MOSCOW (Jiji Press) — The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday criticized the exhibits displayed at Japan’s National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty, which was reopened last week. Summoning a...

Humans exist essentially as individuals. But when they opt to live separately from others, they are apt to be helpless. In contrast, when individuals meet and join hands with others to found an organi...

A Japanese government-chartered private plane has arrived at Haneda airport, carrying some 200 Japanese residents from Wuhan, China., in response to the outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new type of c...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — An All Nippon Airways plane chartered by the Japanese government arrived at an airport in Wuhan late Tuesday night local time on a mission to bring home Japanese nationals from...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japanese nationals in Wuhan are set to return home Wednesday morning aboard a commercial flight sent by the Japanese government in response to the spread of a deadly coronavirus...

The government decided to designate pneumonia caused by a new coronavirus found in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, as a “designated infectious disease” under the Infectious Diseases Law at a Cabinet...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that codifying the Self-Defense Forces in the Constitution is related to the backbone of national defense. At a meeting of the Budget Co...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government said Monday it will designate pneumonia caused by a new type of coronavirus that is spreading mainly in China as a specified infectious disease. The government ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington Sunday night vowing to “make history” at a planned meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump for the unveiling o...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Public pension payments in Japan in fiscal 2020 from April will be raised by 0.2% year on year, up for the second straight year, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Fri...

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump set a presidential record for activity on his favorite social media platform Wednesday, tweeting and retweeting at length about the Senate impeachment ...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his eagerness on Wednesday to go ahead with the government’s plan to introduce casino-featuring integrated resorts (IRs) in Japan, despite...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Japanese government-sponsored memorial service for the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami will end in 2021, which will mark the 10th anniversary of the massive disaster, Chi...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Democratic Party for the People, at a meeting on Monday of its lawmakers in both chambers of the Diet, failed to reach a conclusion on its proposed merger with the Constitu...

TOKYO (Reuters) — U.S. President Donald Trump marked the 60th anniversary of the signing of the security treaty between the United States and Japan with a call for a stronger and deeper alliance bet...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U.S. National Archives, home to foundational documents such as the Bill of Rights, apologized on Saturday for altering images critical of President Donald Trump at an exhi...

WASHINGTON (AP) — New documents released by House Democrats suggest that Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, was more deeply involved than was previously known...

TOKYO (Reuters) — Japan and the United States on Friday lauded the decades-old security treaty that is the bedrock of their alliance, but which U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized as “unfai...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — A Cabinet Office survey showed Friday that 80.8% of the Japanese public tolerates the capital punishment system. Only 9.0% think the system should be abolished, according to ...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Cabinet Office said Friday that it has severely reprimanded six current and former personnel division heads for failing to properly manage records on controversial cherry b...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who is expecting a child with his wife, said Wednesday that he will take paternity leave for some two weeks in total over three months. K...

For many Japanese people, Japan’s diplomacy is Shinzo Abe’s. Past foreign ministers of the current administration, Fumio Kishida and Taro Kono, earnestly carried out their duties, and their curren...

SEOUL (Jiji Press) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged Japan on Tuesday to present its own ideas to resolve the issue of South Koreans requisitioned to work for Japanese firms during World W...

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry aims to allow the use of commercially available tablets and personal computers for electronic voting in local elections. E-voting became possible in ...

The Japanese government welcomed the victory of Tsai Ing-wen, leader of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, in the island’s presidential election on Saturday. “The government of ...

BEIRUT (Jiji Press) — Japanese Ambassador to Lebanon Takeshi Okubo at a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Tuesday formally sought the Middle East country’s cooperation in looking int...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will call a snap election is expected to be the biggest issue in the Japanese political scene in 2020, pundits say. Many politicians specula...

The government intends to gradually raise the retirement age of national civil servants to 65 from the current 60, and will submit bills to next year’s ordinary Diet session for that purpose, The Yo...

