Shinzo Abe’s victory to silence critics for bumpy road aheadRight-wing government returned to power amid low turnout fuelled by voter apathyMon Dec 15 2014 - 20:11
Japan election: Government wins new term with big majorityShinzo Abe’s coalition wins two-thirds of seats in lower house in record low turnoutSun Dec 14 2014 - 20:50
The lives of others: What the world can teach Ireland about smarter livingFrom Japan’s low obesity rates to Belgium’s happy renters, the world is full of examples of how to make society smarter, healthier and more enrichingSat Dec 13 2014 - 06:00
Japanese artist jailed over ‘obscene’ kayak designMegumi Igarashi’s first gained notoriety for exhibiting plaster casts of her genitaliaSat Dec 13 2014 - 01:00
Japan increasingly wary of China’s growing economic and military heftShinzo Abe and Xi Jinping meeting on islands dispute does little to thaw relationsMon Dec 01 2014 - 17:45
Tiny Okinawa throws spanner in US-Japan military allianceElection of Takeshi Onaga as governor gets world’s attentionThu Nov 20 2014 - 01:01
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe calls electionLeader of ruling Liberal Democrats announces snap election after data confirms recessionTue Nov 18 2014 - 12:18
Election looms as Japan unexpectedly slips into recessionStage set for prime minister Shinzo Abe to call for a vote in DecemberMon Nov 17 2014 - 10:02
Local vote on restarting reactors brings Japan’s return to nuclear power closerMove ‘unavoidable’, says governor, though Japanese people still oppose nuclear powerFri Nov 07 2014 - 23:46
Japanese minister under fire over sex bar ‘expenses’Controversy involving Yoichi Miyazawa follows two cabinet resignationsThu Oct 23 2014 - 15:39
Two Japanese government ministers resign in single dayYuko Obuchi, widely tipped to become Japan’s first female prime minister, steps downMon Oct 20 2014 - 10:57
Tokyo torn between competing visions for 2020 OlympicsThere is much work to be done to prepare the city but little agreement on the next stepsTue Sept 30 2014 - 01:00
‘Fukushima-Gate’ tapes deepen dispute over nuclear legacyAccount from Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster was kept secret - until nowTue Sept 16 2014 - 08:48
Dengue fever outbreak infects 34 in TokyoDisease normally found in tropical and subtropical areas of AsiaTue Sept 02 2014 - 19:49
Japan’s PM avoids Yasukuni shrine amid rising wartime revisionismTokyo Letter: Shinzo Abe trying to uphold nationalist ideology without damaging Chinese ties furtherSat Aug 16 2014 - 01:00
Two dead as powerful typhoon batters JapanMeteorological agency issues warning of possibility of ‘grave natural disaster’Wed Jul 09 2014 - 01:00
If you take away the quakes, Tokyo is an awesome place to liveIt may be pricey, crammed and situated on one of the world’s most unstable seismic zones, but Tokyo has its benefits, namely being one of the safest, cleanest cities to liveThu Jul 03 2014 - 01:00
Japan passes controversial change in pacifist stanceNew strategy described as biggest change to Japan’s defence posture in nearly 70 yearsTue Jul 01 2014 - 22:56
Japan coalition divided as prime minister seeks greater conflict powersCritics say Shinzo Abe’s initiative would alter Japan’s constitutional frameworkSat Jun 21 2014 - 01:00
Japan to ban child porn after years as international outlierProposed law will allow a year for disposal of porn before possession is punishableThu Jun 12 2014 - 01:00
Japanese firms struggle to retool for ‘internet of things’The death of Japanese high-tech may have been exaggerated as it works out how to take advantage of an interconnected worldMon Jun 02 2014 - 01:10
Overwork remains a fatal flaw in Japanese societyDeath from working too hard – ‘karoshi’ – and depression damage many livesSat May 31 2014 - 01:00
Cultured mind interpreting Japan and its peopleWild Geese: Peter MacMillan, University of Tokyo, JapanFri May 16 2014 - 01:00
Justin Bieber stumbles across the ‘soul of Japan’The pop star unwittingly visited east Asia’s most controversial shrineSat Apr 26 2014 - 01:00
