intruder on Valentine’s Day. Prosecutors, however, said the double amputee Olympian committed premeditated ...
With the growing popularity of high-tech art, such as digital media and installations, engraving woodblock prints might seem primitive and old-fashioned. Many Japanese, in fact, associate woodblock printing with older-generation artisans, who they imagine slave fastidiously over works in the silence of a gloomy ...
Magic Johnson is one of the most successful athletes on and off the field of play, winning titles in the NBA, college and high school and making millions in business. The Hall of Fame basketball player and an owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers ...
When Naojiro Kobayashi outlived a diagnosis that a lung disease he was suffering from would kill him by the age of 25, his favorite phrase became: “I’m so embarrassed I have lived this long.” But he continued to defy the disease, finally living to ...
The Liberal Democratic Party-led government hopes to hold discussions with the opposition on picking either Toshiro Muto or Kazumasa Iwata, both former Bank of Japan deputy governors, as the next head of the central bank, sources said. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is set ...
Israel has denied that a reputed Australian-Israeli agent of its Mossad spy agency who committed suicide in secret custody in 2010 had contact with Australian intelligence services. The statement issued Tuesday from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office is the first time Israel has named ...
The number of foreign visitors dropped 2.4 percent in January from a year earlier to an estimated 669,000, the Japan National Tourism Organization said. Visitors from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia decreased because the Lunar New Year holidays fell in February this ...
Thieves have outwitted armed guards, alarm systems and even airport security over the years, making off with jewelry worth millions. In Brussels, thieves cut through an airport fence, drove to a plane and snatched an estimated $50 million in diamonds Monday. Here are some ...
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will certify that bile duct cancer contracted by 16 employees at a printing firm in the city of Osaka was a result of their working conditions, ministry sources said Wednesday. The recognition will be the first time ...
Japanese are pouring money into investment trusts at the fastest pace in almost two years, supporting government officials’ assertion to their Group of 20 peers that policies weakening the yen will boost global growth. Data from the Japanese Investment Trusts Association show that net ...
Oscar Pistorius was the perfect South African sports hero because victory over his disability made him a universally admired figure in a still-divided society. The profoundly macho culture he grew up in spans racial groups and provides some explanation for the country’s shocking rates ...
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration plans to dispatch Finance Minister Taro Aso to Monday’s inauguration ceremony for incoming South Korean President Park Geun Hye, but will also send an official to a controversial ceremony dealing with Takeshima, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday. ...
Talk of more deal-making sent the stock market higher Tuesday, putting the Dow Jones industrial average within close reach of its all-time high. Reports that retailers Office Depot and OfficeMax are discussing a merger came after big corporate deals for Heinz and Dell were ...
More than 200 Chinese-Americans gathered Tuesday outside the Japanese Consulate General in New York to protest Japan’s claim to the Senkaku Islands ahead of a U.S. visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The protesters, from around 60 local community groups, also denounced what they ...
The dollar eased slightly below ¥93.40 in Tokyo on Wednesday after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has grown cautious about proposed purchases of foreign bonds. At 5 p.m., the dollar was quoted at ¥93.35-36, down from ¥93.46-46 at the same time Tuesday. The euro stood ...
Mandiant says it was able to track an extensive hacking campaign back to the Chinese military in part by exploiting China’s own Web restrictions. China’s “Great Firewall” blocks Web access to, among other things, Facebook and Twitter. People in China can get around the ...
Lawmakers in Colorado, where a gunman burst into a theater last year for a deadly shooting, narrowly passed a handful of gun-control bills, signaling a political shift under pressure from the White House. “Enough is enough. I’m sick and tired of bloodshed,” said Rep. ...
The average monthly income of married women with working husbands stood at ¥59,177 in 2012, up ¥6,082 from the previous year and the highest level since officials started compiling comparable records in 1963. The data show a rise in the number of married women ...
Buying foreign bonds will be unnecessary under the next Bank of Japan governor, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday, backing away from a proposal that other nations alleged was an attempt to weaken the yen. “We decided to consider this (last) November,” Abe told ...
Stocks rose Wednesday, bolstered by overnight gains in European and U.S. equities, with the Nikkei 225 average ending at a 52-month high. The Nikkei rose 95.94 points to hit 11,468.28, its best finish since Sept. 29, 2008, after briefly topping 11,500. The Topix gained ...
Three sisters between the ages of 6 and 11 were raped and murdered before their bodies were dumped down a village well in rural western India, police said Wednesday. The three bodies were found last week, two days after the schoolgirls went missing from ...
A consortium of Japanese firms, including IHI Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., is considering oil development off Brazil and plans to construct a giant floating structure that would serve as a relay point for offshore oil fiends. The infrastructure ministry has approved the ...
Bernard Lagat will run the longest race of his career when he competes in next month’s NYC Half. The 38-year-old American started out as a 1,500-meter specialist and shifted to the 5,000 later in his career, winning world championships at both distances in 2007. ...
