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At least 13 people have been killed in southwestern Japan after a magnitude-7.1 earthquake, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Wednesday, as rescuers searched for people trapped in collapsed buildings, including a shopping mall. “Even now, there are people waiting to be rescued, and this is a race against time. We will marshal all available resources on the ground to save and rescue as many people as possible,” Takaichi told reporters in Tokyo. The quake struck Tuesday afternoon in Kumamoto prefecture on Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu at a relatively shallow depth of 6 miles, prompting tsunami warnings and evacuation...

A shopping centre has collapsed leaving a 'considerable number' of people dead, after a strong 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit southern Japan on Tuesday. Japanese police previously said they had received reports of what sounded like an explosion at the Aeon Mall outlet in Kumamoto. Emergency services said that 'many people' were trapped inside the centre, which was severely damaged as a result of the quake. The tremor measured at the highest possible level seven on Japan's own Shindo scale of shaking. The Japanese government issued emergency earthquake warnings for Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Saga, Oita, and Miyazaki prefectures, all on Japan's...

ORLANDO, Florida, July 22 (Reuters) - As Japan's yen sinks to its lowest in 40 years, Tokyo's policy credibility in the eyes of international investors appears to be sinking too. The dollar/yen rate, the world's second most traded currency pair, is now above 163.00 for the first time since 1986. Why is Japan's currency so weak? Partly it is dollar strength. Most major ​currencies have weakened against the greenback in the last few months as a second wave of the global energy shock has reignited inflation fears, pushing up U.S. Treasury yields. While most ‌developed market government debt has come...

Mitsubishi Corp. finalized a $7.5 billion acquisition of Dallas-based Aethon Energy Management’s Haynesville Shale assets this week, as another Japanese conglomerate moved to secure natural gas from northwest Louisiana for its LNG supply chain. Tokyo-based Mitsubishi is the latest Japanese multinational energy company to buy production in north Louisiana following JERA’s February close on a $1.5 billion purchase of the South Mansfield gas field and supporting infrastructure from Williams and GeoSouthern Energy affiliates, both U.S.-based companies. Taken together, Japanese multinationals will produce an estimated 4.5 billion cubic feet per day or about 30%-35% of the Haynesville region’s total natural gas...

China is not just building replicas of US warships. Satellite images analysed by The Telegraph reveal it is also building models of fighter jets, naval bases and Taiwanese presidential buildings. Beijing has been using these models to test its ever-growing stockpile of long-range weapons and new AI systems as it prepares to take control of Taiwan – a top priority of Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.The accuracy of the replicas “signals a highly specific focus on potential adversaries rather than generic capability building”....SNIPChina’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has also built to-scale models of Taiwan’s presidential office and key government buildings...

In 2025, Japan broke records for total and fatal bear attacks. There were 230 attacks and 13 fatalities, more than double the previous record of 6 fatalities in one year. Japan collects bear statistics by fiscal year, from April 1 to March 31. 2026 is off to a bad start. Five fatalities have been identified from April 1 to June 30. The previous record was two fatalities during April 1 to June 30. Bear attacks tend to trail off in July and August, and pick up significantly in September, October and November. Bears in Japan start hibernating in December. Another...

This week at Starbase SpaceX has set the date for the launch of Flight 13, Booster 20 performs a full-duration static fire test ahead of it's upcoming launch, and SpaceX releases the next episode in its Starship and Starbase documentary series. SpaceX To Launch Starship For Its 13th Time This Week! | 6:07 Avid Space | 12,940 views | July 12, 2026

On July 4, Beijing announced it had launched a new sea patrol to replace a group of ships that, in June, were an integral part of China’s effort to control waters far from its shoreline. In an extraordinary move last month, Beijing claimed part of the Pacific Ocean as sovereign Chinese water. On June 6, China’s Ministry of Transport launched “a special maritime law enforcement operation in the waters east of Taiwan Island.” Vessels from the Fujian and Guangdong Maritime Safety Administrations, the East China Sea Navigation Support Center and the East China Sea Rescue Bureau took part, sailing eastward...

Blue Origin CEO: New Glenn WILL Fly Again This Year! (Plus, I had a baby) | 16:28 Ellie in Space | 17,090 views | June 30, 2026

President Donald Trump appeared to confuse Iran with Japan during a jaw-dropping verbal slip at the NATO summit in Ankara on Wednesday, telling reporters that the “Islamic Republic of Japan” had fired more than 100 missiles at a U.S. aircraft carrier as he touted the effectiveness of Patriot missile defense systems.

