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The death toll from the magnitude 7.6 earthquake in the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, on January 1, increases to 94 people. At least 222 others are still missing.
2024-01-5

Japan raises the age of consent from 13 to 16 and criminalises voyeurism.
2023-06-16

A senior member of the yakuza, Satoru Nomura, is sentenced to death by a court in Fukuoka, Japan, for ordering four assaults, one of which was deadly. Nomura has denied participating in the crimes. It is the first time that a senior member of the crime group has been sentenced to death.
2021-08-24

A mass grave with more than 1,500 bodies is discovered in Osaka, Japan, that dates from the 1600s to the mid-1800s.
2020-08-26

Saudi Arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs Adel al-Jubeir says his country will work with Japan and other nations to come up with a plan to ensure that ships can safely transit the Persian Gulf region. Jubeir also calls for "action" on Iran.
2019-07-2

Egyptologists announce that radar scans indicate an empty space behind King Tutankhamun's tomb. British archaeologist Dr. Nicholas Reeves speculates if a second chamber exists, it could be Queen Nefertiti's long-lost burial place. Antiquities Minister Mamdouh Eldamaty says work inside the tomb will not begin until all the data from the radar and infrared devices are carefully analyzed by Japanese experts.
2015-11-28

Japan advises the International Whaling Commission that it plans to resume hunting minke whales for scientific research in the Antarctic Ocean by the end of March 2016. The United Nations' International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in March 2014 that Japan's decades-old whale hunt in the Antarctic should stop, prompting Tokyo to cancel the bulk of its whaling for the 2014-2015 season. ICJ decisions were binding and cannot be appealed.
2015-11-28

Japanese carrier Willcom announces the Phone Strap 2 WX06A, which weighs only 32 grams. The company advertises it as the world's "smallest and lightest phone".
2013-03-5

Japan's Opposition lodges a no-confidence motion in the Diet against Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
2011-06-1

The International Atomic Energy Agency is sending a team to Japan this month to inspect the crippled Fukushima nuclear plants and will present its preliminary evaluation of the crisis in June.
2011-05-1