E-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. says it has reached a capital alliance agreement with restaurant search business Gurunavi Inc. as it looks to strengthen its foothold in the growing online reservation market. Rakuten said Monday it will buy Gurunavi shares worth ¥4 billion currently held by ...

The Fukuoka High Court has ruled that the floodgates of a dike at Isahaya Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture should remain closed, ruling in favor of the central government in a protracted legal battle over a land reclamation project that has been opposed by local ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) said Monday it had won all 125 parliamentary seats up for grabs in a general election a day earlier that critics said was neither free nor fair. "The CPP won 77.5 percent of the votes and ...

A launching ceremony for an 8,200-ton, 169.9-meter warship for the Maritime Self-Defense Force was held Monday at a plant in Yokohama's Isogo Ward as Tokyo keeps steadily bolstering its defense capability against North Korean and Chinese missiles in close cooperation with U.S. military forces. The ...

A Kyoto University research team will begin a clinical test this week using induced pluripotent stem cells to treat Parkinson’s disease, in what will be the world’s first application of iPS technology to the progressive neurological disorder.

The U.S. says deploying the first of two new land-based missile defense batteries to protect against North Korean attacks is expected to take a year longer than Japan wants.

People and businesses from central to western Japan began picking up the pieces from the passage of Typhoon Jongdari on Monday after the storm's rare east-west trajectory took it from Mie Prefecture straight across western Japan, dumping more rain on the areas ravaged by ...

Joining the worldwide movement to combat plastic waste, two international hotels in Osaka are moving toward paper straws. "We switched to paper straws on July 1, and the response from our customers has been very good, as they understand the problems of plastic straws," said ...

More than three-quarters of the Liberal Democratic Party's Diet members support Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's bid for a third consecutive term as president, the results of a poll show. Of the 405 members in both chambers, 310, or 76.5 percent, said they plan to vote ...

In a country famous for conservative company cultures, a Tokyo-based consultancy firm is meeting the demand for training from businesses that are trying to stamp out so-called power harassment by educating nightmare bosses on how to treat subordinates in the workplace. Why? Because companies are ...

A coach from AC Milan has been training members of the soccer team at Nagoya International Junior and Senior High School since April. Although the soccer club, which is part of the top Italian league Serie A, offers lessons to children in Japan and ...

The Bank of Japan, sometimes dubbed the "Tokyo whale" because of its huge influence on the country's stock market, may be about to change its habits because it's taking up too much of the pool. That's the speculation after local press reported that the central ...

To cool down, electricity suppliers are firing up fossil fuels.

Almost two years after China pledged $24 billion in investment to the Philippines, barely any projects have materialized, prompting deepening concerns that President Rodrigo Duterte has undermined the country's sovereignty with little to show in return. Of the 27 deals signed between China and the ...

In a change of strategy, Japan might ask China to join a Tokyo-led infrastructure development project in Africa instead of competing to offer economic assistance to the continent, government sources say. Tokyo is leaning toward joint development to add impetus to the recent upswing in ...

Tokyo-based Inpex Corp. announces that its Ichthys liquefied natural gas project has gotten underway off the northwest coast of Australia.

Apple is offering free repair for its product owners whose devices have been damaged by torrential rain that hit western Japan earlier this month, according to the company's website. If the gadgets were impaired directly by the rain disasters and still fixable, individual users can ...

Billionaire Charles Koch said Sunday he worries President Donald Trump's actions on trade and tariffs put the booming U.S. economy at risk of recession. "It depends on the degree" of the trade conflict that the U.S. pursues with countries such as China and Canada, Koch ...

Thousands protested in central Moscow on Sunday over a proposed increase to the retirement age and the crowd chanted slogans critical of President Vladimir Putin whose approval ratings have been dented by the bill. The rally organized by the opposition Libertarian Party chanted "Putin is ...

The U.S.-Iran stalemate will continue, but don't expect the mother of all wars any time soon.

For cost, performance and operational reasons, it makes little sense to go it alone.

Can the former cricket great deliver on his promise to crackdown on corruption and improve services?

Considering the versatility of the human hand, it should come as no surprise that it can be found within more than 1,000 kanji.

The adverb そろそろ can be used to indicate that an action is done not only slowly but also carefully, or that it is almost the time for something.

Sixty percent of parents and children in Japan use their smartphones or cellphones when they are together for family time, the highest percentage in a comparison with the U.S., South Korea and China.

Twelve people died and nearly 10,000 people were taken to hospitals with heat exhaustion or heatstroke during the week through July 15, as a heat wave continued to scorch wide areas of Japan.

The country's courts are drawing a line in the sand over discrimination against LGBT people, even as far-right LDP lawmaker Mio Sugita slams support for 'unproductive' members of society.

Japan's Haruto Goto won second prize Sunday at an international ballet competition in Bulgaria considered to be the "Ballet Olympiad," while three other Japanese dancers took third place in their divisions. In the latest round of the Varna International Ballet Competition that began on July ...

The third-party committee appointed to investigate the Nihon University American football team’s illegal tackle scandal concluded Monday that school president Hidetoshi Tanaka was responsible for the lack of governance and must take accountability for the scandal. But whether Tanaka will actually address the media and ...

Three seasons ago, a Triple 3 campaign was treated as something of a phenomenon. The feat — finishing a season with at least a .300 average, 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases — had been accomplished before Tetsuto Yamada and Yuki Yanagita both ...