The government has started paying out on compensation claims for those killed in the Kyoto Animation Co. studio arson attack after the agency recognized the deaths as work-related.

Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said he will take paternity leave later this month, a rare move in a country where most men do not take the time off.

A Tokyo-based Australian journalist and father was given a suspended prison term of six months by the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday for illegally trespassing into a building complex where his in-laws live in Tokyo's Suginami Ward in October, in what the journalist said ...

Japan, the United States and the European Union on Tuesday proposed expanding a ban on market-distorting subsidies under World Trade Organization rules, a measure apparently targeted at China. The three economies hope to win support for the proposal from a wide range of WTO members ...

Shipments of hydrogen fuel cells grew by more than 40 percent last year as proponents of the technology worked to establish it alongside lithium-ion batteries as a way to remove pollution from transportation. Companies delivered about 1,100 megawatts of hydrogen fuel cells in 2019, up ...

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp. said Wednesday it will implement teleworking during this summer's Tokyo Olympics to reduce traffic congestion. The holding company will allow all its Tokyo-based employees to work from home and other locations between July 24 and Aug. 9. The company, which has ...

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he would not meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — who once lambasted Biden as a rabid dog — without "preconditions," as President Donald Trump has done three times. Biden, asked at the evening's ...

Human Rights Watch released a scathing report Wednesday slamming the Chinese government for crafting an "Orwellian high-tech surveillance state" at home and deploying its growing economic clout to silence its critics overseas, while an official with the group criticized Japan's response to alleged rights ...

The Bank of Japan on Wednesday downgraded its economic assessments of three out of the country's nine regions, citing slowing production due to weak demand from overseas. In its quarterly Sakura report, the BOJ revised down its views on Hokuriku and Tokai in central Japan, ...

The state-run University of Tokyo said Shohei Osawa, an artificial intelligence researcher, “grossly damaged the honor and reputation” of the institution with controversial comments about hiring Chinese.

Subaru Corp. said Wednesday it aims to lift global production 11 percent to a record 1.10 million vehicles in 2020, reflecting solid demand in the U.S. market and a full recovery in domestic output following a series of quality-control scandals. Subaru plans to produce 690,000 ...

Japanese firms operating in Thailand are planning to offer an average 4.0 percent wage hike this year, down 0.2 percentage point from the previous year's actual rate, an annual NNA survey showed. Of 477 respondents, 381, or 79.9 percent, said they plan to raise salaries. ...

Fujifilm Holdings Corp. is entering the race for Curium Pharma, challenging buyout firms bidding for the French maker of medical imaging supplies in a deal that could fetch at least $3 billion (¥329.8 billion), people familiar with the matter said. An arm of the Japanese ...

Smoking rates among low-income people exceed those of their higher-income counterparts, the health ministry said in a national health and nutrition survey report Tuesday. The survey showed that one in three men with an annual income of less than ¥2 million smokes. "Health disparities remain in ...

Shikoku Electric Power Co. has started removing nuclear fuel, including spent mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel, from a nuclear reactor in western Japan. The work at the No. 3 reactor at the company's Ikata nuclear plant in Ehime Prefecture, which began late Monday night, is the first ...

Iranian social media posts urged citizens to take to the streets for a fifth day on Wednesday, after public anger erupted following the belated admission by the authorities that they had shot down a passenger plane in error last week. Protesters, with students at the ...

China must rethink its hard-line stance toward Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen said Wednesday, as she warned the island was already independent and that any invasion would be "very costly" for Beijing. Tsai won a second term over the weekend with a record 8.2 million votes, ...

An Australian student arrested for spying and expelled from North Korea last year said he was forced to write a false confession while held incommunicado. Alek Sigley was studying modern Korean literature at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang when he went missing in June, ...

Defense Minister Taro Kono on Tuesday urged Beijing to respect international norms and work toward addressing his country's concerns over increasing Chinese maritime assertiveness ahead of President Xi Jinping's visit to Japan in the spring. Kono took aim at China during his speech at a ...

Midori Ogino champions breastfeeding as a biological gift that helps newborns survive and thrive. Making it a cultural norm and erasing societal taboos over breastfeeding in public is an investment that pays back many times over. Ogino is a so-called lactivist not because she pushes ...

A woman was released unharmed Wednesday morning after being held hostage for 18 hours by a man at the headquarters of a transport company in Shimane Prefecture, police said. Kaisei Nakao of Chiba Prefecture, who had wielded a sharp object, was arrested on the spot ...

