A pint-size android has uttered the first robotic words in space, showcasing Japan’s drive to combine cutting-edge technology with cuteness. The wide-eyed and bootie-wearing Kirobo — roughly the size of a chihuahua — broadcast a message from inside the International Space Station, greeting citizens ...

An entry point for some of the groundwater flooding the crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant is found at reactor 1.

New images from areas devastated by the tsunami of March 11, 2011, have been posted on Google’s Street View, allowing users to see how the disaster changed the area. The images include pictures of towns and villages near the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear ...

As the weekend vote looms by the International Olympic Committee to decide the city that will host the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, experts in Japan say the three candidates are neck and neck amid lingering worries about the radioactive water leaking from the ...

Legal experts said Wednesday’s landmark decision by the Supreme Court that the Civil Code provision denying full inheritance rights to heirs born out of wedlock is unconstitutional was welcome but late in coming. The fact that the justices reached the decision unanimously, they say, ...

Damage to people and property by tornadoes made headlines over the past week, with the latest in Tochigi Prefecture injuring three people while destroying houses and other buildings. Here are some questions and answers regarding twisters: Are twisters common in Japan? About 17 were ...

Hillary Rodham Clinton was a senator from New York the last time the U.S. Congress was asked to authorize military action in the Middle East. Friends believe her 2002 vote giving President George W. Bush the power to invade Iraq may have cost her ...

A 6-year-old Chinese boy who had his eyes gouged out by a woman believed to be his aunt may one day see again after a Hong Kong hospital offered him “electronic eyes.” Hong Kong-based eye expert Dennis Lam said his team would provide the ...

Sony Corp. has unveiled its new Xperia Z1 smartphone, featuring an improved lens to boost camera performance. “We will continue renovating smartphone functions,” CEO Kazuo Hirai said Wednesday. Sony’s chief competitors in the sector are Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. While Sony declined ...

Japan canceled a plan to set up a weather station on the Senkaku Islands in 1971, apparently under U.S. pressure as the two sides negotiated the 1972 return of Okinawa to Japan, declassified U.S. diplomatic documents show.

China has been seen as the aggressor in cyberattacks, but many worry its own defenses are woeful.

President Barack Obama takes his campaign for a punitive military strike against Syria overseas, declaring that "the international community cannot be silent" and that its credibility is on the line, as his request for congressional approval of such action moves ahead in the Senate.

It’s not easy for a new restaurant to stand out, or to even gain a foothold, in a city of the scale and sophistication of Tokyo. Bépocah manages that feat with ease — and in two very different ways. Firstly, it is one of ...

Portugal has plenty to answer for when it comes to the way Japan eats. Tempura, castella sponge cake and even bread — paõ in Portuguese, pan in Japanese — were all assimilated following the arrival of the first trading ships in the mid-16th century. ...

“The Wolverine” may look like just another in a long line of superhero movies to hit the screen this year — it’s the latest installment in Marvel’s “X-Men” franchise — but it’s certainly the first one directed by a guy who cites director Yasujiro ...

A folk-singer-turned-filmmaker who went to France in 1981 to apprentice under his idol François Truffaut, Masahiro Kobayashi may have failed in his quest (he couldn’t work up the courage to press Truffaut’s doorbell), but after returning to Japan became a prolific scriptwriter for pinku ...

Director Steven Soderbergh’s retirement from cinema after a career of 30-plus years has been much ballyhooed, and is hopefully only temporary. But if “Side Effects” turns out to be his last movie, it’s a shame, because this one shows him at the top of ...

Keiji Obiki helped erase a four-run deficit with a come-from-behind grand slam in the second inning, and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters went on to rout the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 11-5 on Thursday night at Tokyo Dome. The Fighters were behind 4-1 in the ...

Yu Darvish surpassed Hideo Nomo as Japan’s single-season, big-league strikeout king, but the Texas right-hander got hammered in an 11-4 Wednesday loss to the Oakland Athletics. The win moved Oakland into a tie with the Rangers for the American League West lead. Darvish (12-7) ...

Preseason action will be in full swing over the next few weeks as teams get the opportunity to measure themselves — strengths, weaknesses, individual matchups — against opposing teams. And that’s where coaches will have their first real chance to evaluate what adjustments to ...