Foreign Minister Taro Kono asked his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Friday for Chinese cooperation in adopting a new U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution against North Korea, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said. The request, made during a telephone conversation, came in response to North Korea's ...

Marking the anniversary of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake on Friday, municipalities nationwide and companies used the opportunity not only to test their preparedness for disasters but also to raise public awareness about a variety of threats including typhoons, floods and a potential North ...

Conservative lawmaker Seiji Maehara wins the Democratic Party’s presidential election, raising the chances of the scrambled opposition camp realigning itself to take on the ruling coalition.

Toyota Motor Corp.'s U.S. sales chief predicted in late 2015 that the RAV4 would outsell the Camry within five years. It won't take nearly that long. Family sedans like Toyota's Camry — the top-selling U.S. car for the last 15 years — are set to ...

Despite an increase in openings, the rise of working women casts doubt on the government’s vow to eliminate day care waiting lists for children.

The government takes another step toward loosening restrictions on the use of pre-marriage names by civil servants by allowing their use on ID cards and in external communications.

An international fisheries panel agrees to adjust catch limits on bluefin tuna in the northern Pacific amid concerns that stocks are being depleted by overfishing.

Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said Friday he has canceled his planned U.S. visit to hold an informal meeting with Vice President Mike Pence, citing the need to deal with heightening tensions over North Korea. "The decision was made as I was told (by the ...

Macau's biggest junket operator wants to be more than a middleman lender for Chinese high rollers, so it's spending billions of dollars to transform itself into an overseas casino operator on a par with Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts Ltd. Suncity Group, which ...

The Japan Coast Guard said it has been having success with efforts to crack down on illegal fishing by North Korean boats in Japan's exclusive economic zone. The Japan Coast Guard on Thursday released photos of its policing activities in squid-rich parts of the Sea ...

A male teenager was arrested Thursday for allegedly stabbing and seriously wounding his girlfriend the previous day. The Metropolitan Police Department arrested the 19-year-old on suspicion of attempted murder after he stabbed the 18-year-old Tokyo high school student in the neck in Edogawa Ward early ...

Twenty-four-hour gyms are proving popular not only in the cities but also in the suburbs, giving busy workers the option to squeeze in a bit of exercise during off hours. These gym are popping up in greater numbers — fitted with training machines but without ...

After years of foot-dragging, India will begin work in around a month on an $87 billion project to connect some of the country's biggest rivers, government sources say, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi bets on the ambitious project to end deadly floods and droughts. The ...

Brazil's government said late on Thursday it would suspend action on a decree opening a vast section of the Amazon rain forest to mining, backtracking in the face of activist criticism and a legal challenge. The mining ministry said in a statement that, after consulting ...

While Japan is by and large a secular society, the majority of funerals conducted in the country are Buddhist ceremonies. In most cases, the memorials are practiced more out of social custom rather than any overt religious belief. Even so, funerals tend to be solemn ...

In a teeming prison for undertrials in the Philippines' capital Manila, Rody Lacanilao, an inmate for 18 months, says he prays for clear weather at night. A downpour, he says, will prevent him and hundreds of fellow prisoners in the Quezon City jail from sleeping ...

The U.S. Energy Department said on Thursday it would release a second batch of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve totaling 1 million barrels as Tropical Storm Harvey's disruption of the petroleum industry has spiked motor fuel prices. The oil will be delivered to the ...

The Trump administration has selected four construction companies to build concrete prototypes for a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Thursday. The four companies are Caddell Construction Co. of Montgomery, Alabama; Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. of ...

A North Korean court sentenced two South Korean journalists and their publishers to death for "seriously insulting the dignity" of the country by reviewing and interviewing the British authors of a book about life in the North, its state media said on Thursday. North Korea ...

A convoy of Islamic State fighters began a new attempt to reach territory held by the militant group in eastern Syria on Thursday after being blocked by U.S.-led airstrikes, despite warnings of more military action. More than 300 lightly armed IS fighters and about 300 ...

On a remote beach looking out onto the Bay of Bengal, a baby boy lies swaddled in cloth, his face smeared with wet sand. The bodies of nine more children and eight women lie alongside. Another woman and a child have already been buried. The ...

As central banks prepare to start unwinding balance sheets later this year, there is growing concern about the financial soundness of the Bank of Japan.

The best achievements of the Trans-Pacific Partnership don't have to be lost.

Approaching the house of 80-year-old Akiko Ishigaki, a three-legged dog rises to signal our arrival. From inside the house, Ishigaki gently scolds the dog, emerges from the doorway and invites us in. She's dressed in layers of woven purple cloth and her face maintains the ...

Fukuoka SoftBank had one scoring opportunity against Takayuki Kishi, but that was enough as Akira Nakamura singled in a run, Nobuhiro Matsuda homered and the Hawks beat the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 2-0 on Friday night. Kishi (8-7) allowed four hits and issued an intentional ...

Vahid Halilhodzic lashed out at his critics Friday and said he will stay on as Japan national team coach out of loyalty, despite revealing that he has received other lucrative job offers. "This is the first time I am saying this but I have had ...

Japan midfielder Keisuke Honda said Friday he had no complaints about being benched for Thursday's 2-0 World Cup-qualifying win over Australia, but admitted he would have considered quitting the game had it been at the finals. Young guns Takuma Asano and Yosuke Ideguchi were the ...

Takanori Nagase failed to defend the men's 81-kg title at the World Judo Championships on Thursday, stopping Japan's medal run by making a fourth-round exit against Uzbekistan's Davlat Bobonov. Nagase, who won a bronze medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics last year, lost on ...

Shohei Otani returned to the mound after a long absence on Thursday night. Now the question is this: How many more times will Japanese fans see the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters sensation take the mound on home soil? The same questions swirled around former Fighters ace ...

National team manager Vahid Halilhodzic took a swipe at his critics after guiding Japan to a place at the 2018 World Cup with a 2-0 win over Australia on Thursday night, before revealing that an unspecified issue in his private life almost forced him ...

With half of the MLB teams having someone in the stands on Thursday, Shohei Otani showed he can still pitch — despite not having done so since July 12. All 30 big league clubs' talent evaluators, including longtime New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman who ...