Tokyo's Board of Education said Thursday it has decided to allow students at metropolitan junior high and high schools to bring their mobile electronic devices, including smartphones, to school. For elementary and junior high schools run by cities and other municipalities in the capital, the ...

The government approved Thursday the outline of a ritual to be held this fall to proclaim the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito before international guests, following the style adopted by his father in 1990, despite a controversy surrounding the nature of the rite. In the Sokuirei ...

A total of 13 women filed a damages suit Thursday against a medical school in Tokyo after it rigged its entrance exams in favor of male candidates. The plaintiffs, who took entrance examinations at Juntendo University between 2011 and 2018 but were not accepted, are ...

Japanese diplomats are expecting a tough, long battle of words to ensue over the joint communique until the very last minute.

Attention: Spectators at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics next year will be allowed to post their photos on social media but not video and audio. Many who learned they won the right to purchase tickets Thursday may not have noticed a clause on the official ...

Slovenia has similar challenges to Japan in terms of huge government debts and an aging population, and both countries can learn from each other, Slovenian Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj said this week in Tokyo. In an interview with The Japan Times on Wednesday, Bertoncelj, who ...

If the partnership is realized, it will have ramifications for other alliances and other self-driving projects, most of which have yet to hit the road.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday kicked off his first visit to Pyongyang as president, meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, telling him that the international community expects the U.S. and North to restart nuclear talks in efforts to produce a tangible outcome. Xi ...

The survey was conducted by the Paris-based institution from February to March 2018.

A group of seven Japanese intellectuals and activists has sued the director and the distributor of a documentary film that covers the political debates over "comfort women," demanding the screenings be terminated and seeking compensation totaling ¥13 million. The term comfort women is a euphemism ...

Line Corp., the nation's largest messaging app, is close to obtaining a license to launch a cryptocurrency exchange in Japan, according to people familiar with the matter. The Financial Services Agency could issue the license as early as this month, with exchange operations starting a ...

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (Tepco) employees sparked a nuclear scare after a violent, late-night earthquake by ticking the wrong box on a fax form — inadvertently advising authorities that an accident had occurred when it had not. The workers at Tepco, operator of ...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has shown "great interest" in meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — with a major caveat — one of the highest-ranking North Korean diplomats to defect in years told a news conference Thursday in Tokyo. Former Deputy Ambassador to ...

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expressed hope Wednesday that the United States and Japan will soon reach a deal on agricultural tariff cuts as part of efforts to strike a bilateral trade agreement. "I'm hopeful that we'll come to an agreement in the next several ...

Of the nearly 17,000 people who wandered off in 2018, 197 could not be found by the end of the year, according to police data.

The Bank of Japan kept its ultra-easy monetary policy unchanged Thursday, to underpin the economy amid growing uncertainty over a global economic outlook clouded by the U.S.-China trade war. At the end of its two-day meeting, which came as inflation continued to run under its ...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has said he intends to serve his full four-year term as head of the Federal Reserve, after the White House explored ways of removing him from the job amid criticism from President Donald Trump. "I think the law is clear ...

Over a million people nationwide logged on to the 2020 Tokyo Games website Thursday to see if they had secured seats at their favorite events through the Olympic ticket lottery. More than 7.5 million people registered for a Tokyo 2020 ID to enter the lottery ...

Japan rejected an offer by South Korea to settle a wartime labor dispute through diplomatic channels Wednesday, saying the time for talks had already passed and it is now seeking to proceed with an arbitration process involving other countries. Bilateral ties have been frayed following ...

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday refused to apologize for comments about his dealings with two segregationist senators in the 1970s, and said that Sen. Cory Booker and other critics among his Democratic rivals were being disingenuous. "Apologize for what? Cory should apologize. ...

Everyone in Japan knows that on Aug. 6, 1945, a nuclear bomb destroyed Hiroshima. But what happened to the mass of building debris that was swept up to disappear in the giant mushroom cloud?

Trust in vaccines — one of the world's most effective and widely-used medical products — is highest in poorer countries but weaker in wealthier ones where skepticism has allowed outbreaks of diseases such as measles to persist, a global study released Wednesday has found. France ...

Canada passed a new law banning the import and export of shark fins, which also includes a requirement to rebuild depleted fish populations. The new Fisheries Act, approved late on Tuesday, was hailed by environmental and conservation groups as a win for the preservation of ...

British opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Wednesday it was "right to demand" a second referendum on any Brexit deal, his strongest backing yet for a vote he said must offer "real choices" for both those who want to leave and stay in ...

Shareholder activists on Wednesday urged Google parent Alphabet Inc. to break itself up before regulators force the world's biggest internet ad seller to split into different pieces. SumOfUs, a U.S.-based group that aims to curb the growing power of corporations, presented the proposal at Alphabet's ...

Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who in 2009 landed a US Airways flight safely on the Hudson River in New York, told a congressional panel on Wednesday that pilots of the now-grounded 737 Max should get new simulator training before the plane returns to service. He also ...

International investigators on Wednesday charged three Russians and a Ukrainian with murder over the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, the first people to face justice over the tragedy five years ago in which 298 people were killed. The trial of the four men ...

The Trump administration finalized a new carbon emissions rule for U.S. power plants on Wednesday that it said could cut pollution without damaging the coal industry, replacing a much tougher Obama-era version to fight climate change. The move was a boost to coal companies facing ...

Japan should leverage the G20 summit in Osaka to highlight its leadership, political stability and commitment to multilateralism and a rules-based order.

An overlooked pool of potential workers is the dependent population of U.S. military personnel assigned to Japan.

As Yo La Tengo once sang, "summer's what you make it," and that's especially true in Japan this year. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics are likely to throw a major wrench (or should that be hammer?) in the works for next summer's festival ...

Never at risk of being run of the mill, Chelfitsch — which took its name from a baby's pronunciation of the English word "selfish" and usually stylizes itself with a lowercase "c" — is one of Japan's foremost contemporary theater companies, despite only rarely ...

The date March 11, 2011, carries a lot of weight in Japan. When the magnitude 9 Great East Japan Earthquake rocked the Tohoku region in the northeast of the country, it devastated the landscape and altered the lives of residents. And now, eight years ...

Two-time Central League MVP Yoshihiro Maru proved to be a one-man wrecking crew Thursday, driving in four runs in the Yomiuri Giants' 4-2 come-from-behind interleague win over the Orix Buffaloes. Maru tied the game 2-2 in the sixth inning off right-hander Kohei "K" Suzuki (1-4), ...

Australia opener David Warner made Bangladesh pay for an early miss with a hundred as the reigning champion piled on the runs in a Cricket World Cup match at Trent Bridge on Thursday. Australia was 187 for one in the 33rd over when Warner brought ...

Kaito Ishikawa demonstrated throughout the 2018-19 season that he was one of the B. League's most dependable point guards. The Tokyo native shined for the B2 champion Shinshu Brave Warriors, culminating with the second-division playoff MVP award. In the B2 championship final's title-clinching game, Ishikawa ...