Japan let out a sigh of relief Friday after a 7-year-old Hokkaido boy was found alive following an intensive six-day search by hundreds of police, firefighters and Self-Defense Force troops. But the case has spurred intense debate about parenting norms and the often murky line ...

The government vows to increase police presence in Okinawa amid fears about crimes by U.S. military personnel.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party promised Friday in its campaign platform for the July 10 Upper House election to push Abenomics to its "upper limit" to revive the nation's stagnant economy. Opposition parties seeking to wrest power from the LDP and its coalition partner Komeito ...

Fujifilm Holdings Corp.'s new president, Kenji Sukeno, aims to make its pharmaceutical operations profitable and said the company will consider acquisitions to bolster growth in sectors where it has an existing presence. The company is targeting 20 percent operating margins in its drug operations and ...

The Group of Seven summit meeting last week in Ise, Mie Prefecture, chaired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has raised suspicions about Japan's political agenda. A small group of Abe's aides might have secretly revised Japan's official view of the world economy and helped Abe ...

Bain Capital and PAG Asia Capital are evaluating bids for Takata Corp., joining KKR & Co. among private equity firms with an interest in the Japanese air bag supplier behind a record safety recall, according to people familiar with the matter. Takata's shares surged. The ...

Ancient humans made dogs their best friend not once but twice, by domesticating two separate populations of wolves far apart in Europe and Asia. Scientists on Thursday said present-day genomes reveal a deep internal split between dogs from opposite ends of the Eurasian continent. At one ...

A recent wave of terror has fueled anti-Muslim hostility worldwide, fostering a negative image of Islam — a faith still unfamiliar in Japan. But Japan's youth have been seeking answers to questions including what Islam really teaches and why it is blamed for violence. Many schools ...

Scientists have demonstrated for the first time the devastating physiological and behavioral effects on fish exposed to the tiny bits of plastic pollution clogging the world's oceans. Lab experiments with European perch larvae showed exposure to microplastic particles at levels present in seas inhibited hatching ...

Shiseido Co. has agreed to buy U.S.-based Gurwitch Products LLC from closely held Alticor Inc., adding the Laura Mercier and ReVive brands as the more than 140-year-old cosmetics giant seeks growth overseas in the luxury and anti-aging products market. The Japanese company's American unit will ...

Less than a decade after Peru imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori, voters will decide on Sunday whether to put his 41-year-old daughter back in the presidential palace, where she once served as his first lady. Keiko Fujimori has a slight lead over her rival, Pedro ...

A boy is found dehydrated and hungry but otherwise healthy six days after he went missing on a mountain in Hokkaido.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning will create computers so sophisticated and godlike that humans will need to implant "neural laces" in their brains to keep up, Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told a crowd of tech leaders this week. While Musk's description of ...

Torrential rain forced thousands of people from their homes south of Paris while the River Seine surged to its highest level for over 30 years in the French capital, shutting down the famed Louvre and Orsay museums and a metro line. In Evry-Gregy-sur-Yerre, south of ...

A mix and match of modern and classic is not rare these days, in music Beyonce and Schubert, in cuisine cocktail and sushi, in fashion jeans and geta. No need to wait for a special occasion to glam up your feet with geta ...

Spreading the gospel of macrobiotics has taken on a new fervor for Mayumi Nishimura, Madonna's former personal chef. And the 59-year-old's radiant skin is a shining example of the notion that you are what you eat. The master chef of macrobiotics has turned down offers ...

Almost every weekend, Yuta Aoki heads to Tokyo's Shibuya Ward armed with a camera, a stabilizer and a microphone. His mission is to find and speak to Japanese people, but they must look happy or, at least, not busy — "I don't want any ...

Naoko Otsuka didn't think twice about paying the equivalent of $23 for 141.7 grams of chocolate. The dark brown slivers of sweetness weren't just a treat, the Japanese homemaker says, but an opportunity to learn more about a superfood. The six bars Otsuka bought — ...

