A Japanese retail billionaire, rather than a Silicon Valley wunderkind, is the biggest beneficiary of Lyft Inc.'s impending initial public offering. Hiroshi 'Mickey' Mikitani's e-commerce group Rakuten Inc. owns 13.1 percent of the ride-hailing company, offering documents show. That would be worth more than $2.9 ...

Seventy-year-old Yoshitomo Hara now lives in a housing facility, but he is well-versed in strategies to deal with sleeping rough in Tokyo during winter. "If you have ¥100 or ¥200, McDonald's stays open until about 3 a.m.," Hara says in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district in late ...

A video of a first-year high school student in Niigata being bullied appeared online in mid-February and quickly became a topic of discussion. The clip shows a group of male students pushing, kicking and eventually striking the victim with a stick, all while throwing ...

Japan's reputation as a country relatively free of gun crime is borne out by official statistics. In terms of individuals charged with crimes committed using firearms, the 2018 white paper issued by the National Police Agency listed eight homicides in 2017 — all of ...

Russia has stiffened its stance against advancing talks with Japan on a peace treaty, calling Tokyo's security alliance with the United States a threat and an impediment to improving bilateral ties, diplomatic sources said Saturday. The position apparently reflects Russia's deteriorating relations with the United ...

In a recent post for the progressive website Common Dreams, consumer advocate and one-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader bemoaned public broadcasting in the United States. Created by the government "to provide serious programming without any advertisements," the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio ...

By the violent wind Wednesday evening, two large, two-storied buildings at the Tokyo Medical College at Higashi-Okubo that were being erected, and one of them almost completed, were blown down and destroyed. In the suburbs, several small houses tumbled down.

One could almost be forgiven for thinking that con artists are a dime a dozen in Japan. They've been terrorizing elderly folk over the telephone in recent years with their ore-ore sagi ("It's me" scams) and sending threatening emails that warn recipients their computer ...

As the dust settles in the wake of the much-vaunted and, ultimately, failed second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam, are the two countries now back at square one? Before the summit, the U.S. president had ...

The Lower House approves a record ¥101.46 trillion budget for fiscal 2019, ensuring its enactment before the new fiscal year begins on April 1.

The Lower House has rejected a no-confidence motion against labor minister Takumi Nemoto that was submitted by opposition parties in protest over his handling of the ministry's release of faulty jobs data. The motion, which called for Nemoto's resignation, was voted down Friday by the ...

In just 100 years, the emblematic stone sculptures that guard the coastline of Easter Island could be little more than simple rectangular blocks, conservation experts are warning. Carved centuries ago, the heads represent the ancestors of Easter Island's Polynesian people, the Rapa Nui, and have ...

In line with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wishes, candidate names for the new Imperial era apparently include at least one inspired by classical Japanese literature.

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has assured the Philippines that a defense treaty would apply if its vessels or planes are attacked in the South China Sea, sparking a debate within the Southeast Asian nation over whether it should drop plans to review ...

Subsidiaries of Japan Tobacco Inc., British American Tobacco PLC and Philip Morris International Inc. were ordered to pay damages of more than 17 billion Canadian dollars ($12.8 billion) after losing an appeal of class-action lawsuits filed by smokers in Quebec. The Quebec Court of Appeal ...

President Donald Trump said he has asked China to immediately remove all tariffs on U.S. agriculture, including beef and pork, citing progress in trade talks between the two nations. In making the demand, Trump noted in a tweet Friday that he refrained from increasing U.S. ...

Rights groups criticize the government over a recent bill recognizing the Ainu people for the first time as “an indigenous group.”

What's so great about Fahrenheit? Not much, but Americans are sticking with it. The global conversation about climate needs to adapt to that reality.

A WWOOF trip to Australia leads to a new way of life for a former city girl.

The Xinjiang region of China goes relatively unnoticed for its distinct cuisine, though it has certainly garnered international attention in other respects. Xinjiang, China's westernmost province, is home to some 11 million Uighur Muslims. The province butts up against the borders of multiple countries, including ...

When it comes to seafood, we all have our favorites. It might be maguro (tuna) sushi, charcoal-grilled unagi (eel), a salmon steak or a nice fillet of batter-fried plaice. For Mai Nagamatsu, though, there's no question: Her fish of choice is katsuo (skipjack tuna). That's ...

As Japanese brewing regulations relaxed in the mid-1990s, it wasn't uncommon for large Japanese resort companies to open breweries. One such brewery, Harvestmoon, is owned and operated by Oriental Land Company (OLC), which runs the Disney theme parks in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture. Harvestmoon's connection to ...

The new lasagna-flavored, "big-sized" pot noodle hopes to pack the taste of the hearty Italian dish into a single cup, promising a mix of cheese and meat sauce.

A chance encounter with Shuntaro Tanikawa's poem, "Humanism," set William I. Elliott on the path to make modern Japanese poetry accessible to all.

Noted Japanese literary critic and writer Kenkichi Yamamoto's "The Singing Heart" provides a satisfying, thematic introduction to modern Japanese poetry.

Rich history is woven into each of the essays in "The Land We Saw, the Times We Knew," forming a picture of a Japan not unrecognizable to that of today, but one which has not yet made the Meiji Era leap into modernity.

Chiba Jets Funabashi perimeter marksman Kosuke Ishii had the hot hand early in Saturday's contest. The 31-year-old shooting guard took four shots in the first period. He made them all, including 3 of 3 from 3-point range against the visiting Rizing Zephyr Fukuoka. By the end ...

The fireworks around the Noevir Stadium pitch lit up as the players made their entrance. The fireworks on the pitch took slightly longer. With an open roof and a number of upgrades in place for this fall's Rugby World Cup, the hallowed Kansai ground played host ...

Miyabi Onitsuka placed third in the women's slopestyle final Friday at the U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships at Vail Mountain Resort in Colorado. Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand claimed a triple crown with victory, adding to her gold medal at X Games Aspen and the ...