Tokyo's Ueno Zoo is contemplating a complete smoking ban before female giant panda cub Xiang Xiang goes on public view in December — the first Tokyo zoo to do so, its operator said. "With the announcement of the panda cub, we're expecting a surge in ...

A photograph by Andrey Kuzhabekov, second secretary at the Russian Embassy in Tokyo, features a group of children playing with soap bubbles at Yoyogi Park in the city. The image evokes a longing for simpler times in our past and the natural joys that ...

Tokyo on Monday called Sunday's historic referendum in Catalonia an internal issue, leaving Japanese citizens and Spanish communities in Japan dependent on the Spanish government's decision moving forward after Catalans voted to split from Spain. Calling the issue an internal dispute between Catalans and the ...

Making the streets in the nation's capital more accessible ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020 — particularly for those with disabilities — will come at a cost. And for Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, that means 70 platanus trees are on the chopping block ...

Pop diva Madonna once said during her 2005 visit to Japan that she'd "missed the heated toilet seats." That may sum up the fascination foreign visitors have with Japan's high-tech loos. And more than a decade later, as Japan prepares for the 2020 Olympics, the technology ...

A bathroom emergency can quickly turn into an embarrassing experience. But now there's an app with an "emergency" button to help you find the nearest bathroom when medicine just won't do the trick. Lion Corp., maker of the diarrhea medicine Stoppa, says the @Toilet app will ...

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike on Friday announced that the metropolitan government plans to ban smoking in and around public facilities by 2019 and asked Tokyoites for opinions on what to include in the proposed ordinance. "In 2019 Tokyo will host the Rugby World Cup, and ...

Hoping to dispel food safety fears, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will start holding regular tours of the new Central Wholesale Market in Toyosu later this month.

Marking the anniversary of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake on Friday, municipalities nationwide and companies used the opportunity not only to test their preparedness for disasters but also to raise public awareness about a variety of threats including typhoons, floods and a potential North ...

Yayoi Kusama, avant-garde artist world-renowned for her obsessive polka dot and net paintings, is opening a museum in the center of Tokyo this fall, the new museum said on its website. The planned five-story museum will open Oct. 1 in Shinjuku Ward where it will ...