On his second tour of Fukushima No. 1, Prime Minister Abe recycles his "under control" claims from Buenos Aires, requests a deadline for filtering the radioactive water and urges the decommissioning of units 5 and 6.

Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka vowed Thursday to ensure that the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant is made safe as the regulatory body marked the first anniversary of its launch. “The situation at the Fukushima No. 1 plant remains unstable. Every time a ...

What appeared to be smoke was seen coming from the landing gear of a Japan Airlines Co. plane after it landed Thursday morning at New Chitose Airport near Sapporo, JAL and firefighters said. None of the 503 passengers and 13 crew members aboard the ...

Japan’s trade deficit swelled to a larger-than-forecast ¥960.3 billion in August, the 14th consecutive month of red ink, as imports outpaced growth in exports, customs data showed Thursday. Boosted by higher fuel costs exacerbated by the weakened yen, imports jumped 16 percent from a ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to unveil in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly next week Japan’s plan to provide more than $10 million in additional humanitarian aid to help Syrian refugees, government sources said. Japan wants to do its part in achieving ...

Japanese dancer Kenichi Ebina won the season finale of the U.S. TV show “America’s Got Talent,” taking home the top prize of $1 million. He is the first Japanese to win the long-running and popular show, which features a competition among singers and other ...

New technology to assist lung surgeons by projecting the optimal incision site onto the patient’s body has been developed by medical researchers at the Kochi Medical School in Nankoku, the school said Thursday. Information gathered from CT scans determining the precise location of a ...

From a windowless room in a dilapidated Hong Kong high-rise, Ali Diallo sells Chinese electronics to retailers across Africa. The modest surroundings belie the multimillion-dollar business the West African trader has built in the five years since he moved to the city. The 39-year-old ...

A commercial cargo ship made its successful debut Wednesday, rocketing toward the International Space Station and doubling the number of NASA’s private suppliers for the high-flying lab. Orbital Sciences Corp. launched its first-ever supply ship from Virginia’s Eastern Shore, the departing point for a ...

The death toll from devastating twin storms appeared set to nearly double after officials said late Wednesday that 58 people were missing and presumed dead in a massive landslide that smashed through a tiny coffee-growing village deep in the mountains of southern Mexico. The ...

Child beauty pageants may soon be banned in France after a surprise vote in the Senate rattled the pageant industry and raised questions about how the French relate to girls’ sexuality. Such contests, and the dolled-up beauty queens they produce, have the power to ...

In a surprise, the Federal Reserve refuses to taper its bond-buying stimulus because it isn't yet convinced the U.S. economy is healthy enough.

In a sign Iran's government is loosening its grip on domestic security, several political prisoners, including a prominent human rights lawyer, are freed.

Passengers screamed “Stop! Stop!” seconds before their bus crashed through a crossing barrier and into a commuter train during morning rush hour in Canada’s capital on Wednesday, killing six people and injuring 34. “He smoked the train,” witness Mark Cogan said of the bus ...

The Syrian crisis over the past few weeks has thrust President Barack Obama into a role in which at times he has seemed uneasy: that of commander in chief. The prospect of an attack to punish Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons exposed the ...

In Japan, the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) is gaming’s main event. This year, heavyweights Sony and Microsoft are set to square off at Chiba’s Makuhari Messe convention center with brand new consoles in tow. Who will come out on top? Sony’s PlayStation 4 and ...

The moon is magical in any phase, but it's never more beautiful than the first full moon of autumn. Some people go out to gaze at temples or teahouses; others from hillsides or seashores. But few would think of heading into central Tokyo ...

Mandarin Oriental charity campaign Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo has announced that it will hold a Pink Ribbon Campaign across all major facilities of the hotel, from the restaurants and bar to the guests rooms and spa, from Oct. 1 to 16. Throughout the period, guests ...

Clint Eastwood’s 1992 Academy Award winner “Unforgiven” has undergone a Japanese remake. “Yurusarezaru Mono” is loyal to Eastwood’s classic Western but adds a pulsating core of Japanese-ness.

The English and Japanese titles of Hirokazu Koreeda’s dual-family drama “Soshite Chichi ni Naru (Like Father, Like Son)” are quite different in meaning, but both express something important about this extraordinary film, winner of the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The ...

News media continue to report on the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, but it’s important to remember that people across the Tohoku region are still recovering from the Great East Japan Earthquake that happened there two years ago. One way of ...

The found-footage thing: It can be addictive. Though as a movie ploy, it always stumps me how the characters would actually go into a dark woods in the middle of the night (“The Blair Witch Project”) or move their family into a house where ...

The post-”Twilight” boom in all things vampire continues, but this latest undead flick comes from Irish director Neil Jordan (“The Crying Game”), whose 1994 adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Interview With the Vampire” well preceded the current trend. Clara and Eleanor are “sucreants” — vampires ...

Two things stand out about 2010 animated comedy “Despicable Me”: The hero, Gru (Steve Carell), is a villain (a philosophical oxymoron in itself), and he’s not that despicable. Sure, he freeze-dries people in front of him in line at Starbucks and tries to grab ...

D.J. Houlton held the Chunichi Dragons to two earned runs over six-plus innings as the Yomiuri Giants won 3-2 Thursday, meaning they could potentially capture their second straight Central League pennant this weekend. After the second-place Hanshin Tigers lost to the Hiroshima Carp, Yomiuri ...

He was the second man to beat Muhammad Ali, breaking Ali’s jaw and sending him to the hospital in their 1973 heavyweight fight. Ken Norton frustrated Ali three times in all, including their final bout at Yankee Stadium where he was sure he had ...

Nippon Professional Baseball commissioner Ryozo Kato announced Thursday his resignation to take the fall for the uproar over the secretly altered baseball. The 72-year-old Kato, who was elected to a third two-year term in July last year, said he will quit after the regular ...

Lionel Messi had a hat trick and Barcelona opened its Champions League campaign with a 4-0 victory over Ajax on Wednesday night. It was a different story for Jose Mourinho as Chelsea lost when Basel came from behind to win 2-1 in London and ...

Hisashi Iwakuma kept Miguel Cabrera hitless and the Detroit Tigers scoreless, keeping up quite a streak. Iwakuma extended his scoreless innings streak on the road to 25 and Justin Smoak homered off Justin Verlander to help the Seattle Mariners beat Detroit 8-0 on Wednesday ...