Tokyo’s victory for the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games is a reassurance to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent go-to catchphrase, “Japan is Back,” with the slogan having appeared as the subtitle of the government’s growth strategy and even as the title in ...

Sony Corp. will release the PlayStation 4 in Japan three months after it hits shelves in North America as the company seeks to avoid shortages that hurt sales of the console’s predecessor. The timing will allow Sony to focus on meeting demand in its ...

The Oki Islands in Shimane Prefecture have been designated as a globally important geological heritage site by a UNESCO-backed program. The Global Network of National Geoparks made the decision at a meeting Monday in South Korea. The island chain in the Sea of Japan ...

Japan, the world’s biggest buyer of liquefied natural gas, plans to form an international consumer group to study ways of reducing import costs. The government-affiliated Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, is proposing joint research with organizations in Asia and Europe on issues in LNG ...

EXHIBITIONS EU medical technologies The European Union will host a business mission focusing on European health care and medical technologies at the Hilton Tokyo from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4 under the umbrella of the EU Gateway Programme, a business program funded and managed ...

Norway shifted right in elections Monday, ending eight years of center-left rule and setting the stage for a new Conservative-led government with the populist anti-immigration Progress Party as junior partner. Incumbent Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of the Labor Party conceded defeat late in the ...

The central government is coming under increasing pressure to step in and help secure more municipal workers for post-disaster reconstruction work amid serious manpower shortages in the northeast, 2½ years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Disaster-hit municipalities are struggling to hire ...

My 15-year-old daughter had a warning for me. “You know, Mom,” she said, “you’ll probably be the only white person there.” It was July 2012, and we were headed to our first “Chinese volleyball” tournament, in New York City. I didn’t know what to ...

The largest single volcano ever found on Earth lies quietly in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, about 1,500 km east of Japan, having been extinct for millions of years. Scientists have now discovered the dome-shaped behemoth, which has a footprint the size of ...

With manga becoming more popular internationally, an increasing number of Japanese universities have been providing courses on the subject, producing graduates who have gone on to work in a broad spectrum of society. “The number of students finding employment at companies unrelated (to manga) ...

President Dilma Rousseff on Monday accused the United States of spying on oil giant Petrobras for its own “economic and strategic” reasons — not for national security. The latest allegations of online snooping by the National Security Agency emerged Sunday night in a Globo ...

The husband-and-wife creative team known as UrumaDelvi has been cranking out quirky, quasi-psychedelic illustrations, animated shorts and music videos for over 20 years. They met in design school in 1988. Deciding that their married surname, Kobayashi, was too common in Japan to be memorable, ...

A James Bond Lotus submarine and a 1957 Maserati sold last night at a $33 million car auction. The Lotus Esprit Series 1 prop, propelled through the water by a working electric motor in the 1977 film “The Spy Who Loved Me,” fetched £550,000 ...

Wladimir Balentien moved one step closer to history, and the Hiroshima Carp remained on track for a long-awaited trip to the postseason. In a way, everyone went home happy about something. Balentien connected on his 54th home run of the year, a two-run shot ...

Manchester United star Shinji Kagawa sparked a second-half fightback as Japan came from a goal behind to beat Ghana 3-1 in a friendly on Tuesday night. Frank Acheampong sent the West Africans into halftime with a shock lead at Nissan Stadium after opening the ...