Tokyo and Washington revised a set of 2005 guidelines Thursday that deal with off-base U.S. military aircraft accidents in Japan to allow for the "expeditious early entry" of Japanese officials into an inner cordoned off area to be set up around the wreckage, the ...

Dropping South Korea from Japan’s white list will probably affect ¥630 billion ($5.8 billion) in annual exports of microchip-making equipment, lawmaker Norihiro Nakayama said Wednesday.

Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said that Japan was still analyzing whether the projectiles were, in fact, ballistic missiles.

In a first, the country's top bar association on Thursday called on the government and the Diet to legalize same-sex marriage. The current legal system "infringes upon the freedom of marriage and violates the Constitution, which states all people are equal under the law," the ...

About 12,500 jobs will be eliminated at 14 loss-making factories overseas, including in Indonesia and Spain, by the end of March 2023, the automaker said.

World temperatures rose faster in the late 20th century than at any other time in the last 2,000 years, according to research that experts said undermines climate deniers' questioning of humankind's role in global warming. As Europe sweltered in a second record-breaking heat wave in ...

Two Democratic senators will unveil a bill on Thursday to curb climate change by slapping a fee on oil, natural gas and coal and delivering most of the revenue to low- and middle-income Americans, one of the lawmakers said. Sen. Chris Coons said on Wednesday ...

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it will set up a joint venture with Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing Technology Co. and invest a total of ¥64.8 billion ($600 million) in Didi and the new venture, as part of efforts to expand its business in ...

Towns, cities and prefectures have been taking faster action than the central government to eradicate ethnic discrimination since the 2016 enactment of the law against hate speech. Despite progress in municipalities where a sense of crisis is growing, including Kawasaki, the western Tokyo suburb of ...

Malaysia on Thursday restarted a $10 billion, China-backed rail project that is part of Beijing's global infrastructure drive following its suspension last year when a corruption-plagued government was ejected from power. The 640-kilometer (400-mile) line will link northeast Malaysia, near the Thai border, to the ...

Yahoo Japan Corp. and Plus Corp. said Wednesday they have exercised their shareholder rights to oust four board members of stationery seller Askul Corp., including President and CEO Shoichiro Iwata. Askul shareholders are scheduled to meet Aug. 2. The moves by Yahoo and Plus, a ...

The Japan Sports Society began collecting signatures Thursday for a petition asking that former athletes who missed out on the 1980 Moscow Games due to Japan's Cold War-era boycott be included in some way in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The group will solicit support until ...

The domestic catch of juvenile eels for cultivation dropped this season to 3.7 tons, the lowest level since comparable data became available in 2003, Fisheries Agency data released earlier this month showed. In the period from November 2018 to May 2019, Japan imported 11.5 tons ...

Toshiba Memory Holdings Corp. is set to postpone its initial public offering to early next year, dropping its original target of the end of this year, due to poor earnings amid sagging demand for semiconductors, sources said Thursday. The world's second-largest producer of flash memory ...

For Chelsea supporters, the club's iconic blue uniform represents 114 years of history, dozens of domestic and continental trophies and a reputation as one of English soccer's established giants. For Yokohama Rubber, it represents global exposure, whether it's to the English Premier League's billions of ...

The Kyoto Prefectural Police have finished identifying all 34 of the people killed in last week's arson attack on a Kyoto Animation Co. studio through DNA tests and plan to reveal their names soon, investigative sources said Thursday. The 34 staff members of the company, ...

Fancy a tank ride in the snow, then a night in a czarist-era palace? With ambitious plans to become one of the world's top 10 travel destinations, Russia is offering tours off the beaten track and lifting visa restrictions to attract more visitors. A year after ...

German great-grandmother Lisel Heise's ambition to enter politics crystallized a few years before her 100th birthday, when organizers of a public hearing cut off her microphone. Heise, who retired from teaching school 40 years ago, was arguing for the reopening of an outdoor pool. "When I ...

In the Upper House, electric power sources will be installed so the lawmakers will be able to power their electric wheelchairs and medical equipment.

Half a century after astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon, a new space race is under way to exploit the skies for commercial profit. Tech giants and startups pursuing bold plans such as selling space tourism, mining asteroids and beaming giant ...

Japan will conduct tests in Cambodia, Nepal, Myanmar and Mongolia this fall for prospective caregivers who want to work in Japan under a new visa program, according to government officials. The labor ministry said last week that the exams, aimed at securing more workers in ...

The U.S. Navy has sailed a warship through the Taiwan Strait, a move that came the same day that Beijing warned it would not rule out using force against self-ruled and democratic Taiwan to halt any move toward formal independence. The "USS Antietam conducted a ...

