A man on trial for the theft of a large number of shoes has admitted he committed the crimes because he gets his sexual kicks from sniffing people's used footwear, police said Tuesday. Makoto Endo, 40, is suspected of stealing 70 pairs of shoes worth ...

Politicians and campaigners are urging Germany to use the lessons of its own reunification to help bring North and South Korea together, but Berlin is in no rush to take up the challenge. A second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader ...

At immigration control, an officer told Tsuneoka that his passport had been invalidated and that he was ordered to relinquish it — in effect banning him from leaving.

If Xi does visit Japan twice this year, it will be the first time a Chinese president has done so since Hu Jintao, Xi’s predecessor, in 2008.

In a lush field in the heart of the mountains, a herd of glossy black cows roam happily — prime examples of the area's Hida brand of wagyu beef. With consumption of the famed meat known for its melt-in-the-mouth tenderness and marbled fat on the ...

Environmental legislation dubbed a Green New Deal championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has drawn widespread attention — despite the fact that no one really knows for sure what it is. Now, as Ocasio-Cortez prepares to release a blueprint, details are emerging. "Next week, we plan to ...

The report says that ‘bilateral tariffs alter global competitiveness to the advantage of firms operating in countries not directly affected by them.’

Aso told reporters he would retract the remark “if it caused misunderstanding” but didn’t elaborate on what he had intended to say.

While the girl was not extremely underweight, the autopsy revealed there was almost no food inside her stomach, indicating that she had not been fed sufficiently.

Two-thirds of Himalayan glaciers, the world's "Third Pole," could melt by 2100 if global emissions are not sharply reduced, scientists warned in a major new study issued Monday. Even if the most ambitious Paris climate agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius ...

The island of Tasmania has long been renowned for producing some of Australia's tastiest seafood. But when warming seas allowed a foreign species of sea urchin to move farther south, devastating valuable fisheries, local businesses tried to innovate and ended up fostering a new industry ...

The government is promoting free vaccinations against rubella for men age 39 to 56, using characters from a manga series thought to resonate with that generation. The number of reported rubella cases in 2018 surged to the second-highest level since 2008, when the current survey ...

The United States and South Korea have reached an agreement "in principle" on sharing the cost of stationing U.S. troops in the Asian country, the State Department said Monday, in a move likely to have implications for Japan. "The United States and the Republic of ...

Facing conflict of interest proceedings under tightened EU rules, billionaire Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis may soon become the first European politician found in violation of the bloc's new law. Babis, the second wealthiest Czech, is suspected of still owning the sprawling Agrofert chemicals, food ...

North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs remain intact and the country is working to make sure those capabilities cannot be destroyed by any military strikes, according to a confidential report by U.N. sanctions monitors. The report to a 15-member U.N. Security Council sanctions committee, ...

The thaw seems increasingly like the calm before the storm.

Pyongyang doesn't appear ready to engage with Tokyo. Whether that changes with the second U.S.-North Korea summit remains to be seen.

The defeat of British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal means that all options are the table.

As I stand in the cramped wooden gangway at the side of the stage, going over my lines in a frantic whisper, I am reminded of something that American comedian Patrick Harlan had told me when we first met four months ago. "The importance of ...

Students and stage fans will see whether a hastily arranged series of performances of Bertolt Brecht's "The Threepenny Opera" this weekend can break a decades-long standoff over the closure of Japan's oldest student dormitory: the wooden Yoshida ryō (Yoshida Dormitory) at Kyoto University. The Japanese-style ...

Gentaro Komaki (1906-89), the son of a Kyoto Prefecture silk crepe wholesaler, lived a decadent youth of literature and philosophy, until seeing the work of Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy inspired to pursue surrealist art.

Feb. 9-April 7 Published in 1970, "Lineage of Eccentrics" by the art historian Nobuo Tsuji became a seminal work for its re-appraisal of the work of artists that were considered as "eccentric " during the Edo Period (1603-1868). Such artists were admired for their individual ...

Feb. 9-March 21 Three artists, all associated with the Shonan area of Kanagawa Prefecture, have been brought together for this exhibition focusing on the expressive potential of dots and lines in contemporary art. Minako Ishikawa's finely painted lines subtly change from one color to the next ...

Feb. 9-May 6 Conceptual artist Christian Boltanski was first recognized for short films he made in the late 1960s. He moved on to photography in the '70s, before working with light as a medium and creating installations during the '80s. Driven by an interest in cultural ...

Veteran actor Liam Neeson revealed on Monday that he once walked the streets hunting for a "black bastard" to kill in retaliation for the rape of a friend. The 66-year-old Northern Irish star of "Schindler's List" and "Taken" is promoting his appearance in the Hollywood ...

Police have decided not seek an indictment against former coaches of Nihon University's American football team over accusations that they instructed a player to commit a dangerous tackle on an opponent, investigative sources said Tuesday. In documents sent to prosecutors the same day, the Tokyo ...

American Lindsey Vonn crashed heavily in the super-G at the Alpine Ski World Championships on Tuesday in what was the penultimate race of her glittering career. She appeared to lose control coming off a jump early in her run and careered into the safety netting ...

Vissel Kobe are set to wrap up a weather-interrupted preseason tour to southern California on Tuesday, which the J. League club hopes will jump-start its campaign for a title. The star-studded club embarked on the tour on Jan. 24 and will return home after its ...

With a significant pair of wins during the previous window of the Asian qualifiers in Toyama late last year, the Akatsuki Five got much closer to clinching a berth for this summer's FIBA World Cup finals in China. But Julio Lamas, the Japan men's national ...

The skating season gets back in full swing this week with the Four Continents Championships in Anaheim, California, starting on Thursday. Japan's women will be looking for their second straight sweep of the podium at the event. Japan is sending a strong team that includes ...

For the second straight game, the Detroit Pistons had a big third-quarter lead at home. This time, they kept pouring it on. Andre Drummond scored 14 of his season-high 27 points in the third and the Pistons snapped Denver's six-game winning streak, beating the Nuggets 129-103 ...