It was the first time in 3½ years that high-level trade control talks have been held.

An H-IIA rocket carrying a government optical intelligence-gathering satellite is scheduled for launch in January, according to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. The device will join Japan's seven other reconnaissance satellites believed to be utilized for such purposes as monitoring developments at North Korean missile sites. The ...

Osaka City Bus Corp. took media representatives for a test ride on a self-driving bus Monday. The affiliate of subway operator Osaka Metro Co. aims to start autonomous bus services in fiscal 2020, which starts April 1, in the city's waterfront area. A French-made Navya Arma ...

The deal fell apart and stayed on the back burner until a new agreement was reached in 2015.

Mobile phone carrier KDDI Corp. and convenience store operator Lawson Inc. will tie up on smartphone payments and combine their customer loyalty point programs to strengthen competitiveness against rivals, the two companies announced Monday. KDDI, which operates the au Wallet point service for its customers, ...

A ferry connecting Uno Port in Okayama Prefecture and Takamatsu Port in Kagawa Prefecture has ceased services after 109 years. The ferry completed its last trip across the Seto Inland Sea on Sunday night after a long-term decrease in passengers led to the deterioration of ...

Donald Trump's relations with his own intelligence services have never been so fraught: The U.S. president doesn't listen to his spy chiefs, doesn't seem to rank his sources and makes snap decisions without giving them any warning. The two sides have clashed repeatedly, including in ...

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam in Beijing on Monday, saying the Asian financial hub was not yet out of the "dilemma" facing the city's economy after months of sometimes violent protests. Li met with Lam during a regular ...

Hideaki Kumazawa, 76, had admitted to the slaying, saying his 44-year-old son was a social recluse capable of committing violent acts.

Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui said Monday he is considering holding a referendum next November on whether to restructure the city into a metropolis like Tokyo, in order to seek more effective governance. A specific date will be determined after consultation with the local chapter of ...

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that official inquiries into last week's fatal volcano eruption could take up to a year, and will carry potential criminal penalties of up to five years in jail. Ardern also announced a 5 million New Zealand dollar ...

The Bank of Japan will leave monetary policy unchanged this week, and probably for much longer, after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled a stimulus package to bolster growth, according to a Bloomberg survey. All 45 economists polled expect no action from the bank at the ...

East Japan Railway Co. on Monday unveiled its new luxury Saphir Odoriko express train ahead of its March 14 launch between Tokyo and a spa resort area in Shizuoka Prefecture. The eight-car train with all Green Car, or first-class, seating is named after the French ...

The number is far bigger than the 6,327 contracts highlighted in an interim report in September on inappropriate sales practices at the group.

The Tokyo Fire Department introduced on Monday criteria for stopping resuscitative efforts for patients in the terminal phase of illness. Until now the department had no clear guidance for how ambulance workers should respond if they are asked to stop resuscitative efforts. The new criteria call ...

The Ibaraki Prefectural Government is planning to showcase a whale shark at an aquarium in the prefecture, officials said Monday. The world's biggest fish species will be welcomed at the Aqua World Ibaraki Prefectural Oarai Aquarium in the town of Oarai, which has some 400 ...

Masayoshi Son's bankers are taking a hard look at their most important client. After the costly rescue of office-sharing startup WeWork and a series of other high-profile setbacks for Son, senior executives at two of Japan's biggest banking groups have said privately they've grown less ...

Record shareholder activism is combining with rare hostile takeover bids in Japan, in a trend that's seen as good news for investors in the country's ¥675 trillion stock market. Activists such as Elliott Management Corp. have been snapping up shares in targeted firms and agitating ...

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, reaffirmed the importance of solving a bilateral dispute over wartime labor compensation during a brief meeting in Madrid on Sunday night, a senior Japanese official has said. Motegi and Kang held talks for around ...

A third-party panel investigating the gift scandal at Kansai Electric Power Co., or Kepco, involving its executives and a former deputy mayor said Sunday it had interviewed over 700 people since October but would not be able to meet the utility's year-end deadline. "It is ...

Kiyoshi Miyasaka climbs the stone steps of his shrine, autumn leaves crunching under his feet. The Shinto priest, dressed in white, aims an orange leaf blower at a row of cobblestones and clears the path of fallen leaves. "I know people would rather see a ...

The smoke blanketing Sydney is a "public health emergency," according to a coalition of Australian doctors and researchers who say climate change has helped fuel the wildfires that have produced the unprecedented haze. Air pollution across Australia's most-populous city and parts of the eastern state ...

The top U.S. representative in talks with North Korea on Monday slammed Pyongyang's demands as hostile and unnecessary as its end-of-year deadline approaches, but held open the door for fresh negotiations. The North has insisted that Washington offer it new concessions by the end of ...

