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<p>Half-Japanese and half African-American, Miss Nagasaki Ariana Miyamoto is the first-ever mixed-race Miss Universe Japan.</p> <p>But changing perceptions here can be an uphill struggle. In a culture that typically prefers pale -- where "pure Japanese" white skin is considered a symbol of beauty -- the darker skinned Miyamoto's crowning last week was a revolution on the runway.</p>

Major Japanese network showed the announcement of the presidential run by candidate Ted Cruz, did a great voice over, showed that the field has no clear front runner, and mentioned Cruz's trademark "Courageous Conservatism", in addition to his promised gutting of the unpopular Obamacare. All in all a fair clip.

YOKOHAMA (Reuters) - Japan's Maritime Self Defense Force on Wednesday took delivery of the biggest Japanese warship since World War Two, the Izumo, a helicopter carrier as big as the Imperial Navy aircraft carriers that battled the United States in the Pacific. The Izumo with a crew of 470 sailors is a highly visible example of how Japan is expanding the capability of its military to operate overseas and enters service as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks lawmaker approval to loosen the restraints of Japan's pacifist post-war constitution. The 248 meter (813 feet) long Izumo resembles U.S. Marine Corp amphibious...

Monsanto Co said on Wednesday it reached a settlement with U.S. wheat farmers who sued the seed company over market disruption after unapproved genetically engineered wheat was discovered growing without oversight in Oregon. Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" wheat, which was never approved by U.S. regulators and which the company said it stopped testing a decade ago, was found growing in an Oregon farmer's field in 2013. The company had said all the experimental grain was destroyed or stored away. South Korea and Japan temporarily halted purchases of U.S. wheat after the announcement on fears the unapproved wheat, engineered to withstand Roundup...

Instead, as part of her usual spring fling, Mrs. Obama decided to take Asia by storm. Stopping in Japan before heading toward Cambodia, Michelle gleefully ran up exorbitant bills on travel and car service, tripped over her own feet, and scared the hell out of a few small-statured Asian people. In addition to revealing her clumsiness on the world stage, while in Japan Mrs. Obama worked out her biceps on a Taiko drum, counted red gates at the Fushimi Inari Shrine, had tea at the Kiyomizu-Dera Buddhist Temple, and ate raw fish out of a dainty Bento box. Then Mrs....

AUSTRALIA’S overseas intelligence agency, ASIS, has been training Japanese spies in the tradecraft of espionage as Tokyo seeks to establish its first foreign spy service since World War II. ...ASIS has taken a key role in training Japan’s fledgling spies since Tokyo decided to ­establish a foreign intelligence service to gather information on looming regional security challenges, such as those posed by North Korea, the rise of China and the threat of Islamist terror. Japan’s intention to establish a spy service was flagged in a cable published by WikiLeaks... ...Japanese intelligence officers have been posted to Australia as part of...

First Lady Michelle Obama’s visit to a Buddhist Temple in Kyoto is costing taxpayers nearly $80,000 for rental cars, according to a government contract. Mrs. Obama, who is traveling to Japan and Cambodia for a girls’ education initiative, will arrive in Kyoto, Japan, on Friday. According to the White House press office, “The First Lady will travel to Kyoto on March 20 and visit the Kiyomizu-Dera Buddhist Temple and the Fushimi Inari Shinto Shrine. She will also greet staff from the U.S. Consulate in Osaka.” …

In 2013, the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet hinted at a mysterious and “newly discovered threat” to American warships. Whatever it was, it was serious — and had America’s admirals spooked. We knew the threat was probably a missile, because the Navy’s only mention of it was inside a contracting request for a new electronics countermeasures system designed for surface ships. The Navy awarded a $65-million contract to the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory to develop the system within a “critically short” time frame. Military & Aerospace Electronics, which first noticed the request, suggested that the threat was a radar-guided anti-ship missile from a...

New photos recently emerged of China’s KJ-500 airborne early-warning and control plane. It’s Beijing’s fifth unique fixed-wing AEW&C aircraft. Which is kind of a big deal. While hardly glamorous, these all-seeing planes are incredibly important to any modern air force. They transmit instructions and data — such as the presence of enemy fighters — with their powerful radars and sensors. If an air-to-air battle was an office, AEW&C planes would be the managers. An air force with one of these planes in the air can see far more — and at much longer ranges — than an enemy without one. But by any measure, five different types of...