Boris Johnson executed a brutal clearing-out of more than half of his predecessor's top team, installing Brexit supporters in key roles as the new prime minister signaled his intent to deliver an exit in 98 days. Eighteen of the 29 ministers in Theresa May's Cabinet ...

Sudan's military said on Wednesday that it had thwarted a coup attempt and arrested an unspecified number of senior officers in connection with a plot to restore the party of ousted President Omar al-Bashir to power. The ruling military council took over after the military ...

The World Bank announced Wednesday it was deploying another $300 million in crisis aid for DR Congo to help contain the Ebola outbreak. The grants and credits come after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the current outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, ...

Boris Johnson promised in his first speech as prime minister to lead Britain out of the European Union on Oct. 31 with "no ifs or buts" and warned that if the European Union refused to negotiate then there would be a no-deal Brexit. Johnson, who ...

Breast implant maker Allergan has issued a worldwide recall of its textured Biocell models, which have been linked to a rare form of cancer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. The recall came at the FDA's request, and means that the implants can ...

Top U.S. and Chinese negotiators will meet face-to-face next week for the first time since the countries' leaders agreed in June to revive talks aimed at ending a yearlong trade war between the world's two largest economies. The United States and China have been embroiled ...

Amazon.com Inc., landlords who charge sky-high rents, brands that fail to adapt. The carnage in the retail industry has been blamed on all of them. Now Wall Street is too. Over the past decade, 597,000 U.S. employees working for retailers owned by private equity firms ...

Boeing Co. posted its largest-ever quarterly loss on Wednesday, diving nearly $3 billion into the red as it wrestles with a longer-than-expected grounding of its best-selling 737 Max. The world's largest plane-maker also reported a fresh delay on its 777X widebody program as engine problems ...

A daredevil French inventor said Wednesday he was ready to realize his dream of flying between France and Britain across the Channel on a jet-powered "flyboard" after finally overcoming bureaucratic obstacles. Franky Zapata, a former jet skiing champion, aims to soar above the Channel "like ...

Don't expect Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to pursue constitutional revisionism in earnest until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe must place priority on resolving several major policy challenges confronting Japan before he tries to revise the Constitution.

Cicadas — known as semi in Japanese — are a superfamily of insects with around 2,000 known species worldwide, around 35 of which live in Japan.

The Westin Tokyo is celebrating its 25th anniversary in October this year and in anticipation of this momentous occasion the hotel is presenting an indulgently themed parfait event, Evening Surprise — Twilight Parfait, until Aug. 31. Available in the evenings from 5 to 9:30 p.m., ...

Earlier this year The Chemical Brothers were asked to pick out pivotal locations in the dance duo's remarkable near 30-year career. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons chose the places with the most emotional resonance: the Manchester address where the pair lived together as they cut ...

Among the many absurdist opera stories in existence, nothing is more preposterous than the happy ending generally used for Giacomo Puccini's final opera "Turandot," in which Princess Turandot suddenly accepts Prince Calaf's wooing right after the suicide of Liu, a slave, as if her ...

Fuji Rock will livestream a selection of the bands and singers performing at this year's festival, event organizers have announced. Headliners The Cure and SIA will be among the acts to have their sets streamed on the festival's official YouTube channel. Over the three days of ...

Hollywood actor Rutger Hauer, best known for his role in "Blade Runner," has died after a brief illness, his official website said on Wednesday. Hauer's nonprofit HIV/AIDS charity, the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association, said on its website that it was announcing "with infinite sadness that ...

Shota Imanaga threw a four-hitter on Thursday, leading the Yokohama BayStars to a 6-0 victory over the Hanshin Tigers. Imanaga (9-5) issued one walk, while striking out four in a 124-pitch effort for the BayStars at Koshien Stadium. He also singled and scored a run ...

Hard-throwing high school pitcher Roki Sasaki, who is being heavily scouted by major league clubs, stayed on the bench to avoid injury as his team was eliminated from contention for a prestigious national title on Thursday. Sasaki, who threw a pitch at 160 kph on ...

Two-time Grand Slam tennis champion Naomi Osaka threw the ceremonial first pitch prior to Wednesday's Los Angeles Dodgers-Los Angeles Angels game. While she said she was nervous and lacked practice ahead of the pitch, the world No. 2 women's singles player, threw the ball to ...

Ryuji Aoki will begin his pro basketball career with the Shinshu Brave Warriors. The defending B. League second-division champions made the announcement on Wednesday, giving the cerebral guard a chance to begin his pro career in his homeland. The 21-year-old Aoki, who was born in Aichi ...

Los Angeles Chargers running back Melvin Gordon didn't report to training camp on Wednesday and is officially a holdout as he looks to land a new contract. The Chargers responded by placing Gordon on the Reserve/Did Not Report list. The team's first official practice is ...