As the country emerges from a state of emergency, hospitals like one in Yokohama face the prospect of operating in the shadow of a virus with no treatment or cure.

In the midst of a global pandemic, St. Marianna University Hospital has become synonymous with the virus.

Hospitals like St. Luke's in Tokyo are saving their limited ICU capacity for an increasing number of critically ill patients and improvising makeshift gear to protect front-line staff.

The Osaka Corona Hotel has been eerily quiet and empty the past few weeks. “Our name is extremely regrettable,” Kohei Fujii, the hotel’s sales director, said with a sigh as he sat in an empty cafe in the lobby. A sign advertising discounted bottles of ...

Kazuo Ouchi drives down a single-lane road through sheets of rain until he reaches a gravel driveway leading to a weathered farmhouse. Yellowing lace curtains are drawn tight over the windows, shutting out the weak winter light. "Sorry about the dark," Ouchi says, stepping over ...

Dressed in protective plastic coveralls and white boots, Yuji Onuma stood in front of the row of derelict buildings that included his house, and sighed as he surveyed his old neighborhood. On the once-bustling main street, reddish weeds poked out of cracked pavement in front ...

Many years from now, far from the spray of water cannons and the unmistakable smell of tear gas, they will look back on their season of protest and remember exactly how they felt. On this winter day, the march was called off early by police. ...

Kiyoshi Miyasaka climbs the stone steps of his shrine, autumn leaves crunching under his feet. The Shinto priest, dressed in white, aims an orange leaf blower at a row of cobblestones and clears the path of fallen leaves. "I know people would rather see a ...

"I'll have a draft," says Yasuo Fujinuma, heaving himself down at the sushi counter. He pulls a pack of cigarettes from a frayed pocket of his sweater. From the corner of the restaurant, a small TV hums the noon weather forecast. He never drinks ...

The road, hemmed in on one side by empty warehouses and the other by a concrete seawall, ends abruptly in a desolate parking lot. Men step out of their cars and into the darkness, then slip behind the sliding doors of a warehouse. Inside, ...