The Japan Times

Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi’s decision to formally dissolve his faction Wednesday epitomizes his fall from grace as a potential successor to Fumio Kishida as party chief and possibly prime minister, experts say.

For a glimpse of where artificial intelligence is headed in election campaigns, look to India, the world’s largest democracy, as it starts heading to the polls Friday.

An increasing number of economists expect the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates again in October after it stands pat next week, with most of them flagging an earlier move in July as a risk scenario, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Defense Minister Minoru Kihara is considering visiting Hawaii to meet his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin, as early as the beginning of May, Japanese Defense Ministry officials said Thursday.

The top U.S. military officer for the Indo-Pacific region will travel to Tokyo next week, the Japanese Defense Ministry announced Thursday, where he is expected to discuss a planned revamp to the command and control framework for U.S. forces in Japan.

The House of Representatives special committee on Thursday approved a bill aimed at boosting measures to tackle Japan's declining birthrate.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations made a rare visit to Tokyo on Thursday, following a four-day trip to South Korea, as part of a push to bolster the U.N.’s relevance together with its two allies — which both currently sit on the Security Council — and counter nuclear-armed North Korea.

When Iraq fired dozens of Scud missiles on Israel in early 1991, the U.S. implored then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir not to respond. Shamir said he had to act. After days of late-night calls, high-level visits and long Cabinet meetings, Israel stood down and the U.S. led a 42-nation alliance that defeated Iraq in what became the Gulf War.

Myawaddy, a critical trading post in Myanmar that rebel forces seized from the ruling junta last week, offers a glimpse of dynamics playing out across the Southeast Asian country as its vaunted military reels from battlefield losses.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway priced ¥263.3 billion ($1.71 billion) of bonds in the firm’s largest yen debt deal since its debut sale in the currency in 2019, raising bets it may boost holdings of Japanese stocks.

Parliament enacted a bill Thursday to start a program to allow crime victims and bereaved families to receive support from lawyers soon after incidents occur.

Some of the richest people in South Korea may be among the biggest losers from elections last week that all but ended a proposal to cut one of the highest inheritance tax rates in the developed world.

Bank of Japan board member Asahi Noguchi said Thursday the pace of future rate hikes would likely be much slower than those of its global peers in recent tightenings, as the impact of rising domestic wages has yet be fully passed on into prices.

Anime director Hayao Miyazaki is among Time's 100 most influential people of 2024, according to a list published by the U.S. magazine Wednesday.

Have you scrolled to the end of the emoji keyboard, looking for those peskily faraway hearts, and accidentally sent a mysterious “NG”? Asked a friend in Japan if they want to go out for hibachi and been met with a blank stare? As a language shifts and evolves, it’s wont to take absurd and arbitrary twists and turns. (Consider that inflammable means flammable, or that peruse means both to examine in close detail and browse superficially.) But when two languages get together, things can get extra weird.

A magnitude 6.6 earthquake, measuring a weak 6 on Japan's seismic intensity scale, struck off the west coast of Shikoku island on Wednesday night, but authorities reported no major damage or link to the Nankai Trough quake.

Record levels of rainfall have brought cities in the United Arab Emirates and Oman to a standstill, with at least 19 people killed in Oman and flights being diverted from Dubai’s airport.

A group of 63 doctors filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court on Thursday against Google seeking ¥1.45 million (about $9,400) in compensation for causing harm to their businesses through what they described as one-sided, hateful reviews for their clinics on Google Maps.

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered the operator of a now-defunct manga piracy website to pay ¥1.7 billion in compensation to three major Japanese publishers.

The Cannes Film Festival has announced it will award an Honorary Palme d’Or to Studio Ghibli at its 77th film festival next month.

Southeast Asia is characterized by diverse cultures, ethnicities and levels of economic growth, but its countries face a common and persistent challenge: terrorism.

A human-caused famine is "tightening its grip" across the Gaza Strip, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees warned on Wednesday as he accused Israel of blocking aid deliveries and seeking to end the U.N. Relief and Works Agency's activities in the enclave.

The Philippine Coast Guard said Thursday it will participate for the first time in an annual joint military exercise conducted by the Southeast Asian country and the United States.

European Union leaders on Wednesday weighed a response to suspicions of Russian meddling ahead of June elections in the bloc, with several states pushing for sanctions targeting "malign activities" by Moscow.

The world’s two great economic rivals, China and the U.S., will drive much of the increase in global public debt over the next five years, with American spending creating trouble for many other countries by keeping interest rates high, officials at the International Monetary Fund said.