BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took a tentative step toward easing more than two years of high tensions over contested islands and wartime history on Monday with an unsmiling handshake and a short meeting.

If someone pushed the nuclear button it would lead to the destruction of the world — that was the reality at the time, that fear of Armageddon." Miyazaki, whose 2001 box-office smash "Spirited Away" became the first anime to win an Academy Award …

Japan’s Economy Minister Akira Amari said on Saturday he saw progress in Asia-Pacific regional trade negotiations, although it would be difficult to reach an agreement by the end of the year, according to Jiji press. Trade ministers from the 12 nations participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact held talks on the sidelines of an […]

When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe raised Japan’s sales tax from April, he was betting he could break a jinx that has doomed leaders who raised the levy to losing their jobs. A shock move by the Bank of Japan on Friday to expand its massive asset-buying stimulus program – in the hope it will stoke […]

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda does not need to convince Japanese people like Kazue Shibata that deflation brings problems, but getting them to believe that higher prices will make things better is proving to be a harder sell. Shibata, 65, who runs a small dress shop in central Tokyo, worries the BOJ’s mission to […]

Stocks rose Friday, with benchmarks at or near records, after the Bank of Japan unexpectedly expanded stimulus, sparking hopes for the global economy.

A top Japanese government official said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should delay a planned sales-tax increase, the strongest sign yet that economic weakness is causing concern among those close to the premier ahead of the difficult tax decision. He expressed concern that raising the national sales tax too soon after a damaging April hike could […]

TOKYO/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Mitsubishi Aircraft will roll out Japan’s first commercial jet in more than 50 years on Saturday, amid doubts its ambition to sell more than 2,000 of the planes can match reality in the market segment. Developed for $1.9 billion by a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries that includes Toyota Corp as a […]

Nearly half of Japanese firms think the government should start defending the yen at this month’s dollar high of 110, a Reuters survey shows, underscoring the threat that rising fuel and other import costs pose to a fragile economy. Over the past two years, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has sought to boost the economy and […]

To the sound of drums and a children’s choir, Mitsubishi Aircraft on Saturday rolled out Japan’s first commercial jet in half a century, amid doubts it can attain an ambition to sell more than 2,000 aircraft in a competitive market segment. Developed by a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries that includes Toyota Corp as a […]