Works depicting the famous gods of wind and thunder have been selected as new designs for commemorative ¥500 coins to be made to celebrate the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Finance Ministry announced Monday. The pair of drawings — based on the "Wind ...

The number of people sent to hospitals nationwide nearly tripled from 1,948 in the preceding week amid high temperatures.

The number of women holding a job rose 530,000 from a year before, contributing to the total number of employees hitting a record 67.47 million.

Japanese women and men retained second and third place in their respective rankings for average life expectancy around the world in 2018.

The Bank of Japan maintained its ultraeasy monetary policy Tuesday and said it would "not hesitate" to take further measures if needed as lingering economic uncertainties cloud the global outlook. The move comes with central banks around the world expected to return to rate cuts ...

Swiss prosecutors say they have been assisting investigations in Japan into former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who has been indicted on charges of financial misconduct and breach of trust. Tokyo prosecutors requested Swiss assistance on Jan. 14, and the request was forwarded to ...

The U.S. special envoy to North Korea, Stephen Biegun, will join Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the Thai capital for meetings on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum this week, in a move that could signal possible talks ...

The alliance of Nissan Motor Co., Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. lost its lead in global auto sales in the first half of 2019, coming behind Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp. The three-way alliance had the most sales worldwide in the first half ...

With Tokyo's summer heat and unpredictable weather likely to prove a severe headache during the 2020 Olympics, sports bodies are using every resource at their disposal to prepare athletes and spectators for extreme conditions. Several organizations have turned to a weather forecasting company to feed ...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will send an unmanned cargo transporter to the International Space Station in September. The HTV8, also called Kounotori8, meaning white stork in Japanese, will deliver over 5 tons of supplies to the astronauts on the ISS, including food and ...

Tom Barrack, a billionaire and friend of U.S. President Donald Trump, pursued a plan to buy Westinghouse Electric Corp. from Toshiba Corp. even as he lobbied Trump to become a special envoy to promote the building by the firm of nuclear power plants in ...

Factory output suffered its second-largest drop in the last five years in June as trade tensions and a slowdown in the global economy dragged exports lower for a seventh straight month. Unemployment, by contrast, fell to its lowest level in about 26 years. Industrial production dropped ...

A Tokyo subway car decorated with characters from the popular children's animation "Thomas & Friends" was shown to the media Tuesday, a day before the start of test runs aimed at making train services more accessible for people with young children. Six cars on the ...

U.S. President Donald Trump brushed off accusations of racism Monday to step up his war of words with prominent black and minority left-leaning leaders, branding his latest target a "con man." Rejecting criticism that he is stoking America's smoldering racial divisions, Trump attacked African American ...

Fresh train disruptions by Hong Kong protesters Tuesday show how unrest once confined to weekend marches through downtown streets is spreading across the Asian financial hub and affecting daily life. Train services were slowed on the centrally located Island Line and the Kwun Tong Line ...

As a professional ultrarunner, meaning she competes at distances longer than a marathon, Clare Gallagher has tackled plenty of challenges, from mountains to heat. But none have been as much of a threat to her career as the U.S. West's worsening forest fires which, fueled ...

In decades to come, African farmers may pool their money to buy small robot vehicles to weed their fields or drones that can hover to squirt a few drops of pesticide only where needed. Smartphones already allow farmers in remote areas to snap photos of ...

The suspect in a deadly arson attack against a Kyoto Animation Co. studio in the city of Kyoto visited key sites related to an anime work produced by the company prior to the July 18 fire, it has been learned. The Kyoto Prefectural Police are ...

Japan should make use of its space technology in international missions to explore the moon and Mars, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide said in an interview in New York on Friday. "As an advanced space nation, Japan has entered an era in which it should play ...

An Indian teenager who accused a senior politician of rape is fighting for her life after being critically injured in a car crash that killed two relatives, raising suspicions of foul play. Her lawyer was also badly injured in the accident, which occurred in northern ...

Stabbing guards, stoning aid workers and flying the Islamic State group's black flag in plain sight: The wives and children of the "caliphate" are sticking by the jihadis in a desperate Syrian camp. Months after the defeat of the jihadi proto-state, families of IS fighters ...

Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren on Monday outlined proposals that would govern her policy on international trade, including requiring trade negotiators to disclose drafts of new trade agreements to the public. Warren, who has offered the most voluminous policy proposals in the crowded field of ...

Americans' views on major technology firms have taken a dramatic negative turn in the past four years, with both Democrats and Republicans seeing the sector in a less positive light, a poll showed Monday. The Pew Research Center study showed the percentage of people seeing ...

With critical leadership positions and policy agendas being influenced by these formal groups, it is important to recognize the continued relevance of factions in Japanese politics today.

Businesswoman Yoshida Haruno dedicated her life to promoting leadership roles for women in the public and private sectors.

The political function of art is a perennial question in the field of aesthetics. In classical Athens, Plato argued that art as a form of imitation was limited in its ability to communicate knowledge about political life. In contrast, Aristotle saw this mimetic gap ...

In 1927, Joan Miro (1893-1983) claimed he wanted to "assassinate" painting. Eventually he hit upon a means of doing it — sculpture.

Kazuki Kamizato went 4-for-5 with a pair of runs and an RBI to lead the Yokohama BayStars to a 6-2 victory over the Tokyo Yakult Swallows on Tuesday. Rookie Taiga Kamichatani got his sixth win of the season with a solid seven-inning start. He held ...

Jeremy Lin broke down in tears during an emotional appearance in Taiwan when he described hitting "rock bottom" and feeling abandoned by the NBA as he languishes as a free agent. Lin — the first Asian-American to win an NBA title — was part of ...

Asako Takakura will manage the women's national soccer team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after receiving the backing of the sport's governing body on Monday. According to sources, Takakura gained the endorsement at a meeting of the Japan Football Association's Women's Committee in Tokyo. A former ...

Japan's "Big Three" — Rui Hachimura, Yuta Watanabe and Nick Fazekas — headline the provisional roster of the Japan men's national team for the upcoming FIBA Basketball World Cup, the Japan Basketball Association officially announced on Tuesday. The 16-man squad was introduced at Fuji Television ...

Japanese racehorse Deep Impact, the winner of seven domestic Grade One titles and one of the world's leading sires, was put down Tuesday at the age of 17, the stud farm operator said. According to the Shadai Stallion Station, Deep Impact, who was crowned Japanese ...