The drive to change the process for revising the Constitution is being blunted by fears the opposition will get more time to dig up dirt on Abe’s cherry blossom scandal.

In his annual Security Consultative Meeting with Mark Esper, the Korean president vowed to promote cooperation among the three U.S. allies but said Japan’s export curbs remained a hurdle.

The organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics on Friday said they are confident next year's outdoor swimming races won't be canceled like the test run in August was, thanks to measures to keep E. coli bacteria at acceptable levels. Water-quality tests at Odaiba ...

The government is considering halving the number of guests invited to future cherry blossom-viewing events as part of a broad review amid allegations that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has used the publicly funded gathering for his own benefit, officials said Thursday. To address growing criticism ...

Minister President Armin Laschet of North Rhine-Westphalia, a state located in western Germany, is set to pay a visit to Fukushima Prefecture in January to evaluate the progress being made to implement renewable energy sources and the region's recovery following the Great East Japan ...

Convenience store operator FamilyMart Co. has said it will allow its franchise owners across Japan to shorten operating hours from March, in a bid to address a severe labor shortage during late-night hours. Under the new policy, which will cover nearly 16,000 stores, franchise owners ...

Jack Ma, the co-founder and former chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., has warned that the U.S.-China relationship could face 20 years of "turbulence" if the two superpowers aren't careful in how they handle trade. "We have to be very, very careful," Ma said Thursday ...

In a mountain village thousands of kilometers from her native Philippines, Emma Sumampong nurses her elderly mother-in-law while also caring for her husband and children, working on the family farm and holding a part-time job. She is one of tens of thousands of women who ...

The surge in co-working leases that accompanied the rise of WeWork will take a pause in the aftermath of the startup's abandoned IPO, a prominent New York developer said Thursday. In recent quarters, as much as 25 percent of office leases in New York have ...

The standardized university entrance exam will test only English reading and listening skills in the 2020 academic year beginning in April, while placing more emphasis on listening than current exams, the government-backed exam-setter said Friday. The National Center for University Entrance Examinations will stick to ...

Many foreign students in Nagoya have recently been found to be reluctant to apply for newly created visas intended to bring more workers from abroad, fearing their applications might not be accepted because they have been working more part-time hours than permitted for those ...

A Southern California high school student killed two classmates and wounded three on Thursday, pulling a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun from his backpack and emptying it in a matter of seconds as the school day began. He saved the last bullet for himself. It was ...

The law allows compensation payments of up to ¥1.8 million to family members of people with leprosy who experienced discrimination and prejudice under Japan’s former segregation policy.

Even as the nation's biggest banks remain on course to achieve their full-year earnings goals, they are losing profit drivers. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. all posted declines in fiscal second-quarter net income, as they ...

A popular tourist site on Mount Hakone was reopened Friday, ending a six-month closure caused by an increase in the volcanic alert level in the hot spring resort area, local authorities said. The Owakudani valley district, famous for its sulfur vents and geothermal hot springs, ...

Japanese and South Korean business lobbies agreed Friday on the importance of continuing dialogue and boosting cooperation for a "future-oriented" relationship despite the two Asian neighbors' political relations sinking to their worst level in years due to wartime history and trade issues. "Under any political ...

The talks on the GSOMIA pact, which expires Nov. 23, lasted nearly 2½ hours but focused mostly on the thorny issue of compensation for wartime labor.

As this year marks the fifth anniversary of the education ministry designating Hiroshima University as a "Type A Super Global University," the university has taken major steps to achieve globalization. The university initially set the objective of being ranked among the top 100 universities in ...

A Kurdish-Iranian refugee who penned a book on a mobile phone while being held in an Australian detention camp said Friday he was celebrating life "as a free man" in New Zealand. Award-winning author Behrouz Boochani is in Christchurch to attend a literary festival and ...

A 44-year-old Thai man was arrested Thursday after 158 kg of methamphetamine were seized from treadmills bound for Japan, according to Thai authorities. Police called it the largest single seizure of "ice," as the drug is known, headed for Japan. A tipoff led the Central Narcotics ...

North Korea's top nuclear envoy said Thursday that the U.S. is seeking a return to denuclearization talks in December, but warned that he believed the move could be a "trick to earn time" ahead of a year-end deadline set by Pyongyang for progress in ...

On Jan. 11, Taiwan will elect a new government, its seventh since 1996 when a constitutional amendment gave Taiwanese a say in who would represent them at the highest levels of island politics. If projections hold, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) President Tsai Ing-wen will be ...

