The government is getting its response to the virus wrong by adding strings to its financial assistance for companies and people, and by not engineering a tighter lockdown, according to best-selling author and economist Yukio Noguchi. The former finance ministry official says Japan should stop ...

The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan is cautioning against a rise in phone calls from fraudsters pretending to be city officials.

Her reported activity took place a day after her husband sounded the alarm over the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases.

The Tokyo package offers ¥500,000 to ¥1 million in cash for small businesses that voluntarily comply with virus countermeasures and curtail or suspend their operations.

Sake breweries across Japan have begun producing high-alcohol content liquids for use in place of the alcohol-based sanitizers that have become scarce during the COVID-19 crisis. Kazuki Haruta, president of Kikisui Sake Co. based in Kochi Prefecture, said he arrived at the idea of producing ...

A former North Korean diplomat has won a parliamentary seat in South Korea's swankiest district, four years after fleeing a London embassy and defecting to the South. Thae Yong Ho was Pyongyang's deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom where he had managed secret funds for ...

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his government is trying to determine whether the coronavirus emanated from a lab in Wuhan, China, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Beijing "needs to come clean" on what they know. The source of the virus remains ...

Beverage maker Suntory Holdings Ltd. will start providing alcohol-based disinfectants free to hospitals later this month to address the shortage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. "We want to cooperate even a little at a time when demand and supply are tight for rubbing alcohol," a ...

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the national government to declare an emergency in seven prefectures. This, in turn, has put the spotlight on the powers and responsibilities of prefectural governors. Though often compared to state governors elsewhere, there are key differences. What is the current ...

The spread of the novel coronavirus and a government request that the public refrain from going outside has added to the predicament of many teenage girls in Japan who have left home due to abuse, poverty or other reasons. "We see fewer girls in town, ...

As COVID-19 cases rise in Japan and the world favors cleanliness over sustainability, the budding environmental movement is being forced to adapt. While activists are coming up with innovative ways to continue spreading their message, they worry about how the nation will be shaped by ...

Economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region will likely slow to a standstill in 2020, something that hasn’t happened in the last 60 years, according to the International Monetary Fund. Changyong Rhee, director of the lender’s Asia and Pacific Department, urged governments in the region to ...

Apple Inc. unveiled the new iPhone SE, its first low-cost smartphone in four years, seeking to boost sales while consumers wait for the launch of new high-end models with 5G later this year. The new iPhone SE with a 4.7-inch screen will hit the market ...

Tokujin Yoshioka, the Japanese designer who created the torch designs for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic relays, has shared a method for making do-it-yourself face shields aimed at helping health care workers on the frontlines of battling COVID-19. "I'd like to share my quick and ...

Dishwashing soap and other household cleaning products are likely to be effective disinfectants against the novel coronavirus, the industry ministry said Wednesday. Such items could be used as alternatives to alcohol-based disinfectants, stocks of which continue to be scarce as demand has soared, according to ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday the government's latest emergency package to cushion the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak will boost the economy by up to an annualized 3.8 percent in real terms. Abe made the remark about the country's ¥108.2 trillion ($1.01 trillion) stimulus ...

Desperate to find a new supply of protective face masks, executives at an American health care services company last month began poring over videos shot inside Chinese factories — and listening closely for gibberish. Nonsensical sayings that accompanied the videos were a kind of code ...

Students in public schools closed by the pandemic are at a strict disadvantage to their peers in private schools. The nation must do everything it can so these children are not left behind.

China continues to destabilize the Indo-Pacific and try to reshape the international order in order to achieve regional dominance.

As Japan's film industry feels the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, campaigners take to crowdfunding to help save smaller cinemas.

Local organizers and the IOC are moving ahead with their plans for the Tokyo Olympics

Mike Trout has major concerns about the possibility of players being quarantined if the MLB season moves forward once the coronavirus outbreak slows. The Los Angeles Angels superstar told NBC Sports Network on Wednesday that the idea of being confined to hotels and ballparks is ...

Baseball is slowly returning to Asia amid the coronavirus pandemic