Japan and Turkmenistan signed a raft of energy and other deals worth more than $18 billion during a Japanese leader's first-ever official visit to the reclusive country.
Japan warned that it might pull funding for UNESCO to protest last week's decision to inscribe documents related to the Nanjing massacre in its Memory of the World register.
Japanese public support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dropped in the days since his ruling coalition rammed through legislation allowing the nation's troops to fight abroad.
Japan's parliament passed contentious security bills into law early Saturday, in a move that could see Japanese troops fight abroad for the first time in 70 years.
Japan warned tourists to keep away from popular Mount Aso after it began belching smoke and ash into the air, the latest eruption in one of the world's most volcanically active countries.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited a disaster-struck city north of Tokyo in the aftermath of massive flooding that killed at least three people.
Popular Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami's new book has gone on sale, with a major domestic bookstore chain buying 90 percent of the initial print run in a direct challenge to online rivals.
Tens of thousands of people were ordered to flee homes across Japan as heavy rain pounded the country, sending radiation-tainted waters into the ocean at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
Japanese premier Shinzo Abe was on Tuesday re-elected head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, despite falling popularity over efforts to expand the military's role and a stuttering economy.
McDonald's in Japan said it was investigating an incident involving a customer who was injured by plastic shards found inside a drink, the latest in a string of food contamination scandals.
It was the best of shows, it was the worst of shows: as 12,000 troops and hundreds of tanks and missiles rolled through Tiananmen Square in front of invited guests and foreign leaders.
Tokyo's 2020 Olympics organisers scrapped the event's scandal-hit logo in the latest mishap for the Games after a costs furore forced plans for a $2 billion new national stadium to be torn up.
Japan said it would slash the cost of Tokyo's new 2020 Olympic stadium by more than 40 percent, after ditching its original plan due to the eye-watering $2 billion price tag.