The court made the decision partly because it determined there was no risk of evidence tampering, legal experts have said.

In the quarterly outlook, the BOJ stuck to its view that the economy will continue to expand moderately as a trend.

Junichiro Koizumi is regarded as the most accomplished politician of the Heisei Era, according to one survey.

Japan is considering strengthening regulations against corporate IT giants like Amazon.com and Google LLC.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree offering passports to people in breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, triggering calls for more sanctions against Moscow from the incoming leadership in Kiev. "This is yet more proof of Russia's real role as an aggressor state that's ...

Singapore is seizing an opportunity measured in milliseconds to win a bigger slice of the world's foreign exchange market, worth $5.1 trillion (¥570 trillion) daily. The Southeast Asian nation is encouraging major foreign exchange operators to build systems in the country to remove the sub-second ...

Scotland will start preparing for an independence referendum before May 2021 without permission from London, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Wednesday. Scotland, part of the United Kingdom for more than 300 years, rejected independence by 10 percentage points in a 2014 referendum. But differences over ...

The National Police Agency revised wiretapping regulations Thursday, enabling investigators from June 1 to listen in on phone conversations while at headquarters of prefectural police departments without the presence of officials from telecommunications carriers. Under previous rules, investigators had been conducting such operations at telecom ...

Mobile phone carrier SoftBank Corp. and Google LLC parent Alphabet Inc. said Thursday they will jointly set up airborne mobile phone base stations, using balloons and aircraft in the stratosphere, to cover wider areas for next-generation 5G wireless services. SoftBank's year-old HAPSMobile and Alphabet's Loon, ...

The body of a Japanese woman who was killed in a series of deadly bombings that hit Sri Lanka over the weekend arrived in Japan on Thursday accompanied by her injured husband and their two children. Kaori Takahashi, 39, was caught in one of eight ...

Electric Power Development Co., also known as J-Power, said Wednesday that it will scale down a project to build a coal-fired thermal power plant in Yamaguchi Prefecture with two partners. J-Power, Osaka Gas Co. and Ube Industries Ltd. made the decision in light of international ...

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Wednesday it will end sales of Pajero sport utility vehicles, or SUVs, in the domestic market after finishing production in August following a slump in sales. The same day the automaker said it had started selling 700 units of the Pajero ...

Police on Thursday conducted a raid on offices of Japan Life Co., a bankrupt company suspected of having engaged in a fraudulent rental business, for allegedly failing to inform a customer in 2017 about its excessive debts when concluding a contract, an investigative source ...

He said his wish is to see society discuss the issue so similar accidents will not be repeated.

Thousands of police officers will be deployed next week to enhance security in central Tokyo, as areas surrounding the Imperial Palace are expected to overflow with people celebrating the beginning of the new era on May 1. Extra security measures to tackle potential threats and ...

Sri Lankan authorities swept up more people, including foreigners, for questioning on Thursday as they probed deeper into the Easter Sunday bombings, which killed 359 people in potentially the deadliest operation claimed by Islamic State. Police said an Egyptian and several Pakistanis were among those ...

Already the first country in the world to legalize recreational use of marijuana, Uruguay now aims to go further by becoming the first in Latin America to export it for medicinal purposes. It has taken a year to get to this point but in Nueva ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has moved on to the second and third legs of his six-nation European and North American tour with stops in Italy and Slovakia, where he met with the leaders of those two countries and others on Wednesday. In Rome, Abe and ...

Prosecutors said a top former executive of Brazilian multinational Odebrecht gave details Wednesday of multimillion-dollar payoffs to Peruvian politicians, including a top aide of former President Alan Garcia, who committed suicide last week. Jorge Barata, Odebrecht's former chief in Peru, provided details of "money routes" ...

Deutsche Bank has begun to provide documents on financing for some of President Donald Trump's projects to New York State authorities, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Wednesday. In mid-March, New York Attorney General Letitia James subpoenaed the German bank, demanding records ...

