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Flight times from London to New York could be slashed to just 3 hours 15 minutes by 2025, thanks to a $10 million (£7.45 million) investment from Japan Airlines. Boom Supersonic is developing a 55-seat passenger plane that it says will halve flight times and will be faster, quieter and more affordable to fly than Concorde. As part of the deal Japan's number two carrier has the option to purchase up to 20 Boom aircraft and will provide its knowledge and experience as an airline to hone the aircraft design and help refine the passenger experience.

TOKYO (REUTERS) - Japan is preparing to acquire precision air-launched missiles that for the first time would give it the capability to strike North Korean missile sites, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. Japan plans to put money aside in its next defence budget starting April to study whether its F-15 fighters could launch longer-range missiles, including Lockheed Martin Corp's extended-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM-ER), which can hit targets 1,000km away, said one the sources with knowledge of the plan. "There is a global trend for using longer range missiles and it is only natural that...

Several wooden boats, some carrying skeletons, have mysteriously washed ashore in Japan in recent weeks. Authorities are still investigating where the so-called "ghost ships" came from, but experts say all signs point to North Korea. The Japanese coast guard on Thursday recovered one decrepit vessel drifting off the western coast of Matsumae town on the northern island of Hokkaido. Ten men found aboard the wooden ship identified themselves as North Koreans and said they were taking refuge at an island nearby due to rough weather... The Japanese coast guard has detected 59 cases so far this year of boats and...

Japan’s much admired Emperor Akihito plans to abdicate on April 30, 2019, at age 85 in the first such abdication from the Chrysanthemum Throne in about 200 years, the government said Friday. Akihito’s elder son Crown Prince Naruhito will ascend the throne a day later, on May 1, 2019, beginning a new as yet unnamed era. The decision was made Friday at a meeting of the Imperial House Council, which included politicians, judicial officials and imperial family members. Akihito expressed his apparent wish to abdicate in 2016, citing his age and health. Formal Cabinet approval of the decision is due...

Japanese netizens help scan lightning for gamma rays Japan -- A storm system approaches: the sky darkens, and the low rumble of thunder echoes from the horizon. Then without warning... Flash! Crash! -- lightning has struck. This scene, while familiar to anyone and repeated constantly across the planet, is not without a feeling of mystery. But now that mystery has deepened, with the discovery that lightning can result in matter-antimatter annihilation. In a collaborative study appearing in Nature, researchers from Japan describe how gamma rays from lightning react with the air to produce radioisotopes and even positrons -- the antimatter...

Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, told his parliament last week that he has “no intention” of accepting more migrants despite pressure from the UN Refugee Agency. During a debate in Japan’s parliament, Mr. Abe argued that accepting foreign workers should is justifiable only where they are truly needed to “keep Japan’s economy and infrastructure sustainable.”

NORTH Korea has launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), sparking a ferocious "precision strike" rocket response from South Korea. North Korea launched the missile at around 3am local time (6pm GMT), sparking a furious response from Seoul. Within minutes of North Korea's ICBM launch, South Korea had fired its own missile launch in retaliation. The North Korean missile was fired eastwards from the hermit state. The missile landed about 210km west of Japan's Kyurokujima island, Tokyo said. Japanese media reports the missile was in the air for 50 minutes - indicating a very high altitude flight path. It travelled east...

President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that the United States "will handle" the situation in North Korea after the rogue nation launched yet another intercontinental ballistic missile earlier in the day. "We will take care of it," Trump said, adding later that North Korea "is a situation that we will handle." The Pentagon confirmed earlier Tuesday that North Korea launched what the US military believes to be an intercontinental ballistic missile. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told reporters that the North Korean missile test went "higher, frankly, than any previous shot they have taken." Mattis...

North Korea fires a missile that appears to have crashed into Japan's exclusive economic zone, the Japanese prime minister's office said. The South Korean military conducted a "precision missile-firing drill" as a response to the launch, a South Korean military official told NBC. President Donald Trump was briefed on the situation while the missile was in the air, the White House said in a statement. North Korea fired a missile that was believed to have crashed into the waters off Japan, the Japanese prime minister's office said early Wednesday local time (Tuesday afternoon ET). Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered an...

North Korea has been threatening another launch following a series of provocative tests earlier this year. Two missiles flew directly over Japanese territory, terrifying citizens and sparking a round of worldwide condemnations and sanctions. And now despot Kim Jong-un could be set for yet another test - despite ever-strengthening warnings from his Western rivals. One Japanese diplomat warned today radio signals detected from the hermit state indicated another test is close. Japan's Kyodo news agency said the detection had been confirmed by government officials. One official told them: “There is a possibility of missiles launches in the next few days.”...

