Finland, recently named the world’s “most prosperous” country, no longer sees economic growth as a reason to feel happy as the global crisis has changed how people value their lives, Finland foreign minister said in a recent interview in Tokyo. Alexander Stubb, in Japan ...

The free-trade agreement that recently took effect between Japan and Switzerland is expected to help Tokyo ease any unfavorable impact from the lengthy time it has spent trying to conclude a similar accord with the European Union, Swiss Vice President Doris Leuthard said. Japan ...

The recent buzz over hybrids and electric cars has overshadowed the massive investments global auto giants are making in fuel-cell vehicles — another near-reality dream car that some believe promises an ultimate zero-emissions society. Japan plans to stay on the cutting edge of the ...

With Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama having set a more ambitious emissions reduction target than that pledged by former rival Taro Aso, nuclear power is emerging as one of the most effective potential solutions. In the only country to have been hit by atomic bombs, ...

Saturday’s restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture is likely to revive public concerns about safety but relieve political concerns harbored by the government and the power industry. Tokyo Electric Power Co. restarted the No. 7 reactor at2 p.m. by pulling ...

When the subprime crisis ran riot and U.S. and European central banks launched a series of coordinated assaults earlier this year, Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa stood aside and merely released statements hailing his peers’ efforts. Thursday, however, the BOJ announced it would ...