Manufacturing activity contracted in February for the first time in 2½ years as domestic and export orders fell and factories cut output, a private business survey showed on Thursday. The survey also showed business confidence had soured for the first time in more than six ...

In June 2011, three months after savage tsunami devastated Japan's northeast coastline, Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako were visiting Miyagi — one of the three hardest-hit prefectures — to get a firsthand look at the gut-wrenching aftermath of the disaster and commiserate ...

An American activist who has collected over 210,000 signatures for a petition calling for the suspension of land reclamation work to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa Prefecture was questioned by authorities for almost two hours shortly after his arrival in ...

India's Supreme Court has ordered the eviction of more than 1 million indigenous people and others who live in forests after the federal government failed to defend a law aimed at protecting their rights. The top court's order, dated Feb. 13 and delivered in written ...

Toshiba Memory Corp. plans to go public as soon as September, aided by some ¥300 billion ($2.7 billion) in planned investment from the state-backed Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), sources close to the matter said Thursday. Toshiba Memory, a former chip unit of Toshiba Corp. ...

The United States and China have started to outline commitments in principle on the stickiest issues in their trade dispute, marking the most significant progress yet toward ending a seven-month trade war, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. The world's two largest economies have ...

Victims who were age 65 or older stood at 78.0 percent, underscoring the need to focus on senior citizens in taking preventive measures.

Veteran North Korean diplomats are being sidelined from nuclear talks ahead of the second summit with the United States as recent defections and allegations of spying undermine the trust of leader Kim Jong Un, South Korean officials and experts say. Kim has purged and replaced ...

A town in Iwate Prefecture on Wednesday completed the demolition of its former municipal office building — where its mayor and 27 other workers were killed in the tsunami triggered by the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 — even though some ...

The move comes as the country struggles with a labor crunch in the face of an aging population and falling birthrate.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed Wednesday to cooperate in addressing issues linked to North Korea, including past abductions of Japanese citizens, before Trump meets with the North's leader Kim Jong Un next week. "We firmly and closely coordinated our policies ...

A former New Zealand prime minister has denied writing an article attributed to her by the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party that praised the Asian giant's economic development at a time of strained ties. The first-person opinion piece, headlined "We need to learn ...

The U.S. Department of Justice may announce as early as next week that special counsel Robert Mueller has given the attorney general his report on the federal Russia investigation, CNN said on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. After the expected announcement, U.S. Attorney General William Barr ...

President Donald Trump is expected to make a pair of trips to Japan later this year, first to meet the country's new Emperor and then for the G20 summit, according to an administration official. Trump spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Wednesday morning in ...

Britain is able to manage the security risks of using Huawei equipment in national telecoms networks and has not seen any evidence of malicious activity by the company, the head of Britain's National Cyber Security Centre said on Wednesday. Asked whether Washington had presented Britain ...

The days when Japan and South Korea enjoyed mutual trust, each believing the other to be a friendly power, are coming to an end.

At the inaugural awards ceremony for The World Restaurant Awards (WRA) in Paris on Feb. 18, Tokyo-based Inua took home the Big Plate award for Arrival of the Year, a prize for new restaurants that opened between Sept. 1, 2017, and Sept. 30, 2018. ...

Warm up with a hearty meal from the Alps There's nothing quite as comforting as a hearty meal in wintertime. Through Feb. 28, cafe and bar BeBu on the first floor of Andaz Tokyo Toranomon Hills is bringing delicious comfort food from the alpine regions ...

It was the groan heard 'round the internet. Back in September 2017, J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions announced it had picked up the live-action rights to 2016 anime megahit "Your Name." Reaction from anime fans online was not exactly positive. To be fair, they had ...

At the time, the Japanese music scene of the 1970s felt pretty flat to Daisuke Hinata. "But (then) Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) and Plastics came out, and we thought the market would open up for more new sounds," the Los Angeles-based musician tells The ...

Japanese high jumper Naoto Tobe capped off a breakthrough IAAF World Indoor Tour with victory in the sixth and final meeting in Dusseldorf on Wednesday. The 26-year-old jumped 2.34 meters for his third straight victory on the monthlong tour. The jump was just a centimeter ...

Sunwolves acting head coach Scott Hansen resisted making wholesale changes Thursday as his side looks to put aside a disappointing start to the 2019 Super Rugby season. Following a flat 45-10 opening-round loss to the Sharks in Singapore, Hansen has made four changes and one ...

The Japan Gymnastics Association announced Thursday it has submitted a bid to host the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Tokyo. The International Gymnastics Federation concluded a meeting of its executive committee Wednesday in Lausanne, Switzerland, where it also accepted a bid from Belgium to ...

The Japan High School Baseball Federation said Wednesday it will ask a local prefectural body to review its decision to implement the country's first pitch limits in high school baseball, which are aimed at preventing injuries to the arms of young players. The national federation ...

With half a year to go until the first-ever Rugby World Cup in Asia, organizing committee chief Akira Shimazu insisted that the hosts are focused on making the tournament in Japan a "ground-breaking" event. "The previous tournament in England in 2015, as you know, was ...