A US appeals court has ruled that hundreds of American navy personnel can pursue a compensation suit against the government of Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Co. for illnesses allegedly caused by exposure to radioactivity in the aftermath of the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled on Thursday that the 318 sailors who have so far joined the $1 billion (£787 million) class action lawsuit do not need to file their case in Japan.

A U.S. warship struck by a container vessel in Japanese waters failed to respond to warning signals or take evasive action before a collision that killed seven of its crew, according to a report of the incident by the Philippine cargo ship's captain.

Iva Ikuko Toguri d’Aquino, or “Tokyo Rose” as most people knew her was an American-born Japanese woman who famously hosted a Japanese radio program aimed at U.S. troops during World War II that was designed to broadcast propaganda.

The population of once extinct storks living in the wild in Japan has reached 100, an official at a specialist conservation facility said Monday. The number of storks, designated as a special national treasure, hit the threshold 12 years after artificially bred birds were released into open skies for the…

USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) was involved in a collision with a merchant vessel at approximately 2:30 a.m. local time, June 17, while operating about 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka, Japan. As of this time, there have been two patients requiring medical evacuation. One was Cmdr. Bryce Benson, Fitzgerald's commanding officer, who was transferred to U.S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka and is reportedly in stable condition. A second MEDEVAC is in progress. Other injured are being assessed.

NINTENDO fanatics can now turn their gaming fantasies into reality thanks to a new theme park opening in Japan.

Incredibly intricate animal and insect sculptures. Matsumoto doesn’t use markers, stickers or any other supplementary material. Ever. His multi-colored animal kingdom is made purely out of blowing and twisting balloons.

They involved night hikes, forced public singing, and "ribbons of shame."

The premise of the pop-up restaurant was that the staff who have dementia may get your order wrong. But if you go in knowing that, it changes your perception about those who suffer from the brain disease and it makes you realize that with a little bit of understanding on our part dementia patients can be functioning members of society.

The robots sent in to find highly radioactive fuel at Fukushima's nuclear reactors have “died”; a subterranean "ice wall" around the crippled plant meant to stop groundwater from becoming contaminated has yet to be finished. And authorities still don’t know how to dispose of highly radioactive water stored in an ever mounting number of tanks around the site.

A fleet of four ships returned to Japan on Thursday after killing 333 whales in the Antarctic as part of the country's controversial hunt. The quota of 333 is a third of what Japan used to haul in on average every year. Now, it's the maximum number of kills allowed under the program, which Japanese officials say is all done in the name of science. But not everyone agrees, including the United Nations International Court of Justice. In 2014, the court ordered Japan...

Human rights campaigners have condemned Japan’s use of the death penalty after two inmates were hanged, bringing the number of executions to 16 since the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, took office in late 2012. The executions were carried out on Friday, just weeks before Japan is to host the G7 leaders summit: Japan and the US are the only two G7 nations that retain the death penalty, while European countries are among the...

Always wanted to eat cake guilt-free? A new Japanese craze for  "salad cakes" could be the answer to your prayers.

Japan’s fast bullet trains already move so speedy that you almost can’t see them coming. The brand new train being designed for the Seibu Railway Co. Via eastern architect Kazuyo Sejima of Sanaa will be difficult to see, even status nonetheless. It’s a chameleon-like train that has been designed to combo into the countryside that it’s far streaking thru. Scheduled to hit tracks in 2018, the latest Seibu flagship train vehicles have an organic shape that is plenty distinctive...

A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 has struck southern Japan, barely 24 hours after a deadly quake hit the same region.

A new study finds that people who adhere closely to the official Japanese Spinning Top Food Guide live considerably longer than those who do not.

Japanese carmaker has lost half of its market value, $3.9bn, since it said fuel-economy readings were being falsified

A nuclear power plant in Germany has been found to be infected with computer viruses, but they appear not to have posed a threat to the facility's operations because it is isolated from the Internet, the station's operator said on Tuesday. The Gundremmingen plant, located about 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Munich, is run by the German utility RWE. The viruses, which include "W32.Ramnit" and "Conficker", were discovered at Gundremmingen's...

Kyoto ceramic connoisseur Robert Yellin muses on the ties that bind art, life and environment.

US military officials have reportedly cancelled all parties after a former marine was arrested.

As the leaders of the G-7 liberal democracies convened in the Japanese shrine town of Ise-Shima this week, host Prime Minister Shinzo Abe used the event to showcase his nation as a regional beacon of democratic values and a counterweight to authoritarian China. However, recent events have raised doubts about his commitment to at least one of those values — freedom of the press.

