The meeting could be consistent with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s stated desire to arrange a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

On the list was the Finance Ministry in Tokyo as well as the Osaka and Hokkaido prefectural government offices.

Japan has again omitted any reference to a landmark nuclear arms ban treaty, adopted last year, in its draft annual U.N. resolution calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons — despite falling support for its previous resolution. The draft, submitted by Thursday's deadline, will be ...

As climate change threatens to transform the world as we know it, the business sector needs to increase its efforts to deal with the threat by boosting investment in environmentally friendly firms and developing green technologies, business leaders and experts said at a recent ...

The United States will urge Japan to reduce tariffs on agricultural products beyond levels agreed to under the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-member regional free trade agreement, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue indicated Thursday. "We would expect certainly equal or better than the TPP deal," Perdue told ...

Officials visited 1,018 companies with facilities in eight prefectures in eastern and northeastern Japan, interviewing trainees there to probe the situation.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday vowed utmost efforts to conclude their domestic procedures so a bilateral free trade agreement can be put into force at an early date, with the end of the year given as a ...

As tensions ratchet up between the U.S. and China over trade and security issues, many major news organizations around the globe have given a platform to commentators trumpeting the arrival of a new "cold war" between the world's two largest economic superpowers. But former Australian ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Japan's sanctions on Russia are undermining confidence between the two countries. Speaking at a forum in the southern Russian city of Sochi, Putin said he does not believe that the sanctions are a step that enhances confidence. In 2014, ...

A recent survey by the Nippon Foundation has found that 60 percent of young people support the plan to lower the age of adulthood from 20 to 18 in April 2022. Many respondents also reacted favorably to a proposal by the government to lower the ...

Japan is seeing an increase in the number of deaths related to mushroom picking, after extreme summer heat and heavy rain produced a rich crop of the seasonal delicacy this year. Many mushroom hunters, mainly elderly people, tend to go into remote areas deep in ...

With a toxic smog beginning to envelop New Delhi as winter approaches, residents of the Indian capital are set to make matters a lot worse by burning hundreds of thousands of firecrackers to celebrate the Hindu festival of Diwali early next month. India, which has ...

Taiwan's Central Election Commission formally announced this week that a record nine referendums will be held in conjunction with next month's nationwide local elections, one of which is on whether to maintain a ban imposed on food products from five Japanese prefectures after the ...

The country's growing ranks of dementia sufferers are sitting on a mountain of frozen assets, creating personal dilemmas for loved ones fretting over how to handle that money and a drag on the nation's economic prospects as the vast pool of wealth lays idle. The ...

China's third-quarter economic growth slowed to its weakest pace since the global financial crisis and missed expectations as a multiyear campaign to tackle debt risks and the trade war with the United States began to bite. The economy grew 6.5 percent in the third quarter ...

A ruling Liberal Democratic Party chapter headed by Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi, state minister in charge of Okinawa and Northern Territories affairs, received political donations from a company involved in bid-rigging, data from the political funds reports of the chapter showed Thursday. The electoral district branch in ...

Japan's key inflation gauge edged up in September, bringing the Bank of Japan back to the halfway point toward its price target, though gains are still largely limited to energy. The acceleration in Japan's inflation backs up BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda's decision Thursday to upgrade ...

Turkish police are searching a forest on the outskirts of Istanbul and a city near the Sea of Marmara for remains of a Saudi dissident journalist who disappeared two weeks ago after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, two Turkish officials said. Investigators have also ...

President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the military and close the southern U.S. border on Thursday as Hondurans and Salvadorans joined thousands of migrants in Guatemala hoping to travel north. "I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught — and ...

Pope Francis on Thursday received an invitation to visit North Korea and the pontiff indicated that he would consider making what would be a landmark trip to the hermit nation, according to South Korean officials. South Korean President Moon Jae-in relayed the invitation from ...

Trump's enforcement of Iran sanctions could undermine the dollar's global primacy.

However you assess Kavanaugh's tears, they marked a giant leap for public emotionalism and a major political moment for malekind.

Onomichi has become a full-blown destination in its own right, largely thanks to the Shimanami Kaido bicycle trail.

Designart, Tokyo's annual festival encompassing all creative genres, is a cornucopia of design-related presentations and exhibitions within galleries, shops and event spaces. Celebrating its second iteration at a larger scale this year, the festival has its eyes set on the future: beyond 2021 to ...

Although less well-known than the nearby Shimanami Kaido, the 96-kilometer-roundtrip Akinada Tobishima Kaido route is gaining in popularity. Starting at the Akinada Bridge, the Tobishima route spans a network of seven bridges seven islands that can be traversed on car, bike or foot down ...

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks catcher Hiroaki Takaya gathered his teammates in a huddle around him near the visitors' dugout and delivered a message intended to pump them up before facing the Seibu Lions. "We scored 10 runs in the first game and won," Takaya told them. ...

Brazilian striker Jo scored the winner with an assist from countryman Gabriel Xavier as Nagoya Grampus beat 10-man Kashiwa Reysol 1-0 Friday night in a clash between two sides fighting to avoid relegation from the J. League first division. With Grampus coming into the match ...

The Hiroshima Carp clinched their second Japan Series berth in three years on Friday with a 5-1 victory over the Yomiuri Giants in Game 3 of the Central League Climax Series Final Stage. The Carp started the six-game final stage at Mazda Stadium with a ...

Nao Kodaira opened the new season on a strong note Friday, topping the podium in the women's 500 meters at the Japan Cup. The Pyeongchang Olympic gold medal-winning speedskater, competing in her first official meet of the season, won the race in 37.78 seconds at ...

Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger expects to be working again in the new year and has fielded inquiries from all over the world, he told German newspaper Bild. Wenger, who left Arsenal in May after 22 years in charge, said he did not know what ...

Former Nankai Hawks great Joe Stanka, the 1964 Pacific League MVP who famously threw three shutouts during that season's Japan Series, died of heart failure on Oct. 15, his grandson Josh told The Japan Times Stanka, 87, passed away at his home in Katy, Texas. A ...