The suspect in the recent Kyoto Animation Co. studio arson was spotted at locations featured in one of its works on several days before the attack, investigative sources said Sunday. Police are investigating the motives of Shinji Aoba, 41, for spreading and igniting gasoline at ...

Japan Post Co. is planning to scrap sales quotas assigned to post office workers for products of Japan Post Insurance Co. in fiscal 2019, which ends next March, it was learned Sunday. Japan Post hopes to put priority on dealing with customers who have been ...

Taiwan's upcoming elections will be a "heart-pounding, soul-stirring battle" for the island's future, Beijing-friendly candidate Han Kuo-yu said Sunday in his first speech since becoming the opposition party's presidential hopeful. Han described January's vote as a choice between "peace or crisis" with China in a ...

Renovation work begins in the Upper House of the Diet after two people with severe physical disabilities are elected to the Reiwa Shinsengumi political group.

Iran on Sunday slammed as "provocative" a British proposal for a European-led naval mission to escort tankers in the Persian Gulf, amid soaring tensions over the seizure of ships. "We heard that they intend to send a European fleet to the Persian Gulf which naturally ...

The unusually long and cool rainy season has dampened demand for apparel, furniture and other goods, with some retailers reporting steep drops in sales of merchandise.

With around a year to go until the start of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, the age-old question of whether to put family or given name first when writing Japanese names in English has started to garner attention. The issue was recently put ...

Nordic countries are experiencing searing temperatures as Europe's record-breaking heat wave moves north, with Norway on Saturday equalling its 1970 record, and many areas recording "tropical nights." Laksfors in northern Norway on Saturday recorded a temperature of 35.6 degrees Celsius (96 degrees Fahrenheit), equaling the ...

Massive swarms of grasshoppers descended on the Las Vegas Strip last week, startling tourists and residents as they pass through town on their northbound migration. Videos posted on social media show swarms of the bugs, called pallid-winged grasshoppers, converging on the bright neon lights of ...

Japan Post Co. is considering suspending commissioned sales of insurance products from private companies such as Nippon Life Insurance Co. through post offices across the nation, sources have said. The move comes after the revelation last month of inappropriate sales practices by Japan Post employees ...

About 700 people are likely to benefit from a special initiative allowing foreign nationals involved in preparations for the 2020 Olympics to obtain long-term visas.

Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo plans to bring his patent royalty dispute with Ono Pharmaceutical Co. to court as early as September, seeking an additional payment of ¥15 billion, according to informed sources. In the planned lawsuit with the Osaka District Court, Honjo will claim that ...

Last week’s test to control traffic volume on the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway during the 2020 Olympic Games achieved a reduction far smaller than the targeted 30 percent, the land ministry says.

Russian police rounded up more than 1,000 people in Moscow on Saturday in one of the biggest crackdowns of recent times against an increasingly defiant opposition decrying President Vladimir Putin's tight grip on power. The detentions came around a protest to demand that opposition members ...

Japanese citizens angry at South Korea's role in a diplomatic row over their wartime history that has spilled into trade have found some unlikely allies: South Korean commentators using YouTube to attack their own president, Moon Jae-in. The South Korean leader has drawn the ire ...

Foreign resident Kim Min-joong is expecting his working holiday visa to soon be replaced by a new type Japan introduced in April to bring in more workers. "Two years in school are not enough to master Japanese cuisine. Thanks to the revised law, I believe ...

U.S. President Donald Trump was hit with new accusations of racism Saturday after he attacked a prominent African American lawmaker and branded the majority black city of Baltimore an "infested mess." Trump's outburst came in a series of sharply worded tweets aimed at Democratic Rep. ...

It is premature to think that a decline in the public pension benefits is inevitable given to the aging of the population and the low birthrate.

After seeing off Theresa May, Britain's new prime minister may find there's another female party leader he can't ignore.

Increasing numbers of firms in Japan are trying to make work-life balance a priority, but in a business culture where overtime is still the norm, this is easier said than done.

Tokujin Yoshioka's design for Homme Plisse Issey Miyake/Aoyama, Issey Miyake Homme Plisse's first flagship, includes gravity-defying clothing rails, raw concrete minimalism and a showstopping special pleating machine.

Striking designs can come from unusual inspirations. This month looks at designer collaborations with Japanese veteran manufacturers, including a laboratory glassware maker, and an injection mold specialist.

With concern, but little surprise, I read an article by Daphne Rousseau in The Japan Times on July 2 about a mass extinction of insects in Krefeld, Germany, near the Dutch border. There, based on a study going back almost 30 years, entomologist Martin Sorg ...

Human trafficking is just as much a problem in Japan as it is in other countries. One American woman has decided to fight it and she hopes you will, too.

The attention-loving Panjuro, who was first featured here in October 2017, has found a home in Osaka with Yuka Mori (pictured here) and her father, Seiki Mori. The Moris, who had also adopted their previous dog from ARK, lavish Panjuro with all the attention they ...

Ariel Miranda allowed three hits over six scoreless innings as the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks beat the Orix Buffaloes 9-2 on Sunday to preserve their slim lead in the Pacific League. Miranda (4-3), who struck out four and walked one, won for the first time since ...

Takanori Nagase won the gold medal in the men's 81-kg division at the Zagreb Grand Prix on Saturday, the second day of the three-day judo competition in the Croatian capital. Nagase, a former world champion and bronze medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, scored an ...

Chicago Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish on Saturday criticized Japan's high school baseball system's failure to protect young ballplayers. Darvish, himself a nationally famous former high school pitcher, spoke at Milwaukee's Miller Park about the controversy surrounding one high school holding back its best pitcher on ...

World champion and world No. 1 Kento Momota defended his men's singles title with a straight-sets win, while Akane Yamaguchi beat Nozomi Okuhara in an all-Japanese women's singles final at the Japan Open on Sunday. Playing in front of a cheering home crowd, Momota won ...

Japan qualified for both the men's and women's 4x100-meter medley relay swimming event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by advancing to their respective finals at the world championships on Sunday. Japan finished third overall in the men's heats and eighth overall in the women's heats. ...