In the U.S., obesity is a high-profile issue staked out by people like Michelle Obama and Jamie Oliver. But how do other countries address it, especially wealthy countries, where this problem is most rampant? Dubai pays people to lose weight. New Zealand, where one in four adults are technically obese, bars overweight immigrants from obtaining a visa. China has used acupuncture to treat obesity for centuries. But one country has managed to keep obesity down with the help of a controversial government policy that probably wouldn't fly in the U.S...

Japan’s consumer electronic retail giant Bic Camera officially began accepting Bitcoin payments on Friday at two of its stores in Tokyo. 28 media crews reportedly gathered to cover the premier event. Bitflyer which processes Bitcoin payments for the stores has also launched a campaign to give away bitcoin to shoppers using its wallet.

Japan’s population is set to plummet from 127 million to 88 million by 2065 - and is projected to drop even further to just 51 million by 2115 if current trends continue. The bleak forecast from the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research places greater pressure on the Japanese government to address its population problem, which has been described by economists as a “demographic time bomb”.

Japan's air force scrambled fighter jets to chase away foreign aircraft at record pace in the year to March 31, government figures showed on Thursday, as Chinese military activity in and around the East China Sea escalated. Japan worries that China's probing of its air defenses is part of a push to extend its military influence in the East China Sea and western Pacific, where Japan controls an island chain stretching 1,400 km (870 miles) south towards Taiwan.

Demand for potato chips has surged in Japan this week, with products on offer for 6 times their retail price online after Japanese snack company Calbee Inc. halted the sale of some of its most popular chip brands.

In an apparent shift, Tokyo plans to push forward talks for activating the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement without the United States, which withdrew from the multination trade pact in January after President Donald Trump said he would instead pursue bilateral trade deals, a government source said. With the China-excluding pact, inked last year as part of an effort toward high-level trade liberalization, currently adrift after America’s exit, Japan has stepped up to take the lead...

The first Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter squadron to deploy overseas is continuing the type’s expeditionary workup, conducting training exercises to operate the aircraft in real-world scenarios while operating from austere locations. In separate news releases, the U.S. Marine Corps announced that the Green Knights of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 121 have carried out hot reloads and aviation-delivered ground refueling, or ADGR, training with its F-35Bs at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, on April 6 and 11 respectively.

High levels of a banned pollutant have been detected in water running under Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, a year after the substance was found in streams and underground water wells adjacent to Kadena Air Base. High concentrations of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS, and per-fluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, were found during two underground-water surveys conducted in August and January, according to a statement released by the Okinawa prefectural government’s environmental protection department.

An elegant middle-aged man, in a spotless black jacket, came up to me, hand extended, to say hello, and I was startled. My neighbours in Japan tend to be formal and reticent; few of them are eager to take the initiative. And we were simply standing around an art gallery on Kitayama Street in northern Kyoto, 20 years ago, where a handful of us had gathered to see an exhibition of a friend’s pen-and-ink drawings. In the classical sumi-e style, they were deliberately sketchy and full of emptiness; the heart of the paintings was the negative space at their centre, which every viewer could fill in according to his whim or choice.

Top-secret documents reveal the complex relationship the NSA has maintained with Japan over a period of more than six decades. By Ryan Gallagher.

Japan's environment ministry has drafted an emergency declaration over rising coral deaths in waters surrounding the country. Following a meeting of dozens of top environmentalists, the ministry expressed concerns that the corals could be extinct by 2070. To reduce the decay of coral reefs, the ministry has proposed a series of initiatives, including the development of new technologies to cultivate and transplant corals in various locations.

When it comes to green teas, your choices are not limited to one - there's Japanese and there's Chinese. What’s the difference between Chinese and Japanese green tea? A brief look at the key distinguishing features of green tea from these two countries.

Marc Peter Keane in an American landscape architect who spent almost 20 years in Kyoto practicing landscape design. In fact, he was the first foreigner to receive a working visa as a landscape architect. Now back stateside, Keane maintains an office in upstate New York where he designs Japanese gardens for both public and private spaces. It’s hard to think of a better person to serve as a personal guide through 100 of Japan’s Finest Gardens.

A few months ago Jack Johnston was asked to film a series of lapse time shots of the Cherry Blossom trees in Japan for a BBC Springwatch Special. After months of testing and working out the kinks in the process, this is a selection of shots that featured in the final show.