TOKYO -- The British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will make a port call from Saturday to Thursday at a U.S. naval base in Japan's Yokosuka, Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi announced Friday.

The 65,000-ton carrier -- the largest surface vessel ever constructed in the U.K. -- is taking its maiden voyage through the Indo-Pacific region, sailing over 26,000 nautical miles and engaging with 40 countries on its path, according to

TOKYO -- Japanese administrative reform minister Taro Kono will run to become the next leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party following Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's decision Friday not to seek reelection in the Sept. 29 vote.

The LDP race will essentially decide who will serve as the party's face in the lower-house election also slated for sometime this fall. Originally expected to shape up into a one-on-one battle between Suga and former party policy chief Fumio Kishida, the race will now feature many

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Russia will grant extensive tax breaks to a chain of Pacific islands to lure international investment, President Vladimir Putin said Friday, a move that would include the Northern Territories off Japan's Hokkaido which the Soviet Union invaded in the waning days of World War II.

Companies will be exempt from profit, property, land and transport taxes for 10 years and will pay reduced insurance premiums across the Kurils, Putin told the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, referring to the chain of islands that include the

TOKYO -- Dealing with China would be a top priority in his government, Fumio Kishida, a contender to succeed Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, told Nikkei, expressing "deep alarm" at Beijing's aggressive behavior on the diplomatic and economic fronts.

To protect "basic values such as freedom, democracy, the rule of law and human rights, we will work with those that share the same values, such as the U.S., Europe, India and Australia, to stand against authoritarian systems,"

Nina Xiang is the founder of China Money Network, a media platform tracking China's venture and tech sectors. She is the author of "Red AI: Victories and Warnings from China's Rise in Artificial Intelligence" and "US-China Tech War: What Chinese Tech History Reveals About Future Tech Rivalry."

China's President Xi Jinping is on a mission to re-engineer the world's second-largest economy. But he must be delicate in this endeavor or risk toppling the Chinese tech powerhouse

SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics is developing a network of chip devices and materials suppliers inside South Korea through investments in at least nine companies as part of an effort to protect itself from being buffeted by trade conflict with Japan or between the U.S. and China.

Samsung invested a combined 276.2 billion won ($238 million) in nine midsize companies since the summer of last year, according to reports submitted to the Korea Exchange by the chip giant and the investee companies. The streak of

TOKYO -- Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will not run for the presidency of the Liberal Democratic Party and will step down as the prime minister of Japan, less than a year after taking office on Sept. 16, 2020. Looking back, there were three crucial moments that sealed Suga's political fate.

The first was his decision to forgo a quick general election. Immediately after taking office, Suga's cabinet had a 74% approval rating, the third-highest ever for a new

BANGKOK -- Thailand's police have suffered another blow to their reputation from the release of a video that appears to show a man dying in custody with a plastic bag over his head. But the deadly interrogation method is not the work of just one rogue officer, according to retired senior members of a force that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha had pledged to reform after he staged the 2014 coup.

The video, which leaked last month and went viral, drawing 3.6 million views, allegedly

TOKYO -- Japanese stocks jumped on Friday afternoon, boosted by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's decision to not run in the upcoming election for the presidency of the ruling LDP, with investors hopeful of a turnaround in the government's handling of the pandemic.

An increase in expectations for economic packages also boosted investors' risk appetite.

Japan's blue-chip Nikkei Stock Average rose sharply in afternoon trade, at one point rising over 600 points, or 2%, before closing at its highest level in