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Pope Francis’ fascination with the devil took on remarkable new twists Tuesday, with a well-known exorcist insisting Francis helped “liberate” a Mexican man possessed by four different demons despite the Vatican’s insistence that no such papal exorcism took place. The case concerns a 43-year-old ...
Kazuhiro Shiraishi, 66, is a guest-house manager in the Izu-kogen Highlands, a famous resort area on the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture. Looking out onto the Pacific Ocean, and just 90 minutes by train from Tokyo, Izu has a warm climate all year round ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Guitarist Dustin Wong hesitates for a split second. It’s a pause that would go unnoticed during most other sets, but Wong has spent the last 40 minutes seemingly in a trance while playing guitar and looping the notes via an array of pedals in ...
Tim Duncan saves the day as the Spurs hold off the Grizzlies in overtime
Small vegetable stores called “yaoya” are common in most local shopping districts, but neighborhood retailers in general are declining due to competition from supermarkets. Operators of a greengrocer that opened in late April in the Iriya district of Tokyo’s Taito Ward are challenging that ...
Two inmates were hanged Wednesday in the first executions since the Democratic Party of Japan took power 10 months ago. Justice Minister Keiko Chiba attended the executions of Kazuo Shinozawa and Hidenori Ogata at the Tokyo Detention House. It was the first time a ...
With the number of asylum seekers on the rise, experts on refugee issues have recently launched an interdisciplinary academic organization to promote research in their field while steering public interest. Unlike the United Kingdom and the United States, where refugee studies is an established ...
Lawyer Kenji Utsunomiya has spent his career helping debtors overcome the burden of multiple loans, while pushing for legislation to reduce their numbers. An advocate for the underemployed, in 2008 he served as the honorary mayor of a makeshift “village” set up in Tokyo’s ...
Summer is fireworks season. For centuries, Japanese have been fascinated by this spectacle of lights called “hanabi,” which literally means “fire flowers.” These days, hundreds of fireworks festivals, both large and small, take place across the country every summer and thousands of spectators come ...
An antiwhaling activist from New Zealand was convicted and given a suspended prison term Wednesday for interfering with a Japanese whaling ship and illegally boarding it in the Antarctic Ocean in February. The Tokyo District Court gave a two-year prison term, suspended for five ...
The Japan National Tourism Organization has landed its biggest tourist group ever — 10,000 Chinese employees and their relatives — in a welcome piece of news for the government as it eases visa rules on individual Chinese tourists starting Thursday. Pro-Health, a Beijing-based health ...
A U.S. citizen was convicted Friday and sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison in a Tokyo District Court lay judge trial for his involvement, with two other foreign nationals, in robbing a taxi and wounding the driver in 2008. Burnside Brandon Lee, 28, ...
The recent admissions by dozens of sumo wrestlers and stablemasters of engaging in illegal, underworld-linked gambling has sent the ancient sport’s image, already dogged by scandals, to the mat. The Japan Sumo Association, having failed repeatedly to fix its problems, is now faced with ...
The Chinese tourists had just one hour to shop — not a lot of time when you consider they were at the glitzy VenusFort mall in Tokyo’s fashionable Odaiba waterfront district. The dozens of men and women poured into the mall. Soon, many found ...
An American man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to robbing and injuring a taxi driver in conspiracy with two other foreign nationals in 2008. Burnside Brandon Lee, 28, said as his trial opened in the Tokyo District Court that another man is the real culprit, ...
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office opened its news conference to nonpress club members Thursday, following the example of several ministries that have started allowing freelancers into their regular media briefings. Previously, the prosecutor’s office only allowed in reporters from media outlets who were ...