Their common ancestor is estimated to have diverged approximately 10 million years ago during the Late Miocene, coinciding with the separation of the Japanese archipelago from the continent.

The Japanese archipelago comprises four main islands, several hundred smaller populated islands and many more uninhabited islets. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines an ...

As a volunteer cave digger, Takamatsu Gushiken has unearthed the remains of several hundred people. Excavation is not his ...

Snowfall reached record levels in eastern Hokkaido while blanketing other parts of the Japanese archipelago on Feb. 4, and more snow is forecast for wide areas through Feb. 6. The heavy snow is ...

Takamatsu Gushiken turns on a headtorch and enters a cave buried in Okinawa’s jungle. He gently runs his fingers through the gravel until two pieces of bone emerge. These are from the ...

U.S. President Donald Trump complained Thursday that his country's decades-old security treaty with Japan is nonreciprocal, ...

Takamatsu Gushiken turns on a headtorch and enters a cave buried in Okinawa's jungle. The remains of some 1,400 people found ...

vowed Friday to bring vitality back to the country through the remodeling of the Japanese archipelago in the current Reiwa era. In the address at a plenary meeting of the House of Representatives ...

Sado Island, Japan, is inhabited by seven species of snakes, the largest number in any isolated island in Japan, except for the subtropical Ryukyu Archipelago. Researchers from the University of ...