Transport authorities launched a full-fledged investigation Sunday into the derailment of a bullet train on the Akita Shinkansen Line in Daisen, Akita Prefecture, on Saturday afternoon.
It's a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chinese warships in the East China Sea challenged Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces patrols in a manner deemed threatening. And on Feb. 12 came North Korea's nuclear test.
Here's an open secret: Japanese men have a bad international reputation on the romance front.
SELLING WOMEN: Prostitution, Markets and the Household in Early Modern Japan, by Amy Stanley. University of California Press, 2012, 282 pp., $49.95 (hardcover) In the vast cultural landscape, Japan fascinates the mainstream with manga and anime, the martial arts, Zen and kimono. Of course, ...
Kenta Maeda shook off worries about his form with five shutout innings as Japan beat China 5-2 in first-round Pool A of the World Baseball Classic on Sunday at Fukuoka Dome. Japan improved to 2-0 following a tough win over Brazil in Saturday evening’s ...
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” economic policies retain fiscal expansion as a key pillar of the draft budget for the next fiscal year, fanning concern that Japan’s swelling debt could hamper the broader economy in the longer term. An insufficient commitment to putting the ...
With North Korea appearing set to detonate an atomic device, the U.N. agency that detected its two previous tests says it is prepared to confirm an explosion when it takes place. But experts argue it may be difficult to establish whether the blast is ...
Street surveillance cameras in one of the world’s most dangerous cities were turned off earlier this month because Honduras’ government hasn’t paid millions of dollars it owes. The operator that runs them is now threatening to suspend police radio service as well. Teachers have ...
Chuck Hagel, the likely next U.S. secretary of defense, would be the first to enter the Pentagon as a public advocate for sharply reducing the number of U.S. nuclear weapons, possibly without equivalent cuts by Russia. The former Nebraskan Republican senator is a supporter ...
Analysts blamed flat profits for the steep slide in Apple’s stock price last week. But what’s ailing the iconic tech company is not a profitability problem. It’s an innovation problem. And, perhaps, an expectations problem. Nearly three years have passed since Apple last revolutionized ...
Cabinet members are looking to the bright side, stressing that issuance of government bonds in fiscal 2013 won't exceed tax income for the first time in four years.
As Algerian security forces on Sunday tallied up the bodies at a sprawling natural gas facility in the aftermath of a bloody international hostage crisis, debate was emerging about whether the militant group linked to al-Qaida that seized the plant had been intent on ...
In his first overseas visit as prime minister, Shinzo Abe enhanced Japan’s relations with three Southeast Asian countries in an apparent bid to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the region. During his whirlwind four-day tour of Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, which was cut short ...
Although corporal punishment is banned by the education ministry, the suicide of a 17-year-old student at an elite sports school in Osaka Prefecture shows the practice of allowing teachers to hit students remains widespread in the school system. “We are truly sorry but the ...
Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso’s trip to Myanmar marked the start of an economic diplomacy drive by the newly inaugurated administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “Myanmar was chosen for the first overseas trip by a member of the Abe Cabinet,” Aso, who concurrently ...
The very idea of big-spender Shinzo Abe’s reappointment as prime minister was enough to send the yen falling against the dollar and spurred the Nikkei above the 10,000 mark for the first time in months. Now that Abe’s reascension is official, market players are ...
It takes a calculator and perhaps the rigor of Sherlock Holmes to cut through the partisan rhetoric about President Barack Obama’s first-term record on judicial nominations. But the bottom line is clear enough. There are more vacancies on the federal courts now than when ...
