Japan has decided to buy Russian oil. Not just that, Tokyo is buying it above the Western price cap. Meanwhile, The downfall of the dollar remains a work in progress. Now, the biggest emerging economies are coming together to challenge the US dollar. What is the plan? Palki Sharma explains.   [...]

TOKYO (Sputnik) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday that he wanted to solve the dispute with Russia around the Southern Kuril Islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan, boost friendly relations between Moscow and Tokyo as well as sign a peace treaty between the two nations. [...]

A Japanese businessman known as the Tuna King really goes to great lengths when it comes to giving sushi lovers the “best” bluefin tuna. This year he paid 193.2mn yen ($1.8mn) for one, the second-highest price on record. It is the second year in a row that Kiyoshi Kimura, who heads a popular sushi restaurant chain, was the most successful bidder at the traditional New Year’s auction at Tokyo [...]

Japanese national broadcaster NHK has calculated the potential economic loss to the country from suicides at more than $4 billion a year. The calculation is based on 23,000 suicide victims in 2015, aged from 15 to 69 years, and had they lived and worked until their 70s. [...]

The research vessel, which belongs to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, is fitted with advanced scanning equipment and is carrying an unmanned submarine capable of operating hundreds of meters below the ocean surface. [...]

Amid growing uncertainties on the global oil market, Japan is looking to boost its energy cooperation with Russia, and international sanctions on Moscow don’t prohibit cooperation. [...]

The USSR and then Russia on the one side and Japan on the other never signed a peace treaty after the end of the Second World War largely due to the unresolved issue of sovereignty over the Kuril Islands. [...]

Kristian Rouz – China and Japan have reaffirmed their commitment to deepening bilateral economic and financial ties at an economic forum in Beijing, reaching several potentially far-reaching deals and trade and investment. Economists say the results of this forum could produce longer-term positive consequences for the entire region. [...]

Beijing and Tokyo sealed a multi-billion dollar currency swap arrangement on Friday, aimed at enhancing financial stability and spurring business activity in both countries. According to the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the arrangement which will last until October 25, 2021, will allow the exchange of local currencies between the two central banks for up to 200 billion yuan or 3.4 trillion yen ($30 billio [...]

A new high-speed bullet train has been rolled out by the Central Japan Railway (JR Tokai). It will debut in 2020 on the Tokaido Shinkansen line, running between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka. According to JR Tokai, the new Shinkansen N700S or Shinkansen ‘Supreme’ train will be smarter, sleeker and quieter. [...]

The prime minister promised "to move step by step towards signing of a peace treaty" with Russia. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will pay a visit to Russia without delay for further progress in the issue of a peace treaty, he said at the opening of the national parliament's plenary session on Friday. [...]

Vladimir Putin and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe have worked out a statement on the prospects of joint Russian-Japanese economic activities in the South Kuril Islands as the Russian leader arrived in Japan for what’s seen as a breakthrough visit. [...]

If targeting the civilian population of an entire city with a nuclear bomb, and incinerating tens of thousands of men, women, and children in the process, is not worthy of an apology then ‘humanity’ has become a word without meaning. Step forward US President Barack Obama and his statement in advance of his visit to Hiroshima that he will not apologize for the nuclear bomb dropped by the U [...]

Not everyone was happy about the three-hour long talks between Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe which took place in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday. While for Abe the meeting was diplomatically significant — a chance to discuss the disputed Kuril islands face-to-face with Putin — for the White House, it was an unwelcome fissure in the united front Washing [...]

During a telephone conversation with Shinzo Abe, US President Barack Obama urged the Prime Minister of Japan to refrain from visiting Russia in May, but Abe has refused his request. Obama and Abe spoke by telephone February 9, discussing North Korea. Two days earlier the northern state had launched a long-range rocket, violating UN resolutions and alarming the international community. [...]