Japan is more Patriotic towards America than many American cities and citizens.

Hours before Haruki Murakami's new book was set to go on sale in Japan on Friday, dozens of fans gathered outside a major Tokyo bookstore for a special event to get their first copies as soon as the clock struck midnight. “The Tale of KAHO” is the Japanese author's first full-length novel featuring a lone woman protagonist, according to Shinchosha Publishing Co. “Kaho, a picture book author, is just an average young woman. But truly bizarre things start happening around her,” Murakami said in a brief message posted on the publisher’s campaign website. “I wrote this novel as I put...

37 year old Japanese farmer Ishii Ryōtarō has been arrested for burning down a illegally constructed mosque by Pakistanis in Ebetsu, Hokkaido. The mosque was there for over 5 years & the local government did nothing to demolish it. Vigilantism was Inevitably going to happen.

A video has been going viral on social media wherein a man in yellow attire can be seen vandalising a worship place. The video is reportedly from the Tarumi Ward in Japan’s Kobe City where the accused identified as Mamadou Balde had vandalised the Mizuoka Hachiman shrine in the area. Balde is a Muslim native of the Republic of Gambia in West Africa, who migrated to Japan and now lives in Tarumi Ward, where the incident took place. The accused, who was later arrested by the Japanese police, reportedly broke an offering box kept in the shrine. He also, reportedly,...

SpaceX may have just dropped its biggest hint yet about what comes after Starship Flight 13. Indeed, FINALLY! Starship's Next Giant Leap may be here as the new filings point toward an Orbital Return Demo that could mark the next major milestone on the road to full reusability. With that work continues at Starbase on Pads 1 and 2, the Gigabay, and future launch infrastructure. Elsewhere this week, we cover Falcon 9 launches carrying BlueBird satellites, Starlink, and another classified NRO mission, Cargo Dragon’s return from the International Space Station, Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander preparing for launch, Ariane 6’s impressive...

The wreck of a Japanese prison ship that was sunk by U.S. warplanes and went down with more than 1,000 Allied prisoners of war in 1944 has been discovered in the Philippines. The vessel was one of the notorious "hellships" used by the Japanese to ferry POWs between work camps. Many of the prisoners who died when the ship sank had worked on the infamous Burma-Thailand "Death Railway." "Sadly, a lot of these prisoner transport ships were sunk by the Allies," expedition leader and American TV show host Josh Gates told Live Science. "The ships were painted to just look...

The mayor of the city of Shimotsuma in eastern Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture was found dead in a drainage canal early on June 15. Based on the circumstances at the scene, police are investigating the possibility that he took his own life. The body of Mayor Toyoji Sudo, 67, was found in the drainage canal in Yachiyo, Ibaraki Prefecture, at about 12:50 a.m. According to Shimotsuma Police Station, Sudo's family visited the station at about 11:15 p.m. on June 14, saying that he was late in coming home, and reported him missing. During a subsequent search, a police officer found Sudo...

Japanese World Cup fans put American sports culture to shame over the weekend as videos circulated across social media showing Japanese supporters staying behind after matches to clean up trash throughout the stadium. Many even brought their own trash bags, viewing it as a sign of respect for the host country, the players, fellow fans, and the venue itself. Their display of courtesy was quickly contrasted with the aftermath of the New York Knicks' NBA Finals victory over the weekend, when crowds poured into the streets, smashing vehicles, setting fires, and causing widespread destruction across parts of the city.

They fought a world war, and they lost it, and their populations spent the next 85 years with shrunken militaries and a heavy reliance on their former enemy, America, for security. Now, both countries’ wariness of America has resurfaced, alongside heightened fears about a surging world power, China, and an aggressive Russia. Tokyo and Berlin are rushing to rebuild their militaries. And, once again, they are strengthening ties. Their cooperation is expected to gather momentum at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of 7 nations in Evian, France, this week. It already includes sharing know-how, technology and weapons,...

Japan has resumed operations at the world's largest nuclear power plant to help the country meet huge electricity demands during a global oil crisis, but the reboot highlights a big problem: Japan is running out of space for spent nuclear fuel and has no viable plans for permanent disposal of the radioactive waste. The restart of No. 6 reactor at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station earlier this year was meant to spur a movement to bring more nuclear reactors online. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is one of three plants whose cooling pools will be full in five years, according to the Federation of Electric...