Marseille midfielder Joey Barton took a gentle swipe at David Beckham on Tuesday, saying that Paris Saint-Germain’s new star signing was no longer a feared opponent and would not be a major threat when the two French title rivals meet on Sunday. The former ...
London has overtaken Hong Kong to take the title of world’s most expensive office market, followed by a surprise, fast-rising Rio de Janeiro, a survey released Tuesday found. Relatively scarce quality space in London has fueled competition and driven up office rents, particularly in ...
Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister who condemned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to advance peace efforts, agreed to join his coalition and manage talks with the Palestinians. Netanyahu and Livni announced the agreement at a news conference in Jerusalem late Tuesday. ...
The number of Afghan civilians killed in U.S. and NATO airstrikes dropped by nearly half last year to 126, the U.N. said Tuesday. The report came a day after President Hamid Karzai banned government forces from requesting foreign air support during operations in residential ...
Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG has agreed with its departing chairman to scrap plans for a farewell noncompete deal that could have netted him up to 72 million Swiss francs ($78 million). The announcement followed criticism from some of the Basel-based company’s shareholders and Swiss ...
Russia’s Vladimir Potanin and Ukraine’s Victor Pinchuk pledged Tuesday to give half of their fortunes to charity, becoming the first tycoons from the former Soviet Union to join a global drive by the world’s richest people to share their wealth. Russian industrial magnate Potanin, ...
A penguin dubbed “Happy Feet Jr.” has been found stranded 2,000 km from home in New Zealand, reviving memories of another wayward penguin that washed up in 2011. The latest wandering stray was discovered near death on the coast south of Wellington over the ...
A consortium of Japanese firms, including IHI Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., is considering oil development off Brazil and plans to construct a giant floating structure that would serve as a relay point for offshore oil fiends. The infrastructure ministry has approved the ...
Columbia University says it’s reviewing a science class in which a professor stripped to his underwear and showed 9/11 video footage during a lecture on quantum mechanics. The Frontiers of Science class on Monday morning with professor Emlyn Hughes also included two other participants ...
Pakistani Shiites on Wednesday buried 60 people killed in a bombing last weekend in the city of Quetta, but the event was marred by gunfire from both protesters and police. Mourners lowered the bodies into a long line of graves dug out at the ...
Ireland ignored the mistreatment of thousands of women who were incarcerated within Catholic nun-operated laundries and must pay the survivors compensation, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said Tuesday in an emotional state apology for the decades of abuses in the so-called Magdalene Laundries. “By any ...
Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resigned Tuesday after failing to form a nonpartisan government to end a political crisis exacerbated by the assassination of a senior opposition figure. Jebali, who had warned of chaos if his plan fell through, made a last-ditch effort to ...
Cyclist Tyler Hamilton told a Spanish court Tuesday he paid tens of thousands of dollars a year for doping to the doctor at the heart of the Operation Puerto scandal. Hamilton told Judge Julia Santamaria by video he used blood doping about 15 times ...
Syrian rebels on Tuesday threatened to carry out attacks against Hezbollah inside Lebanon, a dangerous escalation of the conflict that could destabilize Syria’s politically volatile neighbor as well as the region. The heightened tensions on both sides of the border came as four mortar ...
London has overtaken Hong Kong to take the title of world’s most expensive office market, followed by a surprise, fast-rising Rio de Janeiro, a survey released Tuesday found. Relatively scarce quality space in London has fueled competition and driven up office rents, particularly in ...
Bank of Japan Policy Board member Yoshihisa Morimoto said Wednesday that the nation will undergo “unprecedented” and “very large-scale” monetary easing this year as the central bank aims for the newly set 2 percent inflation target. To meet the target, the BOJ “will pursue ...
The number of Afghan civilians killed in U.S. and NATO airstrikes dropped by nearly half last year to 126, the U.N. said Tuesday. The report came a day after President Hamid Karzai banned government forces from requesting foreign air support during operations in residential ...
Floyd Mayweather Jr. will fight Robert Guerrero on May 4, and he’s changing television networks to do it. The biggest star in boxing dropped a surprise Tuesday while announcing his long-rumored next bout: After several years on HBO, Mayweather is moving to Showtime with ...
Former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova got out of the first round of the Dubai Championships for the first time in three visits by easily handling Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-1 on Tuesday. Kvitova, seeded sixth, broke the Slovak qualifier five times to set up a ...
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was the fastest driver during Formula One preseason testing Tuesday, while Fernando Alonso took a long first spin with Ferrari’s new car for 2013. Defending champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull had the best time until late into the afternoon session ...
Seafood company Rumi Japan has started exporting frozen yellowtail to Israel, seeking new foreign markets for the fatty white-fleshed fish. The company, based in Imabari in Ehime Prefecture, on Tuesday held a tasting event for food industry officials at the official residence of the ...
Germany’s highest court strengthened gay couples’ adoption rights in a ruling Tuesday that the country’s justice minister greeted as “a historic step.” The Federal Constitutional Court ruled that one member of a civil partnership should be able to adopt the partner’s stepchild or adopted ...