The Obama presidency is fond of issuing apologies for America on the world stage, but very rarely makes them at home to Americans. White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer has just issued one to Washington Post columnist and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer, who last week wrote an op-ed berating the Obama administration for removing a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office when it came to power. Pfeiffer had issued a stinging attack on Krauthammer, alleging that his Churchill bust reference was “100 percent false.” Krauthammer was of course 100 percent correct, and the British Embassy in...

1:43 a.m. Concerns that the Group of 20 industrialized and developed nations may not come up with an effective plan to address Greece's debt problems prodded short-term investors to sell the euro in Asia Friday, sending the currency to its lowest level against the dollar in nearly a year. In morning trade in Japan, the euro dropped to $1.3201, its lowest level since April 30, 2009. Dealers said mounting anxiety that Greece could default on its debt may drag the common currency below $1.3000 next week. The focus throughout Asian trading was on the possible outcome of discussions among top...

TOKYO (AP) — Japan and France signed an arms transfer agreement Friday, paving the way to develop drones and other unmanned equipment together as Japan seeks to play a greater international military role. In talks on diplomacy and national security, the two countries' foreign and defense ministers reached an agreement aimed at exchanges of defense equipment, services and technology and starting talks on specific projects. The ministers signed the agreement at a joint news conference following the talks.

How do we know the war is coming in the first place? Because the advertising for it is out. Amongst plenty of other evidence, one Chinese front organisation conducted a poll on Australian attitudes to the ANZUS treaty and a Chinese attack on Japan. Why would they conduct such a poll unless they are going to attack Japan? Not that they were interested in the results as such. They just wanted to be able to publicize the poll in order to try to keep Australia on the sidelines of their war. The war will have two functions for China. Firstly,...

The euro slipped to a fresh 12-year low against the US dollar on Thursday as the common currency continued to buckle under pressure felt since the European Central Bank launched its massive quantitative easing scheme at the start of the week.

A Chinese immigrant who stole trade secrets from the Chicago Merc worth an estimated $50 million was spared prison Tuesday by a federal judge who cited his otherwise “exemplary life.” Chunlai Yang, 50, of Libertyville, was instead sentenced to just four years probation for stealing software that underpinned the CME Group’s Globex trading platform. Yang, who worked as a high-ranking programmer for the Merc from 2000 until his arrest in 2011, pleaded guilty in 2012 to the theft, admitting he was trying to create a similar product in China when he illegally downloaded more than 10,000 computer source code files....

Police in Japan say they have arrested a 40-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing five neighbors in a farming community in Sumoto city. The man has admitted stabbing three women aged 59, 76 and 84, as well as two men aged 62 and 82, Deputy Police Chief Keizo Okumoto told CNN. He said the accused refused to comment further as he was awaiting his lawyer.

...Under its nationalistic prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Japan has embarked on the most sweeping overhaul of its defense posture in recent memory. Not only has Mr. Abe reversed a decade-long decline in military spending as part of what he calls “proactive pacifism,” but his government is also rewriting laws to lift restrictions on Japan’s armed forces, which are already taking a more active role as far afield as the Gulf of Aden.

Tuesday Federal Agents forced entry into twenty Southern California locations believed to be orchestrating “maternity tourism” scams for pregnant alien women aiming to gain U.S. citizenship for their soon to be born child. According to U.S. immigration officials, the “maternity hotels,” which housed predominantly women from China, cost anywhere from $15,000 to 50,000 depending on negotiated services. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, or ICE, reported that locations for the “maternity hotels” included Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. No one was arrested in connection with the scheme, reported Reuters. It is not illegal for women coming from foreign...

STAGE one of Saudi Arabia’s plan—or perhaps hope—to restructure the oil market is taking longer than expected. By refusing to rein in production while prices fell, the Saudis permitted a big surplus to grow and served notice on higher-cost rivals (Russia, Venezuela, American shale-oil producers) that they would not prop up other people’s profit margins at the expense of their own market share. That signal has been weakened by the growing amount of oil in storage, which is absorbing most of the glut. World oil stocks rose about 265m barrels last year and Société Générale, a French bank, reckons they...

Tokyo (AFP) - Energy-saving LED traffic lights seemed like a cool way to cut back on electricity costs, but Japanese police said Monday they might just be too cool -- because they don't melt snow. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) account for around 45 percent of all of Japan's stop-and-go signals .. But in wintery northern Japan the lights have encountered a problem -- drivers can't see them because they don't get warm enough to melt accumulated snow. Akira Kudo of Aomori Prefectural Police said snow has to be removed manually between December and mid-February during blizzards. "We don't have enough staff...