Having fled Japan while awaiting trial for alleged financial wrongdoing, former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has probably become the most famous foreign national ever arrested in the country. For a while after his initial detention in November 2018, the media discussed Japan's so-called hostage ...

Before going forward into the new year, an extra edition of Shukan Shincho (with a Jan. 27 publication date) flashed back in time to track down author Ben Goto. Now a spry 89 years old, Goto achieved instant fame with a 1973 publication titled ...

Everyone has a friend who likes to darken the mood when others are simply trying to have a good time. Dr. Toshihiko Matsumoto took on this mantle over the new year, killing the buzz for a number of people on social media just hours ...

"Some say that though Kobo Daishi (Kukai) left this life he did not die, that he lies uncorrupted in (his tomb on Mount Koya) under these ancient trees, awaiting the coming of the future Buddha who will signal the salvation of the world" — ...

Japan’s best-known activist investor announces a tender offer for Toshiba Machine Co., which is embroiled in a controversial takeover battle for NuFlare Technology Inc.

With opposition parties focusing on a spate of scandals, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will have to go on the defensive in the upcoming Diet session.

The Cabinet Office said Friday that it has verbally reprimanded six current and former personnel division heads for failing to properly manage records on controversial cherry blossom-viewing parties hosted by the prime minister. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration apparently hopes that the punishment by the ...

Analysis Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears torn between the United States and the European Union as he tries to chart Britain's course on the international stage weeks before Brexit. From the fraught situation in Iran to controversy over the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, Johnson has been ...

Foreign tourists in Japan spent a record ¥4.81 trillion ($43.6 billion) in 2019 in line with a continued increase in visitors, government data showed Friday. Their spending rose 6.5 percent from 2018, increasing for the seventh consecutive year, the Japan Tourism Agency said in a ...

The U.S. State Department will do everything necessary to determine whether former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was under threat in Ukraine, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday. Documents released this week indicated Lev Parnas, a Ukraine-born U.S. citizen, helped U.S. President Donald Trump's personal ...

Toshiba Corp. Chief Executive Officer Nobuaki Kurumatani will add the title of president effective April, part of a revamp among top management aimed at speeding up decision-making. Satoshi Tsunakawa, the current president who was promoted in 2016 following an accounting scandal, will resign and become ...

Fears are mounting that a new coronavirus identified in China may spread, not only infecting humans but also hurting the world's second-biggest economy, which already is beset by a trade war with the United States. A potential pandemic of the novel virus, reminiscent of the ...

The Japanese Communist Party criticizes China’s current leadership by saying Beijing’s quest for “great-power chauvinism and hegemonism” is problematic.

The former headquarters of Nintendo Co. in Kyoto will be renovated into a hotel, with plans to welcome visitors around summer 2021, according to developer Plan Do See Inc. The four-story structure, currently unoccupied, will feature approximately 20 guest rooms and will keep much of ...

Iran's supreme leader threw his support behind the elite Revolutionary Guard in a rare sermon on Friday after their belated admission that they had accidentally downed an airliner triggered days of street protests. In his first Friday sermon in eight years, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also ...

The head of the nuclear regulator has called on the top executive of Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings to beef up staff at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in the wake of a string of human errors in decommissioning work. Tepco Holdings President Tomoaki ...

A survey finds a large majority of Japanese believe the nation needs to create a more welcoming environment for foreign residents.

On the morning of Jan. 17, 1995, I was jolted awake in my Kyoto apartment by the largest earthquake I'd ever experienced. The glass windows shook violently, but thankfully didn't break. Before going back to bed, I turned on the TV I'd pulled out of ...

Japan and the United States on Friday lauded the decades-old security treaty that is the bedrock of their alliance, but which U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized as "unfair" and imbalanced. The comments from the two countries' top diplomatic officials marked the 60th anniversary of ...

Beijing is well-positioned to help other developing nations avoid the mistakes it's made in protecting biodiversity.