Obama risks angering China on first leg of Japan tripUS president vows to defend Japan’s owernship of disputed islandsWed Apr 23 2014 - 14:43
Japanese politicians visit war shrine ahead of Obama visitChina says PM’s tree donation to controversial monument a ‘slap in the face’ to US presidentTue Apr 22 2014 - 07:18
Japan moves toward ditching its pacifist stanceConservatives have long disliked 1947 constitution, in which Japanese people ‘forever renounce war as a sovereign right’Mon Apr 14 2014 - 01:00
World’s longest-serving death row prisoner freed in JapanJapanese court says police evidence against man convicted in 1968 was probably fabricatedFri Mar 28 2014 - 01:01
Scientists to issue starkest climate warning yet at Japan conferenceRising seas will displace hundreds of millions in coastal areas around world by 2100, report will sayWed Mar 26 2014 - 01:00
Japan desperate to tackle its ticking demographic time bombThe government is considering a solution that it has so far shunned: mass immigrationSat Mar 22 2014 - 01:01
Fukushima lives in limbo, three years onBattle to decommission nuclear plant continuesMon Mar 10 2014 - 19:47
Japan revisits apology to wartime ‘comfort women’, sparking diplomatic row with SeoulJapan admitted its wartime system of sexual slavery in 1993Sat Mar 08 2014 - 01:00
Tokyo mystified by vandalism of Anne Frank diariesCopies of iconographic text of the Jewish Holocaust is being attacked in librariesSat Mar 01 2014 - 07:14
Japan sparks fury with UN move to immortalise letters from Kamikaze pilotsApplication triggers furious reaction in ChinaSat Feb 08 2014 - 01:00
Under Shinzo Abe, Japan takes a sharp turn to the rightThe prime minister’s nationalist obsessions are again coming to the foreSat Feb 01 2014 - 01:00
Japan increases military spendingNew amphibious unit modelled on US marines to protect outlying territoryWed Dec 18 2013 - 01:11
No evidence that HSE agreed CRC top ups, says ReillyTaoiseach says agencies must ‘answer up’ in scheduled meetings with HSETue Dec 03 2013 - 16:17
Kenny hopeful of China deal for Irish beefWith a population of 1.3 billion, China is potentially one of the world’s largest markets for Irish farm productsTue Dec 03 2013 - 01:00
Japan lifts twelve-year ban on Irish beefBeef imports were banned by Tokyo government in 2001 after the BSE scandal in EuropeMon Dec 02 2013 - 12:38
Beef ban to be lifted as Kenny trade visit to Japan beginsPost-BSE measure to be removed as greater links sought with vast marketMon Dec 02 2013 - 01:00
Fukushima clean-up enters critical stageThousands of highly radioactive spent fuel rods must be disassembledFri Nov 08 2013 - 01:00
Cut-price clean-up after nuclear disaster takes devastating toll on people employedHumans clear and contain the lingering radioactive messSat Sept 28 2013 - 01:00
Fukushima clean-up may be doomedCritics say Japan’s government is engaged in a vast, duplicitious and fruitless campaignTue Sept 24 2013 - 01:00
Japan’s PM vows to plug Fukushima leakShinzo Abe pledges almost €360m in scheme to staunch radioactive dischargeWed Sept 04 2013 - 01:00
Japanese nuclear watchdog raises Fukushima alert levelMove seen as sign engineers are losing control over leaks of radioactive water at stricken plantWed Aug 21 2013 - 15:26
Leak of toxic water at Fukushima nuclear plantStorage tank leak adds to 300 tonnes of radioactive coolant a day lost from stricken Japanese plantWed Aug 21 2013 - 01:00
Japanese city votes to scrap tsunami shipCity of Kesennuma against preserving ‘Kyotokumaru’ as memorialWed Aug 14 2013 - 01:00
Nagasaki mayor attacks Japanese prime minister over nuclear arms stanceTomihisa Taue says Japan’s failure to sign international accord rejecting use of nuclear weapons ‘betrayed the expectations of global society’Mon Aug 12 2013 - 01:00
Fishermen of Fukushima left all at sea as they mourn the loss of their livelihoodThe working day is now spent mending nets and boats that may never be used againFri Aug 09 2013 - 01:00
Japan’s Taro Aso refuses to resign over Nazi remarksJapan could learn from way Nazis rewrote Weimar constitution, said deputy PMSat Aug 03 2013 - 01:00
