A petition to Washington that calls for a temporary halt to reclamation work for the construction of a U.S. base off Okinawa hit the signature threshold on Tuesday to warrant a response from the White House. Robert Kajiwara, a 32-year-old Japanese-American from Hawaii, started the ...

When a train is about to depart a station, passengers hear an announcement saying, "Please stand clear of the closing doors." Now, when they ride an escalator at Tokyo Station, they will get a constant reminder from East Japan Railway Co. to "Please stand on ...

Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world, but it also might be the loneliest. So much so that its people may need to be taught how to love by a robot. On Tuesday, robotics venture company Groove X Inc. unveiled a cute ...

The figure, eclipsing the previous record of 28.69 million set in 2017, was weighed down by a number of natural disasters that hit the country this summer.

The latest guidelines, which call for the modification of helicopter carriers so they can launch F-35B fighter jets, were adopted amid concerns over China’s expanding military activities.

President Xi Jinping said China would stick to its policy agenda, despite pressure from the U.S. and others to allow more competition in its economic system. Xi told an audience of party officials, military leaders and entrepreneurs in a speech Tuesday that "no one is ...

Major refiners Idemitsu Kosan Co. and Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. each won approval from their shareholders Tuesday for their long-delayed merger plan, clearing the last hurdle for the April creation of a new oil industry giant. At their respective extraordinary meetings, the companies' shareholders gave ...

When the Rev. Kenjitsu Nakagaki was honoring the Buddha's birthday with a sacred flower ceremony at a Seattle shrine in 1986, the Buddhist monk was met with sharp criticism for the chrysanthemums he arranged in the shape of a counterclockwise swastika. Nakagaki, then 25 and ...

The modest gain from No. 114 last year reflected narrower wage gaps and an increase in women’s labor participation rate.

In the last five years, China has turned its contrived historical claims to the South China Sea into reality and gained strategic depth.

Both Washington and Pyongyang are going to need to make concessions.

As algorithmic decision-making spreads, it is exposing social and economic inequities that were long hidden behind "official" data.

The prime minister has seized the diplomacy initiative from the bureaucracy.

Traffic accidents are the leading killer of younger people worldwide, but there are signs that making our roads safer isn't impossible.

The final full year of the Heisei Era was one of the most discombobulating for Japanese music this decade. Nostalgia for the soon-to-end era clashed with efforts to figure out where J-pop goes moving forward. Tunes covered in cobwebs suddenly became the soundtrack for ...

YouTube in Japan had an identity crisis in 2018. The video-sharing site only grew in importance this year, as the top creators associated with the platform achieved acceptance by the country's mainstream media gatekeepers while famous names migrated over. But, at the same time, the ...

Kawasaki Frontale midfielder Akihiro Ienaga was named the J. League's Most Valuable Player at Tuesday's J. League Awards. It was the first MVP award for the 32-year-old Ienaga, whose club won its second consecutive league championship. He is the third straight Frontale player to win ...

No matter how one of the all-time best boxers views his New Year's Eve showdown with Tenshin Nasukawa, the kickboxing phenom is planning to shock the world by putting on a competitive fight. With two weeks to go until his special three-round exhibition boxing match ...

Jose Mourinho was fired by Manchester United on Tuesday, two days after English soccer's biggest club reached a new low in its disappointing season by losing to Liverpool in the Premier League. Assistant coach Michael Carrick will take charge of the team on an interim ...

Andrew Fitzgerald scored the Ehime Orange Vikings' first two points on an outside jumper on Sunday, and never stopped scoring. He had a career-high 55 points and pulled down 22 rebounds while playing all 40 minutes in Ehime's bounce-back, 101-95 victory over the Fukushima Firebonds ...

While the San Antonio Spurs search for their identity as a team, Rudy Gay is showing that he has returned to form. Gay had 21 points and LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan each added 20 as San Antonio defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 123-96 on Monday ...

With two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu out of this week's Japan nationals in Osaka due to injury, the focus will be squarely on the battle between the elite women skaters to make the team for the world championships and the return of Daisuke Takahashi ...

Tokyo resident Masaru Seto knows why he wants to become a volunteer at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. "I've been a rugby fan for 40 years," the 53-year-old service industry worker told The Japan Times at an interview session for the tournament's "Team ...