Agribusiness is increasingly turning to natural and sustainable alternatives to chemicals as consumers rebuff genetically modified foods and concerns grow over Big Ag's role in climate change. At the heart of the trend are innovations that harness beneficial microorganizms in the soil, including seed-coatings of ...

A court sentenced a former policeman to death Friday for choking his wife and two children to death at their home in Fukuoka Prefecture in June 2017 in a case devoid of confessions or hard evidence. Mitsuru Nakata, 41, denied the allegations at the time ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has postponed a three-day visit to India, the government said Friday, as violent protests continue over a controversial citizenship law in Gauhati, a northeastern Indian city in Assam state where Abe had planned to meet his counterpart, Narendra Modi. In the ...

With the economy slowing, companies expect conditions to stay level or worsen next quarter, the Bank of Japan’s closely watched sentiment survey showed.

Adventure tourism is a key part of New Zealand's appeal, but the White Island volcano eruption is a tragic reminder that such activities carry genuine risks that must be better explained to travelers, experts say. The nation offers a wealth of adrenaline-fueled pursuits, from heli-skiiing ...

President Donald Trump has signed off on the first phase of a trade deal with China, averting the Dec. 15 introduction of a new wave of U.S. tariffs on about $160 billion of consumer goods from the Asian nation, according to people familiar with ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday said he is not thinking about the possibility of seeking another term as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party by changing its rules, despite his aim of achieving constitutional reform during his tenure. Speaking at an event in Tokyo, ...

During a recent math class at an elementary school in Aichi Prefecture, Kamila Tamy Tida Miyamoto, 31, a Brazilian school assistant, pointed to the textbooks of Aika and Ayumi, second-grade Brazilian students who enrolled this year, as she explained concepts to them in Portuguese. Currently, ...

New Nissan Motor Co. CEO Makoto Uchida vowed Friday to improve the automaker's corporate culture following the two-decade rule of former chairman Carlos Ghosn, who was arrested and ousted over financial misconduct allegations last year. "I will be committed (to my job) with the focus ...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson won a resounding election victory Friday that will allow him to take Britain out of the European Union in matter of weeks. For Johnson, whose 20-week tenure in power has been marked by chaotic scenes in Parliament and stark division on ...

Hoya Corp. said Friday it would make a $1.4 billion counterbid for NuFlare Technology Inc. in what could become a hostile offer for the Toshiba Corp. unit the electronics conglomerate plans to buy out. Hoya's interest in the manufacturer of chipmaking equipment further complicates a ...

Canadian lawyer William Schabas, an international scholar on genocide, has been criticized by friend and foe for first researching crimes against Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya and now defending the state accused of perpetrating them. Schabas helped research a report in 2010 on systematic attacks against the ...

"Isekai Rebuilding Project," a fantasy novel by a Hokkaido-based writer who publishes under the pseudonym Yukika Minamino, has become available to English-reading audiences through a website run by an American digital publisher of Japanese novels aimed at teenagers and young adults. The addition of Minamino's ...

Wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses and a red T-shirt, an 8-year-old Chinese boy is logged in for an online coding lesson — as the teacher. Vita has set up a coding tutorial channel on the Chinese video streaming site Bilibili since August and has ...

A consortium of companies is offering foreign visitors in Tokyo a taste of autonomous driving, in the world's first demonstration of a project that uses both an airport shuttle bus and a self-driving taxi to provide smooth travel from the airport to the Marunouchi ...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson may be celebrating a stunning election victory, but another leader also scored an emphatic win — and it is one that promises to set up a renewed clash over the United Kingdom's future. The Scottish National Party was on course ...

A 33-year-old housewife in the city of Kure phoned the Chugoku Shimbun one day to convey her concern about her sixth-grade son. He will be attending a junior high school starting next spring and will be traveling there by bicycle, but he does not ...

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. is considering selling one of its largest shipbuilding plants in Japan to reduce costs as it faces tough competition from Chinese and South Korean rivals, informed sources said Thursday. The company is weighing the sale of the Koyagi plant in the ...

