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Tokyo, Oct. 24 (Jiji Press)--Japan's revised Imperial House Law came into effect Saturday, allowing male, paternal-line descendants of former Imperial Family branches to be adopted into the Imperial Family, and female Imperial Family members to remain within the family after marriage. The government has stressed the significance of the law in addressing the declining number of Imperial Fami...
Tokyo, Oct. 23 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, will visit Singapore on Nov. 17-21, the government said Friday. Princess Aiko was invited by Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam as this year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The trip will be the princess' second official overseas ...
Tokyo, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's administration has steadily delivered on its promises to the public over the past year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Wednesday, the first anniversary of her taking office. "We have worked boldly to build a strong economy and establish strong diplomacy and national security, steadily delivering on what we pro...
Tokyo, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--Japanese new agriculture minister Arata Takebe on Wednesday apologized over a weekly magazine report about his alleged receipt of a political donation from a public works contractor. "I instructed relevant officials to promptly investigate the facts and take action to return the money or correct the political funds disclosure report accordingly," Takebe told rep...
The arrest of a Japanese journalist in Russia has finally woken Tokyo up to the fact that Moscow is playing hardball in their diplomatic relationship, and the country’s apparent unwillingness to push back with commensurate force could encourage the Kremlin to test its neighbour’s resolve, analysts say. Japan lodged an official protest with the Russian ambassador in Tokyo on Wednesday, a day after Moscow announced the arrest of Yuki Imai from the Hokkaido Shimbun Press on suspicion of espionage....
Tokyo, Oct. 19 (Jiji Press)--An expert panel of Japan's National Police Agency held its first meeting Monday for discussions on requiring stalkers to wear GPS devices to prevent them from getting near their targets. The panel, made up of lawyers, university professors and family members of stalking victims, will also consider requiring perpetrators to get counseling or visit medical institu...
Tokyo, Oct. 18 (Jiji Press)--The first de facto replacement of a cabinet minister since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office a year ago has exposed the weaknesses of her grip on power. Information crucial to Takaichi's decision on whether to replace embattled former agriculture minister Kazuo Yana did not reach her. This included an allegation that Yana's camp provided free...
China strongly condemned what it called Japan’s “negative moves” concerning the Yasukuni Shrine, saying the actions were a provocation against the postwar international order, according to a Saturday statement from the Chinese Embassy in Japan.
Japan has long established itself as a pioneer of mediation in Southeast Asia. In 1990, for example, its officials helped broker talks between Cambodia’s warring factions, supplementing international efforts to end conflict in the country. Now, Tokyo is seeking to upgrade its diplomatic toolkit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ International Peace Mediation Unit was set up in March, followed by the launch of the Parliamentary Association for Peace Mediation in May. Around the same time, the...
Tokyo, Oct. 16 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi apologized on Friday over the resignation of scandal-hit former agriculture minister Kazuo Yana and vowed to restore public trust in her government. "I feel remorseful, and I take my responsibility seriously for appointing" Yana, who resigned earlier this week, the prime minister said at a meeting of the Budget Committee of...
Japan’s hopes for a visit by Donald Trump during his trip to Asia next month may be hanging in the balance as relations between China and the United States steadily improve. The US president spent three days in Japan ahead of last year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and his meeting with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was hailed as a sign of a “new golden age” in the countries’ relationship. But since then Trump’s growing rapport with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping has caused...
Tokyo, Oct. 15 (Jiji Press)--Russian Ambassador to Japan Nikolay Nozdrev has rejected Japan's requests regarding the detention of a Japanese journalist by Russian authorities, the Russian Embassy in Tokyo said Thursday. On Wednesday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry summoned Nozdrev and requested information on the matter and humanitarian consideration for the detained journalist, while protes...
Tokyo, Oct. 15 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Thursday appointed Arata Takebe of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as the new agriculture minister following the resignation of his embattled predecessor, Kazuo Yana. Takebe, 56, a former state minister of agriculture, officially took office after an attestation ceremony at the Imperial Palace in the afternoon. Ta...
Four Russian-held islands keep Japan and Russia from a formal peace treaty, and the frozen conflict now tests the US-Japan alliance in the North Pacific. The post Japan’s Northern Territories Dispute Explained for 2026 appeared first on The Rio Times.
