When Chie Takaiwa struck up the courage to reveal a family secret to her colleague some years ago, she was met by an unexpected response. The 37-year-old coffee stall worker's father hails from a riverbank community in Fukuoka Prefecture that is known as a buraku, ...

Don't go looking for titillation at your local convenience store. As reported last month, Japan's three largest convenience chain operators — 7-Eleven, Family Mart and Lawson — are planning to halt sales of pornographic magazines nationwide by the end of August. While the operators pointed ...

The Foreign Ministry ordered freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka to surrender his passport after he tried to leave Japan on Feb. 2 for Yemen, which is in the midst of a civil war. The ostensible reason for the order is that Tsuneoka in January attempted ...

The Sangnam-ni operating base is one of an estimated 20 undeclared ballistic missile bases in North Korea, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said.

Only seven weeks into the year and Japan already has a new buzzword to worry about. In the past few weeks, baito tero (part-timer terrorism) has become a major talking point on social media following a string of incidents featuring workers at various chain establishments ...

Almost nothing is known of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's early years with warlord Oda Nobunaga, but by 1570 we see him commanding a detachment, 3,000 strong, in battle against a Nobunaga rival. The peasant boy has come a long way.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz visited Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on Saturday and laid flowers at the cenotaph for atomic bomb victims. Kurz also visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and listened to a briefing by Yasuyoshi Komizo, chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, ...

January and early February in Kansai, and Japan as a whole, is a busy time for local leaders. New Year's greetings are exchanged by (mostly) elderly men at stuffy buffet parties in luxury hotels. Their job is to stand around holding a white paper ...

The ministry made adjustments for the survey from January 2018, without disclosing them, and year-on-year changes in nominal wages appeared better than they actually were.

Russia and Japan are struggling to make progress on resolving a dispute over four islands off Hokkaido that dates from the end of World War II amid opposition in both countries to territorial concessions. Negotiations are deadlocked, according to three officials from Japan and Russia, ...

Did Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominate U.S. President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize? Trump seems to think so. The U.S. leader said Friday in a wide-ranging speech from the Rose Garden of the White House that Abe had sent a "most beautiful" "five-page ...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was ready to accept the dismantlement and inspection of a high-profile nuclear plant, a South Korean presidential adviser said, suggesting a possible point of compromise in upcoming talks with President Donald Trump. Moon Chung-in, a special adviser for foreign ...

Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa and new Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard held their second day of talks in Japan on Friday.

Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets were scrambled to intercept four nuclear-capable Russian Tupolev Tu-95MS strategic bombers and four Sukhoi Su-35S multirole fighter jets flying in two separate formations over the east and west coasts of Japan on Friday, the Defense Ministry said in a ...

The United States and China will resume trade talks next week in Washington with time running short to ease their bruising trade war, but U.S. President Donald Trump repeated on Friday that he may extend a March 1 deadline for a deal and keep ...

Don't use one of the world's most competitive economies as an argument against it.

Albert Einstein once said that the "important thing is not to stop questioning." A similar aphorism applies to composer and classical musician Yoko Hamabe Wylegala, whose life has been defined since the age of 7 by studying and questioning one subject or another. "My parents ...

Japanese cuisine is well-known for its enthusiastic embrace of raw or barely cooked foods. Seafood in particular is frequently consumed when it's raw; sometimes it's so fresh, it's still moving on the plate. Throughout much of Japan's culinary history, a notable exception to this trend ...

In Italy, they say, all roads lead to Rome. But in Tokyo's Jinbocho district there's a quiet pedestrian alley that now faces squarely toward Milan and the innovative restaurant there run by Japanese chef Yoji Tokuyoshi. The reason? Alter Ego, his eagerly awaited first ...

Quick: What's Tokyo's best burger joint? Cue heated discussion ad nauseam. Ultimately, the question is so subjective it's not worth the argument. But if you want a premium burger with lashings of atmosphere and setting, then look no further than Aldebaran. Just steps from the ...

Journey Company, the first international brand to carry Colombia's official mark of approval for their chocolates, collaborates with Japanese artisans to release limited-edition sweets infused with flavors like matcha green tea and umeshu (plum wine). To further the sensory experience, at their Chocolate Bank ...

We're almost seven weeks into the new year — how are those resolutions going? Still going strong? Good for you! Now get out of here and let the rest of us bask in our failures. To anyone who has given up on eating healthy, ...

Christopher Harding's comprehensive "Japan Story" is an ultra-progressive account of modern Japanese history, ushering the often-ignored maverick women, socialist thinkers and doubters of the state version of modernity to the front.

Nahoko Uehashi revolutionized the fantasy genre in Japan with her naturalistic works of fiction, using her background as a cultural anthropologist to craft realistic imaginary worlds that garnered her legions of fans across genders and ages.

Miyazaki wagyu beef has in the past proven so popular at the official Oscars after-party that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ordered an extra 100 kg of the world-famous Japanese delicacy to serve this year. "Because it was so popular, we brought ...

World No. 7 Kei Nishikori moved into the semifinals of the Rotterdam Open on Friday following a straight-sets victory over Hungarian Marton Fucsovics. The top seed beat the 38th-ranked Fucsovics 6-3, 6-2 to book a semifinal meeting with former world No. 3 Stan Wawrinka of ...

A goal by Leandro Damiao was enough for defending J. League champion Kawasaki Frontale to triumph 1-0 over 2018 Emperor's Cup winner Urawa Reds on Saturday at the Fuji Xerox Super Cup. Played in front of a sold-out Saitama Stadium crowd in unseasonably mild February ...

Yasuhiro Yamashita, the 61-year-old head of the Japan Judo Federation, has been floated as a possible successor to run the JOC.