Momoko Sakura, creator of the much-loved "Chibi Maruko-chan" manga and anime series about a little girl called Maruko, died of breast cancer on Aug. 15, her company said Monday. She was 53. The funeral has already been held, with only family members and close friends ...

Four auto parts suppliers affiliated with Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday they are considering jointly developing autonomous driving technology amid intensifying cross-industry competition in the field. Denso Corp., Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd., Jtekt Corp. and Advics Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Aisin, said they plan ...

On Sept. 6 a spacious English education facility where children can immerse themselves in the language through simulated travel experiences will open in Tokyo as part of efforts to beef up Japan's communication abilities ahead of the Olympics. The Tokyo Global Gateway in Koto Ward, ...

The second-largest group in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has proposed a national plebiscite on the issue to generate political momentum for revising the war-renouncing Article 9.

Australia's new prime minister toured drought-hit farms Monday to show voters after a week of turmoil the government was back to work, but a leading opinion poll showed it now faces an even greater chance of electoral defeat after changing leaders. Prime Minister Scott Morrison ...

E-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. is offering a glimpse into its ambitious plan to build a cutting-edge wireless network to take on Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group Corp., stay in the lead in mobile payments and win back market share from Amazon.com Inc. The new mobile business, ...

A Japanese woman with a developmental disorder has devised a card to help others with disabilities better communicate their rather uncommon symptoms in an attempt to reach out to the rest of the public. For example, some people might be "hypersensitive to loud sounds" or ...

Man who allegedly broke the law during a recent tour of the country was freed on humanitarian grounds, according the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

When Akira Matsumoto speaks, investors hang on his every word. And here's what he tells them: You're less important than everyone else. The diminutive 71-year-old can get away with it because of his status in the Japanese business world, where he's known for his two ...

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk's decision to abruptly abandon a plan to take his electric carmaker private will not resolve his mounting regulatory and legal woes, and may even make them worse, some securities lawyers said. Explaining his reversal in a late-night blog ...

The welfare ministry has decided to make calls to its child abuse hotline free and increase staffing at child consultation centers, informed sources said. The centers answer calls made to 189, the number for reporting child abuse or seeking advice on child rearing, the sources ...

The agency aims to include some ¥3.3 billion in funds for the initiative in its budget request, about the same amount budgeted in the previous year.

Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba is back in the spotlight. Ishiba and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are likely to face off in the Sept. 20 vote to select the next leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which will also determine who is the nation's ...

Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and the commander-in-chief and five generals should be prosecuted for orchestrating the gravest crimes under law, U.N. investigators said Monday. The civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi has ...

A venture firm and a major taxi company began the tryout Monday with an eye on launching the full service around 2020, when Tokyo hosts the Olympics and the Paralympics.

A survey by Jiji Press showed Monday that 15.7 percent of people nationwide subscribe to online video streaming services in order to watch movies. Since the world's largest online video-provider Netflix Inc. and Amazon Japan KK launched their streaming services in Japan in September 2015, ...

Kenshi Yamamoto, a 20-year-old university student from Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, made a 1,746 kilometer round-trip bicycle journey earlier this month to Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, to challenge post-disaster media coverage that he believes focuses excessively on depressing news. Yamamoto visited the Tohoku region three times while ...

Kagawa Gov. Keizo Hamada coasted to a third term Sunday in an uninspired election that set a record low for voter turnout. His opponent was former medical cooperative executive Eiji Himeda, 62, an independent who was backed by the Japanese Communist Party. Hamada, 66, won easily, ...

French President Emmanuel Macron's government will tackle social spending in the next wave of its reforms as weaker than expected growth puts pressure on the budget deficit, the prime minister said on Sunday. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said in an interview in Le Journal du ...

London's famous Notting Hill Carnival transformed the streets into a sea of color and sound on Sunday as revelers joined one of Europe's largest open-air parties in their thousands despite heavy rain in the British capital. The carnival featured steel bands, dance troupes and elaborate ...

Democrats demurred on Sunday on whether Donald Trump has committed impeachable offenses after he was implicated last week in a potential crime, but promised vigorous investigations if the party takes control of the U.S. House in the midterm elections. "The role of Congress is not ...

Sen. John McCain represented the best facets of the American nation and people.

For many emerging economies, it is imperative to pursue a rebalancing of growth patterns, with a more active approach to managing debt and capital flows and their effects on asset prices, exchange rates, and growth. Otherwise, the dangers of unsustainable growth patterns will bring ...

Paulson et al. still claim they did all that could be done to save the troubled firm.

Back in the 1960s when Paul McCartney wrote "When I'm 64," the average life expectancy worldwide was 52. Yet half a century on, Japan is already gearing up for the era of 人生百年 (jinsei hyakunen, 100-year life).

Introducing some of the usages of the adverb 全然(ぜんぜん, never/not at all), which is often heard in conversation.

The diaries of the late Chamberlain Shinobu Kobayashi from 1987, when Emperor Showa was 85 years old, reveal how the Emperor was troubled by his war responsibilities.

The recent discovery of an uninjured 2-year-old boy who had been missing for three days on an island in western Japan is being called a miracle.

Misaki Matsutomo and her partner Ayaka Takahashi gave up leads in both games on the way to losing the women's doubles badminton final 2-0 to Chinese pair Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan at the Asian Games on Monday. Despite rallying in the second game to ...

Japan's mixed recurve archery team won gold at the Asian Games on Monday with a 6-0 shutout of North Korea. Tomomi Sugimoto and Takaharu Furukawa won the first set 36-35, scored a perfect 40 in the second and snared the third with a 38-36 score ...

Nasa Hataoka slumped into a five-way tie for eighth place Sunday after ending the CP Women's Open at a 13-under-par 275, eight strokes behind winner Brooke Henderson of Canada. Hataoka, who went into the final day at Wascana Country Club one shot off the pace, ...

Koichi Ogata didn't sound like a manager with a pennant on the horizon after watching his Hiroshima Carp drop two of three against the Chunichi Dragons, a team 16 games behind them in the standings, over the weekend. "I apologize to the fans," the Carp ...

Su Bingtian cemented his status as Asia's fastest sprinter with a convincing victory in the men's 100-meter final at the Asian Games on Sunday night. Third-place finisher Ryota Yamagata was certainly not happy to come up short in his pursuit of the gold medal, which ...

Georgian Tochinoshin will face his first threat to survival as an ozeki starting on Sept. 9, when the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament kicks off. The 30-year-old failed to win eight bouts in July, his first tournament as an ozeki. He won five of his first ...

Individual and team sweeps in equestrian eventing and men's golf gave Japan six gold medals at the Asian Games on Sunday, helped along by a late win for defending champion Keisuke Ushiro in the men's decathlon. Ushiro ran an incredible 1,500-meter race to win the ...