and mother Julia look on during a news conference Friday at the British Embassy in Tokyo. SATOKO KAWASAKI PHOTO

Julia Hawker, the mother of 22-year-old Lindsay, who was found suffocated and buried naked in a sand-filled bathtub at Ichihashi's Chiba apartment in March, revealed that the suspected killer's family "sent through a statement sending their condolences, saying that they hoped their son (atones) for his crime."

Our Planet

Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past