CHENGDU, China (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday confirmed cooperation to realize a successful visit to Japan by Chinese President Xi Jinping as a...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japanese prosecutors are considering building a bribery case against ruling party lawmaker Tsukasa Akimoto over a Chinese company’s plan to open a casino-featuring integrated...

CHENGDU, China (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday conveyed to South Korean President Moon Jae-in a wish to improve relations between Tokyo and Seoul. “Japan and South Korea are ...

BEIJING (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday as they seek to promote exchanges for a new era in the bilateral relationship. The two leaders held...

WASHINGTON (AFP-Jiji) — A U.S. budget official told the Pentagon to “hold off” on military aid to Kiev 90 minutes after a controversial phone call between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainia...

YOKOSUKA, Kanagawa (Jiji Press) — Defense Minister Taro Kono on Saturday inspected one of the two Izumo-class destroyers, which are set to be transformed into de facto aircraft carriers. He visit...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump in phone talks on Saturday reaffirmed close cooperation between their countries toward resolving the issue of North Kor...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that the areas of operation for the Maritime Self-Defense Force, which Japan plans to dispatch to ensure the safety of commerci...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japan on Friday eased its curbs on South Korea-bound exports of photoresists, one of the three semiconductor materials subject to the stricter controls, ahead of a bilateral su...

To strengthen security on remote islands near the nation’s borders, including the Senkaku Islands in Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture, the National Police Agency decided Friday to establish a remote isl...

BEIJING (Jiji Press) — Defense Minister Taro Kono told his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, on Wednesday that Tokyo is “strongly concerned” about frequent activities by Chinese government ships...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government Tuesday decided to cut medical fees, including drug prices, under the public health insurance system by 0.45% in a biennial cost revision for fiscal 2020. The f...

MADRID — Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi spoke with his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, on the sidelines of an Asia-Europe Meeting of foreign ministers in Madrid on Sunday. The two min...

A nationwide opinion survey by The Yomiuri Shimbun found that 64% of respondents approved of continuing the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) between Japan and South Korea, c...

The government plans to invite officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations secretariat and policymakers from the 10 member countries to Japan for training on cybersecurity in January an...

In October, the government’s National Security Secretariat (NSS) opened an ad hoc office to prepare to add an economic division to the NSS, which serves the National Security Council (NSC). The new...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Diet approved Wednesday a recently signed trade agreement between Japan and the United States, with Tokyo and Washington expected to put it into effect on Jan. 1, 2020, afte...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Diet enacted Wednesday government-proposed legislation to oblige major firms in the nation to have outside board directors. The House of Councillors passed the bill to am...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government plans to advance reconstruction efforts for fire-hit Shuri Castle by establishing a council of experts who were involved in the restoration of the castle in 1992....

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Diet enacted a bill Wednesday to introduce a new working-hour system that will enable public school teachers to take extended holidays, as part of work-style reforms. The l...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that he will visit China on Dec. 23-25. Abe showed the trip schedule at a meeting between the government and the ruling coalition of th...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and new European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have agreed to deepen relations between Japan and the European Union. In telephone talks ...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — A nonpartisan group of House of Councillors lawmakers Monday agreed on the early completion of renovation work to improve barrier-free access in the upper chamber of the Diet. ...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Total expenditures by political parties in Japan in 2018 dropped ¥13,443 million, or 17 percent, from the previous year, to ¥65,436 million, an Internal Affairs and Communica...

SEOUL (AFP-Jiji) — North Korea fired two “unidentified projectiles” on Thursday — the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. — Seoul said, as nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington remain ...

SEOUL (Jiji Press) — South Korean National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang has drafted a bill to set up a foundation to settle the current wartime labor dispute with Japan, South Korea’s Yonhap ne...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government has unveiled three conditions for it to review the tightening of its export controls on South Korea and once again give the neighboring country preferential trade...

