TOKYO – Five crew members were rescued on Wednesday from a cargo ship that sank off southwestern Japan during fierce winter winds, with planes and ships, including private vessels, searching for the remaining 17.

TOKYO – Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned Monday that Japan is “on the brink” of losing its social function due to its rapidly declining birthrate, pledging to focus on child-rearing policies as the most pressing agenda item this year.

MANILA, Philippines — Subic Bay was tagged as a “priority” site for infrastructure projects aimed at “supporting economic growth” in the Philippines, diplomats and defense officials of Manila and Washington said in a meeting last week, which tackled at the outset security cooperation and “issues related to the South China Sea.”

TOKYO – Japan’s top companies are gearing up to offer their biggest wage increases in decades, but there’s no way Hideki Kawada can afford raises for the 18 employees at his printing firm.

FUKUOKA – A man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of fatally stabbing his former girlfriend on a street in Fukuoka earlier this week, police said.

MANILA, Philippines — None of the more than 1,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who received legal aid from the government last year as they faced trial abroad were spared conviction and imprisonment, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported to the Senate on Tuesday.

TOKYO
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency estimates that it will cost taxpayers 36.1 billion yen to rectify the shoddy storage of radioactive waste in a storage pool at the Tokai Reprocessing Plant, the nation’s first facility for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, an official said Sunday.

SEOUL, South Korea
South Korean officials are considering creating a domestic fund to compensate Koreans who were enslaved by Japanese companies before the end of World War II, as they desperately try to repair relations with Tokyo that have deteriorated in recent years over historical grievances.

LONDON – The leaders of Britain and Japan signed a defense agreement Wednesday that could see troops deployed to each others’ countries.

MANILA – The Philippine women’s football team is on track to cruising past the first round of the Paris Olympic qualifiers this April.