Asia Japan The yen has weakened above $140 for the first time in nearly a quarter-century, mainly because Japan's central bank is keeping interest rates at minimum levels while the Federal Reserve and other central banks are rising hikes
Asia Japan Haruyuki Takahashi, an executive board member of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games has been arrested on suspicion of having taken bribes
Asia Japan Highly toxic chemical waste stored near the Fukushima nuclear power plant was transferred yesterday to a town in Hokkaido, northern Japan, for detoxification, raising safety concerns for local residents
Asia Japan At least 30 endangered green sea turtles have been found in the past weeks with wounds around their neck near the remote Japanese island of Kumejima in southern Okinawa prefecture; investigation has begun
Asia Japan A Tokyo court ordered former executives of TEPCO to pay some 13 trillion yen ($95 billion) in total damages for failing to prevent the 2011 crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant
Asia Japan The decision to hold a state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving in Japan’s history who was assassinated on 8 July, has been met with mixed reactions, with critics questioning the use of state money to fund the ceremony
Asia Japan Nearly 40 million Japan residents spent the weekend as if in the era before smartphones, after local phone company KDDI Corp. suffered its largest outage to date, affecting both voice calls and data communications
Asia Japan Osaka District Court ruled that Japan's ban on same-sex marriage does not violate the Constitution; it is the only country in the G7 developed nations that does not allow people of the same sex to marry
Asia Japan The defence minister expressed hope that military intelligence could again be shared smoothly with South Korea, after the foreign minister said an agreement, on the verge of ending under a previous administration, should be normalised
Asia Japan The Anti IUU Forum Japan - a group of NGOs promoting sustainable fishing - issued a statement to government officials suggesting measures to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
Asia Japan From this week, borders will reopen to 50 foreign tourists who will visit the country on organised tours in small groups of up to four people, an experiment to see how and when to fully reopen to international tourists not yet admitted
Asia Japan Japanese household spending fell in March for the first time in three months, although the drop was smaller than expected -2,3% - as consumers remained wary of rising living costs
Asia Japan Nearly 80% of Japanese think Okinawa's burden of hosting most U.S. forces in the country is unfair compared to other prefectures, according to a nationwide poll conducted ahead of the 50th anniversary of Okinawa's return to Japanese administration on 15/5