• Japan prime minister pledges $19 billion to promote ecological businesses

    Japan prime minister pledges $19 billion to promote ecological businesses

    Dec 04, 2020 11:37 PM EDT

    TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged a 2 trillion yen ($19 billion) fund on Friday to promote ecological businesses and innovation to achieve his goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2050. Suga, who took office in mid-September, set climate change as one of his main policy ...

  • Japan spacecraft carrying asteroid soil samples nears home

    Japan spacecraft carrying asteroid soil samples nears home

    Nov 27, 2020 08:31 PM EDT

    ... may help explain how Earth evolved. It took the spacecraft 3½ years to arrive at Ryugu, but the journey home was much shorter because of the current locations of Ryugu and Earth. Ryugu in Japanese means “Dragon Palace,” the name of a sea-bottom castle in a Japanese folk tale.

  • Yoshihide Suga named Japan's prime minister, succeeding Abe

    Yoshihide Suga named Japan's prime minister, succeeding Abe

    Sep 16, 2020 03:24 PM EDT

    ... and economic policies when asked what he would like to accomplish himself and says he will set up a new government agency to speed up Japan’s lagging digital transformation. He said he will break down vested interests and rules that hamper reforms. In reshuffling key posts with the party ...

  • U.K. inks trade deal with Japan just as E.U. talks sour

    U.K. inks trade deal with Japan just as E.U. talks sour

    Sep 11, 2020 04:44 PM EDT

    ... 99% of exports to Japan and that it will give British businesses a gateway to the Asia-Pacific region. Overall, it said the deal with Japan, the world's third-largest economy, will increase commerce with Japan by around 15 billion pounds ($19 billion) and deliver a 1.5 billion ...

  • Livestock ship carrying 42 crew members sinks off Japan's coast

    Livestock ship carrying 42 crew members sinks off Japan's coast

    Sep 03, 2020 12:46 PM EDT

    TOKYO (AP) — Japanese rescuers were searching Thursday for a livestock ship carrying 42 crew members that a survivor said sank during rough weather a day earlier off a southern Japanese island, the coast guard said. The Filipino crew member was rescued late Wednesday after Japanese navy P-3C surveillance aircraft ...

  • The legacy of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is resigning due to illness

    The legacy of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is resigning due to illness

    Aug 28, 2020 10:38 PM EDT

    Nick Schifrin: Top of the list, a revitalized military. Abe's Japan purchased more U.S. weaponry. He failed to revise the country's pacifist constitution, but pushed through changes that allow Japanese forces to fight in a crisis. Mike Mochizuki: This opened the way for Japan to cooperate with ...

  • Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he's resigning for health reasons

    Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he's resigning for health reasons

    Aug 28, 2020 01:21 PM EDT

    ... Minister Taro Kono, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, and economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of coronavirus measures, are widely mentioned in Japanese media as potential successors. Abe was often upstaged in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, a former governing party conservative ...

  • In Japan, young people rush to document Hiroshima survivors' memories

    In Japan, young people rush to document Hiroshima survivors' memories

    Aug 06, 2020 10:35 PM EDT

    It has been 75 years since the United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, leveling the city and killing some 150,000 people. The horrifying aftermath of that attack, and one on Nagasaki three days later, has been described to the generations since -- now with special urgency as the population of...

  • Japan battered by more heavy rain and deadly floods; at least 58 people dead

    Japan battered by more heavy rain and deadly floods; at least 58 people dead

    Jul 08, 2020 02:07 PM EDT

    TOKYO (AP) — Pounding rain that already caused deadly floods in southern Japan was moving northeast Wednesday, battering large areas of Japan's main island, swelling more rivers, triggering mudslides and destroying houses and roads. At least 58 people died in several days of flooding. Parts of Nagano and Gifu, including ...

  • Death toll from flooding in Japan rises to 55, dozen missing

    Death toll from flooding in Japan rises to 55, dozen missing

    Jul 07, 2020 12:40 PM EDT

    TOKYO (AP) — Soldiers rescued residents on boats as floodwaters flowed down streets in southern Japanese towns hit by deadly rains that were expanding across the region Tuesday. At least 55 people have died and a dozen remain missing. Pounding rain since late Friday in Japan's southern region of Kyushu ...