Light of snow. Yezo deer. Development commissioner. Believe it or not, these are all names of colors. The city of Sapporo has its own palette of 70 colors that suit its climate and landscape. Builders are encouraged to refer to the colors when painting new ...

The Japanese giant salamander, a rare amphibian often called a "living fossil," could disappear as a distinct species as interbreeding with its Chinese relative increases. Over the years, Japanese and Chinese giant salamander hybrids have proliferated in western Japan, triggering alarm bells and a flurry ...

Blues singer Marikofun finds inspiration in a unique place — Japan's ancient tomb mounds, known as kofun in Japanese. She has visited more than 1,000 ancient tomb mounds across Japan over the past seven years — a dedication expressed in the line of one of ...

KOCHI — The town of Niyodogawa, Kochi Prefecture, hosts a "free school" called Ikegawa Shizen Gakuen, where seven second-year and third-year junior high school truants are living together seeking a new way of life with the aid of four staffers. The late father-in-law of the ...