Japan approves another record budget for next fiscal year

Japan faces an existential threat with its birth rate at an all-time low, yet the island nation has still to fully embrace immigration as a solution to the population decline. To tackle the problem, the government has slowly turned to bringing in foreign workers. We take a closer look.

Police are trying to confirm the identities and nationalities of the two men. They were caught in an avalanche in the Nagano region.

With looming threats from China and North Korea, Japan has approved a military buildup that's one of its largest defense shakeups since World War II. East Asian countries are responding to the challenges of the changing status quo in the region.

Russia has started selling its growing reserves of the Chinese currency to fill a budget deficit caused by falling oil and gas revenues and the costs of war. For how long will the yuan shore up Putin's ailing economy?

Women in low-income communities in India learn how to use energy efficiently. It’s a win-win for the climate as well as the household budget. For many it is the first time they understand the connection between fossil fuels and global warming.

A Tokyo court upheld a ban on same-sex marriage. However, it also deemed the lack of a legal system for same-sex couples "unconstitutional" and a human rights violation.

Starting in April, wide-eyed delivery robots will be allowed to use Japan's roads to deliver food and parcels. FRANCE 24's Solange Mougin explains how this could help the country's ageing workforce. But first, Disney cuts 7,000 jobs in a bid to make its streaming business profitable. Plus, Alphabet's stock tumbles as its newly presented AI-powered search bot makes a mistake in a demo video.

The two island nations have taken a first step in what could become a wide-ranging defensive cooperation. It comes amid rising tensions and Chinese influence in the region.

Restaurants serving Japan's most famous dish are pushing ahead with prosecutions against people seen interfering with meals for social media likes.

The Japanese government said it intends to purchase 400 Tomahawk missiles from the US. Tokyo recently updated its largely pacifist security policy, citing the challenges posed by China.

As the National People's Congress opened this year's session, China set an economic target of "around 5%" — one of the lowest in decades — and announced a 7.2% increase in its defense budget.

It's been 12 years since a powerful quake and a resultant tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into meltdown. Now Tokyo's plan to begin releasing treated water from the plant is raising alarm in the local fishing industry and the region.