When it comes to fast trains, Japan takes top honors thanks to German brilliance and Japanese precision. A trailblazing maglev, short for ‘magnetic levitation’, train has set a world speed record during a test run near Mount Fuji, clocking over 600kph (373mph). The new record comes less than a week after the seven-car train clocked 590kph, breaking its own 2003 record of 581kph. The maglev hovers... 

The US and Japan are close to finalizing the revision of bilateral defense rules that would expand the two countries’ military cooperation, and allow Tokyo to play a more “proactive” role in regional security, according to US Defense Secretary Ash Carter. The bilateral defense agreement lays down a set of rules for joint operations between the US Military and Japan’s Self-Defense Forces... 

Rescuers remove debris to search for missing people at the site of a landslide at a residential area in Hiroshima, western Japan, on August 26, 2014. The death toll from the devastating landslides in western Japan has jumped to 63 with 25 others still missing as rescuers continue their efforts in combing through destroyed houses in search for survivors. Local police authorities said three more people... 

Japan has marked the 69th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city of Nagasaki by the United States in 1945. A ceremony commemorating the victims of the US nuclear attack was held in Nagasaki’s Peace Park on Saturday. The event was attended by the aging survivors of the bombing, relatives of the victims and high-ranking Japanese officials. In a speech at the ceremony, Nagasaki Mayor pledged... 

A boy sifting through floating garbage as he collects recyclable items to sell. A new report shows that child poverty in Japan is at its highest level in the last three decades as critics rap Tokyo for failing to address the crisis. The child poverty rate increased to over 16 percent in 2012, Japan’s Welfare Ministry said in a report published on Tuesday. The figure marks the worst rate since the... 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Japan says it intends to make the necessary preparations to materialize what it calls a robotic revolution and calls robots a massive economic growth factor. On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, “We would like to set up a council on making a robotic revolution a reality in order to aid Japan’s growth.” “We want to make robots... 

Tokyo suggested that it would allow the US to bring nuclear weapons into Japanese territory in the event of a serious threat to its security. In a briefing with lawmakers, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida outlined conditions that would lead Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government to make exceptions to Japan’s longstanding posture against possessing, producing, or allowing nuclear weapons... 

Asia Weekly, a Hong Kong-based news outlet, is reporting that Japan is secretly developing a nuclear weapons program in response to increasing hostilities with China over the East China Sea dispute. According to the report, paraphrased by the Want China Times, “With the capability to build at least 2,000 nuclear warheads, Japan has recently demanded the United States return 300 kilograms of plutonium.... 

Japan is now considering future weapon transfers to other Asian countries as it builds alliances for a potential war with China. Earlier today in Okinawa, Japanese officials met with representatives from the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to expand technological and defensive cooperation between the countries. Although Japan and ASEAN discussed joint cooperation in... 

United States Vice President Joe Biden said during a tour of Asia on Tuesday that the US is “deeply concerned” about recent efforts by China to re-draw airspace surrounding a series of islands between Taiwan and Japan. The airspace in that area has traditionally been controlled by Japan, but claimed by the Chinese as well. Late last month China proclaimed a portion of that area in the East China... 

Japan’s national debt exceeded 1,000 trillion yen, or $10.46 trillion, for the first time. It’s now well above 200% of the country’s GDP and is larger than that of Germany, France and the UK combined. Japan has increased borrowing this year to spend more on the country’s infrastructure as part of an ambitious program of economic stimulus aimed at ending 20 years of stagnation and falling... 

Japan’s Prime Minister and leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Shinzo Abe is trying to start an active campaign to amend the Constitution of Japan, which will focus on creating a full-fledged army in Japan. However, a poll revealed that only a third of the Japanese population supported the idea. Does Japan need a full-fledged army? As many politicians say, it is a severe state... 

Chinese demonstrators carry Chinese national flags and shout slogans during a protest against Japan’s “nationalizing” of the Diaoyu islands, also known as Senkaku in Japan, in Wenzhou, east China’s Zhejiang province on September 18, 2012 Tokyo is increasingly under threat from an emboldened China and an unpredictable North Korea, a Japanese defense paper says. Accusing China... 

A grim Ministry of Finance (MOF) report circulating in the Kremlin today warns that Venezuela’s “nuclear option” crashing of its currency yesterday is a “clear signal” that the Western banking systems “house of cards”, erected in the aftermath of the 2007-2008 Global Economic Crisis, is in “total collapse” with the expected final outcome to be an “apocalyptic” crash of the US... 

A US Air Force Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle Japan is considering plans to deploy US spy drones over the East China Sea to monitor a group of islands disputed by both Tokyo and Beijing. Japan’s Kyodo News said on Monday that the Japanese Defense Ministry was making arrangements to introduce the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft in order to boost surveillance of its waters near the islands, known...