1+ mon, 2+ week ago   (76+ words) July 22, 2026 at 12:15 JST Automobiles lined up at Daikoku Pier in Yokohama await export. (Daisuke Matsuoka) Japan recorded a trade deficit in June, according to government data released Wednesday, as the higher price of oil imports helped cause the second straight…...

3+ mon, 1+ week ago   (62+ words) By YUKI EDAMATSU/ Staff Writer May 30, 2026 at 07:00 JST This brewing equipment has been returned from the International Space Station. (Provided by Dassai Inc. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.) The first sake brewed in outer space has already sold out on…...

3+ mon, 1+ week ago   (101+ words) May 27, 2026 at 12:40 JST Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi answers questions from Hideya Sugio of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan about allegations of slander videos during a session of the Upper House Cabinet Committee on May 26. (The Asahi Shimbun) It is…...

3+ mon, 2+ week ago   (501+ words) May 28, 2026 at 14:09 JST There once was a person named Shiro Minamimura, who died in 2024 at age 95. Nicknamed “the back-channel mediator in Japan-China diplomacy” for his unwavering commitment to exchanges between the two countries from the time before the normalization of…...

3+ mon, 2+ week ago   (446+ words) July 17, 2025 at 13:45 JST Japan sank into a trade deficit of 2.2 trillion yen ($15 billion) for the first six month of this year, according to government data released Thursday, as exports were hit by President Donald Trump’s tariffs. In June, Japan’s exports…...

4+ mon, 2+ week ago   (264+ words) April 24, 2026 at 09:45 JST A South Korean national holding a banner carrying political messages was arrested Wednesday for allegedly obstructing an annual spring festival at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, Japanese police said. The shrine honors Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war…...

4+ mon, 3+ week ago   (390+ words) April 22, 2026 at 16:33 JST Japan’s trade deficit was 1.7 trillion yen ($10.7 billion) in the fiscal year that ended in March, the government said Wednesday, the fifth straight fiscal year of deficits. Exports rose 4% from the previous year, while imports inched up just…...

4+ mon, 3+ week ago   (1166+ words) April 22, 2026 at 16:10 JST Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and other Cabinet ministers prepare for a meeting on April 21. (Takeshi Iwashita) Restraints on weapons exports that were maintained as a pillar of Japan as a pacifist nation have largely been removed. The…...

4+ mon, 3+ week ago   (211+ words) By WATARU NETSU/ Staff Writer April 21, 2026 at 12:42 JST The Japan Meteorological Agency’s yellow sand density forecast at 9 p.m. on April 21 (Captured from the Japan Meteorological Agency’s website) Yellow sand from China is expected to drift over northern to western regions…...

4+ mon, 3+ week ago   (561+ words) By MIZUKI SATO/ Staff Writer April 21, 2026 at 16:40 JST Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends a Cabinet meeting on April 21. (Takeshi Iwashita) Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Cabinet on April 21 lifted Japan's decades-old ban on exporting lethal weapons, reversing a cornerstone of the…...