Hundreds of fans filed into a public viewing center in Shohei Ohtani’s hometown in northern Japan on Tuesday morning to cheer the country’s top celebrity in Game 3 of the World Series.

Although Shohei Ohtani’s first trip to the World Series is a global sports event, it’s particularly big in Japan — and for Japan.

In the remote village of Kamimomi in Japan’s western Okayama Prefecture, a small group of rice farmers began their most recent harvest in sweltering heat, two weeks sooner than usual.

Nobuyo Oyama, the raspy voice of Doraemon, the beloved cartoon robotic cat from the future, has died.

Sei Young Kim, looking for her first victory this season, opened with a 10-under 62 to lead the first round of the Buick LPGA Shanghai tournament.

The claim to Shohei Ohtani’s potentially lucrative 50th home run ball grew more complicated this week, with a second fan filing a lawsuit asserting he had possession of the historic baseball.

A U.S. bomb from World War II has exploded at a Japanese airport, causing a large crater in a taxiway and the cancellation of more than 80 flights.

Business sentiment among Japan’s large manufacturers stood unchanged in the latest quarter from the previous quarter, according to a closely watched survey called “tankan.”.

A lawyer for the world’s longest-serving death row inmate — who was acquitted in a retrial last week of a 1966 quadruple murder — says the defense team is considering filing a damages suit against the government for ruining the man’s life and his mental health by keeping him in prison for 48 years.

Next year’s championship of the expanded Club World Cup will be played on July 13 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, site of the 2026 World Cup final.

China’s Football Association says it has banned 43 people for life over allegations of match-fixing and other forms of corruption.

An extendable robot has begun a two-week mission to retrieve the first sample of melted fuel debris from inside one of three damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Japan’s economy grew at an annual rate of 2.9%, slower than the earlier report for 3.1% growth, in the April-June period, boosted by better wages and spending.

In a big milestone for Japan’s royal family, Prince Hisahito has turned 18, becoming the first male royal family member to reach adulthood in almost four decades.

Japan defeated China’s men’s national team 7-0 in a World Cup qualifier in Saitama, Japan, a brutal loss that came against one of China’s biggest sporting and geopolitcal rivals in Asia.

Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman led off Saturday’s game with consecutive home runs for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Tropical Storm Shanshan is slowly making its way into central Japan, halting trains and leaving underground passages brimming with water as officials warned of torrential rains in major cities, including Osaka and Tokyo.

A slow-moving tropical storm is having a far-reaching impact in much of Japan, dumping heavy rain around Tokyo and flooding roads and riverside areas in the south.

Hideki Matsuyama has withdrawn from the BMW Championship with a lower back injury.

The second season of “Pachinko" — opening Friday — delicately captures the plight of ethnic Koreans brought to Japan during colonial rule and their descendants, exploring themes of home and identity through several generations.

An attempt to use an extendable robot to remove a fragment of melted fuel from a wrecked reactor at Japan’s tsunami-hit nuclear plant has been suspended due to a technical issue.

The owner of 7-Eleven convenience stores has received a buyout offer for from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard.

Japan’s economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1% last quarter, rebounding from the contraction in the previous quarter.

Japan’s embattled Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has surprised the country by announcing that he’ll step down when his party picks a new leader next month.

The contest for most gold medals at the Paris Olympics ended in a 40-40 tie between China and the United States.

A Chinese woman has been detained for allegedly slandering others on social media in a crackdown on what Chinese authorities see as harmful negativity during the Olympics from super-zealous fans and online fan clubs.

Stocks rose on Wall Street as calm returned to the market a day after its worst drop in nearly two years.

Canadian figure skaters will not join the United States and Japan on the podium at the Paris Olympics next week.

The NBA is ramping up talks with FIBA, basketball's global governing body, on how to best increase its competitive footprint in Europe either through an annual tournament or an NBA-operated league, according to Commissioner Adam Silver.

A’ja Wilson scored 24 points and Breanna Stewart added 22 to help the U.S. beat Japan 102-76 in the Olympic opener for both teams.

