Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae on Monday inaugurated a panel to review Japan’s defense posture in a time of growing threats from China, North Korea, and Russia.

An American internet troll known as Johnny Somali has been sentenced to six months in a South Korean labor prison after a series of offensive stunts that included dancing on a memorial statue honoring World War II sex slaves.

Liberating the Strait of Hormuz is “unrealistic” because it would be time consuming and difficult, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

Japan’s first long-range missile was deployed at a southwestern army camp, officials said Tuesday.

Restrictions on Japan’s coal-fired power plants were relaxed Friday as the Asian industrial giant seeks to ease an energy crunch caused by the Middle East war choking oil supplies.

Kai Smart, the son of Olympic skier John Smart, has died after being buried in an avalanche in Japan earlier this month.

British military officers are embedded with CENTCOM in preparation for a long-term Strait of Hormuz freedom of navigation mission.

Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae headed to Washington on Thursday for what she anticipated would be a “very difficult” meeting with President Donald Trump on the war in Iran.

Thursday on MS NOW’s “Deadline,” host Nicolle Wallace said President Donald Trump was a “profound idiot” during his Oval Office meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump said Thursday that Japan is “really stepping up to the plate” regarding Iran, unlike members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

President Donald Trump on Thursday had a viral response for a Japanese reporter who asked why the United States did not give Japan advance warning of Operation Epic Fury.

Six nations called for international law to be respected in Gulf as they announced potential joint efforts to reopen the Straits of Hormuz.

Trump says he feels vindicated in years of questioning fidelity of alliances, saying nations like Britain should have come with enthusiasm. 

Australia and Japan have rejected a call by U.S. President Donald Trump for warships to be sent to secure the Strait of Hormuz, confirming Monday they do not plan to join military operations in the contested zone.

Chen Wei, a deputy to China’s rubber-stamp National People’s Congress, on Wednesday suggested teaching mandatory sex ed classes to kindergarten children in a desperate effort to shore up China’s collapsing birthrates.

President Donald Trump warned Monday that countries attempting to exploit the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling to escape trade agreements will face steeper tariffs than those they originally negotiated with his administration. “Any Country that wants to ‘play games’ with the

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.

Japanese authorities seized a Chinese fishing boat on Thursday and arrested its captain after they caught the vessel illegally fishing inside its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

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.

Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae took a gamble by holding early parliamentary elections as a referendum on her agenda, but the gamble looks like it will pay off as her enormous personal popularity is set to sweep more members of her governing coalition into the Diet.

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.

Steel production in the United States has surpassed Japan’s steel production for the first time in 26 years, a result of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

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.