Toshiba Corp. said Friday it is preparing for a swift return to the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section, following its 2017 demotion on massive losses from its bankrupt U.S. nuclear unit, to raise capital for future investments. "Toshiba intends to apply for its return to ...

Elite soldiers retrieved six bodies from New Zealand's volatile White Island volcano on Friday, winning praise for their "courageous" mission carried out under the threat of another eruption. At first light, two military helicopters set off from Whakatane airport for the offshore volcano, where an ...

The Takamatsu High Court on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that rejected a claim by former tuna fishermen and bereaved relatives for state compensation over the 1954 U.S. hydrogen bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. In the lawsuit, the 29 plaintiffs demanded ...

Kansai International Airport is aiming to increase its number of passengers on international flights each year by about 70 percent, to 40 million in spring 2025 or later, the operator of the airport said Thursday. More and more foreign visitors to Japan are using the ...

Some of the cremated remains of Tetsu Nakamura, the Japanese doctor who was shot dead in Afghanistan last week, will be buried in the country based on his wishes, a person close to him said Thursday. At a news conference in the city of Fukuoka, ...

The Tokyo District Court ordered the government Thursday to pay damages to a transgender ministry official, ruling that it was illegal for her workplace to impose restrictions on her use of women's washrooms. The court ordered the state to pay the Economy, Trade and Industry ...

Shikoku Electric Power Co. said Thursday that it will suspend operations of the No. 3 reactor at its Ikata nuclear power plant on Dec. 26 for routine checkups and remove spent mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel from the reactor. This will mark the first removal of used ...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson persuaded British voters to back Brexit in 2016, and if exit polls are correct now has a chance to deliver, but he stands accused of Trump-style populism that risks further dividing the country. The Conservative leader campaigned relentlessly on a promise ...

In the first domestic court ruling of its kind, the search giant must erase some of the results as they imply the plaintiff was found guilty, damaging his reputation.

President Donald Trump signed off on a so-called phase-one trade deal with China, averting the Dec. 15 introduction of a new wave of U.S. tariffs on about $160 billion in consumer goods from the Asian nation, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal ...

Boeing Co. on Thursday abandoned its goal of winning approval this month from the Federal Aviation Administration to unground the 737 Max after Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg met with senior U.S. aviation officials. The announcement came after a congressional hearing on Wednesday in which numerous ...

U.S. stocks on Thursday sailed to their first record closes of December, lifted by media reports that Washington and Beijing had struck a trade bargain at last. Two of the three main indexes closed with new records: the broad-based S&P 500 gained 1 percent to ...

Facebook on Thursday said it is ready for a data privacy law that will go into effect in its home state of California at the start of next year. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) will give internet users in the state the right to ...

AI is none other than a mechanized slave in that it liberates humans from labor for production.

Women are more willing to forgo salary for better life balance, but flexible policies could widen the income gap with men.

Part 3 of "Terrace House Tokyo 2019-2020" is not messing around. The most recent episode was filled to the brim with surprising moments and it's hard to know what to expect in the weeks ahead. When news broke in October about commentator Yoshimi Tokui's financial ...

A few notes scribbled in a notebook are all that German composer Ludwig van Beethoven left of his 10th Symphony before his death in 1827. Now, a team of musicologists and programmers is racing to complete a version of the piece using artificial intelligence, ahead ...

The biggest Japanese children's song of recent years gets an official English translation, in the hope of boosting diversity and interest in the language.

Soichi Hashimoto and Nami Nabekura won gold Friday as Japan cemented its place on top of the medal table on Day 2 of the World Judo Masters. Hashimoto, 28, was awarded the men's 73-kg gold medal after his final opponent, Israel's Tohar Butbul, pulled out ...

Ticket revenue for the 2019 Rugby World Cup totaled some ¥37.3 billion ($343 million), outstripping estimates by around ¥2.3 billion, the local organizers said Thursday. Around 1.84 million tickets were sold for the Sept. 20 to Nov. 2 World Cup, the first edition of the ...

At 17 years old, Katsuya Hashimoto is the youngest wheelchair rugby player on the Japanese national team. With less than 300 days until the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, he often pictures himself on the court at the 2020 venue, ready for his ...