A lens maker in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, is busy finishing work on the “eye” of what will be the world’s largest telescope, now under construction near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The primary mirror of the Thirty Meter Telescope is scheduled to be ...

A 74-year-old barber in Niigata Prefecture has been cutting the hair of suspects detained at a police station in the city of Murakami for the past half century. "I started because I heard no one else was willing to do it, but I didn't realize ...

A number of giant squids have been caught along the coast of the Sea of Japan this year, raising concerns among fishermen that it might represent some kind of "omen." The giant squid, classified as Architeuthis, is the largest invertebrate. One giant squid was taken to ...

Rapidly increasing numbers of great cormorants, forming colonies near lakes and rivers, have been causing serious damage to local fish stocks such as "ayu" (sweetfish) and koi, according to researchers. The domestic population of the great cormorant once tumbled to about 3,000 during the 1970s ...

Finding marriage partners is a problem shared by many young Buddhist priests, who have few opportunities to meet people of their own generation. An event was held last month at a restaurant in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, to help them find marriage partners. It was attended ...

Norimichi Kusumi, 66, can finally heave a sigh of relief having turned over the management of a 180-year-old sake brewery in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, to his son, Yoshitaka, 42, after struggling to protect the business from a series of natural disasters. The fourth son of ...