• Japan passes controversial law to nix military limits

    Japan passes controversial law to nix military limits

    Sep 20, 2015 07:53 PM EDT

    ... STREET JOURNAL”: That’s right. For the first time, as you said, Japan may be able to help allies like the United States, even if Japan itself is not attacked. And this, according to these critics, is a violation of Japan’s constitution. HARI SREENIVASAN: So the concerns are what ...

  • Japanese-American gunner who flew missions over Japan during WWII dies

    Japanese-American gunner who flew missions over Japan during WWII dies

    Sep 06, 2015 06:31 PM EDT

    Ben Kuroki, who overcame widespread discrimination to become the only Japanese-American gunner to fly missions over Japan during World War II has died. He was 98. Born in Nebraska to Japanese immigrants, Kuroki enlisted in the U.S. Army after Pearl Harbor and pressed commanders to train him as ...

  • Japan allows residents to return to town near Fukushima

    Japan allows residents to return to town near Fukushima

    Sep 05, 2015 06:23 PM EDT

    Residents returned to a town near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Saturday, as Japanese government officials celebrated a lift on a four-and-a-half-year evacuation order, deeming the area safe after radiation levels had fallen. More than 7,000 Nahara residents were forced to evacuate in March ...

  • Twin typhoons march toward Southeast Asia and Japan

    Twin typhoons march toward Southeast Asia and Japan

    Aug 18, 2015 09:44 PM EDT

    ... s uncertain when, where and if the storms will hit land. AccuWeather meteorologist Anthony Sagliani expects Goni to swing through the corridor between Taiwan and Japan this weekend and into next week, potentially hitting Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and the Korean Peninsula. Less than two weeks ago, Taiwan was battered ...

  • Why a Japanese performance art celebrates weakness

    Why a Japanese performance art celebrates weakness

    Aug 11, 2015 07:37 PM EDT

    Butoh, a form of Japanese performance art, brings weakness and sadness to the surface in a society that often suppresses those feelings. Gadu Doushin moved from his native Japan to study engineering at the University of Minnesota in the early 1990s, but his true passion was dance. After years studying ...

  • Study suggests Japan falsified whale hunting data during the 1960s

    Study suggests Japan falsified whale hunting data during the 1960s

    Jul 26, 2015 10:48 PM EDT

    ... sperm whales killed by Japanese fleets in the open waters of the North Pacific Ocean between 1968 and 1969. The reports were submitted by the Japanese to the International Whaling Commission (IWC). “Japanese whalers were already known to have falsified catch data for sperm whales and other species killed by ...

  • Japanese manufacturer Takata expands defective airbag recall

    Japanese manufacturer Takata expands defective airbag recall

    May 19, 2015 07:18 PM EDT

    The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed on Tuesday that the Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata will declare 33.8 million cars unsafe due to airbag defects. The move would double the company’s previous recall of 17 million vehicles. The U.S. Department of Transportation has also created ...

  • What’s in the Trans-Pacific Partnership for U.S. and Japan?

    What’s in the Trans-Pacific Partnership for U.S. and Japan?

    Apr 29, 2015 11:52 PM EDT

    ... exports and profits. With so much at stake, Japan and the U.S. used a state visit this week to step up their lobbying campaign. Japan's leader spent yesterday at the White House and today on Capitol Hill. It was the first time a Japanese prime minister has ever ...

  • Dead Japanese poets make great collaborators

    Dead Japanese poets make great collaborators

    Mar 23, 2015 05:01 PM EDT

    ... a book, “The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa.” “Maybe these guys won’t mind if I collaborate with them,” he thought. The dead Japanese poets didn’t mind. Rohrer’s interest in collaboration comes from a tradition established by the haiku masters themselves, who would sit around and ...

  • Japan to probe melted Fukushima reactor with 'snake' robot

    Japan to probe melted Fukushima reactor with 'snake' robot

    Feb 06, 2015 08:57 PM EDT

    Tokyo Electric Power Co. is finally ready to examine the inside of one of the three compromised reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant -- with the help of a remote-controlled robot that uncannily resembles a snake.