They aren't just acting tough; they really are tough. In an entertainment industry rife with crime shows, no one can supply villains quite like Takakura-gumi: Most of the talent agency's 62 members are former gangsters. Take ...

Shizuoka Prefecture, which is Japan’s biggest tea producing region and accounts for around 40 percent of all the nation’s tea production, is seeing its tea market slowly die due to severe aging issues among ...

When he was 16, Hideto Iwai was perplexed as to why everyone around him unquestioningly jumped onto society's student-to-salaryman conveyor belt. So, he broke free, dropping out of high school and picking up casual ...

The world of sumo has seen many changes over the past decade. Changes that have irrevocably altered the way fans — foreign-based ones in particular — view and interact with the sport. Before the current boom ...

Emperor Akihito, 84, was a 47-year-old crown prince on Aug. 7, 1981, when he faced reporters during a news conference in Tokyo. He was asked to comment on the upcoming Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's ...