Schools in two cities in the Indonesian part of Borneo Island will be closed for a week after smoke from forest fires caused air quality to hit "dangerous" levels, a local government official said Sunday. Indonesia and neighboring countries in Southeast Asia are regularly hit ...

Typhoon Faxai, which caused extensive and continued power outages in Chiba Prefecture, has also focused a spotlight on problems involving safety standards and infrastructure renewal. A focus is on whether lessons learned from the typhoon can be used in the future at a time when ...

A two-day demonstration test for a space elevator it's hoped could link Earth and a space station in the future was completed in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Sunday. The test, the second of its kind, was organized by the Japan Space Elevator Association. It was ...

Japan is considering offering medical aid to Iran when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meets with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly later this month, diplomatic sources said Sunday. Abe is expected to offer assistance such as training for ...

The United States has agreed to increase its low-tariff quota for Japanese beef in bilateral trade negotiations, sources close to the matter have said. While it is not known by how much the quota will be expanded from the current 200 tons per year, Japan ...

As part of an effort to strengthen the defense of outlying islands, the Defense Ministry plans to set up an electronic warfare unit at Camp Kengun, operated by the Ground Self-Defense Force's Western Army in Kumamoto Prefecture. A cybersecurity unit was established at the same ...

Seven people are injured after a taxi, driven by a 75-year-old man, veers onto a sidewalk and plows into a crowd watching a street music performance in Nagoya.

When Liu Chenyu and Ji Xiaotian arrived in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, for their honeymoon early this summer, the Great Buddha and Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine, two well-known tourist spots in the area, weren't what they wanted to see. Their destination was a railway crossing near Kamakura ...

Seniors accounted for 28.4 percent of Japan’s population and 12.9 percent of its labor force in 2018, both record highs, government data shows.

Making her first official overseas trip, Princess Kako, a niece of Emperor Naruhito, left Sunday for Austria and Hungary to mark the 150th anniversary of Japan's diplomatic ties with the two countries. The 24-year-old younger daughter of Crown Prince Akishino, the emperor's younger brother, will ...

An Australian scientist has proved that human bodies move around significantly for more than a year after death — and her findings could have implications for detectives and pathologists working around the world. After studying and photographing the movements of a corpse over 17 months, ...

Saturday's attacks on key Saudi Arabia processing plants will test the world's ability to handle a supply crisis as it faces the temporary loss of more than 5 percent of global supply from the world's biggest crude exporter. The Iranian-backed Houthi group in Yemen claimed ...

New Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Kazuyoshi Akaba has stressed his resolve to beef up Japan's disaster preparedness following a spate of serious natural events, including earthquakes and typhoons. He also underlined that it was important for the central and local governments to work ...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to defy a new law designed to stop him from forcing the U.K. out of the European Union with no deal next month, and is bracing for a fight to settle Brexit in the courts. According to a senior ...

Japan remains in an uphill battle to contain swine fever a year after confirming its first case of the infectious disease in 26 years. Infections have been found at pig farms in Gifu, where the outbreak began on Sept. 9 last year, and seven other ...

Hiroto Saikawa's tone bordered on defiant on Sept. 8 when discussing his future as chief executive officer of Nissan Motor Co. He accepted responsibility for the Carlos Ghosn scandals and said he'd resign after a successor was found, but he wasn't taking the fall ...

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong is seeking the support of U.S. lawmakers for the demands of his fellow protesters who have led months of streets demonstrations, including a call for free elections. Wong, speaking in New York on Saturday ahead of a planned visit ...

The Japan Medical Association will send a senior official to North Korea in late September with an eye to providing medical aid in the future, an association source has said. The idea was proposed by JMA President Yoshitake Yokokura, who is close to Prime Minister ...

With Nissan Motor Co. CEO Hiroto Saikawa stepping down on Monday, the focal point will be on whether the automaker can swiftly escape from confusion over corporate governance under a new top management. Saikawa is slated to resign to take responsibility for revelations that he ...

South Korea will probably announce its decision to officially exclude Japan from its whitelist of trusted export destinations as early as this week, the Yonhap news agency reported Sunday. Should the measures be implemented, Japan will be removed from the group of 29 member states ...

‘Tensho’ was the leading choice of experts for the new imperial era name before the submission of ‘Reiwa,’ sources say.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may wish to forget this time as a bad dream, but insead he and must try to learn from it, as should the opposition parties, the voters and the alliance managers who backed the wrong horse.

U.S. children and teenagers experience much higher rates of gun deaths and injuries than in any other industrialized country.

When thinking of sailing, the first things that come to mind for many people are likely freedom, open space and nature.

Onsen hot spring baths may reign in Japan, but the Western sauna could be the next health and wellness trend.

"Regnum Imaginarium: Realm of the Marvelous and Uncanny" at Osaka's National Museum of Ethnology delves into the worlds of mermaids, unicorns, werewolves and giants. What more could a kid enjoy?

From tiny printers to electric straws, what will gadget-makers think of next?

A yellow-colored Buddhist temple adorned with flags and golden dragons on its pointed roofs in a quiet town outside Tokyo presents a stark contrast to the typically somber-looking Buddhist places of worship usually found in rural Japan. But the steady stream of out-of-town weekend visitors ...

Tatsuki Suzuki claimed his maiden career victory in the Moto3 category at the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday. Pole-sitter Suzuki, 21, engaged his Honda in a thrilling seven-rider battle at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, near Rimini in eastern Italy. The 23-lap race was ...

Redemption is the theme as the 2019 edition of the Pan Pacific Open gets underway Monday with a weaker field than in year's past, with only two of the world's top 10 players competing. Still, 12 of the world's top 30 are due to ...

Ichiro Suzuki, who amassed 4,367 hits over his historic career in Japan and the majors, was honored with the Seattle Mariners Franchise Achievement Award on Saturday and took the opportunity to thank the home crowd with a speech in English. The 45-year-old, who announced his ...

It's common knowledge that the written banzuke (ranking sheet) contains the name of every single wrestler in professional sumo, from the yokozuna at the top right on down to those at the very bottom of the lowest (jonokuchi) division. The only problem with that is ...

Rank-and-filer Okinoumi earned his eighth straight win at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday to remain undefeated and in sole control at the midpoint of the 15-day meet. The No. 8 maegashira is the first top-division man to secure a winning record at Tokyo's ...

Shogo Nakamura and Yuma Hattori edged national record holder Suguru Osako to finish first and second in the men's competition at Sunday's Marathon Grand Championship, punching their tickets to next year's Tokyo Olympics. In the women's race, Honami Maeda and Ayuko Suzuki secured spots as ...

Two-time men's Olympic figure skating champion Yuzuru Hanyu opened his season with a comfortable victory at the Autumn Classic International on Saturday. In first place after Friday's short program, the superstar scored 180.67 points in the free skate for a winning total of 279.05. Frenchman ...

Former Hanshin Tigers ace Gene Bacque, the first foreign recipient of the Sawamura Award, passed away on Saturday night at the age of 82, multiple outlets in his home state of Louisiana have reported. Bacque died after complications from a surgical procedure. A native of ...

Mongolian yokozuna Kakuryu pulled out of the ongoing Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament with a left knee injury on Sunday, a day after suffering his third straight loss to a rank-and-file wrestler. The 34-year-old Mongolian yokozuna said the knee had been bothering him prior to the ...