Latest:: North Korea's has claimed to have launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile in what is seen as a potential game-changing development in its push to militarily challenge Washington.

The statement by the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not say what type of projectile was fired or if it was successful.

North Korea has test-launched a ballistic missile that landed in the Sea of Japan.

At least 19 people were killed and about 20 wounded in a knife attack at a centre for disabled people near Tokyo last night - Japan's worst mass killing in generations.

Army troops and other rescuers rushed to save scores of trapped residents after two strong earthquakes in south-western Japan killed at least 41 people, injured about 1,500 and left hundreds of thousands without electricity or water.

A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 struck southern Japan yesterday, barely 24 hours after a smaller quake hit the region, killing nine people.

Multiple explosions and a large fire at a US Army depot lit up the night sky in a Tokyo suburb, but no injuries were reported.

The agony of the families of a captured journalist and fighter pilot is continuing after a sunset deadline for a possible prisoner swap allegedly set by their Islamic State (IS) kidnappers passed with no clue whether they are still alive.

A deadline is approaching in the Middle East for Jordan to release an Iraqi prisoner or face the death of a captured Jordanian air force pilot, according to the latest threat apparently issued by the Islamic State group.

Experts are examining a recorded message said to have been from hostage Kenji Goto, extending the deadline for Jordan's prisoner-swap release of an Iraqi would-be suicide bomber linked to al Qaida.

Japan has sought help from Jordan and other countries in its race to save a hostage held by the extremist Islamic State (IS) group, with no signs of progress on securing his release.

Japan’s prime minister said he was left “speechless” by a video purportedly showing one of two Japanese hostages of the extremist Islamic State group had been killed.

Japanese officials are investigating a purported message from the extremist Islamic State group about the two Japanese hostages it holds.

Japan promised not to give up “until the very end” on efforts to rescue two Japanese hostages threatened with beheading by Islamic militants, after a deadline passed with no word from the captors.

Japan said it was still trying to secure the release of two Japanese hostages held by Islamic State militants after a deadline to pay a ransom passed and there was no immediate word on their fate.

The deadline for paying ransom for two Japanese hostages held by the Islamic State group (IS) was fast approaching early today with no signs of a breakthrough.

At least 36 people are feared to have died after a Japanese volcano erupted without warning at the weekend, raining ash and stones on hikers, but the search for victims was abandoned

INMATE HID IN LAUNDRY BASKET TO ESCAPE

Japan is to lift some of its sanctions on North Korea in response to Pyongyang’s decision to create a committee to investigate the fate of at least a dozen Japanese who were abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.

Japanese police are investigating after dozens of copies of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl and scores of books about the young Holocaust victim were vandalised in Tokyo public libraries.

Japanese police are investigating after dozens of copies of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl and scores of books about the young Holocaust victim were vandalised in Tokyo public libraries.

A Japanese whaling ship and an anti-whaling protest boat collided in the remote, icy seas off Antarctica, with both sides blaming each other for the crash.

A volcanic eruption has raised a new island in the seas to the far south of Tokyo, earthquake experts say.

Japan has drastically scaled back its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, possibly complicating efforts to forge a global climate change pact.

Rescuers are facing blocked roads and damaged airports as they struggle to deliver desperately needed aid to the typhoon-devastated Philippines.

Japan voiced outrage over cartoons published in a French newspaper that took aim at the decision to award the 2020 Olympics to Tokyo despite the ongoing nuclear crisis at Fukushima.

Japan’s outspoken finance minister has refused to resign or apologise over remarks suggesting the country should follow the Nazi example of how to change its constitution stealthily and without public debate.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has decided to cut short his first foreign visit since taking office to focus on the Algerian hostage crisis.

Old-guard veteran Shinzo Abe was voted back into office as prime minister of Japan today and immediately named a new cabinet, ending three years of liberal administrations and restoring power to his conservative, pro-big-business party that has run the country for most of the post-Second World War era.