Japan's parliament on Wednesday approved an international treaty on child abductions after decades of pressure from the United States and other Western nations.
A large majority of Japanese people disagree with a high-profile politician who said women forced to provide sex during World War II were a military necessity.
Yahoo Japan Corp. has said it suspects up to 22 million user IDs may have been stolen during an unauthorised attempt to access the administrative system of its Yahoo! Japan portal.
An aide to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned home from a trip to North Korea on Saturday but declined to shed any light on the reason for his mysterious visit.
Japan's All Nippon Airways on Friday said a modified Dreamliner had experienced a fault earlier this month, but insisted it would not affect the restart of the high-tech planes.
An 80-year-old Japanese mountaineer has begun his ascent of Mount Everest, his website said, in a bid to become the oldest man to reach the roof of the world.
Japan said Thursday that its economy grew again in the quarter to March, pointing to a recovery as Tokyo and its hand-picked central bank team set about stoking the world's third-largest economy.
The maverick mayor of Osaka on Thursday offered to meet former "comfort women" to apologise for their suffering after causing an international storm when he said they served a "necessary" role in wartime.
Toyota has accelerated past South Korea's Samsung Electronics to become Asia's biggest company by market value, after the Japanese automaker's shares doubled in the past year.
Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of Seven leading economies will meet in the English countryside on Friday for talks on spurring growth, amid US-Europe divisions over the scale of austerity.
Japan, China and South Korea agreed Monday to continue cooperating in the fight against cross-border air pollution, despite strained relations between the neighbours because of territorial disputes.
Japanese author and keen runner Haruki Murakami sent a "personal message" to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing and said he also felt wounded by the attack on his favourite race.
China will likely use its growing power to try to force its way with Japan but it is doubtful that Beijing will enter a Cold War-style confrontation with the United States.
Japan's ANA is to test one of its modified Dreamliner jets on Sunday, three months after the worldwide fleet of 787s was grounded, as Boeing seeks to reassure passengers that the planes are safe.
Global sales of instant noodles have topped 100 billion units annually, an industry group said Friday -- more than one monthly serving of the portable meal for every person on the planet.