The organizing committee of the 2020 Tokyo Games has unveiled the Paralympic version of the official torch, which uses the braille alphabet and differs from the Olympic torch in color. Both the Paralympic and Olympic torches for next year's games make use of Japan's iconic ...

Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn is expected to hold a news conference in mid-April or later, one of his lawyers said. Ghosn, 65, intends to meet the press within April but may need more time to organize his statement against the charges, the ...

A Tokyo court on Monday upheld a national law that forces couples to use the same surname upon marriage, rejecting claims over its unconstitutionality. The lawsuit against the central government was brought by Yoshihisa Aono, the 47-year-old president of software development firm Cybozu Inc., and ...

Tokyo-based venture company A.L.I. Technologies Inc. aims to release a mass-market flying motorcycle by 2022, Chief Executive Officer Shuhei Komatsu said. A.L.I. Technologies, which mainly develops small drones, hopes to sell the product, called a "hover bike," in emerging economies in Africa, the Middle East ...

The city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture held a ceremony Sunday to return the 1964 Tokyo Olympics cauldron, after its four years on display to recognize the area's recovery from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The Japan Sport Council offered the cauldron to the ...

The January death of 10-year-old Mia Kurihara in Chiba Prefecture, allegedly at the hands of her abusive father, shocked Japan after coming on the heels of a similar case involving a 5-year-old girl in Tokyo's Meguro Ward last year. In both cases, the children sought ...

The Aichi Prefectural Government started work Sunday to vaccinate wild boars against swine fever, in the first attempt at vaccinating wild animals in the country. Aichi officials placed feed containing a vaccine in the ground at some locations in Aichi Prefecture, including at a forest ...

Sportswear maker Descente Ltd. said Monday it has appointed a new head from top shareholder Itochu Corp., effective in June, after the trading house succeeded in completing a hostile takeover earlier this month. Descente President Masatoshi Ishimoto, a member of the company's founding family, will ...

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. was hit with a similar move in January.

Tokyo stocks tumbled Monday, with the Nikkei 225 index logging its biggest point loss since Dec. 25 on rekindled concerns over the global economy following the release of sluggish U.S. and European economic data. Investors ditched shares and fled to the safety of bonds as ...

Around 50 percent of home care workers reported in a recent government survey that they had experienced some form of harassment from those being cared for, it was learned Sunday. In the first extensive survey conducted by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on people ...

Tokyu Corp. on Monday began running the Setagaya Line in Tokyo with electricity generated 100 percent from renewable energy sources. According to the railway, it is the first urban train service in Japan that relies entirely on renewable energy. The electrified light rail line is now ...

A political party linked to exiled tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra claimed victory in Thailand's election and said it would seek to form a government, challenging a military-backed group that led in initial vote counts and has also said it won. Pheu Thai won the most seats ...

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May was under pressure on Monday to give a date for leaving office as the price to bring Brexit-supporting rebel lawmakers in her party behind her twice-defeated European Union divorce treaty. At one of the most important junctures for the country ...

The government began to perform the next stage of land reclamation work in Okinawa Prefecture on Monday, as part of a project to build a replacement facility for a contentious U.S. air base in the prefecture despite local opposition. The work to pour soil and ...

Options under consideration for the next Imperial era name, which will be unveiled April 1, are believed to include terms adapted from Japanese classics despite past era names typically being drawn from Chinese classics, government sources have said. In Japan the era name is used ...

The government's five-year program to promote the relocation of company headquarters away from central Tokyo has made limited progress. In a survey of 1,768 municipalities conducted since November, 76 percent said they had seen little or no benefit, such as increased jobs. Under a five-year program ...

Kashmiri farmer Yusuf Malik learned that his son Owais, a 22-year old arts student and apple picker, had become an armed militant via a Facebook post. Days after Owais disappeared from his home in this picturesque valley below the Himalayan ranges, his picture appeared on ...

Uber Technologies Inc. will announce a $3.1 billion cash-and-shares deal to acquire its Dubai-based rival Careem Networks FZ as early as this week, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. The U.S. ride-hailing giant will pay $1.4 billion in cash and $1.7 billion in ...

Eel is a prized summer delicacy in Japan, and the nation’s imports of young eels could spark international criticism.

North Korea sent back its officials to an inter-Korean liaison office in the North's border city of Kaesong on Monday, reversing a decision two days ago to withdraw the officials, South Korea's Unification Ministry said. A group of four to five officials showed up at ...

In January 1865, as the U.S. Civil War was drawing to a close, some freed slaves were promised "40 acres and a mule" to begin new lives. The audacious experiment was fleeting — repudiated within months by President Andrew Johnson, successor to the assassinated Abraham ...

Stephen Moore has drawn swift and unusually pointed criticism after President Donald Trump picked him to be a governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve, with at least one prominent Republican economist calling on the Senate to block the appointment. "He does not have the intellectual ...

