According to documents that shed new light on the wartime practice of forcing and coercing women into military brothels, the Imperial Japanese Army asked the government to provide one “comfort woman” for every 70 soldiers.

The 18 drives used by the Yokohama-based government should have been destroyed, but someone at the recycler sold them off, exposing potentially millions of taxpayers to identity theft.

SoftBank Corp. and the University of Tokyo have agreed to open artificial-intelligence centers staffed with specialists from the university and around the world, to swiftly turn research into profitable business ventures so Japan can keep up with the U.S. and China. "If they are stuck ...

October’s larger than expected spending dip was the first in almost a year as disasters and the emergence of a 10 percent consumption tax prompted consumers to cut back.

Biogen Inc. laid out more data Thursday on its experimental Alzheimer's drug, raising no major safety alarms but also offering little compelling evidence that the drug, once declared a failure, actually works. Experts had been watching closely for any statistical abnormalities or excess safety issues ...

Typical cheerleading clubs in schools, known as ōendan, consist of men clad in black gakuran stand-up collar uniforms yelling vigorously and performing synchronized, dynamic choreographed moves to support sports teams. While the traditional activity is becoming less popular among male students, many ōendan across the ...

When Keio University professor Masaru Tomita accepted an offer in 2000 to head a new science lab in the city of Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, his fellow researchers — shocked at what they evidently considered his relegation to the countryside — warned him that his ...

Nagano became the first prefecture to declare a climate emergency Friday, joining a growing coalition of nations, regions and local municipalities around the world in vowing to take action that reflects the urgency of the crisis. A Climate Emergency Declaration is a nonbinding promise to ...

Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Friday that his ministry has stopped distributing plastic bags at all shops inside its government building, taking what he touted as a trailblazing step toward reducing plastic waste. Plastic bags are no longer provided at any shop within the ministry's ...

Driver Kazuho Ishibashi’s notorious rest stop case will be reheard because the district court illegally overturned an opposing view expressed at a pretrial hearing.

Three major lenders for Japan Display Inc. plan to extend their credit deadlines again to bolster the struggling display-maker's financing as a rescue plan from new investors has yet to be finalized, sources close to the matter said Friday. Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. ...

Saudi Aramco priced its long-awaited IPO at the high end of the target range on Thursday, raising $25.6 billion and giving the energy giant a valuation of $1.7 trillion in the world's biggest stock sale. Aramco priced its initial public offering at 32 riyals ($8.53) ...

Bonnie Lee doesn't care about finding a boyfriend or a fairy-tale wedding, and will decide her own happily-ever-after: "I'm a straight woman who is no longer interested in having relationships with men." She is not alone. A growing number of South Korean women are banding together ...

Toyota Motor Corp. has a problem with selling its hybrids — its customers can't get enough of them. "The only thing holding us back on hybrids is capacity," Bob Carter, Toyota's North American executive vice president for sales, told reporters Thursday at an event in ...

The last time Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi traveled to Western Europe, she was feted as the freshly elected civilian ruler of a fledgling democracy who had brought an end to half a century of military dictatorship. When the Nobel Peace Prize laureate returns ...

Japan's second-largest bank wants to change the mindset of its staff. It made a start by upending its dress code — a revolutionary move in an industry dominated by dark suits and formal wear. But that's not enough, according to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. President ...

Looking at page after page of childhood photos, "Xiaogunzhu" was drawn to an image of a French-Irish boy with smiling dark blue eyes. But she was not admiring his family album. She was browsing a catalog of potential sperm donors — the 39-year-old is one ...

Police have seized LSD from the home of actress Erika Sawajiri, who was arrested last month over the possession of the synthetic drug MDMA, investigative sources said Friday, backing up her account to police that she used various illegal drugs such as LSD and ...

Daihatsu Motor Co.'s Tanto minivehicle topped the new vehicle sales rankings in Japan in November, seizing the leading position from Honda Motor Co.'s N-Box minivehicle, industry data showed Thursday. The N-Box was unseated for the first time in 27 months. Sales of the Tanto surged 90.0 ...

The forays by Chinese coast guard vessels and other government ships are on track for an 80 percent increase over last year, the Japan Coast Guard says.

A total of ¥1.06 trillion was spent on 340 projects related to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics between fiscal 2013 and fiscal 2018, the Board of Audit said Wednesday. An estimated ¥260 billion was spent in fiscal 2018, which ended March 31, according to ...

A majority of Japanese firms want Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to finish his current term to September 2021 but fewer than one in five say he should stay beyond then, a Reuters poll has showed as allegations that he broke campaign laws erode public ...

Public prosecutors on Thursday arrested five people related to Meijo Gakuin Educational Corp. on suspicion of embezzlement, including Mieko Ohashi, a 61-year-old former president of the school operator in Osaka Prefecture. The Osaka prosecutors have not clarified whether the five have admitted to the allegations. Schools ...

The Tokyo High Court overturned a lower court's death sentence and gave a Peruvian man life in prison Thursday over the 2015 murder of six people in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture. The court ruled that Vayron Jonathan Nakada Ludena, 34, who was found guilty of robbery ...

Modern mammals, including humans, owe their keen sense of hearing to three tiny bones in the middle ear that were absent in their reptile ancestors, but the point at which this transformation occurred has remained unclear. Scientists have now identified the transitional stages in the ...

South Africa's government will cede control of the national airline to a restructuring specialist in a last-ditch attempt to save the cash-strapped business from collapse. As part of a rescue plan started on Thursday, the government will hand the running of South African Airways (SAA) ...

Measles infected nearly 10 million people in 2018 and killed 140,000, mostly children, as devastating outbreaks of the viral disease hit every region of the world, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. In figures described by its director general as "an outrage," the WHO ...

An original Spitfire plane landed back in Britain on Thursday after successfully completing a first-ever attempt to fly the iconic World War II fighter around the globe. The gleaming silver aircraft touched down on the grass runway at Goodwood Aerodrome outside Chichester, exactly four months ...

The U.S. Justice Department unveiled indictments Thursday of two Russians with ties to their country's intelligence services, who ran a major global cybertheft operation under the name Evil Corp. An indictment unsealed in Pittsburgh named Maksim Yakubets and Igor Turashev as the main figures in ...

Negotiations over future Brazilian steel exports to the United States have been halted since President Donald Trump tweeted earlier this week that he would slap tariffs back on them, the head of Brazil's steel mills body, IABr, said on Thursday. Trump stunned Brazil and Argentina ...

Our first and most fundamental task in combating climate change is for the world to become carbon neutral by 2050.

The climate crisis and trade conflicts are two of the world's top challenges and they might be about to collide in the EU's green deal.

More than 30 years after the anime world was set alight by 'Akira,' the original artwork from the film has found a permanent home in the United States.

With Marie Kondo's new online store garnering mixed reactions, the year ended almost as it began, with people arguing about the tidying consultant.

Leicester City has extended manager Brendan Rodgers' contract until June 2025, the Premier League club said on Friday after he had been linked with the vacant coaching role at Arsenal. Rodgers, who left Scottish side Celtic to take charge at Leicester in February, has overseen ...

Two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu sits second behind Nathan Chen after the short program at the Grand Prix Final, with the American opening a commanding 12.95-point lead on Thursday. Hanyu scored 97.43 points to the reigning world champion Chen's personal-best 110.38. Hanyu's score suffered after he ...

The San Antonio Spurs were synonymous with winning during Tony Parker's illustrious NBA career, appearing in five NBA Finals and capturing four titles. They never finished below .500 during any of the iconic point guard's 17 seasons in a Spurs uniform — and never had ...