National Jul 30, 2020

As Japan mulls missile defense, Raytheon lobbies for Lockheed’s radar deal

Under Abe, the nation has strengthened its military to deter threats from neighbors, including North Korea and China.

Business / Tech Jul 19, 2020

Japanese robot to clock in at a convenience store in test of retail automation

FamilyMart hopes to have robots working in 20 stores around Tokyo by 2022.

Food & Drink Jul 7, 2020

Sushi meets AI: Japanese inventor's app scopes out choice tuna cuts

Grading software promises to make life easier for buyers of tuna worldwide.

National Mar 28, 2020

Japan rejecting foreign suitors in favor of homegrown stealth jet, sources say

Japan wants to develop a stealth fighter domestically, rejecting designs from Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. in the United States and Britain's BAE Systems PLC, three sources with knowledge of the program said. That would put Japan's leading defense contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, in ...

Business / Tech Feb 6, 2020

Japan's robot bartenders: Last call for human service?

Japan's first robot bartender has begun serving up drinks in a Tokyo pub in a test that could usher in a wave of automation in restaurants and shops struggling to hire staff in an aging society. The repurposed industrial robot serves drinks in its own ...

National / Social Issues Nov 1, 2019

Japan's shrine meant to celebrate Hokkaido's Ainu divides them

On a wooded lake shore in southwest Hokkaido, the government is building a modernist shrine that has divided the indigenous Ainu community whose vanishing culture it was designed to celebrate. At a cost so far of ¥20 billion, the Symbolic Space for Ethnic Harmony is ...

Business / Corporate May 23, 2019

Toyota's committee-designed Japan Taxi becomes pricey symbol of Olympic budget-busting

Toyota Motor's Japan Taxi, born in a government committee and designed to be an all-things-to-all-people cab, has become a high-priced icon of Tokyo's budget-busting 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Launched in 2017, the indigo car is the realization of a government project to put a ...

National Oct 11, 2018

Japanese helicopter carrier wages daily war on dirt and grime

The Kaga helicopter carrier is not the biggest, fastest or most powerful warship to sail the seas, but its 500 crew wage a daily war on dirt and grime to keep it the cleanest. At sunset each evening on a nine-day goodwill voyage from Indonesia ...

National / Politics Oct 3, 2018

Japan's biggest warship visits Sri Lanka amid rise in Chinese military clout

Japan's largest warship, the Kaga helicopter carrier, sailed into Sri Lanka's Colombo harbor this weekend, marking Tokyo's highest profile salvo in a diplomatic battle with China for influence along the region's vital commercial sea lanes. Japan has long provided low-interest loans and aid to Sri ...

National Jul 7, 2018

Northrop Grumman angles for role in Japanese stealth fighter program, sources say

Northrop Grumman Corp. is eyeing a Japanese jet fighter project that could pit it against Lockheed Martin Corp. three sources said, almost three decades after it lost a similar competition to build an advanced stealth jet for the U.S. Air Force. "Northrop is interested," said ...