A 1993 photograph of a diminutive, sexagenarian woman surveying the front lines of conflict has left an indelible mark on the international community as a true example of commitment to humanitarian aid.

Gemma Hickey entered Japan this week with something no Japanese national can obtain — a gender-neutral passport in which the gender category shows neither female nor male, but an "X." The 42-year-old Canadian, who became one of the first in the country to receive such ...

Separated from his wife by a transparent barrier in a visiting room at the immigration detention center in Minato Ward, Tokyo, Colak touched it with his left hand to feel the warmth of her right hand. It was the closest they could get during ...

Backed by about 93,000 signatures from residents of Okinawa, Jinshiro Motoyama and his civil organization pushed the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly last year to hold a referendum on a controversial plan to relocate a U.S. military base to the Henoko area by reclaiming land in ...

Idol says the group’s management did not act even after she spoke with them, and asked who would be responsible in “the worst-case scenario.”

On a chilly night in late November, Seizo Hashimoto, 65, was stood beside his stall at Otori Shrine in Asakusa, Tokyo, selling ornamental bamboo rakes that are believed to "catch and rake in" wealth and good luck in the coming year. His family's income depends ...

While your December agenda might be filled with joyful year-end parties, train station staff in Tokyo often face a more disgusting reality — vomit left behind by drunken holiday revelers at railway hubs across the capital. According to Tokyo-based cleaning company JR East Environment Access ...

Perhaps he won the presidency thanks to his specialized knowledge of voting behavior and public opinion, or maybe it was his casual tweets in conversations with students, his use of mocking buzzwords or his adoption of slang used by his pupils. Whatever the case, 67-year-old ...

The rate of rental car accidents involving foreign drivers in Osaka Prefecture is four times higher than those involving Japanese drivers, according to recent data released by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry. A study of foreign drivers conducted by the ministry's Kinki bureau between ...

The owner of a barrier-free guesthouse in Kamakura is prepping a tour that will allow people with disabilities to travel to sightseeing spots that would have previously been virtually impossible to visit.