A panel of experts advising the prime minister started discussions Wednesday on the revision of the National Defense Program Guidelines, a policy document that outlines the nation's defense objectives for the next decade, with the aim of addressing the new realities that permeate the ...

A new station being built on Tokyo's Yamanote loop line was shown to the media Wednesday with around 70 percent of the construction work completed. The station, which has yet to be named but will be located between the current Shinagawa and Tamachi stops, will ...

A 91-year-old historic residence in Tokyo will turn into a business hub starting next month with a goal of helping company executives and entrepreneurs cultivate new ideas and communicate freely, operators of the facility announced Wednesday. The Spanish-style house located near Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo's ...

Lawmaker Denny Tamaki, who was reportedly designated by Okinawa’s late anti-U.S. base governor, Takeshi Onaga, as his successor, formally declared his candidacy for the gubernatorial election.

A fifth elderly patient in Gifu Prefecture has died at a hospital where air conditioning units had broken down amid a heat wave that has gripped the country.

It was literally an out-of-this-world idea that seemed unfeasible when it struck her nearly two decades ago: Made-to-order shooting stars. But Lena Okajima's audacious project to reproduce nature's fireworks for mass entertainment is getting ready for takeoff. "The concept dawned on me when I watched ...

In early August, as much of the country suffered through some of its hottest temperatures on record, a small town in Hokkaido welcomed visitors from around the world to an annual photography festival that celebrated the outdoors. Under sunny skies and low humidity, with the ...

U.S. officials expressed irritation that Japan was not forthright about a “secret” meeting in Vietnam with North Korea despite Washington’s near-constant updates to Tokyo on its dealings with Pyongyang.

The plight of a lonely bottlenose dolphin and dozens of penguins that have been abandoned in a derelict aquarium since the start of the year sparked protests this week, with activists and ordinary people alike calling for the animals to be saved. The female dolphin, ...

The U.S. military has no plans yet to suspend any more major military exercises with South Korea, the defense secretary said Tuesday amid a breakdown in diplomacy with North Korea over its nuclear weapons. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told a Pentagon news conference that no ...

Brazil said it was sending armed forces to keep order near the Venezuelan border area, while Peru declared a health emergency, as a regional crisis sparked by thousands of Venezuelans fleeing economic collapse escalated Tuesday. In Brazil, where residents rioted and attacked Venezuelan immigrants in ...

Italy's best-known architect, Renzo Piano, offered on Tuesday to donate the design for a bridge to replace the one that collapsed in his birthplace of Genoa this month, saying he cannot think about anything else after 43 people were killed in the tragedy. The 80-year-old ...

Supporters of Pope Francis have rushed to his defense after a former top Vatican official launched an unprecedented attack on him, a move they say dangerously escalates a campaign to weaken his papacy by conservatives who condemn him as too liberal. Francis' supporters say the ...

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Google's search engine was hiding "fair media" coverage of him and said he would address the situation, taking a swipe at the internet giant without providing evidence or giving details of action he might take. The company, part ...

Peru on Tuesday declared a health emergency at its northern border as thousands of Venezuelans, fleeing economic crisis and hunger at home, continued to stream into the country despite tightening entry requirements. In a decree published in the government's official gazette, Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra ...

A small Swiss company won $31 million in new investment on Tuesday to suck carbon dioxide from thin air as part of a fledgling, costly technology that may gain wider acceptance from governments in 2018 as a way to slow climate change. Climeworks AG, which ...

Scientists agree that global carbon dioxide emissions must reach a turning point in 2020 if we are to achieve carbon neutrality. Progress must be accelerated.

Trump is wrong on the facts, but his complaints underscore the business threats to tech companies from growing and largely disingenuous complaints by right-wingers.

Shocked by gender inequality and wanting to do something about it, Noemi Inoue decided to naturalize and stand for her local council.

As Japan continues to court more foreign tourists, the nation must learn to respect foreign languages as much as its own.

The thriving British music scene of the mid-1990s was awash with techno, Britpop and newer genres like jungle and trip-hop. When Reef burst onto the scene, the group's heavier style of rock must have felt like an actual oasis to some listeners. The band's debut ...

Chess pops up in a surprising number of feature films. Just look at all the documentaries and dramas about the outrageously gifted Bobby Fischer. Shogi, or Japanese chess, is a different and smaller story, though "Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow," a 2016 film about ...

The work of the late novelist Yasushi Sato, who took his own life in 1990, has been enjoying a minor cinematic renaissance over the past decade. Starting with Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's "Sketches of Kaitan City" in 2010, the author's stories have spawned four films to ...

With about half a month left before the Sept. 16 retirement of pop singer Namie Amuro, a video disc set of her last tour hit the stores Wednesday.

A day after seeing his team's nine-game win streak end, Kenji Akashi's tie-breaking pinch-hit double sparked the SoftBank Hawks to a 7-0 Pacific League win over the Lotte Marines on Wednesday. Hawks starter Yuki Matsumoto, making his third start of the season, dueled Tanner Scheppers ...

Ami Kondo had already established her status as one of the elite judoka in her weight class in the world. But now she is about to be known as one who falls short in the clutch. The 23-year-old was hoping to snap a streak of ...

Roger Federer made light of energy-sapping conditions to brush past Yoshihito Nishioka 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 in his opening match at the U.S. Open on Tuesday. Where other players had slogged through long rallies as the temperature hit 32 degrees Celsius, Federer kept his time on ...

Former national team manager Akira Nishino admits he still has regrets about Japan's exit from this summer's World Cup in Russia, but he believes the team has a bright future under successor Hajime Moriyasu. "Moriyasu hasn't been a manager for a great deal of time ...

The four men's national basketball team players who allegedly paid women for sex in Jakarta during the ongoing Asian Games have been handed a one-year ban by the Japan Basketball Association, the organization announced on Wednesday. The ban, effective from the announcement, includes B. League ...

Who spends the most time in a sumo ring? Wrestlers? Nope. Referees? Uh-uh. As any veteran fan can tell you, it is of course the yobidashi. Sumo's 'ring announcers' not only maintain the dohyo but also build the thing in the first place. Over the course of three days ...

"Nippon! Nippon!" Most of the people chanting were Indonesian. But their support for the Japanese men's basketball team echoed loudly around the arena and created a lively atmosphere. To be fair, there were many rooting for the Qatar team as well. After all, the fans did ...

Nadeshiko Japan's players provided a ray of light for their country on an otherwise gloomy, goldless Tuesday at the Asian Games, the women's soccer team winning through to the final with a victory over South Korea. The 2-1 triumph for Asako Takakura's team booked a ...

The Japan Rugby Football Union said Wednesday it was still hopeful of a big crowd for the Oct. 27 Bledisloe Cup game at Yokohama's Nissan Stadium, despite the game being a dead rubber. New Zealand's 40-12 win over Australia last weekend in Auckland saw the ...