The latter is considered by many to be the greatest sumo wrestler of all time with 37 tournament titles. Japan?s long wait for a homegrown sumo grand champion has ended after Kisenosato became the first Japanese wrestler to reach the ancient sport?s pinnacle in almost two decades. Kisenosato joins three other wrestlers at the rank of yokozuna, all of whom were born in Mongolia: Kakuryu, Harumafuji and Hakuho. The last Japan-born wrestler to reach the top rank was Wakanohana in 1998. Earlier this week, with his promotion all but a formality, Kisenosato told reporters that the rank of yokozuna came with a special responsibility.

PhotoSEOUL, South Korea ? A professor whose book about Japan?s World War II-era military brothels angered Korean women who once worked there was acquitted on Wednesday of defaming the women. In a case closely followed by the South Korean news media, a judge in the Eastern District Court in Seoul ruled that her academic freedom must be protected. She has since faced civil and criminal complaints from nine South Korean women who said they were forced to work at the brothels during the war. She also called Ms. Park a ?pro-Japanese traitor,? according to South Korean news reports. But on Wednesday, Ms. Park won the criminal case.

Signboards featuring pictures of APA hotel chain`s president Fumiko Motoya is seen at its headquarters building in Tokyo, Japan, January 19, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-HoonTOKYO A Japanese hotel chain at the center of a furor over books its president wrote denying the Nanjing Massacre in wartime China is prepared to consider removing the books from at least some hotels if it receives a formal written request to do so. Tokyo-based hotel and real estate developer APA Group came under fire last week for books by president Toshio Motoya, which contain his revisionist views and are placed in every room of the company`s 400-plus APA Hotels. "China says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in Nanjing from December 1937 to January 1938. To the fury of China, some conservative Japanese politicians and academics deny the massacre took place, or they put the death toll much lower.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signaled that he?s open to a bilateral trade deal with the U.S. after Donald Trump formally withdrew from a 12-nation Asia-Pacific accord this week in one of his first acts as president. Defense Minister Tomomi Inada told parliament she welcomed the visit as a sign of America?s interest in Asia. Trump prefers to negotiate bilateral trade deals and has warned that he might withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea and Japan if allies did not pay more for their services. One-on-one talks with the U.S. on a trade deal are ?not absolutely impossible,? Abe told lawmakers on Thursday in Tokyo, adding that he?s finalizing negotiations for a summit with Trump. Abe, a key proponent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional trade agreement, is seeking ways to boost economic relations with Japan?s only military ally.

The promotion, by the Japan Sumo Association, was a top news story in the country on Wednesday. That changed on Wednesday, when Kisenosato became the first Japanese athlete since 1998 to receive the sumo title of yokozuna, or grand champion. At a Tokyo hotel on Wednesday, Kisenosato, 30, told officials from the Japan Sumo Association that he had accepted the designation with humility. ?The number of Japanese wrestlers is not growing, that?s for sure,? Mr. Mainoumi said. ?I hope he will do well so that his dignified character and ability are remembered by history.?Kisenosato, who weighs about 385 pounds, becomes the fourth active yokozuna in professional sumo wrestling.