The Financial Services Agency orders Mizuho Bank to stop lending to yakuza and criticizes it for making little progress since the problem was revealed in 2011.

Olympus reaches its first settlement in a series of shareholder lawsuits over a bubble-era accounting fraud that gutted its value after it came to light.

At least one crew member was killed Friday after a cargo ship capsized in a collision with a larger freighter in Japanese waters about 100 km south of Tokyo, the Japan Coast Guard said. The collision between the 498-ton Eifuku Maru No. 18 and ...

A consortium of Japanese companies used code names and secret meetings to rig bids for dozens of types of auto parts imported to the United States in a decade-long conspiracy that may have cost U.S. consumers hundreds of millions of dollars, U.S. officials announced. ...

Sunday’s mayoral contest in Sakai, one of Japan’s most independent-minded cities, is expected to decide not only the fate of a plan to merge Osaka prefectural cities into a single administrative entity, but also the fate of national-level efforts to create a new opposition ...

Many cyclists may be unaware that a ban on riding against the flow of traffic will take effect by the end of the year to curb an increasing number of bicycle-related accidents, police warned Friday. Under the revised Road Traffic Law, which will take ...

Ministerial-level talks between Japan and South Korea have failed to mend acrimonious ties strained by the Takeshima territorial dispute, differing interpretations of wartime history and the safety of Japanese fishery products in view of the nuclear disaster. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that ...

South Korean prosecutors indicted a leftwing lawmaker Thursday on charges that he was plotting a pro-North Korea rebellion to overthrow the government, saying his plan posed a “grave” national security threat. Former lawmaker Lee Seok-ki, from the small United Progressive Party, was arrested by ...

The first scoop of Martian soil analyzed by NASA’s Curiosity rover held about 2 percent water, offering hope for hydrating humans who may someday explore the red planet, scientists said in a study Thursday. “We saw Mars as a very dry desert, and while ...

Some security officials and relief groups are coming under attack as they struggle to reach victims in earthquake-ravaged southwestern Pakistan, demonstrating the volatile conditions in areas hardest hit by Tuesday’s magnitude 7.7 temblor. As rescue efforts continued for a fourth day on Friday, officials ...

A furor over Australia’s policy of turning boats full of asylum seekers back to Indonesia has erupted ahead of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s first visit as Australian leader to its important neighbor. Indonesia has warned that the Australian Navy’s plan to intercept and force ...

The ancestor of all creatures with jaws and a backbone was not a sleek sharklike beast but a toothless armored fish, according to a study that rewrites man’s evolutionary history. Scientists said they have found a 419-million-year-old fish fossil in China that disproves the ...

Tepco files for safety assessments of two reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata, joining other utilities seeking a return to atomic power.

At the U.N. General Assembly, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he wants Japan to engage more proactively in the global body's collective security framework.

The five permanent members of the deeply divided U.N. Security Council reached agreement Thursday on a resolution to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, British and U.S. diplomats said, and the full council was set to discuss later Thursday night. The agreement represents a major ...

The first taxi driver really didn’t have a clue, going as far as to suggest that the address given him was a fabrication. The second driver, with the aid of a car navigation device, had more luck in finding the Fukuoka apartment of Dutch ...

In a drab building in central Scotland, one afternoon in the armpit of winter, an actor who looks a lot like nice-guy James McAvoy is persuading a room full of blokes to — I’m paraphrasing here — Xerox their cocks. “Come on!” he roars, ...

Ai Miyazato carded a 3-under-par 69 on Friday to share the first round lead at the Miyagi TV Cup, where 10 years ago she first won a tour event as an amateur. Miyazato, a U.S. LPGA tour regular playing in her first domestic event ...

A night after breaking out the bubbly to celebrate their first ever Pacific League title, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles were understandably in need of a collective pick-me-up during a sluggish performance against the second-place Chiba Lotte Marines. Left-hander Takahiro Matsunaga (4-1) allowed four ...

Petra Kvitova rallied to defeat Venus Williams 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) and advance to the Pan Pacific Open final on Friday. Fifth-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany beat fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) in the other semifinal. Kerber leads the head to head series ...

On Sept. 16, after a pair of National Basketball League preseason games wrapped up, four players came into the press room at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 2 in suits to announce something the nation’s sport had never seen before. They were there to inform ...

As the cheers and chants for a sobbing Mariano Rivera shook Yankee Stadium, his long-time teammate Derek Jeter walked to the pitcher’s mound and delivered the message no one really wanted to hear. “It’s time to go,” the Yankees captain appeared to tell his ...

Missing some of their biggest stars, the San Francisco 49ers put their foot down. They put the St. Louis Rams back in their place, too. Colin Kaepernick threw two touchdown passes, Frank Gore had his first 100-yard game of the season and the defense ...