If a public entity wants to promote itself in Japan, one of the most effective ways may be to create a yuru-kyara — a lovable mascot that catches people's hearts. And that's exactly what the Afghanistan Embassy in Tokyo is doing. A team of interns ...

President Donald Trump orders his trade negotiators to explore the possibility of restarting talks on joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership as trade pressures build between the U.S. and Asia.

Suspicion about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s alleged favoritism toward school operator Kake Gakuen deepens further after a potentially compromising document emerges at the farm ministry.

China should learn from Japan in the 1980s, and never allow a trade war to become a currency war, says Sheng Songcheng, a senior adviser to the People's Bank of China (PBOC). The current trade spat between the two biggest economies is reminiscent of tensions ...

Japan's population fell for a seventh consecutive year in 2017, with people 65 or over accounting for a record 27.7 percent of the total, government data showed Friday. According to the World Health Organization, a country is considered an "aging society" when the proportion of ...

Police arrested a 35-year-old man Friday for allegedly killing a 17-year-old high school girl in Hiroshima Prefecture in 2004, saying his DNA and fingerprints matched evidence found at the crime scene. Manabu Kashima, a resident of Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is suspected of stabbing Satomi Kitaguchi ...

Engineer Masaaki Nagumo had always dreamed of suiting up as a robot from "Mobile Suit Gundam," his favorite animation series growing up. Now he has made it a reality by creating a giant humanoid inspired by the science fiction franchise. Developed by Sakakibara Kikai, a ...

The Imperial Household Agency is arranging to transport by land the huge Takamikura throne to Tokyo from Kyoto around August, ahead of next year's ceremony to mark Crown Prince Naruhito's accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, senior agency officials said Friday. The 8-ton, 6.5-meter-high canopied throne ...

Nintendo Co. is teaming up with San Francisco-based Scrum Ventures to scout startups working on new ways to play or use the company's hit gaming console, the Switch. The program, run by Scrum, will look for startups, teams within larger companies or university researchers developing ...

A government report calls for taking an “emergency measure” to block access to websites that pirate anime and manga, including Mangamura, Anitube and Miomio.

In Japan’s latest attempt to change corporate behavior, the Bank of Japan decides to put money into an index of firms selected for the way they treat women.

The government will examine steps to soften the impact of a consumption tax hike to be applied next year after a previous increase dampened consumption, the top government spokesman said Friday. A task force involving officials from relevant ministries was launched on Friday, and the ...

U.S. Secretary of State-designate Mike Pompeo voiced cautious optimism in President Donald Trump's ability to negotiate a nuclear deal with Pyongyang, but also struck a tone on the issue that was likely to trigger concern in Tokyo and Seoul, during a Senate confirmation hearing ...

Okinawa has unveiled a road map to develop the southern island prefecture into a major hub for international cruise ships in East Asia. With the three-phase scheme, starting this year, the prefectural government is trying to achieve its goal of drawing 2 million cruise tourists ...

In an upland valley in Kumamoto Prefecture, a huge, dark-silver-colored flat building is home to silkworms that are raised all year round. Believed to be one of the world's biggest bioclean silkworm factories, it was completed in April 2017 at a cost of ¥2.3 billion ...

Islamist fighters from Nigeria's Boko Haram group have abducted more than 1,000 children in the northeast since 2013, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF said Friday. The militants regularly took youngsters to spread fear and show power, the agency said on the eve of the ...

As of the end of March, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. had paid more than ¥8 trillion in compensation (baishōkin) related to the Fukushima No. 1 reactor meltdowns of March 2011. About half of this money has gone to people living near the ...

A 19-year-old police officer was arrested early Thursday on suspicion of shooting a senior colleague to death at a police box in Shiga Prefecture, investigators said. Sergeant Akira Imoto, 41, was found collapsed at around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday at the police box in front of ...

Japan plans to avoid expressing direct support for actual U.S. military action against Syria, in an attempt to avoid damaging negotiations with Russia over a decadeslong territorial row, government sources said Thursday. Japan will only support U.S. President Donald Trump's "resolve" to prevent any further ...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has emphasized the "urgent" need to build a robust navy as he oversaw the country's largest naval fleet review since 1949, while the government announced live-fire military drills would take place in the Taiwan Strait next week. Xi headed the fleet ...

The Trump administration is launching an initiative on Thursday to crack down on sexual harassment of women by landlords and encourage victims to come forward for help from the U.S. Justice Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development. The two departments will create a ...

Using more technical methods to ensure transparency in government procedures would be the best solution to prevent another Moritomo scandal.

Is Mark Zuckerberg really in control of Facebook? Or is he a sorcerer's apprentice that cannot handle the invention?

An ideal trade-off between city and nature, with its rich history, relative ease of access from Tokyo and abundance of hot springs, Ito is a go-to spot for respite from the hyper-hustle of Tokyo city life.

In the town of Shiogama in Miyagi Prefecture, there's a residential neighborhood overlooking Matsushima Bay, the epicenter of Japan's catastrophic March 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. On a quiet street there, chef Hideyuki Irakawa and his wife, Michiko, have been serving samurai food from ...

Stepping into the main restaurant of Andaz Tokyo on the 51st floor of Toranomon Hills, you'll know you're in a memorable place well before you sit down. Wide windows offer unobstructed views of the metropolis to rival the nearby Tokyo Tower, while the high ...

Kenta Ishida battled through seven innings as the Yokohama BayStars came from behind to beat the visiting Chunichi Dragons 6-5 on Friday night. The lefty struck out seven while allowing seven hits and two earned runs on the way to his first win of the ...

Bayern Munich will face Real Madrid and Liverpool will take on AS Roma in the semifinals of the Champions League following the draw at UEFA's headquarters on Friday. The first legs will be on April 24 and 25, with the returns on May 1 and ...

Sunwolves assistant coach Atsushi Tanabe summed up the importance of Saturday's Round 9 Super Rugby game with the Auckland-based Blues when he said "both teams are desperate." Speaking Friday after his team's captain's run at Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground, Tanabe said the game — ...

Gratitude best sums up the closing chapter of Yuta Watanabe's college basketball career. He shared his thoughts with the world in a Twitter message on March 10, two days after the George Washington University Colonials' season-ending loss to Saint Louis in the Atlantic 10 Conference ...

Ryota Murata is not a bluffer, so he does not lie about how he feels. Two days before his first title defense at Yokohama Arena against Emanuele Blandamura, the WBA middleweight champion said at a Tokyo news conference on Friday that he could not comment ...

Koji Oshiro hit a walk-off RBI single to give the Orix Buffaloes a 3-2 win over the visiting Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles on Thursday night. The teams came into the bottom of the ninth at Kyocera Dome tied 2-2 after Japhet Amador leveled the score ...