On the 90th anniversary of diplomatic ties, the first Iranian president to visit since 2000 urges more concrete steps to promote the bilateral relationship.

Seven-Eleven Japan Co. on Friday warned a convenience store in Osaka Prefecture that its franchise contract will be terminated unless it improves customer service. The store in Higashiosaka made headlines in February for halting late-night and early-morning operations over staffing shortages without permission from Seven-Eleven's ...

From elementary to high school, children in Japan are breaking records for bad eyesight, an education ministry health survey showed Friday. According to the survey results, children with uncorrected vision of less than 1.0 on the Japanese acuity scale account for 34.6 percent of elementary ...

While the eyes of America were on the House vote to impeach President Donald Trump, a court ruling to leave the fate of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare," up in the air may be a bigger risk to his 2020 re-election ...

The fiscal 2020 draft budget shows that spending will jump for defense, free education and ballooning medical, pension and other social security costs.

The biggest overhaul of Japan's equity market in decades may be set to spur a wave of mergers and acquisitions. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is considering cutting its number of markets from five to three, creating a "prime" segment for the biggest and best-governed stocks. ...

On a recent chilly November morning, aspiring politician Maiko Takahashi was undergoing a trial by fire as she stumped for just the second time in her life, addressing an ebb and flow of commuters near Oita Station. The temperature had plummeted that day in Oita ...

Just days after Hoya Corp. made a hostile takeover bid for one of Toshiba Corp.'s publicly traded units — an extremely rare move in Japan — the industrial giant is responding with equally unusual bluntness. "Basically, I'm not selling," Toshiba Chief Executive Officer and Chairman ...

Sweden's central bank ended five years of negative interest rates on Thursday when it raised benchmark borrowing costs by a quarter point to zero, defying an economic slowdown and global uncertainty. The increase from minus 0.25 percent makes the Riksbank the first of the central ...

Police have arrested 334 people in one of the largest anti-mob operations ever seen in Italy, highlighting the growing reach of the 'ndrangheta mafia, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 'ndrangheta is based in the southern region of Calabria, the toe of Italy's boot, and has ...

The government decided Friday to hold the 2025 World Expo in Osaka from April 13 through Oct. 13, bringing forward the starting day by several weeks from the original plan to avoid congestion during the Golden Week holiday period. A plan for the expo, including ...

The English word "love" can be translated as "sevgi" in Turkish and "szerelem" in Hungarian — but does the concept carry the same meaning for the speakers of all three tongues? Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Max Planck ...

In a revision of its 2018 measures for an inclusive society, foreign students will be given greater leeway to apply for internships and work visas while in Japan.

Core consumer prices rose 0.5 percent in November from a year earlier, affected by the consumption tax hike that increased the cost of dining out, but the pace of inflation remained far below the Bank of Japan's 2 percent target, government data showed Friday. The ...

The Saitama District Court ordered Friday a charter bus company and its president to pay about ¥88 million ($805,000) in damages to relatives of a university student who was killed along with 14 others in a crash in 2016. The 19-year-old university student was a ...

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a new trade deal for North America on Thursday that includes tougher labor and automotive content rules but leaves $1.2 trillion in annual U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade flows largely unchanged. The House passed legislation to implement the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or ...

The government said Friday it will expand vaccinations of pigs against hog cholera to cover Tokyo and seven prefectures adjacent to the 12 prefectures with confirmed cases of the deadly virus. The vaccinations may start later this month in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Niigata, Kyoto and Nara, ...

The summit in Chengdu will be the leaders’ first in 15 months and coincide with a trilateral summit with Premier Li Keqiang.

Malaysian teenage Scrabble protege Tengku Ariff Shah can spell more English words than most adults in the Western world, but he doesn't always know what they mean. Ariff is among a swath of Asian youngsters who are turning the competitive Scrabble scene on its head ...

A 15-year-old junior high school student in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, who hacked into a school server to alter his grades has admitted to stealing an ID and password needed to access the server from a computer he borrowed from his teacher, the school's principal ...

The government Friday approved a record draft defense budget for fiscal 2020 totaling ¥5.31 trillion ($48.5 billion) as it seeks to strengthen the nation's defense capabilities in outer space and cyberspace. The draft budget, including outlays linked to hosting U.S. military bases, is up 1.1 ...

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison issued a rare public apology on Friday and cut short a Hawaiian vacation in response to mounting public anger after two volunteer firefighters were killed battling bush fires sweeping the country's east coast. Australia has been fighting wildfires across three ...

Millions of years before the arrival of the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex, another fearsome dinosaur — the Gnathovorax — roamed what is now southern Brazil, ripping apart its prey with sharp teeth. Measuring nearly 10 feet (3 meters) long, it was the biggest dinosaur of its ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Japan's security alliance with the United States continues to pose a threat, suggesting it remains a stumbling block to the signing of a postwar peace treaty between Tokyo and Moscow. Putin said at an annual year-end news conference ...

Police opened fire on hundreds of protesters in southern India on Thursday, killing two, an official said, as fresh violence erupted around the country over a contentious citizenship law critics say is anti-Muslim. The fatalities brought to eight the death toll from more than a ...

NASA's effort to resume flying American astronauts on American spacecraft — something that hasn't happened since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011 — faces a major test this weekend. Over the past decade, a lot of attention has been paid to billionaire space entrepreneurs ...

Social media "influencers" will no longer be allowed to promote vaping, tobacco products and weapons on Instagram as the Facebook-owned platform doubles down on its existing ad policies banning the advertisements of such products. Product endorsements are common on Instagram and celebrities and others with ...

President Donald Trump phoned the head of Boeing ahead of the company's announcement on Monday that it was halting production of the 737 Max, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday. Meanwhile, the company was hit by two downgrades to its debt rating, including ...

It is now time for the U.S., along with Japan and South Korea, to prepare to pivot on North Korea.

A lack of economic ambition is increasing the trend of 'hikikomori.'

Last month, The Japan Times published its curated list of Tokyo's five best ramen shops. But Japan's capital city is a truly massive metropolis boasting restaurants galore, so we wanted to know: What did we overlook? And where are your favorite ramen shops? Many readers ...

While song and dance kept audiences flocking to theaters in Japan in 2019, the non-musical side was kept afloat by established dramatists rather than new faces

Japan's master of the ultra-violent, darkly comedic and low-budge yakuza flick, Takashi Miike, discusses the ideas of love and boxing which are prevelant in his latest film, 'First Love.'

Yuzuru Hanyu returned to the Japan Championships in stirring fashion on Friday night after a four-year absence, seizing the lead after the short program with another sublime performance. It was a night of spectacular skating at Yoyogi National Gymnasium, and it was only fitting that ...

The Alvark Tokyo outplayed the Shimane Susanoo Magic on Friday night and earned an 89-55 series-opening victory on the road. Tokyo led 19-13 after the first quarter. Coach Luka Pavicevic's team increased its advantage to 35-23 by halftime in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture. The Susanoo Magic (7-15) ...

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has ruled out selling midfielder Paul Pogba in January and denied media reports that the club is in talks with Salzburg striker Erling Haaland over a possible transfer. France international Pogba has made six appearances for United this season ...

It's possible around this time next year, we might be reminiscing about the Summer of Seiya 2020. It's not at all far-fetched. There aren't many players going into the new year with as much momentum behind them as Seiya Suzuki, the Hiroshima Carp's resident superstar ...

The nominees for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's 2020 class could build a team that's almost impossible to beat, starting with Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett. The list of 50 eligible candidates was announced Thursday, with other first-time nominees including Tamika ...