In a bid to accelerate joint production in the United States and develop electric vehicles in a world moving away from fossil fuels, Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. agreed Friday to form a capital alliance. The move by the nation's biggest automaker and ...

Former Environment Minister Goshi Hosono said Friday he will leave the struggling Democratic Party to form a new group, the latest setback for the main opposition party since the abrupt resignation of its leader last week. "I will leave the party and rise with resolve ...

New Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa says her ministry might submit a bill to lower the legal age of adulthood from 20 to 18 this fall.

The Kanagawa Prefectural Government is considering strengthening its regulations on dating services that hire teenagers, by restricting businesses that dispatch underage staff to customers. The prefecture prohibits operators of such services from having women under 18 make physical contact with customers in private rooms, but ...

When Japanese women are physically or sexually abused by their partners, they tend to keep quiet and refrain from reporting the violence to the police. But, in Europe, women who go through the same demeaning experience are more inclined to let the authorities know, according ...

Newly appointed Foreign Minister Taro Kono on Friday sought to differentiate himself from his more famous father, who is known for issuing the Kono statement — the government’s historic 1993 apology to the mostly Asian “comfort women” coerced into providing sex for the Imperial ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's attempt to pressure his party into revising its constitutional revision proposals by the end of the year appears to have backfired, and he is now willing to let the party itself dictate the timing instead. At a news conference after Thursday's ...

The Hokkaido Prefectural Police ask the public for tips on a young Chinese woman who vanished while traveling in the prefecture.

A 15-hour blaze in a building adjacent to the Tsukiji fish market was extinguished Friday morning after damaging five stores inside, but no injuries were reported, Tokyo firefighters said. The fire damaged roughly 935 sq. meters of the three-story building, which started at around 4:50 ...

Sales of new imported foreign-brand vehicles in Japan dropped 3.8 percent in July from a year before, marking the first fall in 16 months, due partly to soft sales of Volkswagen cars, an industry body said Friday. Sales of cars, trucks and buses made by ...

SoftBank Group Corp. has plowed $250 million into online lender Kabbage Inc., the latest in a flurry of big bets on mature startups by the technology giant. Kabbage will use the new money to expand its lending products for small businesses and, if there's a ...

Japan's June real wages decreased 0.8 percent from a year before in the first fall in three months, labor ministry data showed Friday. Nominal wages including bonuses fell 0.4 percent to ¥429,686 ($3,880), the first drop in 13 months, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry ...

Fujitsu Ltd. is poised to boost its manpower in the Philippines and India to enhance information technology services abroad, aiming to meet demand from the United States and Europe while reducing costs. The firm is planning to increase the combined workforce in the two countries ...

In a few years, robotic farming equipment will be able to plow and prepare soil while human farmers sleep. That is what Hokkaido University professor Noboru Noguchi and his team are aiming for as the nation's farmers age, with no successors in place. The improved use ...

The city of Kochi has become an increasingly popular stop for cruise ships following the construction of a new port, but many local businesses have been unable to capitalize on the thousands of foreign tourists visiting in constant waves. To improve the situation, the city ...

A 36-year-old man with physical disabilities has been working to help schools understand that children with special needs should be allowed to attend regular classes if they wish to do so. Takashi Ono, who has cerebral palsy, can hardly move his body or speak. Yet ...

On a Friday evening at Tokyo's Jingu Stadium, about 1,000 people took part in a session of night yoga, an event held a few times each month. "Control your breathing — release the tension in your mind and body," 24-year-old instructor Arisa Takada said through ...

New Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera vowed Thursday to restore public trust in his ministry following a data coverup scandal and said one of his main tasks is to review Japan's defense program guidelines last made in 2013 amid the growing North Korean missile threat. "We ...

Iraq's Yazidis marked three years Thursday since Islamic State launched what the United Nations said was a genocidal campaign against them, but their ordeal is far from over despite the ouster of the jihadi fighters. Militants were driven out of the last part of the ...

In a change from chocolates and fizzy drinks, the French are starting to offer fresh oysters from vending machines in the hope of selling more of the delicacy outside business hours. One pioneer is Tony Berthelot, an oyster farmer whose automatic dispenser of live oysters ...

When it comes to recruiting tech talent, Toyota Motor Corp. is anything but subtle. The Japanese automaker recently launched a marketing campaign targeting information technology specialists and software engineers along Tokyo's suburban Nambu railway line, where the research centers of Japan's signature tech giants are ...

Anchor Brewing Co., a century-old San Francisco brewer that helped pioneer the craft-beer movement, will be acquired by Sapporo Holdings Ltd., part of a push by Japanese beverage companies to seek growth on U.S. soil. The business, best known for Anchor Steam beer, fetched about ...

Special counsel Robert Mueller has convened a grand jury in Washington to investigate allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing two unnamed people familiar with the matter. The grand jury began its work in recent ...

Toshiba Corp. is moving forward with plans to build a new memory chip plant without partner Western Digital Corp., another escalation of the fight over the future of their joint venture. The electronics maker will spend ¥195 billion ($1.8 billion) on construction of Fab 6 ...

Pyongyang is very good at calculating its provocations to stop short of an actual war.

China's newly minted big money men project larger-than-life personalities, but their good fortune can be rescinded at a moment's notice if they displease the reigning commissars.

The early morning light on this summer day, illuminating the under canopies of trees and sending warm, golden strobes across the oyster cafes over the embankments of the Kyobashi River, is enchanting. A fan-shaped city divided by seven deltaic waterways, Hiroshima sits on six islands ...

Comedian Pikotaro, best known for his hit song "Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen," announced Friday he has tied the knot with model Hitomi Yasueda. The 44-year-old, whose real name is Kazuhito Kosaka, and Yasueda, 29, filed for marriage on Thursday, he said on his blog. The two became acquainted through ...

Randy Messenger struck out nine over the distance and Masahiro Nakatani hit a two-run home run as the Hanshin Tigers blanked the Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3-0 on Friday. Messenger (11-5) tossed a four-hitter, yielding two walks in his 127-pitch outing at Kyocera Dome Osaka to ...

Corporal punishment has long been a tradition in the Japanese school sports scene, just as it has in Japanese society as a whole. As it has come to be considered a problem, the number of cases have seemingly been on the decline. But at the ...

Sho Kimura he is hoping to hold onto his WBO flyweight belt as long as possible after beating Chinese champion Zou Shiming last week. The 28-year-old Kimura defeated Zou by technical knockout in Shanghai on July 28 in his first world title bout, stopping the ...

Kei Nishikori defeated three-time champion Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina in straight sets Thursday to reach the quarterfinals at the rain-delayed Citi Open. Nishikori, winner of this tournament in 2015, prevailed 6-4, 7-5 in 1 hour, 49 minutes at the Rock Creek Park Tennis ...

Hideki Matsuyama survived a rollercoaster round to leave himself four shots off the clubhouse lead at 1-under 69 after the first round of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational on Thursday. Matsuyama's inconsistent game at the Firestone Country Club included seven birdies and six bogeys, the ...

Michelle Wie shot a course record 8-under 64 to top the leaderboard after the first round of the Women's British Open on Thursday. While the 27-year-old American jumped to a fast start, Ai Miyazato could only muster two birdies at the Kingsbarns Golf Links and ...

Former women's world champion Japan finished the Tournament of Nations without a win after being crushed 3-0 by the United States Thursday in the final match of the competition. Japan managed just one point from the four-team inaugural tournament, having drawn 1-1 with Brazil in ...