Part of houses swallowed by tsunami burn in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture (state) after Japan was struck by a strong earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, March 11, 2011. A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded slammed Japan’s eastern coast Friday, killing at least 60 people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control.... 

A road sign in Tokyo. Japan’s number of known child pornography victims surged by half last year, data showed Thursday, a new record in a country where it is legal to possess sexually explicit images of children. Japan’s number of known child pornography victims surged by half last year, data showed Thursday, a new record in a country where it is legal to possess sexually explicit images... 

Japan’s foreign minister said Thursday that Tokyo’s claim over the disputed Kuril islands remains “absolutely unwavering” despite Russia’s decision to boost its military presence on the territory. Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, who is due to visit Moscow from Friday, said Russia’s occupation of the islands is illegal and shrugged off President Dmitry Medvedev’s... 

Emotions are running high in the dispute over the Kuril Islands. Russia and Japan have been divided over ownership of the islands since the 1950s, but this had long since ceased to be a hot-button issue. How can we explain the unexpected surge in interest in this largely dormant territorial dispute? The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 renewed hope that the dispute with Japan would be settled.... 

A woolly mammoth skeleton is seen on display at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas in September 2009. Instead of Jurassic Park, try Pleistocene Park. A team of scientists from Japan, Russia and the United States hopes to clone a mammoth, a symbol of Earth’s ice age that ended 12,000 years ago, according to a report in Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun. The researchers say they hope to produce... 

The small-size vibration-driven generator using magnetostriction effect. A Japanese university researcher developed a small-size vibration-driven generator that measures approximately 2 x 3 x 12mm and can output a power of 1.56mW with a vibration of 357Hz. The energy density of the generator, which was developed by Toshiyuki Ueno, associate professor at Kanazawa University, is about 22mW/cm3. It is... 

Protesters chant slogans during an anti-China protest rally in central Tokyo. About 4,000 anti-China protesters rallied in Tokyo on Saturday, with their anger fuelled by a video capturing a collision between Chinese and Japanese vessels which sparked a diplomatic spat. About 4,000 anti-China protesters rallied in Tokyo on Saturday, with their anger fuelled by a video capturing a collision between Chinese... 

This undated handout illustration shows the DNA double helix. A Japanese has joined the elite club of humans whose genetic code has been fully sequenced, according to research unveiled on Sunday. A Japanese has joined the elite club of humans whose genetic code has been fully sequenced, according to research unveiled on Sunday. The unnamed male gave a sample of DNA which has been unravelled to show... 

Fly in the sky: The Global Hawk, an unmanned spy plane, is unveiled at Edwards Air Force Base in California in January 2009. Spy planes sought amid regional rise in tensions. The Defense Ministry is looking to buy three Global Hawk reconnaissance aircraft from the United States to deal with China’s militarization and North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Self-Defense Force... 

Protesters chanted: "We will not allow Communist China to invade our territory." Anti-China protesters gathered Saturday in Tokyo and six other major cities in Japan to rally against what it calls an invasion of disputed islands that both claim are part of their territories. Protesters held up Japanese flags and chanted, “We will not allow Communist China to invade our territory.” Beijing... 

Japan’s new foreign minister has taken tough stance toward China on territorial dispute. A security expert and China hawk, Japan’s new foreign minister has already taken a tough stance toward Beijing amid escalating diplomatic tension over a territorial dispute between the two Asian giants. Seiji Maehara, the former transport minister and most prominent symbol of change in Prime Minister... 

Japan’s Defense Ministry stressed the importance of U.S. military forces in Japan and cast a wary eye on China’s military expansion in an annual report Friday, as diplomatic tensions with China rose following a collision near disputed islands. The annual defense policy report also said a group of South Korean-controlled islands, called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, were an... 

Shipping containers pile up at a new container port in Wuhan, China on March 27. After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures released early Monday. The milestone, though anticipated for some time, is the most striking evidence yet that China’s ascendance... 

French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen leads a delegation of far-right European politicians to Japan this week where they plan to visit Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni shrine to war dead. When asked about the visit to the shrine, which honours 2.5 million Japanese war dead including 14 top war criminals from World War II, the party’s deputy leader Bruno Gollnisch said “bad... 

Saying “I told you so” isn’t always a sign of bad manners – not when good news is involved. Well, I did tell you to expect this: China has now raced past Japan to become the world’s number two economy. Just last Christmas I wrote that China would blow past the Chinese economy this year. And so it has. Yi Gang, China’s top currency regulator, says China has “in...