Boeing Co. is talking to a group of banks about a potential loan as it deals with the production halt of its grounded 737 Max jetliners, according to people familiar with the matter. Citigroup Inc. is leading the discussions between Boeing and a small group ...

It was an era famous for its bootleggers, mobsters and hidden speakeasies. On Jan. 17, 1920, the 18th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution came into force, ushering in Prohibition. A century later, the country has yet to fully turn the page on that raucous chapter ...

An Afghan group will publish a picture book about slain Japanese Dr. Tetsu Nakamura, who dedicated his life to improving lives in the war-torn country. Gahwara, a nongovernmental organization based in the country, plans to issue in June a total of 2,500 copies in Dari ...

Apple Inc. and the U.S. government are at loggerheads for the second time in four years over the unlocking of iPhones connected to a mass shooting, reviving debate over law enforcement access to encrypted devices. Attorney General Bill Barr claimed Monday that Apple failed to ...

Carlos and Carole Ghosn, the former first couple of carmaker Nissan, are united again in Beirut. They hold hands in the street and whisper together in a mix of Arabic and French. They kiss. But the pair's most visceral display of unity comes when they ...

The Senate impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to begin in seven days with key players sworn in later this week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. McConnell, a Republican senator from Kentucky, said he expected the House of Representatives to send ...

With presidential tweets in Persian and stern warnings to the regime, Donald Trump's administration is rallying behind the latest protests in Iran — and renewing suspicions that his real goal is regime change. Just a week ago, massive crowds took to the streets in Iran ...

There may have been limited human-to-human transmission of a new coronavirus in China within families, and it is possible there could be a wider outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause infections ranging ...

The New York Times said Tuesday it now has more than 5 million total subscribers after adding 1 million for its digital offerings in the past year. The prestigious New York daily, which began its paid digital subscriptions in 2011, has been among the most ...

The incident leaves lingering questions and contending perceptions that have yet to be addressed.

Far from countries outside the EU undercutting EU standards by divergence it may be that it is the central EU authorities who are now the drag on progress and competition.

Japanese actor Aoi Okuyama makes her debut in BBC-Netflix yakuza series 'Giri/Haji,' earning acclaim from the British media.

More than 100 pieces, documents and designs have been selected for the Nino Caruso exhibition "Forms of Memory and Space — the world's first retrospective of the Italian ceramist-cum-sculptor's work since his death in 2017.

Qualifying rounds for the Australian Open were delayed Wednesday as toxic smoke from widespread bushfires continued to choke Melbourne, throwing the Grand Slam's schedule into chaos. The decision to suspend the action followed heavy criticism when players were affected by hazardous conditions after play was ...

Former Japan midfielder Keisuke Honda has said he plans to establish an amateur soccer club in Tokyo following a failed venture in Austria. The 33-year-old will have to register the team, named One Tokyo, in the fourth tier of the Tokyo Shakaijin Soccer League under ...

When newly minted FC Cincinnati striker Yuya Kubo makes his MLS debut in March, few will be more eager to welcome him than Tsubasa Endoh. The Toronto FC midfielder, who in 2016 became the first Japanese player selected in the MLS SuperDraft, told From the ...

Tuffy Rhodes could be tough to figure out. Sometimes, he'd flash a big smile and crack jokes. Catch him in a good mood, and you might forget you weren't actually an old friend. Other times, Rhodes gave off an aura that said it'd be best ...

In terms of sumo's vintage years, 1976 was one of the best. The bumper crop included three-time champion Chiyotaikai, fellow ozeki Kotomitsuki (also a title winner), long time sanyaku (the three ranks below yokozuna) occupant Wakanosato and several other top-division stalwarts. A third ozeki, Tochiazuma, was ...

New sekiwake Asanoyama took his first loss of the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament on Wednesday, while yokozuna Kakuryu fell to his third defeat. Asanoyama fell down the leaderboard along with top-ranked maegashira Endo after getting brushed aside by komusubi Abi on Day 4 at ...

Men's badminton world No. 1 Kento Momota returned to Japan on Wednesday after being injured in a car crash in Malaysia earlier this week. Momota left a hospital in Putrajaya, Malaysia's federal administrative capital, on Tuesday evening, according to a hospital source. He landed at Narita ...

Hakuho, winner of the Kyushu basho in November and one of two yokozuna on the banzuke for the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament, withdrew from the first meet of the year on Wednesday. The 34-year-old began his quest for a record-extending 44th career championship on ...