Japan | featured news

Tens of thousands of people rallied at a Tokyo park Monday demanding that Japan abandon nuclear power.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Saturday that the government is considering buying islands in potentially gas rich territory claimed by both Japan and China, in a move likely to anger Beijing.

Japan's Fukushima nuclear crisis was a preventable disaster resulting from "collusion" among the government, regulators and the plant operator, an expert panel said on Thursday, wrapping up an inquiry into the worst nuclear accident in 25 years.

Japan's auto sales in June were up 41% from a year earlier as consumers rushed to collect government incentives before the money runs out.

A powerful politician and dozens of his followers quit Japan's ruling party on Monday and are likely to form their own rival bloc, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

A closely watched survey by Japan's central bank has found big manufacturers have more confidence in the world's third-largest economy than they did three months ago.

Kansai Electric Power Co on Sunday restarted the 1,180-megawatt No. 3 unit at its Ohi atomic plant, the utility said, Japan's first nuclear reactor to come back online since the Fukushima crisis, despite public safety concerns.

Washington has urged the governments in Tokyo and Seoul to increase cooperation. But the pact triggered an uproar in South Korea, where resentment of Japan’s early 20th-century colonization remains raw and the public regards any sign of Japan’s growing military role with deep suspicion.

Japanese industrial production fell a worse-than-expected 3.1% in May from the previous month while consumer prices were lower in the period, in a sign that a recovery in the domestic economy has yet to take hold.

A treaty between South Korea and Japan will encourage the sharing of military data on their common concerns: North Korea’s threats and China’s military expansion.