A man in his 20s in Kyoto Prefecture has tested positive for coronavirus, the health ministry said Wednesday evening, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 35. It is the second case of the disease confirmed in the tourist hot spot. A ...

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has said that Japan is not planning to postpone a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping expected for early April. "At this moment, we intend to steadily advance preparations to realize a Japan visit (by Xi) as planned," Suga ...

Some lawmakers, including representatives of the Liberal Democratic Party, have made the case for a state of emergency clause to be added to the Constitution, basing their argument on the current crisis around the new coronavirus outbreak, drawing criticism from opposition parties. At Friday's meeting ...

Fear of possible coronavirus infections on a cruise ship carrying about 3,700 people became reality Wednesday as 10 of 31 passengers tested positive for the virus.

A man on trial over a fatal knife rampage in 2016 at a care home for people with mental disabilities told a court Wednesday that he committed the murders because he felt "it would be beneficial to society." Satoshi Uematsu, 30, who has admitted to ...

A teenager was killed Wednesday morning when she was struck by a small landslide while walking through a residential area in the city of Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, local police said. The landslide occurred at around 8 a.m. when a nearly vertical, 10-meter-wide section of a ...

A Naha official said the municipal government was trying to verify whether any passengers who left the Diamond Princess had spread the virus while it was docked in the city.

The Japan Prize Foundation said Tuesday it will award the 2020 Japan Prize to two scientists from overseas for their contributions to research into Neanderthals and the development of fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless communications technology. The prize will go to Svante Paabo for his work ...

East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) said Tuesday that it has developed a smartphone app for sharing reports of train gropers that it will test on its Saikyo Line, notorious for the frequency of such incidents. Around 25 passengers including employees of JR East will ...

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday he will visit Hiroshima in August for the 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city. The visit will be "a way to demonstrate, not only my solidarity with Hiroshima, but my strong commitment to nuclear disarmament ...

Nomura Holdings Inc. is moving forward with plans to hire wealth managers for its new China operation, though the outbreak of the new coronavirus threatens to slow the expansion, according to an executive overseeing the project. "We are entering the phase of adding front-line ...

More than 1,800 passengers and crew on a cruise ship that docked in Hong Kong on Wednesday were being kept on board while they were tested for a coronavirus after some crew reported fever, authorities said. The former British colony saw its first death from ...

Major taxi operator Nihon Kotsu Co. and information technology firm DeNA Co. will integrate their taxi-hailing app businesses April 1. With their integrated services, over 100,000 taxis will be available for hailing, the companies said Tuesday. The integration is intended to increase cost competitiveness, improve customer ...

Top firms, excluding those in the finance and utility sectors, are expected to log a 9.6 percent fall in net 2019 profit, affected by the U.S.-China trade conflict and the coronavirus.

Aichi Prefecture, where two people have been confirmed as infected with the new coronavirus from China, is calling on non-Japanese speakers in the prefecture to use its free multilingual translation service when they need to communicate with others regarding the virus. The Multilingual Call Center ...

Donald Trump struck a triumphant tone in Tuesday's State of the Union address, staking his bid for re-election squarely on the U.S. economy and embracing the deep partisan rancor over his presidency on the eve of his likely acquittal in the Senate's impeachment trial. As ...

Japanese authorities are introducing a variety of measures to prevent the wrongful use of drones, which has been increasing due to many people being unfamiliar with regulations, especially tourists from abroad. Under the civil aeronautics law, a drone of 200 grams or more cannot be ...

Bernie Sanders' strong showing in the Iowa caucuses had become the conventional wisdom. But Iowa politics is an expectations game, and Pete Buttigieg played it expertly. With more than 70 percent of precincts reporting, Iowans were giving a slight edge to Buttigieg, who represents the ...

Remember Aibo, the computerized dog Sony Corp. started selling in 1999 as the first personal robot? Hiro Mizuno, the chief investment officer of the Government Pension Investment Fund, does. So he asked Sony's computer science lab unit to build him a cyberhound using artificial ...

Somewhere in China, perhaps in the southern Yunnan province, there's a cave that may hold the mysterious origins of the deadly coronavirus that's infected thousands, cut off millions of Chinese from their jobs and families and wreaked havoc in global financial markets. Peter Daszak, a ...

A top U.S. partner at SoftBank Group’s technology fund is stepping down after the company posted declining returns on its investments and struggled to raise capital for the next Vision Fund.

Reuters was recently given exclusive access to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, where three reactors melted down in 2011 after a powerful earthquake and tsunami overwhelmed the seaside facility. It was my fourth visit to the plant since the disaster to report on a ...

The Nasdaq hit a record high on Tuesday and the S&P 500 headed for its biggest one-day gain in about six months as fears of a heavy economic impact from the coronavirus outbreak waned after China's central bank intervened. The Dow was on pace for ...

Hundreds of migrants rallied for a second day on the Greek island of Lesbos on Tuesday to demand faster processing of asylum requests, while local residents staged a separate protest calling for the camps to close. The migrants chanted "Freedom" and some held up a ...

The World Health Organization will work with travel and tourism industry representatives on Wednesday to draw up further recommendations to protect their crews so they can resume flights to China, a senior WHO official said. Sylvie Briand, WHO director of global infectious hazard preparedness, said ...

Hyundai Motor will suspend production in South Korea because the outbreak of the new coronavirus has disrupted the supply of parts, it said, becoming the first major carmaker to do so outside of China. The flu-like virus has killed more than 400 people and its ...

It is becoming slowly recognized that violence backfires and that soft methods, rather than harsh and confrontational measures and battle plans, now stand the best chance of stabilizing societies.

The former 'tigers' must tackle structural weaknesses to avoid a low-growth future

Wishing Chong brings an all-male version of 'Romeo and Juliet,' set in post-war Western Japan, to the stage in Tokyo.

A chamber piece of artworks, "One's Behavior" explores both the connection and alienation that pervades the human psyche.

Former Japan striker Shinobu Ono, the all-time top goal scorer in the women's Nadeshiko League, has retired from soccer after 21 seasons, her former club Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara said Wednesday. The 36-year-old helped Japan win the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2011 and finish ...

Wheelchair basketball's governing body must reassess the eligibility of 50-75 players by late May or face removal of the sport from the Tokyo Games, an International Paralympic Committee official said Wednesday. The IPC has instructed the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation to act on concerns that ...

Japan's national sport is semiglobalized. For the first 1,957 years of its history, sumo was practiced exclusively by people born and raised in this country. From 23 B.C. to 1964, every single rikishi was ethnically Japanese. It's been an entirely different situation for the past few decades ...