G20 kicks off in Japan as Trump-Xi meeting looms

Few recent meetings had been as highly anticipated as the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Heavy snowfalls batter north, northeast of Japan

We bring you reactions in the US press after Congressman Kevin McCarthy once again fails to secure the role of House speaker. Also, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveils his five-point plan to "get the UK back on track".

Weeks after Tokyo announced a doubling of military spending, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida traveled to Washington to boost security ties. The rising threats of China, North Korea and Russia topped the agenda.

Public anger is growing after a Tokyo court ruled that despite seismologists' warnings, TEPCO officials could not have anticipated the powerful earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.

Although Japan is the only G7 country where same-sex marriages are illegal, there have recently been some positive changes for the LGBT community. Last November, Tokyo's metropolitan government introduced partnership certificates that entitle gay couples to certain public services that were once reserved for straight couples.

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.

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.