No team has reached the quarterfinals yet in the men’s basketball tournament at the Paris Olympics.

The 2024 Paris Olympics are underway.

Patty Mills arrives at his fourth Olympic Games as Australia’s old man.

Predictably, the southern and western states dominate the representation for Team USA.

Kevin Durant practiced with the U.S. Olympic basketball team on Friday, a major step toward getting him back on track for the Paris Games that open next week.

Three Massachusetts lawmakers are pressing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to ground the V-22 Osprey aircraft again until the military can fix the root causes of multiple recent accidents, including a deadly crash in Japan.

Abbott’s critics say he could have postponed the trip until the storm had passed, or at least cut it short once he saw the scale of the disaster.

Olympic medal-winning gymnast MyKayla Skinner Harmer is drawing criticism for saying the U.S. Center for SafeSport is making it difficult for coaches to do their job.

Eight years ago Yuriko Koike became the first woman to lead Tokyo, beating her male predecessor.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 has surged to a record close of 40,913.65, while most other major world markets also advanced.

Emma Navarro has eliminated former No. 1 Naomi Osaka in Wimbledon's third round.

Japan and New Zealand have agreed in principle on an intelligence sharing pact as their leaders shared concern about the increasingly challenging security environment in the region, including closer ties between Russia and North Korea.

Former Grand Slam champions Naomi Osaka, Caroline Wozniacki, Angelique Kerber and Emma Raducanu have all been awarded wild cards for Wimbledon.

Asian stocks are mixed after a steady day on Wall Street as markets anticipate key U.S. jobs data to be revealed later in the day.

Longtime technology news and review site Gizmodo has been sold for the third time in the past eight years.

Earthquakes have again struck Japan’s north-central region of Ishikawa that is still recovering from the destruction left by a powerful quake on Jan. 1.

Olympic champion Katie Ledecky says faith in the anti-doping system is at an “all-time low” in the wake of the way global regulators handled a case involving Chinese swimmers.

Shohei Ohtani homered and drove in three runs, Will Smith went deep twice and the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the frustrated New York Mets with a 10-3 victory.

The big news in Naomi Osaka’s life has nothing to do with the French Open or clay-court tennis: Her 10-month-old daughter, Shai, is taking her first steps.

As professional rugby teams and tournaments around the world contend with tough financial headwinds Japan continues to buck the trend, experiencing historic growth both in teams and crowds.

One town in Japan is actually so fed up with tourists that it’s coming up with a method to drive them away.

Russia has defended its veto of a U.N. resolution calling on all nations to prevent a nuclear arms race in outer space.

Russia has circulated a U.N. resolution calling on all countries to take urgent action to prevent putting weapons in outer space “for all time” a week after it vetoed a U.S.-Japan resolution to stop an arms race in space.

The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog will travel to Iran next week as Tehran’s nuclear program enriches uranium a step away from weapons-grade levels and international oversight remains limited.

The Japanese town of Fujikawaguchiko has had enough of tourists.

Asian shares are trading mostly higher as investors kept their eyes on potentially market-moving reports expected later this week.

Japan's governing party has lost all three seats being contested in parliamentary by-elections Sunday.

The American envoy to the United Nations has called for countries armed with atomic weapons to pursue nuclear disarmament as she visited the atomic bomb museum in Nagasaki, Japan.

Nissan says it expects to mass produce electric vehicles powered by advanced next-generation batteries by early 2029.

Jill Biden says former Republican President Donald Trump is a “bully” who is “dangerous” for the LGBTQ community.

Naomi Osaka put Japan a step away from reaching the Billie Jean King Cup Finals with a 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory over Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva.

The European Central Bank has opened the door for an interest rate cut as early as its June meeting.

Hawaii-born Akebono Taro, one of the greats of sumo wrestling and a former grand champion, has died.

Rib eye steak, cherry blossoms and Paul Simon will be features of a White House state dinner for Japan.

Lindsey Horan converted a penalty kick in the 77th minute and the United States defeated Japan 2-1 to open the SheBelieves Cup before a record crowd.

