Finance Minister Taro Aso said tariffs were among the measures Japan could take against South Korea if a dispute over wartime labor worsens between the major trading partners. In response to a lawmaker's questions in the Diet, Aso said that matters had not reached that ...

Japan has its share of rebellious teenagers and one of the most popular ways for youth to demonstrate their edginess is for them to deck themselves out in provocative uniforms. Over the years, the practice of junior high school students sporting modern-day incarnations of tokkōfuku ...

Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday it will jointly develop a rover to be sent to the moon in 2029, amid fierce global competition to explore Earth's natural satellite. Toyota unveiled the project with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to build a rover that can be ...

The three companies said the alliance will establish a new joint management board designed to be operated with a fair balance of power.

The Trump administration's approach to North Korean denuclearization negotiations is becoming increasingly simple to digest: Go big or go home. That was the message U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun delivered Monday in a speech at the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference. In a ...

Japan on Monday recognized former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen for his contribution to strengthening the bilateral security alliance. In a ceremony in Washington, Japanese Ambassador to the United States Shinsuke Sugiyama presented the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun — the ...

A mountainous village in Wakayama Prefecture will have the joint-smallest assembly in the country, represented by only five members, it said Tuesday, in the latest sign of the nation's declining population. The assembly of the village of Kitayama passed an ordinance to cut the number ...

For most people, going to watch the Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but for 92-year-old superfan Naotoshi Yamada it has become a quadrennial ritual over the last five and a half decades. Yamada, known to his Japanese compatriots as "Olympic ojiisan" ("Olympic Grandad"), first experienced ...

The defense team said it was impossible for the executives to foresee the tsunami that engulfed the power plant and caused fuel meltdowns following a massive earthquake.

After two decades in development, chipmakers are making a costly bet on a technology that will cram even more transistors onto silicon. Their success may hinge on a little-known company in Yokohama. Lasertec Corp. is the world's sole maker of equipment that tests glass squares ...

President Donald Trump in his 2020 budget on Monday called for overhauls of social programs that help poor and elderly Americans, while boosting military spending and funding a U.S.-Mexico border wall, in the opening gambits of his next funding fight with the U.S. Congress. The ...

A refugee soccer player who fled Bahrain and was held in a Thai prison for months during a tense extradition standoff between Australia and the Gulf state was granted Australian citizenship on Tuesday. Hakeem al-Araibi, 25, left Bahrain in 2014 after he was accused of ...

Delegates to China's parliament are urging the overhaul or even scrapping of controversial family planning rules and say radical steps are needed to "liberate fertility" and reverse a decline in births and a rapidly shrinking workforce. With its population aging as a result of longer ...

The former CEO of Olympus, who blew the whistle in 2011 on a massive accounting scandal at the medical equipment maker, has won a London court battle over alleged wrongdoing linked to his £64 million (¥9.4 billion) pension. The Olympus U.K. subsidiary KeyMed sued Michael ...

A teenager's decision to change his name spawned a viral tweet and led to a broader conversation online and in the media amid a trend for Japanese parents to give their children unusual given names. The boy, who was ashamed of his given name — ...

Last year was the deadliest yet for children in Syria, with more than 1,100 killed by fighting, the United Nations said on Monday, ahead of the bloody conflict entering its ninth year. U.N. children's agency UNICEF said it had been able to verify 1,106 child ...

Japan Investment Adviser Co. bought 10 of the planes in 2017, and a spokesperson said it also does not have plans to change the order.

It wasn't until he turned 18 that Daisuke Kuse saw businessmen dressed in dapper suits up close and personal. Until then, Kuse — having spent all of his childhood surrounded by working-class families and friends in a small town in Kyoto Prefecture — had ...

The events will end with a ceremony marking the Emperor’s relinquishment of the throne at the end of April, during which he is to deliver a speech.

Lost wallets or hard cash reported to the Okinawa Prefectural Police last year had a higher chance of being returned than in the preceding four years, earning praise from foreign tourists who got their money back. The police said that ¥203.7 million in lost cash ...

When a classic red 1994 Toyota Supra sold online for $121,000 in January, it shocked not only the usual car-related Instagram junkies but also close followers of the tiny Japanese sports car. The going rate for one in good condition tends to hover around ...

A Canadian man was charged Monday with attempting to smuggle about 30 kilograms of stimulant drugs through Narita airport, the biggest amount ever seized by Japanese customs authorities from a passenger's luggage. Jonathan Isabelle, 21, who was arrested on his arrival at the international airport ...

Japan on Tuesday marked 500 days to go until next year's Tokyo Olympics formally begin as the local organizing committee unveiled a set of pictograms representing the different sports and competitions to be contested at the 2020 Summer Games. Also Tuesday, Yoshiro Mori, president of ...

