Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in meet for the first time on the sidelines of the G-20 summit and focus on future-oriented ties.

Nara voters head to the polls Sunday for a mayoral election that has been dominated by concerns over a shrinking population and an expanding tourist industry. Three candidates are challenging incumbent Mayor Gen Nakagawa, 41, who is seeking a third term. His main rivals are ...

Interstellar Technologies Inc., a space venture based in Hokkaido, will launch a small rocket developed independently without government funding on July 29. MOMO, a sounding rocket measuring 10 meters long, will launch from a test site in the town of Taiki and is designed to ...

Prosecutors summarily indict ad giant Dentsu for labor violations but give three of its top executives a pass, including the boss of an overworked woman who committed suicide.

Idemitsu Kosan Co.'s plan to raise as much as ¥138.5 billion ($1.2 billion) by selling 48 million shares sent its stock on its biggest fall since 2008 on Tuesday. The refiner's move is the latest in the fight with its founding family over a ...

Japan and the European Union just announced a deal on free trade and will seek to reach a final agreement by the end of this year. The EU has already promised to phase out its 10 percent levy on Japanese automobiles, while Japan says ...

General Electric Co., Merck KGaA, Sigma-Aldrich Corp. and Canon Inc. are the latest companies to risk hefty penalties as the European Commission clamps down on violations of its merger approval procedures. Months after the EU fined Facebook $125 million for giving misleading information during a ...

Online retailer Rakuten bans ivory products from its shopping site in response to international criticism that it is abetting illegal trade in ivory.

The plan to announce the engagement of Princess Mako, the eldest granddaughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, has been postponed in light of the deadly rains in Kyushu, sources close to the matter said. The Imperial Household Agency said last month that Princess Mako, ...

A 27-year-old man was arrested late Thursday in Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture, on suspicion of fatally stabbing a total stranger with a knife, police said. The suspect, Mishima resident Yuki Hanami, was quoted by investigators as saying, "I wanted to test my guts by killing someone," ...

A fire ant has been found in a container unloaded at the Oi cargo terminal at the Port of Tokyo, the Environment Ministry said Thursday, confirming the venomous and highly invasive species has entered the Kanto region following discoveries at ports in western Japan, ...

Yoko Gushiken, a boxing legend who hails from Okinawa, hopes young people from prefecture will be brave enough to take on any challenge and succeed in any field. "I had been fighting 120 percent for Okinawa," Gushiken said in a recent interview, recalling the days ...

Japan's child poverty rate has improved amid a steady economic recovery, but experts say continuing support is vital to prevent social exclusion. A Tokyo-based nonprofit organization called Kid's Door offers free education to children from single-parent families or those on welfare that are living in ...

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is poised to resume powered test flights more than 30 months after the fatal breakup of its experimental rocket plane, with the billionaire entrepreneur aiming to make the first trip into space himself by the middle of next year. Following the ...

As automakers in the U.S. struggle to keep selling new cars to American consumers at a record clip, Toyota Motor Corp. plans to turn to rental car companies and other fleet operators for a boost. Toyota will nearly match last year's total sales to fleet ...

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to size each other up in person for the first time on Friday in what promises to be the most highly anticipated meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit. Trump has said he ...

Search and rescue efforts continued Thursday as torrential rain devastated parts of Kyushu. Six people were confirmed dead and at least four were missing in Fukuoka Prefecture following massive flooding and mudslides. In Oita Prefecture, 15 people can't be contacted and are feared missing as ...

Disused military tunnels snake beneath the crater of Diamond Head, out of sight of the tourists lounging near the volcano on Waikiki Beach but very much on the mind of Gene Ward, a state representative from Honolulu. Alarmed by North Korea's latest missile tests and ...

Pyongyang has given the U.S. two options: acquiescence or war.

North Korea will probably get its nuclear deterrent in the end, and we will all learn to accept it.

The theater stage is bathed in a luscious lavender hue, a color that in Chinese tradition signifies nobility and mystery — and portends things to come. A young couple, pure of heart, fall in love only to see their romance thwarted by the machinations ...

Everything was set up for the Hiroshima Carp to lose. That is, until the reigning Central League champions used a barrage of ninth-inning home runs to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Xavier Batista and Ryosuke Kikuchi hit solo home runs, and Ryuhei Matsuyama doubled ...

Ichiro Suzuki notched another milestone in his long career on Thursday when he became the most prolific foreign-born hitter in the history of Major League Baseball. The 43-year-old right fielder reached the mark with two hits for the Miami Marlins against the Cardinals in St. ...

It's been a week of benchmarks in NPB, with a few players reaching nice, round numbers. The biggest milestone achieved was by Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks closer Dennis Sarfate, who closed out a win over the Orix Buffaloes at Yafuoku Dome on Wednesday night for his ...