Japan, the world's third-biggest economy, has a long and notorious history of protectionism.

Japan expects its whaling programme in the Southern Ocean will resume next year, court documents indicate.

Much hangs on whether the Japanese Government sides with its future-focused Foreign Ministry or its inwards-looking pro-whaling fisheries agency, writes John Armstrong.

China carries out more executions than any other country, a new report has estimated.

A Japanese court has decided to release a man who was sentenced to death in 1980 in a high-profile murder case based on new DNA evidence.

Scientists are to check whether NZ muttonbirds that spend the winter off the coast of Japan have been exposed to radiation from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Ian D. Robinson dresses in traditional clothes to watch equally traditional Japanese theatre.

Toyota has agreed to increase base wages in Japan for the first time since 2008 as the nation's largest carmaker heads for record profits.

A future where our elderly have faithful robot servants to look after them might be closer than we think, with the Govt offering researchers new cash to push the concept forward.

An increase in the number of giant squid being caught along the Sea of Japan coast is leading fisherman to fear it may be some kind of omen.

Exhausted, bloodied and burned by the Indonesian sun, five Japanese divers are recovering after being pulled from the waters off Bali.

Tokyo has elected a new governor despite a "sex strike" held by a group of women in protest against men who voted for him.

Due to their illegal status, casinos in Japan have traditionally been small, seedy, backroom-style places found in the same neighbourhoods as hostess bars or massage parlours.

A majority of voters want NZ to keep out of any conflict that could flare up in the East China Sea.

Washington and Tokyo have been drawn into an unexpected diplomatic spat over the annual slaughter of dolphins in Taiji.

On March 12, 2011, the day after a huge tsunami hit Japan's northeast coast, the USS Ronald Reagan entered the Sea of Japan on a humanitarian mission.

Australia will be monitoring Japan's whale hunt from the air instead of the sea in a decision both the Greens and whaling protesters have called a broken election promise.

Leaders from Japan and 10 Southeast Asian countries on Saturday pledged to co-operate in ensuring freedom of navigation.

Fine sediment clay within the Japan Trench plate boundary megathrust fault, was a key factor in triggering the devastating Fukushima tsunami in March 2011, according to a new study involving Otago University researchers.

A man who lost his wife when the Canterbury Television building collapsed in the February 2011 earthquake is adding his voice to calls for the unkempt site to be tidied.

Territorial squabbles over uninhabited islands should not be one of the reasons that people are allowed to kill each other.

South Korean and Japanese flights through China's new maritime air defence zone added to the international defiance of rules Beijing says it has imposed in East China Sea but that neighbours and the US have vowed to ignore.

China's new maritime air defence zone is unenforceable, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday.

China and Japan appeared to be a step closer to a military confrontation that could drag in the United States.

A volcanic eruption has raised an island in the seas to the far south of Tokyo, the Japanese coast guard and earthquake experts said.

Japan's decision to drastically scale back its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions could hurt efforts to craft a global deal to fight climate change, delegates at UN talks said.