In Yachimata, all 13 public elementary and junior high schools reopened, but 6,000 households remained without electricity and three schools had to draw electricity from mobile generators.

The government and manufacturers are promoting electric wheelchairs as a means of transportation to replace automobiles at a time when elderly people are increasingly returning their driver's licenses. Suzuki Motor Corp. is one of the country's largest makers of electric wheelchairs. Its mainstay ET4D model, priced ...

Mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo Inc. said Tuesday that it will eliminate penalty fees for early termination of two-year contracts for certain users. Subscribers who pay their mobile phone fees with the carrier's "d card" credit card will be eligible for the free termination, while ...

In the trial, prosecutors said Yuri Funato prioritized her relationship with her then-husband, Yudai Funato, over her daughter’s life.

Referring to the 2020 plan for a space operation unit inside the ASDF, Abe said that it is “not a pipe dream” for Japan to have such combined forces.

Ichiro Matsui, the mayor of Osaka and head of Nippon Ishin no Kai, said Tuesday that water tainted by radioactive tritium from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant could — if proven environmentally safe — be sent to Osaka and dumped into Osaka ...

Oil refiners in Japan, the world's fourth-biggest importer of crude oil, are gathering information on supplies from Saudi Arabia following an attack on the kingdom's key crude oil facilities over the weekend, company officials said Tuesday. The attack on state-owned producer Saudi Aramco's crude processing ...

The Bank of Japan will leave monetary policy unchanged this week as easing trade tensions and calmer financial markets relieve some of the pressure to act, a Bloomberg survey suggests. About three-quarters of 48 economists said the BOJ will leave policy unchanged at the end ...

The government has decided to recommend former vice finance minister for international affairs Masatsugu Asakawa as the next chief of the Asian Development Bank by the end of this year, according to sources. The top ADB post has been held by Japanese since the launch ...

Bill Gates, who knows a thing or two about antitrust investigations, doesn't think it's a good idea to break up the biggest U.S. tech companies, as some politicians have suggested. The Microsoft Corp. co-founder and former chief executive officer battled the Justice Department for years ...

Fast Retailing Co., the operator of the Uniqlo casual apparel chain, says it will produce clothes made from used plastic bottles in cooperation with Toray Industries Inc. The fashion retailer will put the items on sale in next year's spring-summer season, mainly targeting eco-conscious consumers, ...

If anything could distract Asia's top powers from sparring over disputed territory and crimes committed during World War II, it's the need for cheap oil. Asia accounts for more than 70 percent of Saudi Arabia's crude exports, with the four biggest economies — China, Japan, ...

The Sapporo District Court court on Tuesday ordered a hospital operator in Sapporo to pay a man ¥1.65 million in damages after it refused to employ him last year for failing to report being HIV-positive. The court ruled that the Hokkaido man, in his 30s, ...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson failed on Monday to convince EU leaders he has a serious plan for a Brexit deal, then ducked out of a planned news conference under a chorus of abuse from protesters. Before setting off for talks in Luxembourg, Johnson had ...

The biggest backers of SoftBank Group Corp.'s gargantuan Vision Fund are reconsidering how much to commit to its next investment vehicle as an oversized bet on flexible workspace provider WeWork sours. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which contributed $45 billion to the $100 billion Vision ...

Hong Kong singer and activist Denise Ho wants U.S. lawmakers and companies to criticize Beijing's actions in Hong Kong to help change the Chinese Communist Party's behavior. Ho said Monday that Beijing was using its power and influence to quash dissent around the world, and ...

The government plans to build a central database to strengthen the monitoring of remote islands that define Japan's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, according to sources. The database will list basic information on the remote islands together with image data from satellites, aerial photography ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, meeting with relatives of North Korean abduction victims, said he remains committed to holding talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without preconditions to resolve the issue. "I will meet with Mr. Kim without preconditions and am determined to work ...

Thousands of Indonesian firefighters are locked in an around-the-clock game of whack-a-mole as they battle to extinguish an invisible enemy — underground fires that aggravate global warming. Vast blazes are ripping across the archipelago's rainforests, unleashing a toxic haze over Southeast Asia that has triggered ...

When the sun comes up in Beijing on Oct. 1, the Chinese government will aim to celebrate its 70th birthday under a brilliant blue sky — and factory bosses hope they can get through it without blanket closures. During previous big events in a capital ...

Princess Kako, niece of Emperor Naruhito, paid a courtesy call on Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Monday during her trip to mark the 150th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. The 24-year-old younger daughter of Crown Prince Akishino, the emperor's younger ...

Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of Foxconn Technology Group, pulled out of next year's presidential election in Taiwan, a move that may help unite the opposition Kuomintang. Gou apologized to his supporters in a statement on Facebook on Tuesday outlining his decision to withdraw from ...

The welfare ministry is considering crafting a new law to strengthen the protection of women, including schoolgirls, from sexual exploitation, according to sources. The law would provide the legal basis for prefectural consulting centers for women, a role currently played by a law that deals ...

Taiwan accused China on Monday of trying to influence its presidential and legislative elections after the Solomon Islands cut off ties with Taipei. The Solomon Islands was the sixth country to switch allegiance to China since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in Taiwan in 2016. ...

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that Iran was likely behind strikes on Saudi oil facilities, but that he wanted to be sure and he hoped to avoid war. "It is certainly looking that way at this moment," Trump told reporters when asked if he ...

Shares in Airbus and French luxury goods exporters fell on Monday as the European Union acknowledged it may face U.S. tariffs in a long-running dispute over aircraft subsidies, part of an escalating tit-for-tat trade row. The World Trade Organization has approved a U.S. request to ...

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that it is "probably not" the right time for him to visit North Korea but he could see doing so sometime in the future. "I don't think we're ready for that," Trump told reporters when asked about visiting Pyongyang ...

The arrest of a top Canadian police officer on charges of leaking secret information could hurt intelligence operations by allied nations, the head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Monday. Cameron Ortis, a director general with the RCMP's intelligence unit, was charged on ...

Facebook said Monday it is working to stop advertisers from changing headlines in links to news stories after concerns raised by a British political party's altering of one such link. The leading social network confirmed the internal effort in the face of concerns over a ...

Lawyers in flowing black courtroom gowns, doctors in white coats and uniformed airline pilots marched through Paris on Monday to protest at French President Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms. Macron's government has just launched one of the most ambitious reforms of his presidency — to merge ...

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced across Myanmar's Rakhine and Chin states this year, as the military battles ethnic Rakhine Buddhist rebels, a U.N. rights expert said Monday. "Up to 65,000 people have been displaced by the conflict across northern Rakhine and southern ...

The latest summit on Syria hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara with his Russian and Iranian counterparts started on Monday, with attention focused on Damascus's push on the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani met Erdogan for ...

Struggling businesses in rural Japan show the limits of the central bank's massive easing.

The identity of the attackers will remain up in the air until conclusive proof emerges.

The impasse may be an opportunity for both Washington and Tokyo to establish an alternative form of diplomatic relations with the North.

Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed responsibility, but nobody in Tokyo believes that.

The U.S. president's inconsistency on Iran and his ties to the Saudis don't bode well for how he will handle a monumental foreign policy challenge.

A small community in Chiba Prefecture, a traditional home to myriad brewed products such as sake and soy sauce, is doing its best to ride the recent wave of interest in fermented foods to make its name. The "fermentation town" of Kozaki, about 60 kilometers ...

Director David Saint brings West Side Story to IHI Stage Around Tokyo, with his ambitious and multi-stage production being run first with a Broadway cast and later with a Japanese cast

"Vienna on the Path to Modernism" at The National Museum of Art, Osaka, is essentially an illustrated history of sociopolitical developments leading to the city flourishing as one of the world's great cultural centers from the mid-18th century.

Urawa Reds advanced to the semifinals of the Asian Champions League on away goals Tuesday after their quarterfinal tie with Shanghai SIPG ended in a 3-3 aggregate draw. In the second leg of the quarterfinal at Saitama Stadium, Shanghai keeper Yan Junling conceded an own ...

For an activity as visually fascinating as sumo, there are precious few movies about the sport. A typical day's action in the Kokugikan often involves more drama than a whole season in some other sports. Incredible athleticism and feats of strength, combined with elaborate ritual and ...

Mitakeumi, Takakeisho and Asanoyama earned impressive victories Tuesday to move into a five-way tie for the lead at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament. The logjam at the top of the standings at Ryogoku Kokugikan follows losses on Day 10 by the joint overnight leaders, No. ...

Yudai Baba has stressed that he wants to be an NBA player, participating in a mini-camp and playing in July's Summer League. Now the 23-year-old speedster has made even further progress toward his dream. Baba's Japanese club Alvark Tokyo announced on Tuesday that the player will ...

A healthy Yuzuru Hanyu returned to competition over the weekend at the Autumn Classic International in victorious fashion. The superstar scored a comfortable win skating his two programs from last season. Hanyu, who has struggled with an ankle injury the past two seasons, gave an ...

The Olympic Channel, a sport-focused streaming television service operated by the International Olympic Committee, is hoping that fans tune into the free platform when it covers its first Summer Games in Tokyo next year. Launched at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio Games, the ...