Asia, Japan | featured news

Japan's rapid aging means the national population of 128 million will shrink by one-third by 2060 and seniors will account for 40 percent of people, placing a greater burden on the shrinking work force population to support the social security and tax systems.

The Japanese government's worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year warned that tens of millions of people, including Tokyo residents, might need to leave their homes, according to a report obtained by the Associated Press. But fearing widespread panic, officials kept the report secret.

Japan says it will soon require atomic reactors to be shut down after 40 years of use to improve safety following the nuclear crisis set off by last year's tsunami....

This tuna is worth savoring: It cost nearly three-quarters of a million dollars. A bluefin tuna caught off northeastern Japan fetched a record 56.49 million yen, or about $736,000, Thursday in the first auction of the year at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market. The price for the 593-pound (269-kilogram) tuna beat last year's record of 32.49 million yen.

Japanese officials unveiled a decades-long plan Wednesday to decommission the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where reactor cooling systems failed after the country's devastating earthquake and tsunami in March.

A Japanese government panel says it will take at least 30 years to safely close the tsunami-hobbled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

Toyota over the weekend broke ground for a technical center near Shanghai that will prepare for shifting production to China of tightly guarded technology used in its hybrids and other alternative-energy vehicles—but not its latest technology.

Andy Murray rallied to beat Rafael Nadal 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 in the Japan Open final Sunday.

A powerful typhoon slammed into Japan on Wednesday, leaving 13 people dead or missing in south-central regions and halting trains in Tokyo before grazing a crippled nuclear plant in the tsunami-ravaged northeast....

Fitch Ratings warned on Thursday that it might downgrade the credit rating of China within two years and there was a greater than even chance of a downgrade of Japan's credit status.