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Is it a sign of a full-fledged economic recovery or a looming catastrophe in the monetary making? Recent spikes in Japan’s long-term interest rate, represented by the 10-year government bond, have created a stir and roused a deep sense of alarm among investors and ...
Tonkatsu is comfort food, gourmand grub — not a gourmet delicacy. So what are those hearty, unpretentious deep-fried breaded pork cutlets doing in an elegant little bar-style restaurant above one of Ginza’s temples to high-end consumption? Katsuzen has come a long way from its ...
Life in Japan just seems tailor-made for certain foreign residents, who slip into the fabric of this society as smoothly as a hand slides into a glove. American Curtis Patterson, a professional koto player and music teacher, is a case in point. Not only ...
Disgusted by corrupt local leaders, an angry miner picks up a shotgun. A migrant worker returning home looks to armed robbery to escape a life of relentless bleakness. A pretty receptionist at a sauna is driven to the limit when a gangster tries to ...
David Beckham, whose curling free kicks, rugged good looks and celebrity marriage made him one of the most famous athletes in the world, is retiring from soccer. Whether striding on the grass, the red carpet or the fashion catwalks, Beckham transcended his sport and ...
On July 1, a new law takes effect requiring utilities to purchase electricity generated from five renewable energy sources at a fixed price for a set length of time, under what is known as a feed-in tariff system. The law was approved on the ...
The Osaka Municipal Government was preparing Thursday to take disciplinary action against civil servants who refused to answer a survey on whether they have tattoos, as concern in and out of the city was growing that the questionnaire constituted a human rights violation. Mayor ...
The growing populist political movement has taken another step forward after Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara announced he will create a school for aspiring lawmakers and hopes to link it with Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto’s Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) group in time for ...
Kansai government leaders agreed Saturday to cut electricity use in the region by at least 15 percent between July and September under the assumption that the Oi No. 3 and No. 4 nuclear reactors in Fukui Prefecture won’t be restarted in time to meet ...
The confrontation between the central government and Kansai area leaders over the restart of two nuclear reactors in Oi, Fukui Prefecture, has more to do with the growing power struggle between Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda than with safety or ...
Third in a series Forty years after the U.S. returned Okinawa to Japan after a 27-year occupation, the public agreement ensuring American bases would remain after reversion and the secret agreement allowing the U.S. to reintroduce nuclear weapons continue to create anger in Okinawa ...
News that the Kansai region will be asked to cut summer power consumption by at least 15 percent and that plans are afoot for outright restrictions on electricity use, including rolling blackouts, was greeted calmly by area political leaders and residents. The government and ...
Kansai firms and individuals are bracing for a long summer, as contradictory predictions from Tokyo, Kansai Electric Power Co. and renewable-energy advocates are stirring concern over how much electricity will be available, but not fueling a desire to restart two nuclear reactors that would ...
By the middle of the century, if all goes according to plan, a maglev shinkansen will be in operation between Tokyo and Osaka, reducing a 100-minute trip to just over an hour. As with the current bullet train lines, stations will be built in ...
When Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda meets with Barack Obama on Monday, they will hold the first formal one-on-one talks between a Japanese leader and a U.S. president in Washington since February 2009. A new agreement to return land controlled by U.S. military facilities in ...
Officials from the central government announced they made progress on convincing residents that it is safe to restart two idled reactors at Oi’s nuclear plant during a meeting Thursday evening. But only around 540 people turned up for the event, less than 6 percent ...
A visiting official from the industry ministry on Thursday apologized to the town of Oi, Fukui Prefecture, over the government’s failure to create a new nuclear watchdog by April 1, but stressed that the town’s idled atomic reactors have passed all the requisite safety ...