Japanese Agriculture Minister Kazuo Yana said he had tendered his resignation following allegations of possible vote-buying, lining him up to become the first senior minister in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government to quit over a scandal. The prime minister had resisted calls to have Yana step down after local media reports said he claimed to have cut roadworks funding to municipalities that did not support him in February’s general election. The tide turned after allegations surfaced that...
Tokyo, Oct. 14 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi urged agriculture minister Kazuo Yana on Wednesday to give full explanations on his alleged public offices election law violation. At a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the Japanese parliament, Takaichi said she received a report by phone from Yana on Tuesday ni...
Japan’s prime minister said on Wednesday she probably spent “three or four more hours” than her male predecessors tackling household duties on top of her already packed daily schedule. “In the morning, I bathe, fix breakfast and then wash dishes, not to mention apply make-up,” Sanae Takaichi, elected last year as Japan’s first woman prime minister, told parliament. “I feel like I’m spending three or four more hours than male prime ministers doing these things.” A self-described workaholic,...
Tokyo, Oct. 14 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government is apparently struggling to persuade Washington to change its stance after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sanctions against the International Criminal Court. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has expressed her country's continued support for the ICC. But the situation may have consequences for the rule of l...
Tokyo, Oct. 14 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government has proposed a draft bill to introduce criminal penalties for unauthorized transactions of land around important facilities, including Self-Defense Forces bases, and on uninhabited border islands. The bill to revise the law to regulate such land use and conduct related land surveys was presented to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on T...
A growing number of Japanese regard the United States as the greatest threat to world peace ahead of traditional rival China, according to a new survey. The annual poll, released by the Japan Press Research Institute on Saturday, found 26.8 per cent of respondents named the US as the biggest threat to global peace. That was up 9.3 percentage points on last year and far above the 6.6 per cent recorded in 2024. Russia came top of the list in 2025 but slipped to third place this year, with 18.3 per...
Tokyo, Oct. 13 (Jiji Press)--A delegation from China has visited Etorofu, one of the four Russian-controlled northwestern Pacific islands claimed by Japan, the government of the Sakhalin region in the Russian Far East said Tuesday. The visit by the mission, comprising local government officials and business representatives from the northeastern China province of Heilongjiang, which borders ...
A communique issued by the RSS said the meeting focused on ways to strengthen India–Japan relations, with particular emphasis on civilisational ties, cultural cooperation and people-centric initiatives.
Tokyo, Oct. 9 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Friday expressed her deep concern over the U.S. government's decision to add the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, the Netherlands, to its sanctions list. In a social media post, Takaichi said that the U.S. decision, announced earlier in the day, is "incompatible with" Japan's position. "Japan has consi...
A senior Japanese government spokesperson said it was regrettable that the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office had requested that Dutch authorities extradite International Criminal Court president Tomoko Akane and eight other officials. “Time and again we have conveyed to the Russian side that measures targeting individuals connected to the ICC are unfair and unacceptable. We find it regrettable that the Russian side has nevertheless requested various nations to extradite these individuals,”...
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 to large vote-value gaps. Final arguments over the case were made at the top court's Grand Bench, presided over by Supreme Court Chief...
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 the southern Japan prefecture on Saturday. During the meeting at the prime minister's office, Koja said that the incident was "absolu...
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 move comes as proponents argue that the introduction of such underwater vessels, which can remain submerged...
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, government sources said Wednesday. The government plans to submit a second supplementary budget bill during...
Tokyo, Oct. 6 (Jiji Press)--Japan's fresh sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine are "ill-considered," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said, warning that Moscow will take "proportionate countermeasures" primarily in areas of interest to Tokyo. The Japanese government on Friday sanctioned 35 vessels in the so-called shadow fleet that transport Russian crude...
Tokyo, Oct. 5 (Jiji Press)--An extraordinary session of the Diet, Japan's parliament, convened on Monday, setting the stage for the first parliamentary debate since the cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month. In the 222nd Diet session, scheduled to run for 69 days until Dec. 12, key agenda items will include legislation to cut the consumption tax on food and the rulin...