Tokyo has signed agreements with a number of African countries as competition with China for key raw materials and minerals heats up.

The water was collected from the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was heavily damaged in a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The decision has sparked outrage from environmental groups.

Japan has begun to pump more than a million metric tons of treated water from the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The process is expected to take decades to complete.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government is facing a wave of criticism at home and abroad after allowing the release of treated radioactive water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean.

For decades, the United States and Soviet Russia were the only countries that had landed on the moon. Then came China and India. Now, Japan is trying for the second time in 2023.

Tokyo has summoned the Chinese ambassador over hundreds of crank calls believed to originate from China. Japan has begun to release treated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which Beijing says is not safe.

People in northeastern Japan, especially fishermen, fear that the controversial decision to release treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant will inflict new hardships on them.

Toyota said it was suspending operations at 14 manufacturing plants in Japan due to a system malfunction. The company was investigating the issue, and did not suspect cyberattack.

Countries around the world continue to report extreme temperature records. In India, August was not only the hottest but also the driest on record.

Japan is marking 100 years since a devastating earthquake triggered a widespread inferno in Kanto, a region that includes the capital Tokyo. Most victims perished in the fire.

The release of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant prompted China to ban Japan's seafood imports. Japanese officials say they are now looking to boost export markets in places such as Taiwan, the US and Europe.

Japan's lunar mission comes two weeks after India successfully landed its craft on the moon's south pole.