The United States, Japan, Australia and the Philippines will hold their first joint naval exercises, including anti-submarine warfare training, in a show of force Sunday in the South China Sea where Beijing’s aggressive actions to assert its territorial claims have caused alarm.

About two dozen Japanese drivers have raced in Formula 1 over almost 50 years, and success has been limited.

Japan’s imperial family has made an Instagram debut with a barrage of posts, hoping to shake off their reclusive image and reach out to younger people on social media.

Many Americans are in a sour mood about the economy for one main reason: Prices feel too high.

“Oppenheimer” has finally opened in the nation where two cities were obliterated by the nuclear weapons invented by the American scientist at the center of the film.

Vietnam's president has resigned as the ruling communist party in the latest episode of a “blazing furnace” anti-corruption campaign.

Shohei Ohtani is referred to in Japan as “kanpeki no hito” — the perfect person — because of his manners and impeccable behavior.

The Communist Party says Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong has resigned after a little over a year in the job.

Images taken by miniature drones from deep inside a badly damaged reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant show displaced control equipment and misshapen materials but leave many questions unanswered, underscoring the daunting task of decommissioning the plant.

Shohei Ohtani has revealed the identity of his new wife with a photo of the couple on social media.

Japan’s economy managed to grow in the fourth quarter of last year, averting a recession, according to revised government data released Monday that had previously shown a contraction.

Japan says it'll join the U.S. military in returning its Ospreys to flight following the deaths of eight U.S. service members in a crash there in November.

Venus Williams has played a match on tour for the first time in about six months.

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra will tour Asia for the first time with nine performances in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan from June 19-30.

A United Airlines jetliner that lost a tire on takeoff has made a safe emergency landing in Los Angeles.

Asian stocks are mostly higher ahead of China’s top annual political gathering, while Japan’s benchmark closed above 40,000 for the first time.

The first private U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon broke a leg at touchdown before falling over.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has discussed cooperation on extended reality devices with LG Electronics executives as part of his visit to South Korea that highlights Meta’s ambitions in artificial intelligence.

The military services will take a key step toward getting the V-22 Osprey fleet back in the air as they lay out their plans Friday to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin regarding safety concerns stemming from a fatal crash in Japan.

The number of babies born in Japan in 2023 fell for an eighth straight year and is the lowest since Japan started compiling birth statistics in 1899.

A U.S. company says its moon lander is on its side near the lunar south pole.

Japan's Nikkei 225 share benchmark has touched an all-time high, bypassing its previous record set in December 1989.

Air Force Special Operations Command says it knows what failed on its CV-22B Osprey leading to crash in Japan late last year that killed eight service members.

The European Union is looking into whether TikTok has broken the bloc’s strict new digital rules for cleaning up social media and keeping internet users safe.

Hideki Matsuyama now has more PGA Tour wins than any Asian-born player.

Both Japan and the United Kingdom said Thursday their economies weakened during the final three months of 2023.

Before there was John and Yoko, there was just Yoko Ono.

Taylor Swift, who is holding concerts in Japan through Feb. 10, will make it in time for the Super Bowl to see her partner and football superstar Travis Kelce play.

Data from a Japanese auto industry association show that China overtook Japan as the world's largest vehicle exporter last year.

Asian shares are mixed, with Hong Kong and Shanghai declining, ahead of a decision by the Federal Reserve this week on interest rates.

First there were cafés that allowed pets.

South Korea’s military says that North Korea fired several cruise missiles that flew over waters near a major military shipyard on the country’s eastern coast, extending a streak in weapons tests that are worsening tensions with the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Crowned Miss Japan this week, Ukrainian-born Carolina Shiino cried with joy, thankful for the recognition of her identity as Japanese.

Weather officials in Japan predicted more heavy snow Thursday, a day after nearly 800 vehicles were trapped for fours on an expressway in central Japan.

Russia’s top diplomat is accusing the United States, South Korea and Japan of preparing for war with North Korea.