Japan Post Holdings Co. said Thursday its group revenue in the April-September half dropped 4.8 percent from a year earlier to ¥5.96 trillion. The fall was chiefly caused by a suspension in the promotion of insurance products from mid-July, following revelations of inappropriate insurance sales ...

Bolivia's interim government and lawmakers from the party of unseated leader Evo Morales struck a deal late on Thursday to pursue new elections, potentially helping resolve the South American country's political crisis. In a late night session of the Bolivian Senate, the chamber's President, a ...

North Korea may be preparing for a massive show of force, according to an analysis Friday of new satellite imagery that shows dozens of military aircraft parked wingtip to wingtip at an airport on the country's east coast. The purpose of the display seen in ...

A company executive was arrested Thursday in Shikoku for allegedly incinerating and disposing of his 70-year-old father's body, with authorities suspecting foul play in the man's death, police have said. Takashi Hayashida, 29, is suspected of unlawfully disposing of the body of his father, Akira, ...

South African Airways (SAA) has canceled flights scheduled for Friday and Saturday because of a pending strike by a majority of employees over a wage dispute and the state-run carrier's plans to cut jobs. The airline had hoped to avert the walkout with a revised ...

The U.S. Congress should enact legislation that would suspend the special economic status Hong Kong enjoys under U.S. law should China deploy forces to crush protests in the territory, a congressional advisory body said on Thursday. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), which ...

Google said it would make changes to its advertising technology to better protect people's privacy following scrutiny by European Union watchdogs. Starting in February, Google will no longer divulge information to participants in its ad auction about the type of content on a website or ...

China's President Xi Jinping late Thursday warned deepening protests in Hong Kong threaten the "one country, two systems" principle governing the semi-autonomous city, in comments following the fourth day of a strike called by pro-democracy activists which has choked the financial hub. Hong Kong has ...

Southwest Airlines Co.'s pilots union stepped up its criticism of Boeing Co., saying the plane-maker may be trying to rush the return to service of its grounded 737 Max. In a message to members, the head of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said Boeing should ...

The International Criminal Court on Thursday approved a long-awaited full investigation into Myanmar's alleged abuse of Rohingya Muslims, including crimes against humanity and persecution. The Hague-based war crimes court said in a statement it "authorized the prosecutor to proceed with an investigation for the alleged ...

Any realistic solution to the climate crisis must keep the engines of economic growth running. A global carbon market would do just that.

Last week's episode of "Terrace House" made it look like the housemates were on the verge of pairing off into couples: Emika and Ruka; Haruka and Peppe; and Hana and Ryo. The commentators love how harmonious and lovey-dovey the house has become (with the ...

Alongside perennials will be acts making their first appearances on the music battle show, such as Foorin, King Gnu and Kis-My-Ft2

Do you know the songs? "Heavy Rotation," "Gingham Check," "Ponytail to Shushu" .... Even if you don't, you're likely aware of the sales model that AKB48 has exported to the rest of the world.

Netflix's new series of "Queer Eye" sees the Fab Five hit the streets of Tokyo, where they come face to face with the restrictions of Japanese social norms

Shoma Uno was fourth at the Cup of Russia after the men's short program on Friday. Uno, looking for his third victory in a Grand Prix series event after winning both Skate Canada and the NHK Trophy last year, scored 87.29 points, just 0.25 shy ...

Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato will be in the spotlight this weekend at the Japan Junior Championships at Shin-Yokohama Skate Center. Both skaters have qualified for next month's prestigious Junior Grand Prix Final in Italy. Kagiyama, a 16-year-old from Yokohama, finished first and second in ...

Playing in Japan is probably a unique experience for many of the players on the U.S. team at the Premier12. The same can't be said for American reliever Brandon Dickson. The 35-year-old Montgomery, Alabama, native might be wearing the red, white, and blue, like the rest ...

A photo taken of the winner's podium at the 2004 Junior Sumo World Championships has received a lot of attention over the past couple of years. Two of the four young men standing on the ring in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, that day (Tochinoshin and Goeido) ...

Hakuho moved into the outright lead at the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament on Friday, defeating Meisei to improve to 5-1. In the final bout of Day 6 at Fukuoka Kokusai Center, the Mongolian-born yokozuna easily overpowered the No. 2 maegashira, who came into the match ...

All Brent Rooker knew was that it wasn't going to be another slider. He'd already been beaten with that pitch during two at-bats and his mind was made up. If Wu Sheng-feng, who had already struck out Rooker twice, was going to beat him again, ...