South Korea starts drills at Japan-claimed islands

As climate change contributes to more powerful Pacific storms, a new research center wants to better understand the threats they pose and utilize the energy they generate to help Japan reach zero carbon emissions.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is seeking a mandate for his policies in the October 31 parliamentary election. Meanwhile, the opposition has vowed to close Japan's income gap.

Mount Aso volcano spews a giant column of ash thousands of metres into the sky, after the late-morning eruption in southwest Japan. The active volcano ejected hot gas and ash as high as 3,500 metres (11,500 feet), and sent stones tumbling down its grassy slopes.

South Korea has launched its first domestically developed space rocket but failed to put its dummy payload into orbit, a setback in the country's attempts to join the ranks of advanced space-faring nations.

A Netflix-funded anime academy in Tokyo trains the next generation of cartoon artists as global demand for the genre soars. Japan is facing a shortage of skilled animators, in part because most face years toiling in low-paying jobs to learn the ropes, meaning much of the painstaking frame-by-frame drawing work is outsourced overseas.

Japan is holding a parliamentary election, which is the first big test for the new prime minister. A poor showing for the ruling party could threaten a return to the country's history of revolving-door premiership.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Liberal Demorats are expected to retain enough seats to keep power, but the new administration will need to get the economy back on track while navigating regional security challenges.

A 24-year-old man dressed in Batman's Joker costume attacked passengers on a Tokyo train line on Sunday evening, injuring 17 people as many party-goers headed into the city center for Halloween gatherings, media reported.

India's Narendra Modi has spoken in Glasgow on Monday and Japan's new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was en route. But President Xi Jinping of China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, skipped attendance.

Nearly 70 years after the conflict ended in stalemate, Seoul is pushing hard for a declaration that will formally end the Korean War. But Washington is reluctant to reward the regime in Pyongyang.

With four months to go until election day, the two top candidates for the presidency are already at the center of allegations of corruption and abuse of power, with debate over policy relegated to the background.

In 2015, Shiori Ito was a young journalist who went to meet a would-be mentor for drinks, only for the night to end in him raping her. She won a civil case against him in 2019, but only after years of fighting a judicial system that seemed determined to look the other way. Ito's memoir "Black Box" is the story of one young woman's quest for justice in a country where talking about sexual assault, and even sex education, is still very much taboo. She joined us for Perspective and told us that things are gradually moving in the right direction, but that she still receives "threatening emails every day" for speaking out.