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...

SEOUL (AFP-Jiji) — Japanese retail giant Uniqlo has pulled a commercial featuring a 98-year-old U.S. fashion figure from South Korean screens, it said Monday after it was accused of whitewashing col...

SEOUL (Jiji Press) — Japanese and South Korean officials held an unofficial meeting in Monaco on Friday over Seoul’s claim that the Sea of Japan, which lies between the two countries, should be c...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed officials on Sunday to put together a package of measures to help residents and local industries affected by Typhoon No. 19, which ravaged w...

China’s state security authority detained a Japanese professor of Hokkaido University in early September in Beijing, according to Japanese government sources. It is believed the professor in his ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could meet with Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan on Wednesday while Wang is in Japan to attend the Emperor’s enthronement ceremony. Abe wants to confirm the stable devel...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — About 400 foreign VIPs are slated to attend the Emperor’s enthronement proclamation ceremony in Tokyo on Tuesday, the government said Friday. The foreign guests include Brit...

The government on Friday decided to launch a detailed study to prepare for dispatching a Maritime Self-Defense Force unit independently to the Middle East to collect information on securing the safet...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government at a Cabinet meeting on Friday adopted a bill to ease the restrictions on the activities of foreign lawyers in the country, through amendments of a related law. ...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government at a Cabinet meeting Friday decided to put off a parade to celebrate the Emperor’s enthronement from Tuesday to Nov. 10. The postponement of the Shukuga-Onre...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government adopted plans on Friday to grant pardons to about 550,000 people who committed minor offenses, to mark the Emperor’s accession to the throne in May. The measu...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday pledged all-out efforts to address the issue of aging infrastructure in the wake of deadly Typhoon No. 19. “It is extremely important...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Transport minister Kazuyoshi Akaba said Wednesday that he will set up a panel to improve the dissemination of information to foreign visitors in times of disaster. The panel w...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government will pardon about 550,000 convicted criminals on the occasion of the Oct. 22 ceremony to proclaim the Emperor’s accession to the throne in May, an official sai...

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, ...

TOKTO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may be considering dissolving the House of Representatives as early as November for a snap general election, sources said. According to some ruling ...

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 ...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government is boosting efforts to rescue people affected by powerful Typhoon No. 19, which struck the country Saturday to Sunday, and restore infrastructure. At a meeting ...

SEOUL (Jiji Press) — A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson demanded Saturday that the Japanese government pay compensation over a recent collision between a North Korean fishing boat and a J...

GENEVA (Jiji Press) — Tokyo and Seoul remained apart over Japan’s tightened controls on South Korea-bound exports of semiconductor-related materials, at bilateral talks held at the World Trade Or...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government on Friday decided to fully implement hikes in monthly salaries and bonuses for national public servants recommended by the National Personnel Authority. The rec...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government plans to release video footage of a collision between a North Korean fishing ship and a Japanese patrol vessel in Japan’s exclusive economic zone earlier this w...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Liberal Democratic Party Policy Research Council Chairman Fumio Kishida has clearly stated that he will run in the next presidential race of the ruling party. Kishida express...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Defense Minister Taro Kono on Tuesday indicated his hope to meet with his South Korean counterpart, Jeong Kyeong-doo, for bilateral talks on the sidelines of an ASEAN-related m...

WASHINGTON (Jiji Press) — U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun held talks with Japanese and South Korean officials in Washington on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of State said....

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that a planned trial sightseeing tour to two of the four northwestern Pacific islands at the center of the nation’s decades-old territorial ...

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The ruling coalition on Wednesday rejected an opposition request to summon Kansai Electric Power Co. officials to the Diet for unsworn testimony about a money scandal involving ...

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...