Tokyo said it has started talks with Washington over cutting tariffs on agricultural and industrial products, and that the two agreed to include digital trade as part of a new trade deal.

More than half of guide dog users in Japan said Tokyo is not adequately prepared to welcome visitors from overseas who rely on guide dogs when it hosts the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020, a survey finds. The largest segment of the respondents, 50.6 ...

What is believed to be Japan's largest fossilized dinosaur skeleton has been restored as a life-size replica, researchers and officials from the town of Mukawa, in Hokkaido, where the original discovery was made, said Wednesday. The replica of the 8-meter-long and 4-meter-tall plant-eating Hadrosaurid, dubbed ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to issue a statement offering a state apology to those who were subject to forced sterilization under a now-defunct eugenics law, government sources said.

Nissan Motor Co. on Wednesday unveiled the 50th anniversary editions of its GT-R and Fairlady Z flagship sports cars. The all-wheel drive GT-R is recognized as one of the fastest commercially available sedans in the world, winning many races inside and outside of Japan, especially ...

Japan’s goods trade balance fell into the red in fiscal 2018 for the first time in three years amid higher energy prices and sluggish demand from China.

Nearly half of foreign nationals living in Tokyo have experienced racial discrimination, according to a survey released Tuesday by a civic group. In the survey conducted by the Anti Racism Information Center, a group organized by scholars, activists and university students, 167 of 340 respondents ...

Satellite images from last week show movement at North Korea's main nuclear site that could be associated with the reprocessing of radioactive material into bomb fuel, a U.S. think tank said on Tuesday. Any new reprocessing activity would underscore the failure of a second summit ...

The top U.S. envoy for North Korea will travel to Moscow this week for talks on dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program, the State Department said Tuesday — a sign that a meeting between leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in ...

Is there a way out of the Tokyo-Seoul spat?

Beijing is becoming much more assertive right up to territory held by other nations, both with military force and "civilian" vessels.

Japan's rural towns have mainly been facing the same big challenge for the past decade: A migration to urban centers for work has left them with declining populations, which leads to a further decrease in job opportunities that makes them less attractive places to ...

Last year, the government passed a law covering minpaku, which is when people rent out space on their properties to travelers (a la Airbnb). The law is part of an effort to regulate accommodations amid a tourism boom ahead of the 2020 Olympics. One issue ...

Oage is a lovely older gentleman with big, gorgeous green eyes. At 14 years of age, those eyes have seen a lot and not all of it has been good. Oage came to ARK last year after someone saw him being abused and rescued him. ...

The Heisei Era began in January 1989 and I started writing reviews of Japanese films for The Japan Times in July that year. In 1990, I became Japan correspondent for a British movie trade magazine, a job description that, with a change of publication, ...

Why should Japanese kids care about a manga set in China's Warring States Period, (475-221 B.C.)? The players and power struggles are hard enough for professional historians (and this reviewer) to grasp, let alone 10-year-olds. Yasuhisa Hara found a winning answer in "Kingdom," a manga ...

If you believe everything you read in the news, Japanese romance movies should really belong in the science fiction category. Just last week, a new study estimated that a quarter of people aged 18 to 39 in Japan had never had heterosexual intercourse, feeding ...

Manga artist Monkey Punch, best known for megahit series "Lupin III," died last week of pneumonia, his office said Wednesday. He was 81. Monkey Punch, whose real name was Kazuhiko Kato, depicted heists of master thief Lupin III and his gang — Daisuke Jigen, Goemon ...

The Chiba Lotte Marines remained the masters of the Pacific League's powerhouse club, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, beating the defending Japan Series champs 1-0 on Wednesday for their second straight shutout win. Rookie right-hander Daiki Iwashita (1-0) scattered a hit, three walks and a hit ...

Kei Nishikori had no answer for some magical shot making by world No. 49 Pierre Hugues Herbert, who won their second-round match at the Monte Carlo Masters on Tuesday. Nishikori, ranked sixth in the world and seeded fifth at the clay-court event, lost 7-5, 6-4 ...

Yokozuna Hakuho has applied for a renunciation of his Mongolian nationality in a move toward acquiring Japanese citizenship, a sumo source said Wednesday. The 34-year-old, whose real name is Munkhbat Davaajargal, had previously indicated a desire to become a naturalized Japanese citizen, a requirement of ...

Decades of history. A well-stocked (if slightly dusty) trophy cabinet. A distinguished list of former players considered amongst the best in Japanese soccer's history. Backing from one of the world's most powerful ownership groups in the form of City Football Group, to say nothing ...

Hakuho's undefeated run in Osaka last month gave the yokozuna a 15th perfect championship and 42nd title overall. The veteran continues to cement his status as the greatest of all time, and has solidified his place on sumo's Mount Rushmore alongside Raiden, Futabayama and Taiho. If ...

Kenta Maeda earned his third win of the season and 40th of his MLB career, tossing 6⅔ effective innings to help guide the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday. Maeda (3-1) limited the damage to a run and ...