The nation's press freedom ranking in 2018 slightly increased from the previous year, primarily the result of worsening conditions in other democracies, Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday. The international watchdog group, which measures the degree of freedom available to journalists in 180 countries, ranked Japan ...

Orix Corp. officially announced the launch Wednesday of its new free information service for foreign tourists that enables the accessing of local information websites translated into other languages through the scanning of specially designated placards using smartphones. By holding a phone or a similar device ...

An Australian woman who was raped by a U.S. military serviceman more than a decade ago renewed on Thursday her request to Japan's government to amend the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which critics claim allows both countries to evade responsibility for misconduct ...

The Slovenian and Colombian ambassadors to Japan on Wednesday called for more awareness about the worldwide risks posed by land mines by rolling up their pant legs and sleeves in a symbolic show of support for those who have lost limbs due to the ...

Japanese high school students have lower physical and mental self-confidence but healthier eating habits than their American, Chinese and South Korean counterparts, according to a study released Friday by the National Institution for Youth Education. The NIYE, a semipublic body, collectively surveyed 8,480 high ...

Kyoto University ties the University of Tokyo — moving up two spots from last year — for first place in the ranking of Japanese universities by Times Higher Education magazine.

The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit filed by two Syrian asylum-seekers — echoing the Immigration Bureau's decision not to grant them refugee status — in the first such court challenge in Japan since civil war broke out in the Middle Eastern ...

The Japan Society for Cult Prevention and Recovery (JSCPR) demanded Monday that the state refrain from executing 12 former members of doomsday cult group Aum Shinrikyo, not including the group's guru leader, amid growing speculation that recent transfers of seven of them could indicate ...

On a chilly afternoon in mid-January, more than 30 Kurdish asylum-seekers gathered in front of United Nations University in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward to call for U.N. action on Turkey's continued all-out attacks on Kurds in the northern Syrian town of Afrin. Addressing bystanders through a ...

The estimated number of foreign visitors to the nation's national parks increased to a new record of 6 million last year, with a park in Kumamoto Prefecture, which was hit by natural disasters in 2016, having enjoyed a boost, the Environment Ministry has announced. The ...