Russia's relations with Japan over disputed Pacific Islands have not changed following Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
China's Defense Ministry complained on Friday that Japanese surveillance activities threatened the safety of Chinese ships and aircraft, raising the issue after Japan said earlier this week that its jet fighter scrambles had hit levels unseen since the Cold War.
A Japanese artist on trial for obscenity after making objects modeled on her vagina said on Wednesday that there was nothing wrong with her artwork and her arrest showed how far Japan was behind the West in terms of sexual equality.
Senior officials of South Korea and Japan will resume security talks next week after more than five years, with the hope of normalizing dialogue despite recent diplomatic spats.
China urged Japan on Tuesday to properly educate its youth, joining South Korea in condemning Japan's approval of textbooks its neighbors say distort history by claiming disputed islands.
Japan will likely extend its sanctions against North Korea because of Pyongyang's delay in reporting into its abductions of Japanese citizens decades ago, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday without citing sources.
A clash between Japan's central government and Okinawa island, host to the bulk of U.S. troops in Japan, deepened on Monday when the southern island's governor ordered a halt to underwater work at the site of a planned relocation of a U.S. Marine base.
Japan will sign a defense pact with Indonesia next week, officials in both governments said, the latest effort by Tokyo to forge closer security ties with Southeast Asian nations and build a counter-balance to China.
The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China on Saturday hold their first meeting in three years, in a bid to warm frosty ties and restore a regular three-way summit of their leaders, stalled because of tensions over history and territory.
China and Japan held their first security talks in four years on Thursday and agreed to keep alive and foster a nascent recovery in bilateral ties plagued by the legacy of Japan's wartime aggression and a territorial dispute.
China's relations with Japan face a "test" this year linked to whether Japan can properly atone for its wartime past, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday.
Japan and France signed a deal on military equipment and technology transfers on Friday, in a move to drive cooperation and joint development of defense gear, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe strengthens security ties with major powers.
China will question Japan's commitment to peace if it adopts an ambiguous or defiant stance regarding its wartime actions, Beijing's ambassador to Tokyo told the English-language China Daily newspaper in an interview published on Friday.
Commerzbank AG (CBKG.DE) has agreed to pay U.S. authorities $1.45 billion to resolve an investigation of its dealings with Iran and other sanctioned countries as well as a separate probe of its money laundering controls, the U.S. authorities said on Thursday.
The foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea are preparing to meet this month for their first talks in nearly three years, in a bid to resolve tension over Japan's wartime past and discuss a three-way summit.
The United States has asked Vietnam to stop letting Russia use a former U.S. base to refuel nuclear-capable bombers engaged in shows of strength over the Asia-Pacific region, exposing strains in Washington's steadily warming relations with Hanoi.
A United Nations human rights investigator recommended an international strategy on Monday to press North Korea to clarify the fate of hundreds of foreign nationals allegedly abducted over decades, mainly from Japan and South Korea.
Japan and North Korea could resume talks as early as this month over an investigation North Korea is conducting into the fate of Japanese citizens it kidnapped decades ago, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Saturday.
Japanese and Chinese officials will hold their first security talks in four years in Tokyo later this month, Japan's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, the latest sign of a possible improvement in ties strained by a territorial dispute.
U.S. ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert underwent two-and-a-half hours of surgery after he was slashed in the face by a Korean nationalist in an attack at a forum held in Seoul on Thursday to discuss Korean reunification, officials said.
First lady Michelle Obama will travel to Japan and Cambodia this month as part of a U.S. global effort to support education for girls, the White House said on Tuesday.
