Foreign Minister Taro Kono on Monday urged South Korea to make good on promises made in bilateral pacts related to the issues of wartime labor and "comfort women," as diplomatic relations between the neighbors become increasingly frosty. The term comfort women is a euphemism used ...

Earlier this month, Japan and the United States began sharing fingerprint data among their law enforcement agencies under a bilateral agreement. The little-known agreement, negotiated in 2014 by the administrations of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and then-U.S. President Barack Obama, is intended to strengthen cooperation ...

Sapporo radio personality Kazuya Yonezawa takes to the airwaves once a month, speaking to his listeners in a calm and low voice. But the 60-year-old's words aren't coming from his vocal cords. They are being reconstructed by a speech synthesis software called Voistar. Yonezawa has amyotrophic ...

It took a long time, but all surrounding cities finally sign off on the plan.

Search engine Bing's outage in China last week was a technical error, rather than an intentional censorship block, a source familiar with the matter said, although Chinese authorities and Microsoft have not so far commented on the topic. From a technical perspective, a person at ...

The trick will be to keep household spending steady.

Driven by strong sales of air conditioners, appliance shipments in terms of value reached their highest level in 22 years in 2018, an industry body said Monday. The value, ¥2.45 trillion and up 4.1 percent from a year before, was also boosted by brisk sales ...

The government began constructing a new sea wall Monday in Okinawa as part of a controversial plan to relocate a U.S. military base within the prefecture, the local defense bureau has said. The move is expected to draw fresh backlash from the Okinawa Prefectural Government, ...

The commander of the South Korean Navy's First Fleet has called off a planned trip to Japan next month amid strained bilateral ties over alleged low-altitude flybys by Japanese patrol planes, the South's Yonhap news agency has reported. Rear Adm. Kim Myung-soo was slated to ...

It’s the French president’s strongest comments yet on the auto industry scandal.

Seoul gets only a passing mention amid the currently tumultuous relationship.

A statue commemorating the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki began undergoing restoration Monday, with the city hoping to unveil it in its original blue in late March ahead of the August anniversary of the attack. The Peace Statue, a 9.7-meter bronze sculpture of a ...

When Danny Reagan was 13, he began exhibiting signs of what doctors usually associate with drug addiction. He became agitated, secretive and withdrew from friends. He had quit baseball and Boy Scouts, and he stopped doing homework and showering. But he was not using drugs. ...

Many female doctors at large hospitals operating around the clock have no choice but to put their careers on hold when they become pregnant or give birth, and eventually end up quitting without being able to gain further experience. To change this, Chizuko Kuwae, 66, ...

Prime Minister Theresa May is aiming to break the parliamentary deadlock over Brexit by proposing to seek further concessions from the European Union on a plan to prevent customs checks on the Irish border. On Tuesday, Parliament will debate May's proposed next steps as well ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Nissan Motor Co. accurately disclosed its executive pay in the U.S., according to several sources. The U.S. financial regulator is examining whether Nissan's executive-pay disclosures were accurate and whether the carmaker maintained adequate controls to prevent improper ...

Ideas are shifting about what constitutes the nebulously named concept of "peace education" in Nagasaki, the second city ever to suffer an atomic attack, as its educators look to create a new approach to learning about their city's difficult history. Educators say too much emphasis ...

Roger Stone, an ally of President Donald Trump and a longtime Republican operative, did not rule out on Sunday cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Arrested at his waterfront home in Florida on ...

Thousands of protesters marched through Paris on Sunday to condemn violence in the "yellow vest" movement that has rocked France for weeks with angry protests over President Emmanuel Macron's rule. Some 10,000 people turned out for Sunday's counter-demonstration, a day after an 11th consecutive Saturday ...

The city and prefecture of Osaka and two other prefectures in western Japan plan to apply to host newly legalized casino resorts, but dozens more are reluctant to do so amid concerns over public safety, a Kyodo News survey has found. The survey, conducted in ...

Financial advisers served by technology provider Envestnet Inc. were among the thousands affected by a data leak at BlackRock Inc., the world's largest asset manager. Envestnet was informed by BlackRock that some adviser information was inadvertently released, Estee Jimerson, managing director and head of asset ...

In the coming decade or two, Japan will have millions of people like Naomi Osaka who will enrich and evolve the nation.

The arrest of Carlos Ghosn has put Japan's justice system on trial in the world court of public opinion.

Japan needs to build a deeper relation of trust with Pacific island countries if it wants them to support its regional strategy.

Technology can't save us, but it can certainly shift the odds in our favor when it comes to the impact of meat consumption on the environment.

Autobahn speed limits would reduce carbon emissions and save some lives. They should be rejected anyway.

According to a recent survey, around 1 in 11 Japanese say they identify as LGBT. Therefore, knowing the language of this diverse community can help greatly with understanding.

Often used in casual conversation, "-ppanashi" is added to a verb to indicate something that is done for an extended period of time. It can also have the nuance that something has been left in an improper state.

A Dentsu survey finds that people are more aware of the LGBT acronym, giving learners of Japanese the opportunity to discover a world of new vocabulary.

Eddie Alvarez is here to fight. That's it. "The Underground King" isn't interested in playing a character or engaging in over-the-top WWE-style promotion. The selling point of a fight should be the fight, according to the Philadelphia native. That's why he says he's felt so ...

The Japan Swimming Federation hosted the annual Aquatics Awards on Monday evening in Tokyo, celebrating achievements by its elite athletes in 2018. Asian Games MVP Rikako Ikee, who had already been named the swimmer of the year after the conclusion of the 2018 season, did ...

Teenager Yuto Totsuka finished second in the men's superpipe event on Sunday at the Winter X Games in Aspen. In his X Games debut, the 17-year-old posted 90.00 points on his first and best run that featured a frontside 540 grabbed stalefish and a massive ...

Late-blooming sekiwake Tamawashi, who won his first title at the age of 34 in the just-concluded New Year Grand Sumo Tournament, said Monday he does not intend to slow down despite taking his time to claim the Emperor's Cup. A day after winning the 15-day ...

Japan underlined its dominance of the kata discipline at the opening event of the Karate-1 Premier League season on Sunday, with Ryo Kiyuna taking the men's gold and Kiyou Shimizu taking the women's title. Kiyuna, who became the kata world champion for the third consecutive ...