Foreign diplomats in Japan have toured a sake brewery near Tokyo to study how the beverage is made in a project the government and the sake industry hope will promote the traditional rice wine overseas. The National Tax Agency, which co-hosted the project with the ...

More than a century ago, the skills of paper stencil textile-dyeing artisans made it possible to mass-produce kimono with vivid and intricate designs that previously could only be achieved by hand painting. Today, with fewer people wearing kimono on a daily basis, it has become ...

"There are many ways to ask your passengers to fasten their seat belts. The easiest is to say, 'Seat belt please,' but you should never add the word 'take' as it then means you want that to be stolen," an English teacher said in ...

Few hotels in the world actively encourage guests to have sleepless nights, but a manga-themed establishment does just that — and it is proving very popular with Japanese and non-Japanese alike. The Manga Art Hotel in central Tokyo has developed a unique offering, with capsule-like ...

Rei Kawakami was on a train to the airport after a conference in Seoul in October when she heard about the fire engulfing Shuri Castle in Okinawa. "I've been to Shuri Castle and I knew that for the people of Okinawa, it was part of ...

In an eastern area of downtown Tokyo, classes are being held in a six-story building promoting Thai language and culture. Kinshicho, in Sumida Ward, has all the trappings of a "Little Bangkok," with Thai import stores, massage shops and restaurants that blend into the city ...

A Filipino technical intern picks strawberries from elevated beds as he backs down an aisle on a swivel chair in a greenhouse — a common scene in this mountainous area of central Japan known for highland agriculture. Farmers from Benguet, an upland province on Luzon ...

In what experts say is a shift in attitudes toward death in rapidly graying Japan, donations of bodies for anatomical training have increased dramatically in recent years. Some 296,000 people had offered to donate their bodies to universities as of March 31 last year, compared ...

A public-private program has been underway in a Shiga Prefecture city to teach Spanish or Portuguese to children of migrants from Latin America working at local manufacturing plants. The program in Konan, launched in 2013, started after local officials found many children of Latin American ...