Japan aims to boost defence spending over the next five years to help pay for new stealth fighters and other advanced US military equipment, a source with knowledge of the plan said on Tuesday.

The US military said Tuesday it had pronounced five missing Marines dead and was ending search operations nearly a week after two US military aircraft crashed off Japan.

National Diet of Japan on Saturday passed a bill to reform the visa system to allow thousands of migrant workers to enter the country to tackle the country's labour shortage.

The US military on Thursday confirmed that one marine died in a collision between two US Marine Corps aircraft off the coast of western Japan.

Japan is eyeing joint exploration with Qatar to produce hydrogen, a source of clean energy, ambassador Seiichi Otsuka has said.

Japan should avoid aggravating historical tensions in a diplomatic row over South Koreans forced to work for Japanese firms during World War Two, South Korea's foreign ministry and prime minister have warned.

US fighter jets darted over the Western Pacific on Saturday as the nuclear powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier joined Japanese destroyers and a Canadian warship for the biggest combat readiness war game ever staged in and around Japan.

A group of Japanese doctors on Wednesday urged Olympic organisers to start the Tokyo 2020 marathon as early as 5:30am, saying failure to do so could ‘lead to deaths’ from heatstroke.

South Korea's top court on Tuesday ordered a Japanese steel giant to pay compensation over forced wartime labour, a decision likely to further strain ties between the two neighbours.

Economic relationship is the driving force behind the strategic partnership between Qatar and Japan, said HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada.

Japan wants to highlight global imbalances as key topics of debate, and take steps to fix them, when it chairs next year's gatherings of the Group of 20 major economies, government officials said this week.

A white tiger attacked and killed a zookeeper in its enclosure in southern Japan but the animal will be kept alive at the request of the victim's family, officials said