The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) has been loaded aboard the heavy lift transport vessel Transshelf and begin her journey to Pascagoula, Mississippi for further repairs. Fitzgerald departed Fleet Activities (FLEACT) Yokosuka under tow on November 24 begin the heavy lift process in deep water.

Japan is developing its own long-range cruise missile amid escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula. The missile, described as the Japanese Tomahawk, will reportedly be capable of being launched from aircraft, ships and land. Research on these missiles will begin next year, reports Yomiuri, a Japanese news outlet. This will be Japan’s first full-fledged cruise missile. Apart from being a deterrent to North Korea, the so-called Japanese Tomahawk will also serve to “recapture remote islands occupied by enemies”, says the report, likely referring to the long-running feud that Japan has with China over a remote island in the South China...

TOKYO (AP) — An aircraft carrying 11 crew and passengers crashed into the Pacific Ocean Wednesday while on the way to the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, the Navy said. The Japan-based 7th Fleet said in a statement that the search and rescue operation was launched from the carrier. “Personnel recovery is underway and their condition will be evaluated by USS Ronald Reagan medical staff,” the statement said. It said the ship was operating in the Philippine Sea, which is east of the Philippines, when the crash occurred at 2:45 p.m. Japan time. The names of the crew and passengers...

Effective immediately, U.S. service members on Okinawa are restricted to base and to their residences. Until further notice, alcohol consumption is prohibited. This includes in residences and public locations such as bars and clubs, and hotels. Additionally, U.S. service members on mainland Japan are prohibited from purchasing or consuming alcohol, on or off base. The new restrictions follow an accident Sunday morning in Naha in which a Okinawan man was killed when his vehicle was struck by a truck being driven by a U.S. service member. Alcohol may have been a factor. Commanders across Japan will immediately lead mandatory training...

Earlier robots had failed, getting caught on debris or suffering circuit malfunctions from excess radiation. But the newer version, called the Mini-Manbo, or “little sunfish,” was made of radiation-hardened materials with a sensor to help it avoid dangerous hot spots in the plant’s flooded reactor buildings. ... After three days of carefully navigating through a shattered reactor building, the Manbo finally reached the heavily damaged Unit 3 reactor. There, the robot beamed back video of a gaping hole at the bottom of the reactor and, on the floor beneath it, clumps of what looked like solidified lava: the first images...

A U.S. Navy destroyer was involved in a minor collision with a Japanese tugboat Saturday during a scheduled exercise, according to the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet. The USS Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer, sustained minor damage when a tugboat lost propulsion and drifted into the ship, the Navy said. No one was injured on either vessel and an initial assessment of the damage showed that the destroyer only sustained minimal damage including scrapes. But the accident comes at a time when the Navy's 7th Fleet and the U.S. Pacific Command have come under increased scrutiny after several deadly collisions in the...

A U.S. warship collided with a Japanese commercial tug boat in Japan's Sagami Bay on Saturday, marking the fifth time this year that a ship in the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet in the Pacific has been involved in a crash. The Japanese tug boat lost propulsion and drifted into the USS Benfold during a towing exercise. The U.S. guided-missile destroyer sustained minimal damage, and there were no reported injuries on either vessel, according to a press release from the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet. The USS Benfold, which is awaiting a full damage assessment, remains at sea under its own power....

The U.S. Navy has announced that it will carry out a rare exercise this weekend in the western Pacific involving three aircraft carriers. The exercise will take place in the Sea of Japan east of the Korean peninsula and is intended to send a message to North Korea of America's security commitments in the region, according to U.S. officials. "It is a rare opportunity to train with two aircraft carriers together, and even rarer to be able to train with three," said Adm. Scott Swift, U.S. Pacific Fleet commander, in a statement. "Multiple carrier strike force operations are very complex,...

U.S. President Donald Trump was in Japan on November 5 and 6, the first stop on his week-long Asia tour. Unsurprisingly, North Korea was a major focus of discussions between Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Yet while the question of how Washington and Tokyo will combat North Korea’s nuclear ambitions drew headlines, another potentially significant development went largely overlooked: The United States and Japan unveiled their governments’ joint effort to offer an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI is China’s plan to build infrastructure (from roads and railways to telecommunications and energy links) stretching...

This Tokyo small business owner is at the centre of attention after his signature burger was selected to be served to the President. In amongst all the speeches and outings held during Trump’s first visit to Japan as U.S. President, the one thing that stood out for many people was the fact that during his visit to a golf course with the Japanese Prime Minister, the two chose to eat hamburgers. While some criticised the decision to shun the country’s UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage-listed traditional cuisine, others immediately started searching the Internet to find out where they could get their...