November saw the highest one-week number of infections with the respiratory syncytial (RS) virus—which causes pneumonia and other serious diseases in babies and small children—since the National ...

Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose on Monday offered to give up his entire salary for one year to take responsibility for accepting questionable financial assistance from the Tokushukai medical group. “I wou...

The Environment Ministry will set up a panel of experts by the year-end to discuss details of the transportation of radioactive soil from nuclear disaster-affected areas in Fukushima Prefecture to pl...

Government agencies have discovered food mislabeling at about 300 entities in the country, it was learned Monday. The finding was reported to the day’s meeting of senior officials of relevant age...

The government paid a record ¥107.5 trillion in social welfare benefits in fiscal 2011 ended in March last year, up 2.7 percent from the year before, according to a government-run think tank. On to...

Crown Princess Masako pledged her continued efforts to regain her health in a statement issued to mark her 50th birthday on Monday. The crown princess has been receiving medical treatment for a stre...

Japan Post Co. has revealed new stamps and postcards it will issue when postage charges are raised in line with the consumption tax hike on April 1. The 11 new stamps and 12 postcards will mainly fe...

WASHINGTON (Bloomberg)—The Obama administration lauded an agreement on trade rules struck by the World Trade Organization, while analysts said the deal may do more to salvage broader WTO talks than...

The average daily balance lent by Japanese banks climbed 2.2 percent from a year earlier to about ¥469.26 trillion in November, the steepest growth since the 2.4 percent posted in June 2009, the Ban...