March 22, 2019
TOKYO (AP) — Ichiro Suzuki has said “sayonara.” The 45-year-old Seattle Mariners star announced his retirement Thursday night, shortly after waving goodbye at the Tokyo Dome during a 5-4 win over Oakland in 12 innings. Ichiro went 0 for 4 and was pulled from right field in the eighth, sal...
The design of the torch for the relay leading up to the 2020 Tokyo Games has been unveiled by the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The committee announced Wednesday that the torch’s shape and color are based on a cherry blossom. It was made partly with aluminium t...
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is currently in Tokyo with Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel as part of the global tour celebrating the orchestra’s centenary. “We are very happy to be back,” Dudamel said at a press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday. This is the ninth time for the LA Phil t...
OSAKA — With a dream of emulating the K-pop idols they so admire, more and more young Japanese are taking singing and dancing lessons. In response, a music vocational school in Osaka has started a s...
During the warring states era in 15th-century Japan, Hyakkimaru, a mysterious swordsman, travels around killing yokai monsters. He hides swords in both of his artificial arms. In fact, most of his bod...
TAKARAZUKA, Hyogo — Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) and two other popular characters created by Osamu Tezuka (1928-89) are featured on packages of boil-in-bag curry being sold at hotels in Takarazuka, Hyo...
WELLINGTON/SYDNEY (Reuters) — As politicians hit the hustings across the Solomon Islands two weeks out from a general election in the South Pacific archipelago, the loyalty of one of Taiwan’s few...
BANGKOK (AP) — Prayuth Chan-ocha became prime minister in a very Thai way: He led a military coup. Now after five years of running Thailand with absolute power, he’s seeking to hold on to the top...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Four British and U.S. investment firms said Wednesday they have proposed that Lixil Group Corp. hold an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting to remove its chairman and chief e...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — A Teikoku Databank Ltd. survey has shown that 43.6 percent of companies in Japan expect the era change and related 10-day holiday to affect their business. Their expectations ...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Personal spending in Japan during this year’s Golden Week holiday period, which features 10 straight days off until May 6, is expected to rise 7.6 percent from a year before,...
MANAGUA (AP) — President Daniel Ortega’s administration promised Wednesday to free within 90 days all demonstrators arrested in the year since protests erupted against the Nicaraguan government. ...
TOKYO/BEIJING (Bloomberg) — Carlos Ghosn went all-in on China by approving a plan to invest $9 billion, yet his successor at Nissan Motor Co. appears to be rolling that back amid signs the world’s...
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (Reuters) — New Zealand will ban military-style semi-automatic and assault rifles under tough new gun laws following the killing of 50 people in the country’s worst mass...
NEW YORK (Reuters) — The S&P 500 and the Dow ended lower on Wednesday as interest rate-sensitive financial stocks dragged down the indexes after the U.S. Federal Reserve affirmed a dovish monetary ...
ASTANA (Reuters) — Kazakhstan took a step closer to a carefully choreographed dynastic succession on Wednesday as the daughter of its long-serving ruler was named to a post that put her in line for...
NAGOYA (Reuters) — Toyota Motor Corp. and Suzuki Motor Corp. on Wednesday said they planned to produce electric vehicles (EVs) and compact cars for each other to better compete with fast-changing t...
BRUSSELS (AP) — Europe’s antitrust regulators slapped Google with a big fine Wednesday for the third time in less than two years, ordering the tech giant to pay €1.49 billion ($1.7 billion) for...
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Boston’s recent dominance of the Philadelphia 76ers has been frustrating for Joel Embiid. So when Marcus Smart angrily shoved the star big man to the ground, Embiid had finally...
NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Electra Meccanica Vehicles Corp. climbed as much as 39 percent Wednesday after receiving its first analyst rating, a signal that the Canadian small-cap is finally attracting a...
MILAN (AP) — A bus driver in northern Italy abducted 51 children and their school chaperones Wednesday, threatening the hostages’ lives for 40 minutes and setting the bus on fire at a Carabinieri...
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co. plans to spend about $900 million and hire about 900 workers to build electric and self-driving vehicles in Michigan, while moving production of a smal...
KABUL (AFP-Jiji) — War-torn Afghanistan has delayed its presidential election until Sept. 28, officials announced Wednesday, the second time the ballot has been put back and five months later than ...
South Korea used the name “Japan Sea” for waters it claims should also be referred to as the “East Sea” in nautical charts it released the year after Seoul raised the issue with the internatio...
TOKYO (AFP-Jiji) — A Japanese Olympics mega-fan who attended every summer games since Tokyo in 1964 has died, just over a year before his home city was to host its second Olympics. Tokyo businessm...
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. said Monday the amount of “treated water” at the company’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture has exceeded 1 million tons. ...
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes finished modestly higher on Monday, extending the market’s solid gains from a rally last week. Energy companies notched the biggest gains after the price of U.S...
The details of ceremonies related to the Emperor’s abdication and the crown prince’s accession to the throne have been decided at a meeting of the panel overseeing the ceremonies. For the Oct. 2...
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — More than 1,000 people were feared dead in Mozambique four days after a cyclone slammed into the country, submerging entire villages and leaving bodies floating in the floodwater...
TOKYO (AFP-Jiji) — Seals and whales in the Arctic are shifting their feeding patterns as climate change alters their habitats, and the way they do so may determine whether they survive, a new study ...
UTRECHT, Netherlands (Reuters) — Dutch police arrested a Turkish man suspected of shooting dead three people and wounding five on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht on Monday. Police said the sus...
BERLIN (Jiji Press) — Former sumo wrestler Kaido Hoovelson from Estonia, who went by his ring name Baruto in Japan, has become a lawmaker in his home country. Hoovelson, 34, said on Twitter on Sun...
“Godzilla Japan” has been chosen as the nickname for the Japanese national judo team that will compete in the World Judo Championships set to begin on Aug. 25 at the Nippon Budokan hall in Chiyod...
The Japan News has partnered with media startup inkl, a news service that curates articles from the world’s leading publishers for users to read on mobile devices. A selection of articles from The Japan News and The Yomiuri Shimbun is now available to read on inkl, which hosts titles from about 20 countries. 
The following is a translation of the Henshu Techo column from The Yomiuri Shimbun’s March 9 issue. * * * Kazuo Tokumitsu never lost his grip on his microphone as he fell on his ba...
The following is a translation of the Henshu Techo column from The Yomiuri Shimbun’s Feb. 27 issue. * * * There was no concept of “zero” in Japanese mathematics in the past. Th...
Rising director Shuntaro Fujita made his debut in London, a major center of dramatic arts. His production of the musical “Violet” has been running at the Charing Cross Theatre in the British capit...
For those who would like to see noh and kyogen plays but find it a bit daunting to attend a show, a performance aimed at beginners will be held at the Yomiuri Otemachi Hall in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, fro...
The Oxford University Orchestra will make its debut in Japan later this month. The OUO is the flagship orchestra of the oldest university in the English-speaking world and is part of the Oxford Unive...