NAGOYA (Jiji Press) — Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov met in Nagoya on Friday and agreed to meet again in Russia next month. Motegi told Lavrov that he...

WASHINGTON (Jiji Press) — The United States welcomes South Korea’s decision to renew its military intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan, a State Department spokesperson said Friday. “This...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government on Friday announced a plan to resume bureau-chief-level talks with South Korea over issues related to export controls. The announcement came as Seoul decided t...

SEOUL (Jiji Press) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday he will make efforts with Japan “until the very last moment” to keep a bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact in place....

Toshihiro Nikai, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, reiterated his intention to support Prime Minister Shinzo Abe if Abe wants to win a fourth consecutive term as party president, at a...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Hong Kong authorities have taken a Japanese man in his 20s into custody amid pro-democracy protests in the former British colony, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tue...

The 2019 GZERO Summit will be held in Tokyo on Monday, co-chaired by U.S. political scientist Ian Bremmer and Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren). Experts from aro...

BEIJING (Jiji Press) — A Japanese university professor who was detained during a trip to Beijing in September has been freed and returned to Japan on Friday. The Hokkaido University professor, No...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday denied violating the public offices election law or the political funds control law over his hosting of an annual cherry blossom-viewing par...

SEOUL (Jiji Press) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday reiterated his unwillingness to maintain a military intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan unless Tokyo lifts its restrictions o...

TANEGASHIMA, Kagoshima — The Self-Defense Forces conducted a large-scale amphibious training drill premised on regaining control of a remote island invaded by hostile forces from a nearby country. ...

SEOUL (Reuters) — A $5 billion demand to meet the cost of hosting American troops, and tensions between Seoul and Tokyo that threaten to undercut regional cooperation are set to top the agenda when...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — A Japanese man was injured amid escalating protests in Hong Kong on Monday, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi revealed Tuesday. The man, in his 50s, is not in critical condit...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government will cancel next year’s cherry blossom-viewing party hosted by the prime minister, mainly to clarify the criteria for choosing guests to the event, Chief Cabine...

SEOUL (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent personal letters to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un between May and September, proposing holding a summit between them, a major South Korean daily...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The profit margin at hospitals in Japan, excluding psychiatric institutions, came to minus 2.7 percent on average in fiscal 2018, as labor costs ballooned reflecting an increase...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Tokyo metropolitan government’s election commission Wednesday set the next gubernatorial election for July 5, 2020, about three weeks before the opening of the Tokyo Olymp...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government decided on Tuesday to extend the stay of two Ground Self-Defense Force members at the Multinational Force & Observers in the Sinai Peninsula, which oversees a ce...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — China is strengthening its energy ties with Central Asian countries through its Belt and Road regional development initiative, a Defense Ministry think tank said Friday. Beij...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government at a Cabinet meeting Friday decided to disburse ¥131.6 billion from its fiscal 2019 budget reserves to help areas affected by recent powerful typhoons. The fu...

Pardons granted in commemoration of the Emperor’s enthronement ceremony took effect Tuesday. Given by Cabinet decree, the pardons are limited to restoring the rights of people who lost their legal...

Forty-four percent of respondents admitted they had taken false information on the internet to be true, a figure slightly exceeding the 41 percent who said they had not believed non-factual material, ...

LONDON (AFP-Jiji) — A British whistleblower responsible for a dramatic leak in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and now the subject of a Hollywood film hopes it will refocus attention on the ...

BRUSSELS (AFP-Jiji) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson started phoning EU leaders Saturday to sell his proposals for a managed Brexit, but he met with pressure to revise his offer — and to do ...

NEW YORK (Jiji Press) — Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, agreed Thursday to continue dialogue between them and other diplomats of the two countri...

NEW YORK (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday expressed hopes for active discussions on constitutional amendments to be held at an extraordinary session of the Diet, set to open on...

