Backed by about 93,000 signatures from residents of Okinawa, Jinshiro Motoyama and his civil organization pushed the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly last year to hold a referendum on a controversial plan to relocate a U.S. military base to the Henoko area by reclaiming land in ...

The city of Kobe and neighboring areas on Thursday marked the 24th anniversary of the deadly Great Hanshin Earthquake, with residents and family members of the deceased remembering those that were lost and pledging to ensure that their stories and lessons learned from the ...

Lawyers for former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn petitioned a Tokyo court Thursday to appeal a decision issued earlier this week that denied his request for bail, but the court rejected the bid later the same day. Ghosn has been detained for nearly two ...

The Hitachi Ltd. board decided Thursday to suspend a plan to build two nuclear reactors in the U.K. after facing difficulties in finding investors to help finance the ¥3 trillion ($27.5 billion) project. The freezing of the project in Anglesey in Wales would mean that ...

Mahruf Abdullah agreed to have the images shared, saying he hopes to let people know how people like him are being treated.

The government will allow female Cabinet ministers to participate in the rite on the grounds that they would be attending as observers.

Three novelists were selected Wednesday to receive the country's prestigious Akutagawa and Naoki literary awards for their works that covered a range of contemporary and historical topics. Takahiro Ueda and Ryohei Machiya won the Akutagawa Prize for up-and-coming authors, while Junjo Shindo won the Naoki ...

The talks came a month after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet adopted a new 10-year defense policy and five-year midterm defense buildup program.

The yen is likely to reach its strongest level against the dollar in more than six years if Japan enters a recession, which could come as early as the fall of this year, a former central bank official has said. "I don't think it will ...

On a farm employing a sophisticated technique to develop special bananas in Okayama Prefecture, people with disabilities play a major role in the routine work of watering, fertilizing and removing yellowing leaves from the plants. Every morning, several mentally disabled workers come to the banana ...

A district court ruled Wednesday in favor of two subway drivers who sought compensation from the Osaka Municipal Government, claiming they received poor performance reviews for refusing to comply with internal regulations banning beards. The Osaka District Court ordered the city to pay the men ...

A volcano erupted on a remote island in southern Japan on Thursday, the Meteorological Agency said, but the warning level was kept below the threshold that would require an evacuation. The agency said the volcano on Kuchinoerabu Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, erupted at 9:20 a.m. Live ...

Citigroup's female employees earn 29 percent less than their male counterparts, the Wall Street bank revealed on Wednesday, while announcing targets for appointing more women and minorities to senior roles. The median pay for Citi's women employees globally was just 71 percent of the median ...

Artificial intelligence is creating new avenues for war in what could be the century's defining arms race.

In the end, the British prime minister's rejected agreement might seem marginally less unpalatable than, and the only alternative to, a hard Brexit.

Cherubs, teddy bears and roses have had their fair share of the limelight — for this year's Valentine's season, the Hilton Tokyo is changing things up with lovely chocolate gift sets created on the theme of cats, Paris and strawberries. The sets will be available ...

On the morning of Jan. 14, 20-year-old women decked out in brightly colored kimono scrambled to catch trains to take them to ceremonies across the country to mark Coming of Age Day. The day's related ceremonies, targeted at young men and women who have or ...

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which this year falls on Jan. 21, is a federal holiday that marks the birthday (Jan. 15, 1929) of one of the United States' most-revered civil rights leaders. After King was killed in 1968 while standing on the second-floor balcony ...

Marie Kondo is the type of person you wouldn't initially expect lots of people to go crazy over. In the cleaning consultant and best-selling author's new Netflix show, "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo," she simply lays out the basics of her "KonMari" method of ...

For over two decades, June Yamagishi and John "Papa" Gros have been bringing New Orleans and Japan closer together through music. Funk on Da Table, their latest band, will bring hard-hitting grooves back to Japan in February. The international group, comprised of Japanese and American ...

Hakuho continued his run of narrow escapes in the first week of the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament, surviving two more close calls Thursday to retain his share of the lead on Day 5. The yokozuna's win over previously unbeaten No. 2 maegashira Nishikigi kept ...

Now that Kisenosato has retired, one of the first orders of business for him will be arranging a retirement ceremony. Virtually all wrestlers end their career with a dampatsu-shiki (hair-cutting ceremony) but for lower-ranked wrestlers it's normally just part of their stable's regular end-of-tournament party. For ...

Talk about excellent timing. After their thrilling Emperor's Cup final that went to overtime on Sunday afternoon at Saitama Super Arena, the title-chasing Chiba Jets Funabashi and Tochigi Brex staged a rematch on Wednesday night. Indeed, there was a buzz far greater than a typical regular-season ...