When the new Atre mall opened in April outside Ebisu Station, most people's eyes were fixed on the ground floor and the one-hour lines outside burger phenomenon Shake Shack's eagerly awaited second Tokyo branch. But those in the know have been directing their feet ...

A former robotics scientist who gave up his career at Hitachi Ltd. to work for his family-run sake brewery in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, has used his acquired business skills to turn it into a rising star among makers of the traditional Japanese ...

Hidden away in an unlikely courtyard in Tokyo's Yotsuya neighborhood is what may well be the world's first design shop stocked only with products by a single product designer. The Yanagi shop was opened in 1972 by Sori Yanagi, the son of Mingeikan (The ...

At the Rihga Royal Hotel in the city of Osaka, there is a bar designed by British potter Bernard Leach, who is known for having played a key role in the mingei (folk craft) movement in the late 1920s and '30s. Leach (1887-1979) became connected ...

Not getting enough healthy veggies in your diet? There's a very simple answer: Have More Curry. That's not just a suggestion, it's the brilliantly eccentric name for the excellent little basement diner that opened close to Omotesando last autumn by Yohei Matsuzaki. His approach is ...

Since 2014, Japanese chocolatier Minimal has been championing the single-source bean-to-bar movement from its store in Tokyo's Yoyogi-Hachiman neighborhood. In June it opened a second location near Ginza Station called Bean to Bar Stand. The store sells eight varieties of chocolate in addition to chocolate ...

So far this year, most of the media attention paid to the music industry has focused on scandal rather than songwriting. The biggest news stories so far have been Gesu No Kiwami Otome. vocalist Enon Kawatani having an affair with TV personality Becky, along with ...

Over the past decade, a go-to method for older rock bands to drum up excitement for a tour is the promise of playing a classic album in its entirety. It's a win-win proposition: Fans get to feel nostalgic while the artists themselves can coast ...

Fentanyl, a powerful painkiller that a medical examiner identified as the drug that killed the superstar Prince six weeks ago, has been responsible for an epidemic of overdose deaths around the United States, according to federal officials. The most potent narcotic known, it is a ...

Japan erupted for four first-half goals including a brace by Shinji Kagawa to slaughter Bulgaria 7-2 in the Kirin Cup on Friday. Japan’s other Shinji, Okazaki of Leicester City, needed only four minutes to open the scoring and move within one of 50 goals for ...

Yuki Yanagita hit a tie-breaking home run in his hometown as the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks won a battle of league leaders, beating the Hiroshima Carp 6-1 in interleague action on Friday. The Hiroshima native, who has returned to MVP form after a slow start this ...

Ten-man Bosnia-Herzegovina defeated Denmark 4-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw in 90 minutes in a Kirin Cup match on Friday. Captain Haris Medunjanin converted the winning penalty for Bosnia, which was driven by a Milan Duric double and will play the Japan-Bulgaria winner on ...

This was , the pundits said, the most potent attack England could select. Portugal beware. Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy and Wayne Rooney — the two leading goalscorers in the Premier League — plus England's record scorer starting a match together for the first time. Unfortunately, ...

WBA flyweight champion Kazuto Ioka will make his third title defense on July 20, when he will face seventh-ranked Keyvin Lara, Ioka's gym announced Friday. The 27-year-old Ioka has a 19-1 record with 11 knockouts and is eyeing a title-unification bout — depending on how ...

Japanese-Cambodian comedian Hiroshi Neko vowed on Friday to get the best possible result for Cambodia in the men's marathon event at this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Speaking at a news conference, Neko, who will represent Cambodia at the Rio Games in August, ...

Poland became the first team to secure one of the Rio 2016 men's volleyball places on offer at the Olympic qualification tournament in Tokyo on Thursday, while an Iran win and a Japan loss saw the home team wave goodbye to Brazil. Japan's disappointing run ...

Egypt's Osunaarashi, the first sumo wrestler from Africa to turn pro in Japan, became a tourism ambassador for his native country on Thursday, in a campaign to encourage Japanese to visit a destination avoided by many travelers following political upheaval. "I want to contribute in ...