More than 40 million people around the world work in artisanal and small-scale mining where minerals including gold, diamonds and cobalt are dug up often by hand, a report by the World Bank and development organization Pact said on Wednesday. Increasing demand for metals and ...

Sri Lankan security forces detained 18 new suspects in the Easter bombings that killed more than 350 people, as the government admitted Wednesday that "major" intelligence lapses had led to a failure to prevent the attacks. The Islamic State group's claim of responsibility for Sunday's ...

Boeing Co. on Wednesday abandoned its 2019 financial outlook, halted share buybacks and said lowered production due to the grounding of its fastest-selling 737 Max jet after two fatal plane crashes in five months had cost it at least $1 billion so far. The world's ...

North Korea recently tested a "new tactical guided weapon" and criticized U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, signaling impatience with America's refusal to lift sanctions. Pyongyang's freeze on nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches is still intact, although the most dangerous parts of these weapons ...

Last Sunday's local elections saw the largest number of female assembly and mayoral candidates being elected ever.

The Islamic State has morphed into an web-based organization fueling cells and attacks across the globe.

Grabbing a bite of authentic Hawaiian loco moco doesn't always mean shelling out for a plane ticket to the islands. This summer, The Imperial Hotel Tokyo is celebrating 10 straight years of partnership with Halekulani Hotel by hosting its annual Hawaii Halekulani Fair. The fair ...

If you don't have any plans for Golden Week, what would you have done? And what do you recommend other people do?

The Okinawa International Movie Festival has never been just about movies — or even Okinawa. Held from April 18 to 22, the 11th edition was a showcase for the talents of sponsor Yoshimoto Kogyo — an Osaka-based agency that supplies Japanese TV with many ...

Snarky Puppy is back with a new album, "Immigrance," and is currently on a world tour. Bassist and band-leader Michael League talks to The Japan Times about Grammy success, why "Immigrance" is likely to be the band's last studio album and what to expect ...

Tetsuto Yamada and Wladimir Balentien each hit a pair of home runs, while Norichika Aoki went 4-for-4, as the Tokyo Yakult Swallows hammered the Yomiuri Giants 11-2 on Thursday. Former major leaguer Albert Suarez got the win in his first start for the Swallows. The ...

Kei Nishikori swept into the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open with a 6-1 6-3 win over Felix Auger-Aliassime on Thursday. The seventh-ranked star, eliminated in the second round in Monte Carlo last week, broke the Canadian teenager, ranked 31st, in the opening game of the ...

The Sunwolves are hoping another full house at Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground can spur them on to play for the full 80 minutes and beat the Highlanders on Friday night, in a game that is set to feature a number of matchups between ...

Looking down at the sea of dark blue seats that frame one of Nippon Professional Baseball's smallest playing fields, one thing becomes clear: For the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, the ballpark, and the myriad experiences it offers those who take in a game, is their ...

With the long season now over, Ice Time has collated a top 10 list of the best performances by Japanese skaters during the 2018-19 campaign. The list places a priority on results in major competitions like the world championships, Grand Prix Final and national championships, ...

Ryota Murata will get a shot at redemption when he faces WBA middleweight champion Rob Brant in a rematch on July 12 in Osaka, Teiken gym announced Thursday. Murata lost the middleweight crown to Brant of the United States by unanimous decision in his ...

Maharu Yoshimura and Kasumi Ishikawa ensured they would win a third straight mixed doubles medal at the World Table Tennis Championships on Wednesday when they advanced to the semifinals. The defending champions beat Slovakia's Lubomir Pistej and Barbora Balazova 6-11, 11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 11-7, 11-8 ...

Niigata Albirex BB coach Kazuhiro Shoji has been in an enviable position throughout the season. Since the Albirex opener in October, Shoji hasn't had a legitimate reason to make wholesale changes to his starting lineup. Instead, the names of veteran guards Kei Igarashi and Shinsuke Kashiwagi, ...

Japan Fencing Federation president Yuki Ota has been known as an innovator in the sport since taking over his leadership post in 2017. But he has recently hammered out another unprecedented, astounding initiative. On Thursday, the national governing body announced that an English proficiency exam will ...