Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, fresh off an astounding victory in snap elections for the lower house of parliament last week, said on Monday she would like to reopen discussions about amending the Japanese Constitution through a national referendum.

A metal detectorist in Australia found something quite special at a historic site in Victoria on January 24.

Japan’s conservative LDP party, led by Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, obtained a historic landslide electoral victory on Sunday, securing a two-thirds supermajority in the lower house of the Parliament.

Conservative Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae has received President Donald Trump’s full endorsement ahead of Sunday’s snap election in the Asian country.

The Chinese state propaganda newspaper Global Times celebrated on Tuesday that two clothing brands had disappeared products featuring the Nintendo game franchise Pokémon from their Chinese stores following the advertisement of a Pokémon event at the Yasukuni Shrine.

Britain and Japan agreed to strengthen defence and economic ties, visiting Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday.

The Japanese entertainment franchise Pokémon issued a formal apology on Friday after “Chinese netizens” launched an outrage campaign against it over an unofficial event allegedly scheduled to take place at the Yasukuni Shrine, a Japanese site that honors, among others, World War II war criminals.

Pop star Lady Gaga halted her concert in Tokyo, Japan, this week to bash the United States and reel off false claims about the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) back in the states.

Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae said on Monday she will dissolve the lower house of the Japanese Parliament on Friday, setting the stage for snap elections on February 8. The next parliamentary election was not scheduled until October 2028.

The Chinese government on Monday released its latest round of dismal demographic data, revealing that birth rates have hit their lowest level since the Communist revolution of 1949, and the population is still declining despite years of expensive efforts to convince more couples to have children.

Japan has kicked off its bid to host the Rugby World Cup again in 2035 following in the footsteps of the next two hosts – Australia next year and then the USA in 2031.

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae decided to relax after their summit meeting in Nara, Japan, on Tuesday by picking up drumsticks and playing K-pop tunes, including a song from the Netflix animated hit “K-Pop Demon Hunters.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday took great umbrage at the U.S. State Department for proclaiming the Western hemisphere is “OUR hemisphere,” and interference from hostile foreign powers like China would no longer be tolerated.

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung met with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping on Monday, during Lee’s first visit to Beijing as president. Lee said he wanted 2026 to become “the first year of the full-scale restoration of Korea-China relations.”

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) offered a dismaying projection for Japan’s economy on Friday, projecting mediocre growth in the first half of 2026 that will cause Japan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to fall behind India’s.

Fifteen people were injured severely enough to require hospitalization in a bizarre attack on a rubber factory in Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture on Friday. A lone suspect was arrested for attempted murder in a rampage that included eight stabbings and seven people injured by a “spray-like liquid.”

“If you want peace, prepare for war” is a Latin credo attributed to Roman writer Vegetius. Japan has heeded that advice, announcing Friday it has approved a record defense budget plan exceeding 9 trillion yen ($58 billion) for the coming year.

The Japanese government is preparing to revise its immigration rules to make it more difficult for foreigners to obtain citizenship, including doubling the required period of residency in Japan and adding a requirement for Japanese language proficiency.

The assembly of Japan’s Niigata prefecture on Monday passed a vote of confidence in Governor Hanazumi Hideyo’s plan to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, which has been shut down ever since the earthquake that caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

Chinese state media has been heavily promoting a rumor that the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae wants to develop nuclear weapons that could potentially be used against China.

An unnamed World Health Organization (W.H.O.) spokesperson insisted in remarks published on Thursday that the agency is not seeking to change its current, meager relationship with Taiwan after a senior Japanese government official claimed this week that W.H.O. chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus promised more cooperation with Taipei.

Japanese Defense Minister Koizumi Shinjiro said on Wednesday that a combined demonstration of Russian and Chinese airpower near Japan’s southern islands was “clearly intended as a show of force against our nation, which is a serious concern for our national security.”

Playwright and actor Jeremy O. Harris was reportedly arrested at an airport in Japan on suspicion of attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into the country. Harris, a co-producer for HBO’s Euphoria, is still in custody after Japanese authorities said they found

Taiwan thanked President Donald Trump for the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which mandates reviews of the U.S. relationship to Taipei.

The governments of both Japan and China claimed on Tuesday to have menaced each other’s ships out of the waters surrounding the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, accusing each other of violating their respective sovereign territory.

Japanese pop singer Maki Otsuki was in the middle of a concert in Shanghai on Friday when her performance was abruptly cut short, her sound system was turned off, and the organizers ordered her to leave the stage.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on Wednesday announced a $40 billion boost to defense spending to counter “intensifying” threats from China.

President Donald Trump spoke with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and said he accepted an invitation to Beijing for a face-to-face meeting.

The Japanese government on Monday warned citizens visiting China to increase their safety precautions and avoid visiting crowded areas.

The Chinese communist regime on Wednesday informed Tokyo it is suspending imports of Japanese marine products amid rising tensions between both countries, according to reports.

China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a bulletin on Sunday to “solemnly remind” Chinese tourists they should avoid traveling to Japan for the foreseeable future, alleging that their safety cannot be guaranteed.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong called Japanese Ambassador Kanasugi Kenji into his office for a tirade about Taiwan on Thursday, the latest escalation of a diplomatic row that has already seen one Chinese official threaten to cut Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s head off.

A Japanese woman “married” an AI chatbot persona she trained using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, several international outlets reported. The Independent detailed on Thursday that the woman, only identified as 32-year old Ms. Kano, “married” the AI chatbot in a ceremony organized by

The Japanese government on Monday demanded explanations from China after Xue Jian, the Chinese consul general in Osaka, threatened to “cut” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s “dirty neck.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday confirmed that dictator Xi Jinping will meet with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in South Korea on Thursday.