Shingo Ito

It was Nissan's first earnings report since former chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested on November 19

The UN's nuclear watchdog gave its seal of approval to Japan's reactor safety checks, but said utilities should beef up plans for managing disasters.

More firms face a tough choice over whether or not to move production in Japan overseas to escape the impact of the relentless rise of the yen.

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan, struggling with the nation's tsunami and nuclear disasters, on Thursday faced a no-confidence motion.

When other doctors fled, 72-year-old Kyohei Takahashi stayed, and hundreds of patients in the town near a crippled nuclear plant will never forget.

Japan was on Wednesday weighing a series of creative solutions to its unfolding nuclear disaster.

Concern over Japan's ability to contain its nuclear crisis grew on Thursday, as military helicopters dumped water on to an overheating power plant.

Former executives of Japan's once-high-flying internet firm Livedoor admitted on Friday to fraud allegations as they went on trial for a scandal that rocked Japan's financial and political circles. The four executives wore dark suits and looked humbly at the ground as prosecutors read charges of hiding financial losses.

It's been said laughter is the best medicine, but no one has yet proved it. Now a Japanese scientist is unlocking the secrets of the funny bone, which he believes can cheer up people's genes. Geneticist Kazuo Murakami has teamed up on the study with an unlikely research partner: stand-up comedians.

An ambitious Japanese-led project to dig deeper into the Earth's surface than ever before will be a breakthrough in detecting earthquakes, including Tokyo's dreaded ''Big One'', officials said on Thursday. The drilling vessel Chikyu is scheduled to collect the first samples of the Earth's mantle in human history.

Rescuers on Tuesday pulled three survivors and more bodies from the wreckage of a Japanese train as the death toll rose to 76, with a new derailment raising fresh safety concerns following recent rail privatisation. With hundreds of residents watching, rescuers squeezed into flattened carriages in a last effort to find survivors.

The blue-striped carriage lay wrapped around the edge of a nine-floor apartment building like a discarded sheet of plastic. Two other railway carriages were lodged underneath and against it as rescuers scurried around trying frantically to respond to cries for help.