Baku, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Haruka Kaju won gold for the women’s 63-kilogram category at the 2026 World Judo Championships on Wednesday, claiming the title in the weight division for the second straight year. The 26-year-old secured her ninth consecutive international judo

Tokyo, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)–The number of corporate bankruptcies in Japan caused by labor shortages rose 17 pct in the fiscal first half ended last month from a year before to 240, the highest since comparable data became available in fiscal 2013,

Tokyo, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Fair Trade Commission has searched the Brewers Association of Japan as part of its ongoing investigation into a suspected price cartel involving the industry, believing that backdoor meetings related to the group played a key role in

Tokyo, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Thursday declined to replace agriculture minister Kazuo Yana over his remarks about road construction funding cuts at municipalities whose leaders supported his rival in the February general election. “I strongly reprimanded him

Tokyo, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)–Japan posted a higher current account surplus for August than a year before, driven by higher dividend income from companies’ overseas units, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report Thursday. The surplus in the current account, the

Washington, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japanese and U.S. business leaders issued a joint statement Wednesday, calling on the governments of Japan and the United States to pursue interoperable artificial intelligence governance tailored to risks and applications amid rapid advances in AI capabilities. The

Tokyo, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)–Russia has attacked a Japan Tobacco Inc.-linked plant in central Ukraine. Announcing the attack on Wednesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that the plant of JT International, a subsidiary of the Japanese tobacco producer, had been used to manufacture

Tokyo, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)–Two Japanese company executives were indicted in August for allegedly dodging income tax by exploiting the so-called angel tax system, a preferential program designed to spur investment in startups. The case has laid bare structural weaknesses in the

Niigata, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)–Public prosecutors have indicted without arrest four people linked to rice cracker maker Sanko Seika Co. in Niigata Prefecture, central Japan, over a plant fire in 2022 that killed six workers of the company. Indicted by the Niigata

Kyoto, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)–Hong Kong-based investment fund Oasis Management has urged scandal-hit Japanese motor manufacturer Nidec Corp. to consider going private. In a statement released Wednesday, Oasis said that Nidec’s board of directors “must confront the risk of an unintended delisting”

New Delhi, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–A corridor named after the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been completed at an international convention center built with Japanese grant aid in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi in the northern Indian state

Tokyo, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Supreme Court is expected to issue a unified ruling within this year over lawsuits demanding that the results of the 2025 election for the Senate, the upper chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament, be invalidated due

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Wednesday that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be awarded to Kenso Soai, professor emeritus at Tokyo University of Science, and Henri Kagan, who is affiliated with Universite Paris-Sud in

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met with Okinawa Governor Genta Koja in Tokyo on Wednesday and expressed her willingness to talk with the United States following the arrest of a U.S. Marine for allegedly murdering a woman in

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Wednesday that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be awarded to Kenso Soai, professor emeritus at Tokyo University of Science, and Henri Kagan, who is affiliated with Universite Paris-Sud in

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japan Exchange Group Inc. said Wednesday that it will add 35 companies, including 100-yen store operator Seria Co., to the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s TOPIX index as part of a component reshuffle starting at the end of this month.

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government is considering including in its three key security-related documents, slated to be revised by the end of this year, a plan to study whether the country should possess nuclear-powered submarines, government sources said Wednesday. The

Seoul, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–South Korea’s Korean Sports & Olympic Committee said Wednesday that it has received an apology letter from the Japanese organizing committee of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games over operational problems involving the South Korean delegation during the event,

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government is considering compiling a second supplementary budget for fiscal 2026 to cover about 300 billion yen in additional personnel costs and prepare for an increase in spending on recovery efforts following recent major natural disasters,

By Yuka Moriyama Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–Past Japanese laureates of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, widely regarded as Asia’s Nobel Prize, were honored at an event hosted by the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo on Wednesday, featuring a special exhibit and a panel

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Wednesday that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be awarded to Kenso Soai, professor emeritus at Tokyo University of Science, and Henri Kagan, who is affiliated with Universite Paris-Sud in

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–IDC Frontier Inc., a Tokyo-based subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp., announced Wednesday that a glitch occurred in its IDCF Cloud service for local governments and companies on the day, due to unauthorized access from a third party. While

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi touted her plan to cut the consumption tax on food and pay support payments to workers at a plenary meeting of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, on Wednesday. The

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s composite index of coincident economic indicators fell 1.9 points from the previous month in August, marking its first decline in six months, the Cabinet Office said Wednesday. The coincident index, which reflects current economic conditions, stood at

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has suggested that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi should resolve the issue stemming from her parliamentary remark regarding a possible Taiwan contingency, former Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya told Jiji Press on Wednesday.

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s agriculture ministry will start supporting local governments working to attract foreign tourists by unique food cultures and local specialties in an effort to revitalize local economies by expanding consumption through inbound tourism. A team of two ministry

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–Public prosecutors sought a 12-year prison term Wednesday for a man accused of attempted murder for allegedly attacking Takashi Tachibana, head of a political group criticizing NHK, also known as Japan Broadcasting Corp., in March last year. Tokyo

Washington, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva expressed concern over soaring long-term interest rates in Japan and the United States in a speech in Singapore on Wednesday. Georgieva described recent interest rate hikes by the central banks in

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–Nippan Group Holdings Inc., a Japanese book wholesaler, has confirmed that it had sold books to U.S. artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday. In a letter addressed to the Japan Book Publishers Association,

Naha, Okinawa Pref., Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)–The U.S. military in Okinawa Prefecture has said that all U.S. troops stationed in the southernmost Japan prefecture will observe a 48-hour operational pause from noon Wednesday, following the alleged murder of a local woman by