SEOUL — In July, South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s administration dissolved the foundation to support former so-called comfort women, which had been established on the basis of the 2015 Japan-...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — With a parliamentary session to start on Oct. 4, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to place less conservative members of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party in key party and parl...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A whistleblower’s complaint over U.S. President Donald Trump’s interactions with a foreign leader is testing the political and practical power Democrats can use against a Repub...

The Japanese and South Korean governments are arranging a meeting between Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, to be held during the ongoing U.N. Gener...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government held a uniform employment examination for people with disabilities on Sunday for the second time since a hiring scandal came to light last year. A total of 4,57...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japan remains committed to reducing coal-fired power generation to cut greenhouse gas emissions, new Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said in a recent interview. Japanese...

The government is making the final arrangements to grant pardons within October to commemorate the enthronement ceremony of the Emperor slated for Oct. 22. Pardons related to Imperial family events ...

The government decided Friday to standardize, in principle, the writing of Japanese surnames before given names when writing in Roman letters on official state documents. The Cabinet Secretariat and...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is seen keeping Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai in the post when he reshuffles the Cabinet and the LDP leadership team Sept...

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Jiji Press) — Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated on Thursday the opening of a new large fishery processing plant built on one of the northern territories. Talking wit...

WIELUN, Poland (AFP-Jiji) — German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday asked Poland’s forgiveness for history’s bloodiest conflict during a ceremony in the Polish city of Wielun, where t...

LONDON (AFP-Jiji) — Protesters wielding pro-democracy placards and EU flags rallied on Saturday in dozens of British cities against British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s controversial move to sus...

SKALA SYKAMINEAS, Greece (AFP-Jiji) — In Skala Sykamineas, a small fishing village at the north end of the Greek island of Lesbos, locals fear the arrival of 500 migrants on Thursday may signal a re...

At the height of Sudan’s Darfur war in 2004 — then the world’s worst conflict — an American nurse tended to a baby injured in the leg. Fifteen years later, she was miraculously reunited with ...

BALUKHALI, Bangladesh (AFP-Jiji) — Heavily pregnant Rohingya mother Rashida Khatun fled her home in a remote village in Myanmar’s Rakhine state two years ago, bone-tired but desperate to find a sa...

ROME (AFP-Jiji) — Italy’s president is due to begin a fresh round of talks with discordant political parties on Tuesday aimed at finding a new coalition government and ending a political crisis sp...

Seventy-two percent of people who responded to a weekend survey by The Yomiuri Shimbun said they agreed with the need for Japan and South Korea to cooperate over security, far exceeding those who did...

BANGKOK (AFP-Jiji) — The United States and 10 Southeast Asian states will hold their first-ever joint maritime exercises in September, aimed at preventing “wrongdoing” as Washington and Beijing ...

SEOUL — The South Korean military began a military exercise on Sunday morning near the Takeshima islands of Shimane Prefecture — which South Korea is illegally occupying and calls them Dokdo — a...

BEIJING — North Korea is likely to have welcomed South Korea’s decision to scrap an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, a move that could weaken international efforts to encircle and pressure th...

According to the original version of the Japanese government’s 2019 white paper on defense, North Korea is believed to have already achieved the miniaturization of nuclear weapons and the developmen...

Japan-South Korea relations are worsening to a level not seen since the end of World War II. The deterioration began on Oct. 30, 2018, when South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered a Japanese company t...

The government has tightened the criteria on bidding for security-related research and study projects and other contracts that handle confidential information in order to screen out companies that co...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with top officials at the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday to discuss Japan’s response to a U.S.-led maritime security mission aimed at ensuring security mainly i...

SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in indicated his willingness to pursue dialogue and cooperation with Japan during his speech Thursday to mark Liberation Day, in an apparent bid to avoid furt...

SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in indicated his willingness to pursue dialogue and cooperation with Japan during his speech Thursday to mark Liberation Day, in an apparent bid to avoid furt...

The infrastructure ministry will send Japanese engineers to Southeast Asian countries in a bid to increase the number of foreign construction workers with specified skills needed to qualify for the n...

