A grand piano stands silently in a tatami room at Naoko Nakashima's home in Toride, Ibaraki Prefecture. It has not been played in almost two years. Nakashima's grandmother gave the piano to her when she was 5 years old and she practiced every day in ...

Hurricane Irma pounded Cuba's northern coast on Saturday as it headed for Florida, where millions of residents were told to evacuate after the storm killed 22 people in the Caribbean and left devastation in its wake. Still a Category 5 storm when it crashed into ...

Tokyo Electric plans to measure radiation in heavily contaminated buildings at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant as it prepares to decommission its damaged reactors, officials at the utility said. The data from the drone is expected to help Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. ...

A tour bus caught fire and burned up Saturday on the Shin-Tomei Expressway in Aichi Prefecture, but the driver and his 40 passengers escaped without injury. The bus left Nagoya for Tokyo at 7:45 a.m. but developed a fire near the engine about 45 minutes ...

For the past two weeks there have been projections about a spike in juvenile suicides as the new school term approached. Suicides among junior high and high school students rise around Sept. 1, and teachers and parents were urged to pay close attention to ...

The U.S. Marine Corps Osprey that made an emergency landing in Oita Prefecture last month returned to its base in Okinawa on Saturday. The MV-22, a tilt-rotor transport aircraft, underwent lengthy repairs at Oita Airport before flying to U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in ...

The growing prevalence of smartphones in recent years has forced government and welfare organizations to rethink their approach to creating awareness campaigns targeting youths at risk of suicide. A recent survey conducted by the Cabinet Office showed that the number of high school students who ...

A government panel will soon explore new ideas for solving the economic and social challenges posed by Japan’s declining birthrate and aging society.

The U.S. sends B-1B bombers from Guam to join F-15 fighter jets from Japan for a joint training drill on the anniversary of North Korea’s founding.

Japan’s Fisheries Agency will upgrade its charter patrol boat fleet to bolster its campaign against illegal fishing by foreign boats.

To shore up his dismal polling numbers, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apparently considered flying to Pyongyang to speak with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in July.

German officials found lists with over 5,000 names of possible targets, including over 100 politicians, during the raids on the homes and workplaces of two terrorism suspects in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Aug. 28, Die Welt newspaper reported on Friday. The newspaper, citing ...

Alas, Japan's extremists have still not given up trying to find honor in the nation's 1945 wartime defeat and and the ideology that led to it.

In the Roman amphitheater of Verona, Italy, the elephants and horses in ancient Egyptian regalia marched onto stage to the thunderous chords of Guiseppe Verdi's opera "Aida." The singers filled the balmy night with their voices, soaring over the trumpets and crashing cymbals of the orchestra — and for one girl watching the spectacle it seemed like "a world of dreams." ...

With cooler weather around the corner, our thoughts turn away from cold noodles and salads to autumn comfort foods like nimono, simmered dishes in a broth, usually a classic seaweed and dried fish-based dashi. One of the most comforting nimono is simmered kabocha squash, a ...

A tea master explains the comforts of a three-tatami-room teahouse.

Tsugu is located a few corners from Shijo Karasuma, the main intersection in downtown Kyoto. That said, even when a digital map is just a tap away, finding it through the side streets may prove a little difficult, so look for a statue of ...

Inakatei does not look its age. First opened in 1910, or Meiji 43, it's been serving noodles for more than a century. A makeover a few years back gave it a modern Japanese touch: wood finishing and furnishings abound, while the communal table near ...

Japanese chef Yoji Tokuyoshi has been pushing boundaries with cuisine that reflects his philosophy of intercultural cross-pollination since 2015 — the year he opened his eponymous restaurant, Tokuyoshi, in Milan. A native of Tottori Prefecture, the 39-year-old chef left Japan for Italy at the age ...

Tokyo's love affair with pancakes appears to be waning and lines outside trendy stores for the decadent dessert have thinned significantly in 2017. Enter Bear's Sugar Shack in Shinjuku, which looks to buck this trend with one simple change: Instead of a offering a ...

Way before Marie Kondo taught us how to clean out our closets, American Andy Couturier was learning how to live without extra stuff from folks in rural Japan.

Give the lingering late-summer heat the slip and duck into the shadows with "All She Was Worth," a classic Japanese crime mystery.

If you'r e Japan resident and retirement is now closer than your college graduation, you probably need this book.

The Suntory Sungoliath jumped above the Kobe Kobelco Steelers to head the Japan Rugby Top League's Red Conference on Saturday thanks to a 36-11 victory over the NTT Communications Shining Arcs. George Smith showed his full array of skills at Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground ...

Kodai Senga picked up his career-best 13th win by holding Chiba Lotte to one earned run on six hits and two walks in seven innings as the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks beat the Marines 2-1 on Saturday for their eighth consecutive victory. Senga, who struck out ...

The Kashima Antlers edged relegation-threatened Omiya Ardija 1-0 on Saturday to move six points clear at the top of the table as J. League first-division action resumed after the international break. Mu Kanazaki fired Kashima in front with his 10th goal of the season in ...

LS Kitami moved within one win of securing a spot at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February after taking a 2-1 lead over Chubu Electric Power in a women's curling qualifying playoff on Saturday. Kitami saw its one-game overnight lead wiped out by the national ...

Harumafuji seeks title sans top rivals Sumo kyodo — Harumafuji will seek to win his ninth championship at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament starting Sunday as fellow yokozuna Hakuho, Kisenosato and Kakuryu have all pulled out due to injuries. Harumafuji will be the only yokozuna competing at ...

Japan goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima had a busy day picking the ball out of the net Friday as 10-man club Metz fell 5-1 at home to Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1. Edinson Cavani scored twice while Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Lucas Moura also got on the ...

Yoshihide Kiryu became the first Japanese to break the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters with a time of 9.98 seconds at an intercollegiate meet on Saturday. Kiryu finally realized a long-held Japanese athletics dream by shaving 0.02 off the national record set by Koji ...

IBM BigBlue players and staff were ecstatic after the game and head coach Shinzo Yamada delightfully tapped their shoulders, thanking them for their effort. It was perhaps a little unusual for a football team after it earned just one win, but there was a reason. After ...