Japan News

WON'T YOU TAKE ME TO RETRO TOWN?* Kitakyushu is the 13th largest city in Japan, but, aside from Space World, it gets hardly a mention in my collection of guidebooks, maybe because it has heavy industry, including a large steel plant.

Two former aides to Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama were charged Thursday with falsifying reports of campaign contributions - dashing the promise of the leader who vowed to usher in a new, cleaner era in the country's politics.

The fisherman's son feared for his family across the ocean as the Pacific rumbled.

A traveling exhibit of the Smithsonian Museum features the struggles and triumphs of Southeast Asian refugees in Iowa.

Panasonic Corp. has developed more powerful batteries for use in everything from laptops to electric vehicles, the Japanese electronics maker said Friday.

We've heard tell of the pitfalls arising from assumption, but we figured Adolfo Suaya's forthcoming Osaka was going to be Japanese-centered anyway.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has threatened to expel Japanese carmaker Toyota unless it produces an all-terrain model of 4x4 vehicles used for public transportation in poor and rural areas.

Two former aides to Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama were charged Thursday with falsifying reports of campaign contributions - dashing the promise of the leader who vowed to usher in a new, cleaner era in the country's politics.

At least four men died in an explosion on Thursday at a chemical plant in Osaka in western Japan, the Kyodo News agency said citing local firefighters.

Just months after Japan's biggest political shake-up in half a century, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's honeymoon with voters is fading as he struggles to match revolutionary rhetoric with action.

China and Japan are expected to release in Tokyo today a joint report that acknowledges Japan's invasion of China during the Second World War - a document that analysts said was a positive start to removing a long-standing irritant in bilateral ties.

Visiting Tokyo to meet with senior Japanese officials, Saeed Jalili said his country's nuclear program is for civilian purposes, although the United States and other nations fear its goal is to produce weapons.

A Japanese English student has been charged with the rape and murder of British teacher Lindsay Hawker.

Many of the people who lost their jobs following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Feng Zhenghu has been camping out at Tokyo's international airport for 50 days, sleeping on a blue plastic bench and surviving on handouts of crackers and noodles from passers-by. The Chinese rights activist whiles away the hours reading and watching wistfully as other travelers come and go - a situation reminiscent of "The Terminal," the movie ...

In this 2008 file photo, the engine of an N700 bullet train is transported through a street in Fukuoka, Japan.

Published: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 6:30 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 5:15 a.m. Have you ever tried to think up the worst meal you could imagine? How about blue-ringed octopus, floral egg crab, basket shell snails and puffer fish.

Slideshow Legend Award winner Michael Jackson poses with his award at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards at the Yoyogi National Athletic Stadium May 27, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan.

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 21 : About 264,000 people from South Asia have lost jobs in the Middle-East on account of the global meltdown, city-based think tank Centre for Development Studies has found.

In this Feb. 5, 2009 file photo, Chinese film director John Woo speaks during the Japan premiere of "Red Cliff Part II" in Tokyo, Japan.