Britain will make a unilateral statement that nothing can prevent it from pulling out of an Irish border backstop if talks about a future relationship with the European Union after Brexit break down, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday. In a news conference in ...

U.S.-backed fighters are moving slowly into Islamic State's final pocket in eastern Syria to avoid losses in the face of sniper fire and land mines, a commander said on Monday. Warplanes flew above Baghouz, a cluster of houses on the banks of the Euphrates at ...

Boeing Co. shares fell by the most in three years on Monday after China, Indonesia and Ethiopia ordered airlines to ground their 737 MAX 8 planes following the second deadly crash of one of the jets in just five months. The drop — around 7 ...

Much of Venezuela, including parts of the capital Caracas, remained without power on Monday for a fifth day, crimping vital oil exports and leaving people struggling to obtain water and food. President Nicolas Maduro, who has blamed the unprecedented blackout on sabotage by the United ...

At least 20 civilians, including women and children, have been killed in a village in northern Yemen, Saudi and Houthi media reported on Monday, in an attack both sides blamed on the other. The Houthis' Al Masirah television said airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition killed ...

The Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed killing all 157 people aboard was making a strange rattling noise and trailed smoke and debris as it swerved above a field of panicked cows before hitting earth, according to witnesses. Flight 302 took off from the Ethiopian capital ...

The United States has told Germany that it will share less intelligence with its security agencies if the country's wireless network uses China's Huawei Technologies Co. to upgrade to 5G, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday in the first explicit U.S. warning to ...

China's response toward the Huawei CFO's extradition are a bellwether of the difficult choices Japan and other middle powers are going to face as the Sino-U.S. rivalry intensifies.

How Japanese view the Hesei Era varies by generation, with young people having a more positive image of it than older generations.

Up to a million Chinese citizens have been sent to concentration camps in Xinjiang for being Muslim, yet the world's 49 Muslim-majority countries have said nearly nothing.

It's hard to argue that the Chinese telecommunications company has a constitutional right to U.S. government contracts.

Russian and Chinese firms are increasingly bringing pressure to bear on policymaking.

For many people, the mention of kabuki brings to mind images of exaggerated makeup on actors' white-painted faces, beautiful kimono costumes and colorful sets with dramatic backdrops. Then there are the distinctive standardized movements; classic poses (mie) expressing certain emotions; the precisely choreographed fights and ...

Of all the ancient high-fired unglazed stoneware styles in Japan, none is as popular as Bizen pottery, with its vareid colors and textures all the results of melting ash from the kiln.

March 15-June 30 When art director Katsumi Asaba traveled around the world, he found that humor played an important role in his communication with others and his perception of objects. Likewise, he chooses to express his own sense of humor through his designs and personal ...

March 14-June 9 Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82) was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848), a group of English painters, poets and critics who wanted to reform the British art scene. The Pre-Raphaelites dismissed popular mannerist stylized imagery and instead championed detail, realism ...

March 16-June 2 Seto, in Aichi Prefecture, first began producing ceramics in kiln-equipped potteries during the 13th century, giving rise to the term "setomono," which is now often used to refer to pottery in general. The area began mass producing novelty works, such as porcelain figurines ...

Television actor Jussie Smollett, arrested last month on a single charge of perpetrating a hate-crime hoax, has been newly indicted on 16 felony counts of falsely reporting to police that he was assaulted by two strangers shouting racist and homophobic slurs. The indictment, returned by ...

Daiki Watari netted a late winner as Sanfrecce Hiroshima spoiled Keisuke Honda's homecoming with a 2-1 defeat of Melbourne Victory in Asian Champions League Group F on Tuesday. In other ACL action, Sho Ito scored two early goals before Graziano Pelle struck back with a ...

University of North Carolina Wilmington freshman point guard Kai Toews broke the Colonial Athletic Association record for assists in a season in the team's final game of the season on Sunday. Toews dished out four assists in the Seahawks' 80-59 loss to Northeastern in the ...

Yokozuna Hakuho surrendered the initial advantage on his opening charge, but recovered to beat mountainous maegashira Kaisei for his third win after three days of the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament on Tuesday. A day after his 34th birthday, the Mongolian yokozuna let No. 1 Kaisei ...

The world of sumo has many behind-the-scenes characters that help keep the sport running smoothly. Some like gyoji (referees) and yobidashi (ring announcers) also have an on-dohyo presence that grants them a measure of visibility while others such as tokoyama (hair dressers) toil away out ...

It was a mixed bag of results for Japanese skating over the weekend. The good news arrived from Krasnoyarsk, Russia, where Mai Mihara won the Winter Universiade in decisive fashion. The bad news emanated from Zagreb, where Japanese skaters struggled at the world junior championships and ...