Hong Kong's demonstrators clashed with police late Sunday as Chief Executive Carrie Lam visited Beijing, where she's expected to update Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior officials on the violent protests that have gripped the city for the past six months. Roads in Mong ...

Mexico's deputy foreign minister for North America, Jesus Seade, on Sunday attempted to rebut claims his country would be subject to labor enforcement inspectors from other countries as part of the new North American trade deal. Top officials from Canada, Mexico and the United States ...

A key Democratic lawmaker said Sunday that President Donald Trump's misconduct amounted to "a crime in progress" that threatens U.S. democracy, as the full House prepares for a historic vote on impeachment. "Do we have a constitutional democracy, or do we have a monarchy, where ...

France will extradite Argentinian Mario Sandoval to Buenos Aires late Sunday to face trial over the torture and disappearance of a student during the country's "dirty war," airport and legal sources said. The 66-year-old former police officer was arrested Wednesday at his home near Paris, ...

Hudson's Bay Co. Chairman Richard Baker may scrap an offer to take the struggling retailer private after regulators delayed a vote on the deal following complaints from a minority shareholder. The investor group that controls the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue is "evaluating next steps, ...

The U.S.-China trade deal is "remarkable" in scope but it won't solve all the problems between the world's two biggest economies, the top U.S. negotiator said Sunday. "This is not just about agriculture and other purchases," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in an interview ...

Felix Rohatyn, a towering figure on Wall Street credited with saving New York from insolvency and who later served as U.S. ambassador to France, has died at age 91. He died at his home in Manhattan of unspecified causes, his son, Nicolas, confirmed to The ...

Angry protesters in northeast India vowed Sunday to keep demonstrating against a contentious citizenship law as the death toll from bloody clashes sparked by the bill rose to six. Tension remained high at the epicenter of the unrest in Assam state's biggest city, Guwahati, with ...

France's CGT union threatened on Sunday to double its protests unless the government withdraws its pension reform proposal within the next week. In a major overhaul of its pension scheme, the French government has proposed that people work two years longer to get a full ...

Telenor reiterated on Sunday Huawei would be involved in building Norway's 5G network along with Ericsson, one of several companies to continue working with the Chinese company despite U.S. pressure. Still, on Friday, the head of Telenor Norway, Petter-Boerre Furberg, told Reuters that the operator ...

The U.S. government covertly moved to expel two officials from the Chinese Embassy earlier this year, after they drove onto a military base, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The newspaper reported www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/world/asia/us-china-spies.html on Sunday that one of the ...

Japan's Rising Sun Flag has emerged as a key element of the strain in bilateral relations.

Preserving the past is not just an academic exercise.

Running around on all fours, jumping onto mattresses, lifting weights — CrossFit is a great way to for kids to expel excess energy.

It's the festive season and whether you take Christmas day off or not in Japan, kids will still be excited about Santa. This month introduces a few next-generation techy toys that are great for children but will probably be fun for the parents, too.

Japanese companies have been waking up to the idea that offending some of their customers might be bad for business.

Samajie Grant showed why he was named the X League's MVP in his first season in Japan. The former Arizona Wildcat, who rushed for a league-best 527 yards during the regular season, scored on a 75-yard sprint with 3 seconds remaining in the third quarter ...

Reigning champions Liverpool will return to the scene of last season's Champions League triumph after they were drawn against Atletico Madrid in the last 16 of the competition on Monday, with Manchester City to face 13-time winners Real Madrid. Jurgen Klopp's side will travel to ...

Race walk gold medalist Yusuke Suzuki was named the Athlete of the Year at the annual Athletics Award of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations on Monday in Tokyo. At September's World Athletic Championships in Doha, the 31-year-old never trailed from the start and crossed ...

Kento Momota was banned from badminton for gambling in 2016. Fast forward to 2019, and the star is enjoying one of the most successful years in the sport's history. Momota has cleaned up in men's badminton over the past 12 months, winning a record 11 titles, ...

Russian figure skater Alina Zagitova on Sunday responded to media speculation that she is leaving the sport for good, posting on Instagram that she doesn't intend to "stop or retire." The 17-year-old Olympic and world champion told a Russian TV station on Friday that she ...

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV pulled a game between Arsenal and Manchester City from its program after the Gunners midfielder Mesut Ozil expressed support for mainly Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang. Ozil, a German of Turkish origin, condemned China's crackdown on Uighurs and other minorities in the ...

Ryoyu Kobayashi warmed up for the defense of his Four Hills ski jumping title with a victory in Klingenthal, Germany, on Sunday that gave him the World Cup lead. The 23-year-old, who last season became just the third man to complete a Four Hills clean-sweep, ...

Babe Ruth may have died more than 70 years ago, but the baseball slugger is still turning out big numbers. The bat he used to hit his 500th home run in 1929 has sold for $1,000,800, officials for SCP Auctions announced on Sunday. The bat, ...