Morihiro Hosokawa pledges to try to end Tokyo’s dependence on nuclear power as he finally makes his candidacy for governor official just a day before campaigning officially starts.

Freelance TV and radio commentator Peter Barakan said he was pressured by two broadcast stations to steer clear of nuclear power issues on his programs until after the Tokyo gubernatorial election on Feb. 9, causing concern among some about possible media censorship. Barakan, who hosts ...

Fourteen elementary schools in Hamamatsu reopened Wednesday morning, about a week after they were closed because some 1,000 children and teachers developed symptoms of food poisoning from norovirus-tainted bread. The board of education in the Shizuoka Prefecture city announced at noon that one school still ...

Rubble believed to be from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also known as the Atomic Bomb Dome, was salvaged Wednesday from the nearby Motoyasu River by a crane with support from Hiroshima University. Rebun Kayo, a 35-year-old graduate student at Hiroshima University, discovered granite chunks last ...

Struggling chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp., seeking to accelerate restructuring efforts, plans to slash another 5,400 domestic employees, or around 20 percent of its workforce, by the end of March 2016 through early retirements, according to company sources. The labor union, however, opposes the plan. The ...

Chugoku Bank Ltd. wants to get into the global airline debt market after loans to local businesses fell for a fourth straight year. "It's the same everywhere: loans aren't increasing and margins aren't good," Eriko Manabe, who works on the bank's overseas lending, said in ...

The pacifist credo that has given modern Japan its distinctive security framework is moving increasingly into the spotlight as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prepares to shake up the postwar regime. Dissatisfied with the restrictions imposed by the Constitution, Abe aims to implement changes to enable ...

Toshiko Eguchi pays her respects to her late husband under a cherry tree, instead of kneeling before a gravestone. The ashes of her husband, who died in November 2012, were placed under the tree as a form of natural burial known as "jumokuso" (burial under ...

Newly democratizing Myanmar is a suitable destination for Japanese direct investment as it is Southeast Asia's "last frontier," two researchers based in Singapore said at a symposium in Tokyo. The two agreed that Myanmar has a long way to go before it achieves full democracy ...

Amid profits and expansion, why does Big Eikaiwa keep slamming teachers — and teaching standards — down year after year? The answer is simple: Because the teachers put up with it, and because the schools have figured this out.

Natto, seaweed, squid, octopus, shiitake: While Japan's culinary treats are a major draw for new residents and visitors alike, everyone has their limits, vox pops in Tokyo reveal.

"When I worked in an office, I was always nervous and I tensed up a lot just trying to behave correctly. But since coming to these workshops, I often feel like communicating with others spontaneously, of my own free will." Speaking after an arduous, six-hour ...

The name of the late great Pina Bausch's acclaimed Tanztheater in the German city of Wuppertal may translate as "Dancetheater," but its works often owe more to abstract emotional action and snatched dialogue than to dance. Over in London, meanwhile, Simon McBurney's Complicite company ...

Sometimes it can be irritating visiting an exhibition of video-based art. You come in halfway through one of the videos or near the end of another, and you feel that you've missed something and wonder if you should stick around to watch it from ...

The traditional performing art of bunraku (ningyō jōruri) involves three puppeteers together operating a cast of single puppets, with a gidayū bushi to the side comprising a story-teller (tayū) and a shamisen player (shamisen- hiki) seated on a round platform (yuka). Originally, the gidayū bushi ...

When Japanese audiences turn their attention to modern art they tend to favor the "original" works from the West, while foreign viewers all too often find Japan's foray into oil painting too similar to the Western model.

Touch, flag or tackle? It doesn't matter so long as it is fun and makes contributions to the community. That is what the people who got together at Yokohama Stadium on Sunday for a flag football tournament would say. On a sunny but chilly day, the ...

When the Japan women's ice hockey team makes its first Olympic appearance next month at the Sochi Games since gaining entrance through an automatic berth at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, it will be out to shock the world with a podium finish. Yuji Iizuka believes ...

It is impossible to properly assess how each team will fare more than a month ahead of the start of the 2014 J. League season, but Cerezo Osaka have reason to be quietly confident about the year ahead. Cerezo made global headlines last week with ...

Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho stayed firmly on track for a 28th Emperor's Cup with a routine defeat of Bulgarian sekiwake Kotooshu on Wednesday, staying one win clear heading down the stretch at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament. Hakuho has looked invincible at this tournament and ...

With the eighth annual All-Star Game slated for Sunday afternoon in Akita, it's an appropriate time to take a look at highs and lows of the season's first half. The Akita Northern Happinets and Ryukyu Golden Kings have reigned supreme at home, both winning 15 ...