North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile Tuesday that flew over the island nation of Japan. The suspected Hwasong-12 missile was fired from Pyongyang at 5:57 a.m. and passed over the Tohoku region at the northern end of the country, the South Korean military said. “It passed through the sky over Japan,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, later noting that the missile... 

The search continues for a 7-year-old boy missing in the bear-infested mountains of Hokkaido, Japan after being abandoned by his parents as punishment. Some 180 rescuers are involved in the search for Yamato Tanooka. After abandoning the boy as a form of punishment on Saturday, the parents returned to the site shortly afterwards to find he was no longer there, according to a police spokesperson. The... 

Children play in a snow-covered park in Sapporo in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido on December 17, 2014. Heavy snow blanketing swathes of Japan has claimed the lives of at least three people in the country. Two elderly women died on the northernmost island of Hokkaido and a man was killed in a traffic accident on snow-bound roads in Hiroshima, Japanese officials said on Thursday. There was... 

Russia has threatened to forbid visa-free travel for Japanese officials to the disputed Kurile Islands if Tokyo goes on making statements assuming ownership of the islands. “If for some reason Japanese politicians cannot refrain from making public statements on the subject of the islands after a visit to Russian territory, we reserve the right to limit their participation in such trips,” the Russian...