Finance Minister Taro Aso has pushed back against U.S. efforts to bring yen policy into scope for bilateral talks aimed at striking a trade deal. "We can't agree to any talk of linking currency and trade policy," Taro Aso told reporters Thursday in Washington after ...

Twice before, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has backed away from the sort of sales tax hike that toppled at least one predecessor. Now, he faces the same dilemma again. In five months Japan is set to raise the levy to 10 percent from the current ...

Convenience store operators released actions plans Thursday to address acute labor shortages, which suggest they are becoming more flexible about operating hours. "We will let the owners of (franchise stores) make the final decision" on whether to reduce business hours, said Fumihiko Nagamatsu, president of ...

In a nation where there are few foreign-born politicians in local assemblies or in the Diet, the sight of a candidate openly touting his or her foreign background through loudspeakers on the campaign trail can come as a surprise. Reactions to their candidacy vary — ...

Up to 1 million species face extinction due to human influence, according to a draft U.N. report obtained by AFP that painstakingly catalogs how humanity has undermined the natural resources upon which its very survival depends. The accelerating loss of clean air, drinkable water, carbon ...

Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn was released from detention late Thursday evening under a bail condition that bars him from contacting his wife without court approval. Experts say he may be unable to communicate with her until the first trial verdict, many months ...

Empty homes now account for 13.6 percent of Japan’s housing stock, with the bulk of them concentrated in Yamanashi and Wakayama prefectures, government data show.

Last year humanity destroyed an expanse of tropical forest nearly the size of England, the fourth-largest decline since global satellite data become available in 2001, researchers reported Thursday. The pace of the loss is staggering — the equivalent of 30 football fields disappearing every minute ...

The splinter of the defunct Democratic Party is attempting to bolster its strength ahead of the Upper House election and said it will “call on others to join.”

Records of Cabinet ministers' schedules, including details of their meetings, were discarded a very short period of time after or even on the day they were created, it has been learned. The revelation came after Access-Info Clearinghouse Japan, a nonprofit organization based in Tokyo, made ...

The nation's factory output unexpectedly fell in March, the government said Friday, in a sign that gross domestic product is more likely to have shrunk during the first quarter. Japan needs to see a healthy recovery in exports and industrial output ahead of a long-delayed ...

Touring ahead of the G20 summit, Abe told European Council chief Donald Tusk and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker to avoid a no-deal exit “by all means.”

About 20 minutes by car from Wakayamashi Station, across a bridge to a reclaimed island, lies Wakayama Marina City and the Porto Europa theme park. Its faux Spanish, Italian, and French buildings and European-style street designs give visitors the impression of being on a ...

Two permits were issued and similar visas are in the works for another 45 applicants engaged mainly in agriculture.

Emperor Akihito took part in an award ceremony in Tokyo on Friday, in what was likely his last official duty outside the Imperial Palace ahead of his abdication next week. He appeared at the ceremony held by the Cabinet Office to present the Midori Prize, ...

Sony Corp. said Friday it posted a record net profit in the business year ended in March for the second consecutive year, lifted by strong sales of games and music. The electronics and entertainment giant reported a group net profit of ¥916.27 billion ($8.2 billion), ...

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden entered the 2020 Democratic presidential field on Thursday as an instant front-runner, drawing momentum away from other leading candidates and putting new pressure on underperformers to find ways to stay relevant. Biden, 76, a longtime U.S. senator who served ...

The nation's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 2.5 percent in March, up 0.2 percentage point from the previous month, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said Friday. The number of jobless people increased by 140,000 to 1.74 million after seasonal adjustment, the ministry said. The ...

Working women are playing a bigger role in Japan than Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Kathy Matsui thought possible when she penned her first report on womenomics in 1999. Yet the country needs to pick up the pace of change or risk being overtaken by ...

A dramatic revision of the death toll in Sri Lanka's Easter bombings, which has been cut by more than 100, is a grim indicator of the power of the deadly blasts. The force of the explosions so badly mutilated bodies that parts of victims were ...

Nomura Holdings Inc. posted its first full-year net loss in a decade for the year to March, reflecting losses linked to overseas operations and restructuring. The brokerage house said Thursday that it had swung to a consolidated net loss of ¥100.4 billion from the year-before ...

As mass protests rock other Arab countries, a snap referendum in Egypt has gone against the grain and cemented President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's rule for years to come. The three-day ballot saw constitutional changes sail through that allow the former military chief to stay in power ...

U.S. President Donald Trump approved payment of a $2 million bill presented by North Korea to cover its care of comatose American Otto Warmbier, a college student who died shortly after being returned home from 17 months in a North Korean prison, the Washington ...

China's "Belt and Road" initiative must be green and sustainable, President Xi Jinping said at the opening of a summit on his grand plan on Friday, adding that the massive infrastructure and trade plan should result in "high quality" growth for everyone. Xi's plan to ...

In 1938, in the midst of a long campaign to bring China under Communist Party rule, revolutionary leader Mao Zedong wrote: "Whoever has an army has power." Xi Jinping, Mao's latest successor, has taken that dictum to heart. He has donned camouflage fatigues, installed himself as ...

While the figure at the top might change, the military-dominated power structures beneath may prove much harder to shift from power.

Past, present and future traditions collide at the centuries-old Darkness Festival at Fuchu's Okunitama Shrine, one of the oldest in the country.

Japan's first museum of supernatural monsters opened Friday in Hiroshima Prefecture, allowing visitors to get immersed in a strange world of yokai through historical artifacts and interactive digital installations. The Miyoshi Mononoke Museum, or formally the Yumoto Koichi Memorial Japan Yokai Museum, opened in the ...

The Tochigi Brex were locked in at both ends of the court on Friday night. The Brex offense fired on all cylinders in Game 1 of their B. League Championship quarterfinal series against the Kawasaki Brave Thunders. Coach Ryuzo Anzai's club buried 10 of 21 ...

Two-time reigning Olympic men's gymnatics champion Kohei Uchimura failed to qualify for the final of the six-apparatus event on Friday, the opening day of the Japan National Championships. Uchimura, also a six-time world all-around champ, placed 37th and did not advance to Sunday's final, which ...

The Sunwolves surrendered eight tries in a humiliating 52-0 Super Rugby defeat on Friday night to the New Zealand-based Highlanders. Playing in chilly rain at Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground, the Sunwolves' pack was overpowered at every opportunity as the Highlanders' forwards made a mockery ...

National record holder Yoshihide Kiryu and Asian Games silver medalist Ryota Yamagata will headline Japan's 44-athlete national team for the upcoming IAAF World Relays, the Japan Association of Athletics Federation announced on Friday. It will be the first time that Japan hosts the global relay-only ...

The Arizona Cardinals selected Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft on Thursday night. The pick unites Murray with Kliff Kingsbury in Arizona, seven years after the coach first began pursuit of the player. "This is where I ...

World No. 1 Naomi Osaka defeated Hsieh Su-wei 6-4, 6-3 in Stuttgart on Thursday to reach her first career clay court quarterfinal and admitted she had been left "depressed" after a "rough few months." Osaka, the U.S. and Australian Open champion, who lost to Taiwanese ...