As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party forges ahead with its strategy of nurturing “internationally minded” talent to aid economic growth, the prospect that students’ scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) will be used as criteria for entering ...

The Fukushima meltdowns and the continuing radiation crisis may have turned the public off of atomic energy at home, but it’s full steam ahead for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Japan’s heavy industries when it comes to exporting that technology to power-hungry economies abroad. ...

Damage to people and property by tornadoes made headlines over the past week, with the latest in Tochigi Prefecture injuring three people while destroying houses and other buildings. Here are some questions and answers regarding twisters: Are twisters common in Japan? About 17 were ...

The appointment of Ichiro Komatsu as director general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau is a step toward Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s goal of reinterpreting the Constitution so Japan can engage in collective self-defense. Komatsu, who was ambassador to France when he accepted the new ...

The 3-D printer boom in the United States is spreading to Japan as prices decline, but some fear the devices could break the mold, jobwise. Electronics and automobile makers were the first here to start using 3-D printers to make product prototypes, but the ...

The decision by the board of education of Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, to limit students’ access to the manga series “Hadashi no Gen” (“Barefoot Gen”) at school libraries continues to cause a stir. While some support the move, others say it disrespects the best-selling anti-war ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is poised to achieve his long-held goal of reinterpreting Article 9 of the Constitution to allow Japan to exercise its right to engage in collective self-defense under the U.N. Charter. In February, Abe reconvened an advisory panel of security experts ...

With pressure mounting from U.S. defense officials and the powerful Keidanren business group on the government to relax arms export restrictions, the military-industrial lobbies in Washington and Tokyo hope the future bilateral security relationship will incorporate their interests more robustly. At the same time, ...

Although Tepco assures that it is taking and planning steps to prevent more tainted groundwater from reaching the sea, it's unclear how effective those efforts are.

The Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide victory in the July 21 Upper House election and regained control of both chambers of the Diet, ending years in which the legislature was effectively divided and bills were held hostage. In recent years, whatever force was ...

On July 15, 1983, Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. launched the Family Computer video game console, or “Famicom.” Priced at ¥14,800, more than 63 million units of the iconic white, red and gold machine were sold worldwide, laying the foundations for today’s gaming industry. Here are ...