The match of the century. The battle between a "god" and a "genius." The faceoff between the undisputed champion of shogi and his touted successor. The hype surrounding Saturday's match of the Japanese version of chess pits shogi legend Yoshiharu Habu against the nation's youngest ...

Domestic trading houses are scouting for assets as they enjoy their best profit outlook in six years, driven by higher prices for commodities from metals and coking coal to oil and natural gas. Equipped with a nearly $50 billion (¥5.3 trillion) war chest, trading houses ...

Kirin Holdings Co., Japan's second-largest beverage maker by market value, plans to buy back as much as ¥100 billion ($932 million) in stock as it seeks to improve shareholder returns while building up its presence in the Asian beverage market. The company seeks to repurchase ...

Communities stretching across southern Adachi and Arakawa wards, western Katsushika Ward, and northern parts of Sumida and Koto wards are at the highest risk, according to the report.

The education ministry released a draft Wednesday of revised curriculum guidelines for high schools, including the introduction of rekishi sōgō (comprehensive history) and kōkyō (public affairs) as new compulsory subjects. New comprehensive history courses will cover the modern and contemporary history of both Japan and ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in telephone talks Wednesday night to continue to put pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs. Abe told reporters after the conversation — which lasted more than an ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday withdrew a recent remark on Japan's discretionary work system, while opposition lawmakers questioned the validity of the labor ministry survey on which Abe's remarks were based. "I'd like to withdraw my remark and apologize," Abe told a House of ...

With an increasing number of foreign tourists enjoying mountaineering and winter sports, the Hokkaido Prefectural Police have started airing announcements on mountain precautions in English and Chinese as well as Japanese. Earlier this month at Sugatami Station, a cable car stop at the fifth station ...

A local bar association said Wednesday that its policy toward the creation of a respectful environment for sexual minorities calls for removing unnecessary sex-identity questions on registration forms. The Chiba Bar Association said it came up with the guidelines, the first of their kind on ...

South Korea must stay in line with U.S. and Japanese plans to keep North Korea "under siege," the chairman of the Lower House committee on foreign affairs said, referring to the policy of maintaining maximum pressure on Kim Jong Un's regime. Just days after Kim's ...

The Iraqi city of Mosul will remain strewn with unexploded bombs for a decade, endangering a million or more civilians who want to return home following the end of three years of Islamic State occupation, a U.N. demining expert said on Wednesday. Pehr Lodhammar, a ...

Canada will create a legal framework to guarantee the rights of indigenous people in all government decisions, doing away with policies built to serve colonial interests, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday. In a sweeping speech that condemned past governments for failing to do ...

President Donald Trump faced new pressure on Wednesday from his Republican allies in Congress over domestic abuse allegations against a former aide as lawmakers questioned whether his administration has properly vetted top staffers. Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he ...

Elon Musk's SpaceX, fresh off the successful launch this month of the world's most powerful rocket, won an endorsement on Wednesday from the top U.S. communications regulator to build a broadband network using satellites. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai proposed the approval of an ...

Shinzo Abe's attempts to get Japanese access to the disputed islands off Hokkaido have been complicated by Tokyo's moves to buy the Aegis Ashore missile interception system.

Could the vehemence of the response to revelations of the carmaker's experiments on the effects of diesel exhaust indicate a tectonic shift in ethical attitudes toward animals?

Through April 30, the Dining Room at The Strings by Intercontinental Tokyo is serving up a strawberry red king crab burger. Because both "15" and "strawberry" can be read as "ichigo" in Japanese, the burger celebrates the hotel's 15th anniversary with an array of unique ...

Politics hovered over the opening ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The pageantry came against a backdrop of geopolitical intrigue, featuring the presence of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's younger sister, Yo Jong, who was on hand to watch a unified Korean ...

Teenagers in seishun eiga (youth movies) tend to be pure-hearted types meant to inspire sighs of nostalgia from older audiences. But anyone who looks back at those years honestly will recall attitudes and actions not so naive — and some not so easy to ...

In a two-decade directing career that began with the 1997 relationship drama "Open House," Isao Yukisada has made everything from the critically acclaimed "Go" (2001), with its rebellious Zainichi Korean hero battling his way through a Japanese high school, to the smash hit "Crying ...

Canada's Ted-Jan Bloemen captured the gold medal in the men's 10,000 meters speedskating at Gangneung Oval on Thursday night in Olympic record time. Bloemen, the world record-holder at the distance, clocked a winning time of 12 minutes, 39.77 seconds to break the mark set Jorrit ...

North Korea's cheerleading squad made an unexpected appearance at the South Korean men's hockey game against the Czech Republic on Thursday, marking its first attendance at an Olympic event not featuring a North Korean athlete. At least 150 cheerleaders filled an entire section of the ...

Sweden's Hanna Oeberg made all 20 shots to pull off a shock victory in the women's Olympic 15-km individual biathlon on Thursday, holding off Germany's double Olympic champion Laura Dahlmeier, who had to settle for third after a costly early miss. Oeberg shot clean and ...

10 a.m. Figure skating, men’s short program: Defending Olympic champion and world champion Yuzuru Hanyu takes part in his first competition since he injured his right ankle during an NHK Trophy practice last November. The 23-year-old star holds world records for most points in ...

A day after claiming his second straight Winter Olympic halfpipe silver medal, teenage snowboarder Ayumu Hirano said Thursday he is considering a bid to compete in skateboarding at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Speaking at a news conference at the Japanese team base in South Korea, ...

A stunning second lap by Norway's Ragnhild Haga propelled her to Olympic gold in the women's cross-country 10-km freestyle race in a time of 25 minutes, 5 seconds on Thursday. Charlotte Kalla of Sweden took silver, more than 20 seconds adrift, while Marit Bjoergen of ...

Yuzuru Hanyu went through his next-to-last training session on Thursday afternoon at the practice rink beneath Gangneung Ice Arena and pronounced himself ready for the men's short program on Friday. Hanyu is looking to make history by becoming the first man in 66 years (since ...

Japan’s silver streak continued Wednesday with Ayumu Hirano in the men’s half pipe and Nao Kodaira in the women’s speed skating 1000m event.

Germany's Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot came from fourth place after the short program to win the gold medal in pairs on Thursday afternoon in dramatic fashion at Gangneung Ice Arena. The German duo earned a total score of 235.90 points for their skate to ...

The Japanese women’s curling team beat Denmark 8-5 Thursday for its second victory in as many preliminary round matches at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Later Thursday, Japan improved to 3-0 in the preliminary round with a 7-5 victory over South Korea. With the score tied 3-all ...

Nao Kodaira insists her silver medal-winning performance in the women's 1,000 meters on Wednesday night has put her in good stead for her next crack at a gold medal in her favored 500-meter sprint at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Kodaira was widely expected to win the ...