A Niigata Prefecture nuclear power plant run by Tepco, the operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 facility, received the lowest possible rating during preparation drills in the event of a severe incident, the nation's nuclear watchdog agency said in a report released Wednesday. None ...

South Korea's foreign minister said Sunday that the nation is in talks with "related countries" to formally end the Korean War, local media said Wednesday, after an earlier report suggested Seoul was seeking to declare an end to the conflict in late August. Foreign Minister ...

Tepco plans to survey melted fuel debris at the No. 2 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in a bid help it determine the best removal method.

Activist group's hardball tactics expose rifts in the Ainu community over the fate of bones held at universities.

The government sets a target of accepting 10,000 Vietnamese caregivers by the summer of 2020 to address a chronic labor shortage in the nursing sector as the Japanese population rapidly grays.

Shigenobu Ikeda, 74, dreams of returning to his home in Hiroshima. He believes the property can be fully restored, even though half of the house was damaged in a landslide triggered by the recent torrential rains in western Japan. Ikeda is one of dozens of survivors ...

When heat waves strike the nation, it is Japan's large population of elderly people who suffer the most — a situation that can only get worse as the society grays. The aged are more vulnerable than the young to heat-related illnesses such as heatstroke and ...

Former Bank of Japan Gov. Yasuo Matsushita, who led the central bank during the country's financial crisis of the 1990s, has died, his family said Tuesday. He was 92. The date and cause of death were not immediately clear. Matsushita was known for cutting interest rates ...

Japan's move toward opening its doors to more foreign workers is widely seen as a must to better cope with an expected shrinkage in the working population. Potentially broadening the scope of non-Japanese workers accepted into a country that for years has kept a firm ...

Foreign Minister Kono and his German counterpart stress the importance of closer economic ties just days after Japan and the EU sign a free trade agreement.

Nineteen people have been confirmed dead and more than 3,000 need to be rescued after a dam collapsed in a remote part of land-locked Laos, local media reported Wednesday. The Vientiane Times, citing district governor Bounhom Phommasane, said about 19 people have been "found dead," ...

African and South Asian nations could miss national targets to curb greenhouse gas emissions unless rich countries stop using them as dumping grounds for millions of polluting old cars, a study has warned. The report by the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) said the ...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday played up reports that North Korea has begun dismantling key parts of a missile test site, but the president's enthusiasm contrasted with remarks by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said the same day that verification and inspections ...

More than 22,000 people were taken to hospitals due to the heat wave across Japan last week and 65 of them died, both record-high figures since comparable information became available in 2008, preliminary government data showed Tuesday. The fatalities were recorded in 28 of the ...

Britain is planning the biggest change to takeover rules in almost two decades, giving the government new powers to block deals in all sectors of the economy to prevent U.K. companies in sensitive industries from falling into foreign hands. The business minister, Greg Clark, wants ...

U.S. airlines plan to comply with a Chinese government demand that they revise their website identifications of Taiwan to reflect China's claim on the island territory, said a person familiar with the discussions. The U.S. carriers affected by the mandate — American Airlines Group Inc., ...

The jackpot for Tuesday night's U.S. Mega Millions lottery has reached $522 million, the fifth-largest prize in the game's history, sparking a wave of social media daydreaming about what people do if they won. The next drawing for the prize, following 22, which failed to ...

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he believes Russia will work hard to sway November U.S. congressional elections toward Democrats and not his fellow Republicans, but provided no evidence to back up his assertion. American intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia had interfered in the ...

China's president needs to get a grip on the trade war issue before it gets a grip on him.

Trying to produce prosperity with protectionism is as easy as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers.

Marvel and DC may rule the North American multiplex, but that doesn't mean their fans have read the source comics. In Japan the opposite is true: The manga comes first and foremost in a media chain that eventually leads to anime, games and, at ...

Though anime director Mamoru Hosoda rarely diverges from his pet theme of family, the scale of his movies rises and falls like the tide. "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" (2006) was an intimate tale of high school life, "Summer Wars" (2009) dealt with ...

When Fuji Rock Festival started in late 1990s, the principal attractions were invariably imported. Although the event also featured plenty of Japanese bands, even in the early years, it was Westerners that exerted the biggest draw — from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo ...

Yuma Suzuki and Shoma Doi scored second-half goals in quick succession Wednesday night in the Kashima Antlers' 2-0 win away to Cerezo Osaka. The victory at Yanmar Stadium lifted Kashima up three places to seventh on the J. League table, but it may have come ...

Fumiya Hojo had three hits and drove in two runs to pace the Hanshin Tigers to a 6-3 win over the Central League-leading Hiroshima Carp on Wednesday. Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the third, Hojo's one-out single off right-hander Allen Kuri (4-3) tied the ...

The Nagoya tournament ended with the Emperor's Cup being handed to arguably the most surprising top division champion in eight years. The steamy meet in central Japan took its cue from the World Cup, delivering a succession of shocks right from the get-go. Big names fell ...

Hokkaido's Abashiri and Miyazaki have been selected as training camp sites for the Japan national team for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, the Japan Rugby Football Union announced on Wednesday. Both are familiar cities to the Japanese rugby community and fans as they have long ...

Catcher Ayatsugu Yamashita hit an 11th-inning walk-off homer for his first home run of the season on Tuesday as the Rakuten Eagles earned an 10-8 come-from-behind win over the Nippon Ham Fighters. Eagles' right-hander Takahiro Norimoto gave up six runs in six innings as both ...