The center of the Pacific Gyre, an area of spiraling ocean currents, has accumulated large amounts of waste and debris that gets trapped by the large clockwise flow of water between North America and Japan.
U.S. President Barack Obama chose to make Japan the first stop in his first presidential visit to Asia -- a decision that Japan's new prime minister says signifies the importance Washington attaches to its alliance with Tokyo.
Authorities have officially dropped all charges against an American who tried to snatch back his children from his ex-wife in Japan, the Fukuoka prosecutor's office said Thursday.
The center of the Pacific Gyre, an area of spiraling ocean currents, has accumulated large amounts of waste and debris that gets trapped by the large clockwise flow of water between North America and Japan.
U.S. President Barack Obama chose to make Japan the first stop in his first presidential visit to Asia -- a decision that Japan's new prime minister says signifies the importance Washington attaches to its alliance with Tokyo.
Authorities have officially dropped all charges against an American who tried to snatch back his children from his ex-wife in Japan, the Fukuoka prosecutor's office said Thursday.
A handful of people rallied outside the Japanese Embassy on Saturday to show support for an American man who is jailed in Japan, accused of trying to kidnap his own children.
Business confidence in Japan improved for a second quarter running, but the outlook for spending and profitability remains weak, according to a survey by the Bank of Japan on Thursday.
Had this custody drama played out in the United States, Christopher Savoie might be considered a hero -- snatching his two little children back from an ex-wife who defied the law and ran off with them.
Japan has long been the world leader in robotics research, but in recent years it's also been leading the way when it comes to cutting-edge medical technology.
Liberal Democratic Party Prime Minister Taro Aso resigned early Wednesday, setting the stage for Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama to take over the reins of government.
Death row inmates in Japan spend decades in isolation and face inhuman conditions that can lead to mental illness, Amnesty International said Thursday.
Now comes the hard part. Handed a sweeping mandate for change, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) begins the formidable task of delivering on a laundry list of promises intended to lift the country after its worst recession since World War II.
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso announced his resignation as head of the party that has governed Japan for decades following its apparent landslide defeat in elections Sunday.
Voters in Japan will turn out for parliamentary elections Sunday in what poll after poll shows will be a historic shift in political power to oust the ruling party.
Japan's July exports fell more sharply on a year-on-year basis than in June, highlighting concerns that the world's second-largest economy faces a slow recovery.
A strong earthquake struck off the south coast of Japan on Sunday night local time, "jolting Tokyo and wide areas of eastern Japan," the country's Kyodo news agency reported.
Given the magnitude of Japan's recession, it should perhaps come as little surprise that the fantasy-obsessed animation industry has received a hard dose of reality.
Investors have been putting more money into Japanese equity funds than they've been taking out for four straight weeks, according to fund flow tracker EPFR. The streak is the longest since the third quarter of 2008.
Hundreds of rescue workers searched for missing residents Thursday -- two days after torrential rains triggered floods and mudslides in western Japan and killed eight people.
More than nuclear bomb tests, the suicide of former South Korean president Roh Moo-Hyun has stunned the South Korean public. While the news has shocked the nation, perhaps the level of surprise at the method wasn't as great.
Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso announced a historic ¥15 trillion ($150 billion) stimulus package Friday aimed to turn around the recession in the world's second largest economy.
Euphoria returns! Who could have guessed that Bank of America stock would rally 70 percent the week it learns the Feds are demanding new capital equal to nearly half the bank's market capitalization?
Unemployment in Japan rose to 4.8 percent in March, its highest level in seven years and a nearly half-point rise from February, the government reported Friday.
Two Japanese destroyers set sail Saturday on an anti-piracy mission off Somalia, the Japanese defense ministry said, marking the first policing action for the country's Maritime Self-Defense Force.
The clicking of dozens of news cameras drowned out the sobs of the 13-year-old girl, but her face explained what was happening in the departure hall of Japan's Narita International Airport.
Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso announced a historic $150 billion stimulus package Friday aimed to turn around the recession in the world's second-largest economy.
Steeped in a recession, with a surge in bankruptcies and sentiment among its largest manufacturers at a record low, Japan is expected to announce ¥15 trillion ($150 billion) in extra spending Friday.
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Japan met Monday for a second closed-door session to hammer out a response to North Korea's weekend rocket launch in defiance of international opposition.
Japan is expected to extend economic sanctions against North Korea at a cabinet meeting later this week, a spokesman for Prime Minister Taro Aso said Monday.
As President Obama discusses the economic crisis with world leaders at the G-20 summit this week, two nations' experiences wrestling with similar financial troubles in recent history could offer recovery lessons for the United States.
Japan is mobilizing its missile defense system, and U.S. Navy ships are deploying to the Sea of Japan, as North Korea prepares to launch a rocket that is expected next month, officials said.
If you could hear yourself think at Dodger Stadium Monday -- and such an ordinary task became a downright challenge amid the 54,846 flag-waving, drum-beating, thunderstick-whacking, whistle-blowing, aisle-dancing zealots as Japan battled Korea in a final straight out of 1960s Americana -- what you understood was that the World Baseball Classic grew bigger and better in its second incarnation. An acquired taste for smug Americans, the party goes on in 2013 whether America wants to resist it or not, not unlike the soccer World Cup.
The pilot and co-pilot aboard a FedEx cargo plane were killed when the plane burst into flames Monday while landing at Tokyo's Narita airport in Japan, airport and hospital officials said.
Aokigahara Forest is known for two things in Japan: breathtaking views of Mount Fuji and suicides. Also called the Sea of Trees, this destination for the desperate is a place where the suicidal disappear, often never to be found in the dense forest.
The extent of the economic malaise that has descended on once-prosperous Japan is evident in the latest economic figures showing the steepest ever fall in the Far Eastern nation's industrial output.
Grappling with its worst economic crisis since World War II, Japan posted a record $10.1 billion trade deficit in January, the Ministry of Finance reported Wednesday.
Grappling with its worst economic crisis since World War II, Japan posted a record $10.1 billion trade deficit in January, the Ministry of Finance reported Wednesday.
Japan's Mount Asama erupted early Monday, sending a plume of light ash more than a mile into the sky and prompting emergency officials to restrict travel near it.
Japan executed four convicted killers on death row Thursday, the government said, marking the first set of executions in the country since October 2008.
Japan executed four convicted killers on death row on Thursday, the government said, marking the first set of executions in the country since October 2008.
Even before one reaches the front door of Canon's headquarters in Tokyo, one can sense the virtual stampede of employees pouring out of the building exactly at 5:30 p.m.
As Barack Obama gets ready to sell his stimulus plan to the country, some critics are saying that massive government spending won't work. One big reason they're skeptical: Japan's experience in the 1990s, the country's so-called Lost Decade. But are they missing the real lessons?
Japan's current account surplus, a leading gauge of international trade, dropped 66 percent in November from the year before, a sharp decline reflecting the global economic slump, the government announced Tuesday.
Japan is considering joining an international effort to protect ships from a growing threat of piracy in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia, a top official told reporters.
Japan will pull its Air Self-Defense Force out of Iraq, part of an effort to withdraw its 210 military personnel from the country by the end of 2008, the prime minister said Friday.
Oil fell on Monday and ended at a 21-month low as fears over the global economic slowdown accelerated on news that Japan officially fell into a recession.
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