India doesn't have much of a history with popular computer games, unlike the U.S. or Japan. But now one of the industry's kill-or-be-killed titles has become a smash hit — and the backlash from the country's traditionalists is ferocious. "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" is a "Hunger Games"-style ...

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday ordered an independent judicial inquiry into the Christchurch mosque attacks, asking whether police and intelligence services could have prevented the March 15 massacre. Ardern said a royal commission — the most powerful judicial probe available under New ...

The Pentagon has sent ships through the Taiwan Strait — the third time in as many months — as Washington ramps up naval activities in the waterway, stoking fears in Beijing of a growing alignment with Taipei. The move, likely to be interpreted by China ...

The Pentagon is about to attempt what's likely to be the most challenging test yet of the U.S. military's ability to shoot down an incoming missile from an adversary such as North Korea or Iran, according to three people familiar with the plans. The Missile ...

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's conclusion that Donald Trump did not collude with Russia to win the presidency in 2016 gives the president a powerful weapon to use against his Democratic opponents and a potential boost to what is shaping up to be a ...

Dozens of Islamic State group jihadists emerged from tunnels to surrender to U.S.-backed forces in eastern Syria on Sunday, a day after their "caliphate" was declared defeated. Syria's Kurds warned that despite the demise of the proto-state, the thousands of foreign jihadis they have detained ...

Two Russian air force planes landed in Venezuela's main airport on Saturday carrying a Russian defense official and nearly 100 troops, according to a local journalist, amid strengthening ties between Caracas and Moscow. A flight-tracking website showed that two planes left from a Russian military ...

American Airlines said Sunday it will extend flight cancellations through April 24 because of the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max after two fatal crashes since October and cut some additional flights. American, the largest U.S. carrier, said it is cancelling about 90 flights a ...

A second student from the Florida high school where 17 were shot dead in 2018 has committed suicide within a week, U.S. media reported Sunday. The Miami Herald said police in Coral Springs told the paper that a current student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High ...

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Monaco on the French Riviera Sunday, seeking to press ambitious commercial goals ahead of talks with France's Emmanuel Macron, who is trying to forge a united European front to contend with Beijing's advances. Xi arrived at the airport of the ...

America's endless political battle over Russiagate is eclipsing other important national and international matters.

Look for Kim to play the Russia card to ratchet up pressure on U.S. and South Korea.

If you ever want to take a break from grammar and reading when studying Japanese, dive into the world of "giongo" and "gitaigo."

Kono otoko wa kusai. (This guy is sketchy.) ...

This article about North Korea and the 2020 Olympics is filled with technical terms that illustrate the importance of modifying clauses.

A popular story about a teen formerly known as 'Prince' can open up a discussion about so-called kira-kira Japanese names.

Jorge Toledo has a novel piece of advice to offer any foreigner coming to Japan — learn your gestures.Spain's new ambassador to Japan recalled how during his first posting here in the mid-1990s, he was often confronted with "lost in gesticulation" moments, such as ...

Spoon-bending psychic Uri Geller wants to bend British Prime Minister Theresa May's will against Brexit using mass-telepathy. From his home in Israel, Geller — who is also a British citizen and a former resident of May's Maidenhead constituency — wrote an open letter to the ...

An internal investigation by amateur boxing's world body AIBA has raised serious questions about the judging at the 2016 Rio Olympics, with particular suspicion falling on a French official, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Monday. France basked in the glow of six boxing medals ...

The decision by Super Rugby organizers to give Japan's Sunwolves the boot six months before the country hosts the World Cup has sparked concerns about the sport's growth prospects in Asia. The axe will fall on the Tokyo-based franchise after next season following a chastening ...

Two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu will miss next month's ISU World Team Trophy as he has yet to fully recover from an ankle injury, the Japan Skating Federation said Monday. The 24-year-old, who finished runner-up at the world championships in Saitama on Saturday, originally sustained ...

Asami Yoshida, one of the greatest players in Japanese women's basketball history, announced her retirement on Monday, saying that she can no longer motivate herself even with the Tokyo Olympics drawing near. The JX-Eneos Sunflowers, Yoshida’s home throughout her Women’s Japan Basketball League career, had ...

Yokozuna Hakuho said Monday he felt an "invisible weight" after suffering an arm injury in the final bout of the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament, where he racked up a record-extending 42nd top division title. Hakuho pulled out another close victory in Sunday's bout against fellow ...

Veteran forward Jawad Williams filled a vital role for the Alvark Tokyo during the club's 2017-18 B. League championship season. He had a knack for making clutch shots, grabbing key rebounds, playing lockdown defense and providing valuable leadership on and off the court. Williams' season came ...

Newly crowned World Cup ski jumping champion Ryoyu Kobayashi earned his 13th victory in Sunday's season finale in Slovenia. The 22-year-old totaled 464.9 points on his two jumps to win the season's 28th event handily over Slovene Domen Prevc, who was second with 444.0, and ...