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.

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.

Long gone are the days when the average video game player was a White male. Women now make up as much as half of the world's gamers, with racial minorities also representing a growing share of players. But gaming platforms have struggled to adequately address sexist and racist abuse on their platforms, leaving gamers themselves to take up the challenge.

Rihanna caps her stellar week with a striking British Vogue also featuring her partner A$AP Rocky and her baby. Finally, the Russian government seeks solutions for its short supply...of Viagra as a result of the war in Ukraine.

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.

The Chinese Communist Party is expected to unveil its lowest economic growth target in decades amid an ongoing slump in the country's real estate market. Also on the show: Mexico plans food tariff cuts to confront high inflation, and Franco-Angolan business ties take centre stage as President Emmanuel Macron visits Luanda.