Sitting silently among the rolling pastures, rice paddies and lush forests of the idyllic village of Otama are rows upon rows of photovoltaic solar panels — vast swaths of dark gray injecting dissonance into the postcard-like landscape local residents pride themselves on. These solar farms ...

Boxer Yoshikawa helps others to learn to roll with the punches

Who says cheese isn't good for you? This hot pot has three gut-friendly fermented foods that make it a hearty, warming family favorite.

What is so special about mingei (folk crafts)? For Muneyoshi Yanagi it was significant that ordinary, unknown and largely uneducated craftsmen used natural materials to make objects that were sublimely beautiful.

Elan is the new restaurant of the young and impressive Ryoma Shida, formerly of the two-Michelin-star restaurant Esquisse. Here, Japanese ingredients meet contemporary French cuisine.

Vegan Store, Japan's first vegan convenience store, is on a mission to demystify vegan fare and make it more accessible in the capital.

2020's first hit dessert collaboration is here with Mister Donut and Pierre Herme's lineup of six chocolate- and fruit-forward doughnuts.

Winter is a fine time to visit Yunishigawa. The months from December to the first week of March sees the enchanting Kamakura Festival, when hundreds of kamakura (snow huts) are constructed along the Yunishigawa river, in forest recesses and in the precincts of temples ...

The Japan Times film critic Mark Schilling celebrates 30-plus years of reviewing Japanese cinema with his latest book, "Art, Cult and Commerce: Japanese Cinema Since 2000."

Rieko Nakagawa, born in 1935 in Sapporo, was working as a teacher in a small nursery school near Komazawa Park when she wrote her first children's book. It was the late 1950s during the postwar years, and Nakagawa felt there weren't many good children's books ...

Daiya Seto sped to a Japan-record 1 minute, 52.53 seconds to win the men's 200-meter butterfly on Saturday in the Champions Swim Series 2020 in Beijing. Despite saying he was not in good form, Seto broke the national mark set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics ...

Free agent right-hander Yoshihisa Hirano said Saturday he is seeking to continue his career in the majors. The 35-year-old is still without a contract with only a month to go until spring training gets underway for most clubs in February. Hirano, who moved to the ...

Two-way talent Shohei Ohtani can take pitching rehab assignments in the minors without losing his place in the Los Angeles Angels' major league lineup thanks to a rule change this season, Angels General Manager Billy Eppler said Friday. Ohtani, the 2018 American League Rookie of ...

Former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen remains winless in the Japan Rugby Top League after his Toyota Verblitz side were beaten 40-20 by Robbie Deans' Panasonic Wild Knights in front of 37,050 at Toyota Stadium on Saturday. Kenki Fukuoka, playing his final 15s game of ...

Rank-and-filer Shodai suffered his first defeat and relinquished his sole lead at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament on Saturday. No. 4 maegashira Shodai lost to struggling ozeki Goeido (3-4) in the day's penultimate bout at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan and fell into a five-way tie ...

Life after professional sumo (for those who don't qualify for elder status) is generally quite prosaic. The vast majority of wrestlers end up working in regular jobs. Most slim down a lot, and within five or 10 years are often indistinguishable from anyone else in ...

Iran's soccer federation said Friday it has been banned from hosting international matches inside the country. The "federation received a letter today from the Asian Football Confederation... announcing the decision to hold AFC Champions League matches hosted by Iranian teams in neutral countries," said a ...

Morimichi Takagi, who held down second base for Nippon Professional Baseball's Chunichi Dragons for the better part of 21 years and twice managed the Central League club, died Friday of acute heart failure at the age of 78. The taciturn Takagi, one of the rare ...

Three-time World Series champion manager Tony La Russa used a camera-aided system to steal signs from opposing MLB teams in the late 1980s, retired star Jack McDowell claimed Friday. McDowell told Charlotte radio station WFNZ that the Chicago White Sox had a system established by ...

Naomi Osaka has learned to appreciate her victories more after enduring the "toughest" year of her fledging career and the Japanese world No. 3 says mentally she is in a better place to launch her Australian Open title defense. Osaka started 2019 by winning her ...