Direct news from Japan. Newspapers & Local news

Japan's environment minister apologized Wednesday after his officials interrupted remarks by some victims of the Minamata mercury-poisoning disease by muting their microphones at a meeting in Kumamoto Prefecture…

Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday after U.S. stocks held relatively steady on Wall Street. U.S. futures and oil prices slipped, while the yen weakened further against the…

Police in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, have arrested a 33-year-old investigator working at the Handa Tax Office of the Nagoya Regional Taxation Bureau on suspicion of stealing cash from…

Police in Tokyo have arrested a 51-year-old man on suspicion of killing a woman in her 20s on the premises of the high-rise apartment building where she lived,…

Toyota said Wednesday that it achieved a record net profit of 4.94 trillion yen in the year to March on revenues of 45.1 trillion yen, which was also…

Vincent Trocheck scored a power-play goal off a rebound at 7:24 of the second overtime to give the New York Rangers a 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes…

Berlin senator and former city mayor Franziska Giffey became the latest victim in a string of attacks on German politicians when a man struck her from behind with…

Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched eight effective innings, Max Muncy hit a grand slam in the first and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Miami Marlins 8-2 on Tuesday night…

The top-seeded Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder rolled to convincing victories in their opening NBA playoff series on Tuesday. Eastern Conference top seeds Boston laid down a…

Australia said on Wednesday it would raise the amount of savings international students will need to get a visa and warned several colleges of fraudulent student recruitment practices,…

The world just experienced its hottest April on record, extending an 11-month streak in which every month set a temperature record, the European Union's climate change monitoring service…

Embattled Speaker Mike Johnson worked to position himself as in control Tuesday, insisting he's not negotiating with far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as they prepared to meet again…

Ukraine said Tuesday it had unravelled a Russian plot to assassinate senior Ukrainian political and military figures, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Two Ukrainian security officials were arrested for…

Israeli troops seized control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday in what the White House described as a limited operation, as fears mount of a full-scale…

The U.S. Army soldier arrested in Russia last week was being held in a pretrial detention facility, the Army said Tuesday. Russian reports said he would be held for two…

Porn star Stormy Daniels described her 2006 encounter with Donald Trump in unflattering terms at his criminal trial on Tuesday, testifying she tried not to think about the…

No, Katy Perry and Rihanna didn't attend the Met Gala this year. But that didn't stop AI-generated images from tricking some fans into thinking the stars made appearances…

Major League Baseball has warned its teams against encouraging players to withdraw from high school baseball to avoid the amateur draft and pursue the increased flexibility of international…

The Boy Scouts of America is changing its name for the first time in its 114-year history and will become Scouting America. It's a significant shift as the…

Paula Badosa showed signs of her former top-five form during a 6-2, 6-3 victory over 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva in the first round of the Italian Open on Tuesday.…

Nintendo said Tuesday it will make an announcement about a highly anticipated new console by the end of March 2025 as sales decline of the hugely popular Switch,…

Close to 200 people from Japan, including dozens of lawmakers, are expected to attend Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te's inauguration ceremony on May 20, the island's Foreign Ministry said…