As the Carlos Ghosn saga continues to unfold, domestic and international attention continues to mount on what many are calling a "hostage justice" system. The ousted Nissan Motor Co. chairman, who had already spent 108 days at the Tokyo Detention House before being released on ...

Foxconn founder Terry Gou has claimed divine endorsement for his bid to become Taiwan's president: support of the Chinese sea goddess Mazu. The billionaire told reporters after visiting a New Taipei City temple Wednesday that the goddess had encouraged him to "come forward" to support ...

Tissue paper and other daily products sold at Osaka Prison are so expensive that inmates mostly cannot purchase them, a situation amounting to a human rights violation, according to local lawyers. The Osaka Bar Association advised the prison to make improvements in a statement dated ...

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.

Mashiki officials offered silent prayers on Tuesday for the victims of the powerful earthquakes that hit the town and other areas of Kumamoto Prefecture three years ago. "We'll place top priority on rebuilding the lives of afflicted people," Mayor Hironori Nishimura said. "We expect post-disaster ...

Indonesians have voted in the world's biggest single-day election, with unofficial tallies putting President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo ahead with 55 percent with around 38 percent of votes counted. Kompas news channel has Jokowi leading with 55.37 percent in the bitterly fought campaign dominated by promises ...

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 ...

The Chinese video app TikTok is no longer available on Google and Apple app stores in India after a state court prohibited its downloads, a setback for developer ByteDance Technology’s efforts to tap users in a key market. TikTok, which allows users to create and ...

Electric motor-maker Nidec Corp. said Tuesday it will acquire component-maker Omron Corp.'s automotive electronics subsidiary for ¥100 billion ($893 million), as it seeks to speed up the development of technology for autonomous and other advanced vehicles. Kyoto-headquartered Nidec will take an entire stake in Omron ...

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 including ...

After a small eruption was observed Tuesday evening on Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture the weather agency said Wednesday morning no new eruptions had been confirmed, although the volcanic plume could still seen. While there were no immediate reports of injuries from the Tuesday eruption, ...

The U.S. attorney general on Tuesday struck down a decision that had allowed some asylum-seekers to ask for bond in front of an immigration judge, an action that expands indefinite detention for some migrants who must wait months or years for their cases to ...

French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to rebuild Notre Dame "even more beautifully" within five years, as all of France's cathedrals prepared to ring their bells on Wednesday to mark 48 hours since the colossal fire began. The blaze on Monday gutted the great Paris ...

Toyota Motor Corp. warned the Trump administration will inflict serious economic damage if it elects to hit cars and components with tariffs on national security grounds. Implementing the levies will be like "pulling the pin out of the grenade," Bob Carter, executive vice president of ...

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 ...

Google has blocked access to the hugely popular video app TikTok in India to comply with a state court's directive to prohibit its downloads, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The move comes hours after a court in southern ...

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 ...

Sudanese protesters Tuesday hardened their demand that the military men in power quickly step down and make way for civilian rule, refusing to budge from their sit-in outside army headquarters. The country's new military ruler, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in another apparent concession to the ...

Italy's competition authority said Tuesday it had opened an investigation into Amazon for possible abuse of its dominant position in online commerce and logistics. The authority said it suspected that the retail giant had been giving preferential exposure to third-party vendors on its platform only ...

Pledges from French billionaires, businesses and the public sector to help rebuild Notre Dame cathedral reached some €700 million ($790 million) on Tuesday amid an outpouring of public support for one of Europe's most iconic monuments. President Emmanuel Macron has vowed the medieval monument will ...

Democratic lawmakers investigating President Donald Trump's finances announced Tuesday they have issued subpoenas to several banks, including Deutsche Bank, as part of a probe into "potential foreign influence" in U.S. elections. The subpoenas were announced by the heads of the House intelligence and financial services ...

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, ...

British rock band Queen will perform in Japan next January as part of their 2020 Rhapsody Tour, which comes in the wake of the biopic film "Bohemian Rhapsody" winning an Academy Award, organizer Creativeman Productions Ltd. said Wednesday. The band includes original members Brian May ...

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 ...