Myanmar's military has launched an internal probe into the conduct of soldiers during a counteroffensive that has sent more than half a million Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, many saying they witnessed killings, rape and arson by troops. Coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks on 30 security ...

The chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics Co. is stepping down in a surprise resignation after decades at the company, saying it needed new leadership following a bribery scandal that led to the imprisonment of its de facto chief. Kwon Oh-hyun, who also serves as ...

Chairman says all business sections being probed, promises to shoulder clients’ costs.

Okinawa crash-landing puts ruling party on back foot as Oct. 22 Lower House poll looms

In an apparent bid to win support for the restart of nuclear power plants, the state has quietly expanded the scope of subsidies for host cities to include local governments within 30 kilometers of the facilities, a charge the government denied Friday. The change came ...

More than half of Democratic Party’s 47-member caucus say they won’t link up with upstart party after poll, top official says.

Group of Seven finance chiefs on Thursday pledged to apply "maximum economic pressure" on North Korea over the "grave" threat posed by its missile and nuclear weapons development, a senior Japanese official said. The G-7 finance ministers and central bank governors affirmed close coordination in ...

The International Monetary Fund spent decades telling the world's governments how to run their economies on an American-inspired blueprint that became known as the Washington Consensus. But there wasn't much consensus between the IMF and the White House on Wednesday when an unusually public disagreement ...

U.S. President Donald Trump moved to undermine Obamacare dramatically late on Thursday by cutting off subsidies to health insurance companies for low-income patients, sparking threats of legal action and concern of chaos in insurance markets. The decision is the most dramatic action Trump has taken ...

The northern island of Hokkaido is turning to manga to instruct residents how to respond in the event of a North Korean missile launch. The prefecture has been under the North's missile flight path in recent months and municipalities have been organizing evacuation drills in ...

The number of foreign nationals who entered Japan in the first half of 2017 jumped 16.4 percent from a year earlier to 13.34 million, the highest level ever on a half-year basis, the Justice Ministry has said. The result, announced Thursday, is partly attributed to ...

Former defense chief Tokuichiro Tamazawa said Taiwan enjoys de facto independence, making its best policy for the moment to maintain the status quo. "Taiwan is already an independent, democratic and free country," Tamazawa said. "To protect your country, it would be a good idea to ...

Everyone knows that a university education leads to a higher salary, but how much higher? According to labor ministry statistics, there isn't much difference between salaries of people in their 20s who graduated from university and persons in their 20s who graduated only from high ...

Hotel Sha La La is one of Okinawa's newest hot spots, enticing tourists with its castle-like structure. The hotel owner's hospitality and the popular night view of the surrounding chrysanthemum fields are also attracting many foreign and domestic visitors, with its room occupancy rate consistently ...

A leading wheelchair maker and a hospital operator from Japan are seeking to expand in Thailand with an eye on products and services for the elderly as the Southeast Asian country's population rapidly ages. Matsunaga Manufactory Co., based in the of Gifu, expects to double ...

About 14 million people are being made homeless on average each year as a result of sudden disasters such as floods and storms, new figures show. The risk of displacement could rise as populations swell and the impacts of climate change become more severe, said ...

Washington has dramatically increased tensions in talks to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement by proposing that the life span of any new deal be limited to five years, people familiar with the negotiations said Thursday. The proposal for a so-called sunset clause — ...

The river otter found on the island of Tsushima in southwestern Japan is unlikely to be a Japanese river otter, an endemic species that has been declared extinct, a researcher said Thursday. The Environment Ministry conducted research across Tsushima between Aug. 28 and Sept. 2 ...

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai on Thursday affirmed that plans are on track to call for a tender for a high-speed rail project linking Singapore with Kuala Lumpur by the end of this year. "We would like to get started hopefully by the end ...

Behind the scandal engulfing Kobe Steel Ltd. over the falsification of data for some of the materials it supplied is a harsh reality for Japanese steel companies: the need to provide higher and higher quality metals to compete. Kobe Steel rocked Japan's industrial economy with ...

Air raids by U.S. coalition warplanes have intensified in recent days as Kurdish and Arab militias seek to drive surrounded Islamic State militants from their last strongholds in Syria's Raqqa — but the toll on civilians has been severe. Hundreds of civilians fled the city ...

Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said on Thursday the company was fully committed to helping U.S. congressional investigators publicly release Russia-backed political ads that ran during the 2016 U.S. election. "Things happened on our platform in this election that shouldn't have happened," Sandberg ...

From the "turbulence" of external political developments to the gale-force Fourth Industrial Revolution, Japan needs to brace for the future.

Japanese will vote in the Oct. 22 general election amid uncertainty and confusion resulting from the recent realignment of the political landscape.

Even the local residents look surprised at our attire. "Aren't you cold?" asks a windbreaker-clad hiker. I tighten my happi coat and tuck my leg coverings into my hakama (split-leg trousers) to keep them from flapping in the wind; my multi-layered garb is not only holy ...

Fashion designers can be stiff creatures, especially when it comes to divulging their history or feelings in an interview. However, Risa Aizawa is not your run-of-the-mill fashion designer. She is a member of the five-person Akihabara-born idol group Dempagumi.inc, known more for it's hard-core ...

Amazon.com Inc. put Roy Price, the head of its film and TV unit, on a leave of absence after a producer told the Hollywood Reporter he sexually harassed her, days after a series of similar accusations led to the ouster of Harvey Weinstein as ...

The Kyoto Hannaryz rallied past the visiting Nishinomiya Storks in the final 91 seconds of Friday's series opener. Kyoto scored the final six points of the game and recorded a 65-61 victory at Hannaryz Arena. The Storks (0-5) took a 61-59 lead on Connor Lammert's 3-pointer ...

Hideki Matsuyama shot a second-round 68 in Friday's second round and was seven strokes off the pace at the weather-hit CIMB Classic, the first event of the new PGA season. On a course where he's had a history of success, Matsuyama was unhappy to settle ...

Seibu Lions lefty Yusei Kikuchi could be a key to which team the Pacific League sends to play in the Japan Series. The Lions host the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in the best-of-three first stage of the PL Climax Series. Because NPB declares the higher ...

The Yokohama BayStars finished third in the Central League for the second straight season, and seek to do better than they fared in last year's postseason. To that end, the ballclub will count on two key pitchers' tendency to perform better away. Last year, the BayStars ...

Third in a three-part series Memories help define who we are as individuals, and provide common links among communities, cultures and nations. For Tom Meschery, memories of World War II remain etched in the backroads of his mind. A young boy in Tokyo during the war, ...

Right-hander Masahiro Tanaka will start Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on Friday against the Houston Astros, the New York Yankees announced on Thursday. Tanaka won his first playoff game in the majors with seven stellar innings in a 1-0 win against the ...