Freytas Tamura

Japan's nuclear crisis deepened on Wednesday with another fire at a quake-hit atomic power plant and a radiation spike.

The Dalai Lama has accused China of ''acting like a child'' in cracking down on Tibetans and other minorities, saying it lacked moral authority.

Shigeo Tokuda (74) might look like an average Japanese grandfather but appearances can be deceptive -- he is the country's king of elderly porn.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda vows to fight price hikes as he tries to breathe new life into his government after a Cabinet reshuffle.

With her hair tied back into a neat ponytail, Hikari Kanno (13), a bookish schoolgirl, would hardly seem to fit the profile of an avid reader of novels about sex, drugs and violence. She finds them not at the bookstore but on her cellphone, the gateway for "cellphone novels" that are becoming very popular in Japan.

Japan's first lunar orbiter successfully blasted into space on Friday on the most extensive mission to investigate the moon since the United States's Apollo programme began nearly four decades ago, officials said. A domestically developed rocket launched with no glitches from a small island in southern Japan.

Muggles from all corners of Japan descended on Tokyo on Thursday as Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe swept up the red carpet to the delight of a huge crowd at the premiere of his new film. Japanese ticket winners were the first general viewers in the world to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

PlayStation 3 fans were preparing for a sleepless night ahead of Saturday's launch of Sony's new console but the hype has been tempered by fears of an over-reliance on recycled hits. ''Content-wise, the PS3 doesn't look that impressive,'' said Hiroshi Kamide, a game analyst at KBC Securities.