Amid the accelerating deterioration of Japan-South Korea relations, the Japanese government is intensifying its arguments against the South Korean Supreme Court ruling involving former requisitioned w...

TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) — South Korea fired back at Japan over a deepening trade dispute on Friday, pledging it would not be “defeated again” by its neighbor, laying bare decades-old animosity at...

MOSCOW (Jiji Press) — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Friday visited one of the four northern territories, Russian news agency Tass reported. The visit to the island, Etorofu, came in sp...

The government is not expecting there to be a change in the current order of succession to the Imperial throne in upcoming discussions on the issue. The government believes that if discussing the pos...

The government will prioritize lobbying Tehran to ease tensions over the Iranian situation, while taking time to coordinate with Washington over a U.S.-proposed international coalition to safeguard w...

SYDNEY (AFP-Jiji) — Australian universities are being investigated over their contracts with Chinese-state run Confucius Institutes, officials said Thursday, amid fresh revelations over the scope of...

Regarding U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s request for Japan to join an international coalition to protect the Strait of Hormuz, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference o...

Voter turnout for Sunday’s House of Councillors election was 48.8 percent, according to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry. The figure is far below the 54.7 percent mark in the previo...

Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Friday the government will take countermeasures against South Korea for failing to meet a deadline to accept arbitration over a ruling ordering Japanese companies to p...

The Japanese government takes seriously South Korea’s repeated illegal export of strategic goods with potential military applications, as these goods have been delivered to Iran, Syria and other co...

The Japanese government intends to gather information from U.S. authorities and carefully consider its response to a U.S. plan to form a coalition to protect waters in the Middle East, including the ...

The Japanese and South Korean governments have started to plan for talks to be held as early as this week among related officials over Tokyo’s tightening export controls against Seoul on materials ...

BEIJING — China held a ceremony Sunday to mark the 82nd anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, a prelude to the Sino-Japanese War, but its highest leadership is believed to have skipped the ...

ATHENS (AFP-Jiji) — Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday warned that the country risks a return to the “dark days” of austerity if his party loses a snap election on Sunday. As a trio...

The Liberal Democratic Party maintained a sizable lead over the largest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), ahead of the July 21 upper house election, according to a...

SEOUL — South Korea’s foundation to support former comfort women, which was set up on the basis of a Japan-South Korea accord at the end of 2015, has officially been dissolved, a source close to t...

The official House of Councillors election campaign will start Thursday, with the future of the social security system, including the pension system, likely becoming the largest point of contention. ...

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry announced Monday that the government will more tightly control exports to South Korea of chemicals used in producing semiconductors and other devices. The me...

OSAKA (AFP-Jiji) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday he was confident there would be no U.S. sanctions against Turkey over a controversial Russian missile deal, following reassur...

OSAKA — Japan has served as the chair of the Group of 20 summit at a critical time, when trade and geopolitical tensions are rising. To steer possibly volatile discussions among G20 leaders, Prime ...

MIAMI (AFP-Jiji) — Frontrunner Joe Biden came under withering criticism Thursday from his Democratic rivals for the 2020 presidential nomination, including calls to leave the fight against Donald Tr...

The number of women planning to stand in this summer’s upper house elections makes it likely that a record-high ratio of female candidates will be fielded, possibly exceeding 30 percent. A law to p...

The Japan Coast Guard plans to establish one of the nation’s largest bases at Kagoshima Port, to support security operations that would strengthen the JCG’s ability to counter repeated incursions...

The government will accelerate efforts to launch a website and a framework to help consumers resolve problems related to online shopping and other forms of e-commerce. Called online dispute resoluti...

KAWASAKI — The man who went on a stabbing spree in Tama Ward, Kawasaki, on Tuesday used two thin knives about 30 centimeters in length, according to investigative sources. Ryuichi Iwasaki, 51, a r...