The Aso government got its wish: North Korea launched its rocket, with the first stage said to have landed off the coast of Akita prefecture and the second said to have landed in the Pacific Ocean.

As tensions mount and there is increasing talk of shooting down the “debris” from a pending North Korean rocket launch, there has been little discussion of what would happen if Japan shot down the rocket instead.

By staff writer Saki Nakane

Japan’s job hunting is unique in a brutal way, and it has become even tougher for job-hunters to find employment amidst the worst economic crisis to hit Japan in a century.

About a year ago today, I published a weekly Nikkei outlook discussing whether the Nikkei was headed to 13,000 or back to 12,000. Suffice to say that much has happened since then...

Chiba's gubernatorial election, held Sunday, was viewed by some DPJ members going into the election as a critical test for Ozawa Ichiro's fragile leadership of the party...

Last week was a relatively quiet week in the forex market. This allowed the yen to weaken on the back of the poor economic numbers which continue to highlight how the dead cat bounce in the domestic economy during the global expansion years is now returning to haunt both the government and Bank of Japan.

What happens when expats in Japan unite their blogs? A new community built for fun and profit.

Nearly four years after a scandal exploded over structurally unsafe housing in Japan, the country's government is set to introduce a new system protecting home and condominium owners against defects in construction...

Once again the issue of Japanese contributions to international security efforts is the subject of tortured debate...

Despite the fact that Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said last Friday that February's fall in the so called "core-core" consumer price index doesn't mean Japan is back in deflation, few are ready to accept his judgement...