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At least seven people were feared dead after a highway tunnel collapsed on Sunday in eastern Japan, trapping them in their vehicles and starting a fire that filled the passage with thick, black smoke.

President Barack Obama urged Asian leaders on Tuesday to rein in tensions in the South China Sea and other disputed territory, but stopped short of firmly backing allies Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam in their disputes with China.

A soda that claims to prevent the absorption of fat in your body is launching in Japan this week. What’s next, cavity-reducing candy?

China reserves the right to take strong countermeasures if Japan "creates incidents" in the waters around a group of disputed uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, a Chinese vice foreign minister said on Friday.

Shintaro Ishihara, the firebrand governor of Tokyo whose obsession with a set of disputed islands prompted Japan’s latest spat with China, declared on Thursday that he was quitting local politics to start a national party, a move that could escalate the territorial dispute and shift allegiances in Japan’s soon-to-be-called elections.

Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba has defended the central government’s decision to buy the Senkaku Islands, stating in a BBC interview in London this week that if Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara had made the purchase, as originally intended, things would be much worse by now. While Genba feels it was the best choice for Japan to control the territory disputed with China, he argued that if the hawkish, nationalist Tokyo Governor had gained control personally, he would have followed through on his publicized plans of landing and developing on the islands, actions that would have outraged China to no end.

While Japan’s aging technology giants continue to falter, Japanese entrepreneurs are forming start-ups despite difficulties with financing and a culture that discourages risk-taking.

A festering territorial dispute between China and Japan has derailed talks for a free trade zone involving the two countries and South Korea, an adviser to China's central bank said on Thursday.

Shinzo Abe won the race to lead Japan’s Liberal Democractic Party, giving him a chance of regaining the nation’s top job.