In a key decision likely to affect efforts to restart the nation's nuclear power plants, the Osaka District Court ruled Tuesday that two reactors in Oi, Fukui Prefecture, are operating under rational safety standards and that it is not clear there is a concrete ...

With the kickoff of the Dec. 16 Lower House election campaign just one day away, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) is in chaos after party leader Shintaro Ishihara declared Friday that he would revise a promise to abolish nuclear power by the ...

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) head Toru Hashimoto expressed criticism and disappointment Thursday over an agreement between former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's Taiyo no To (The Sunrise Party) and Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura's Genzei Nippon (Tax Reduction Japan) to unite ahead of ...

TOKUNOSHIMA, Kagoshima Pref. — When Tokunoshima, an island with about 26,000 residents officially governed by Kagoshima Prefecture but counted as part of the Satsunan Islands that lie closer to Okinawa than Kyushu, first emerged as a candidate host for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station ...

More than six months after mobster Kunihiko Konishi was arrested for decades of embezzlement, Osaka is set to scrap two dozen city projects to aid the plight of the local 'buraku" community of descendents of the feudal outcast class. Konishi, a senior leader of the ...

Hirokazu Nakaima, a ruling coalition-backed former vice governor and chairman of a power utility, was elected Sunday governor of Okinawa in a campaign closely watched for its impact on the proposed realignment of U.S. military bases in Japan. By electing Nakaima, 67, over his opposition-backed ...