The so-called sharing economy has spread to a variety of fields such as cars and homes, and Japan has seen another rising trend in recent years — bicycles. A growing number of municipalities and private firms are providing bikes to gauge whether such services will ...
A little-known Japanese martial art called jukendo came under the spotlight recently after it was stipulated in the revised junior high school curriculum guidelines for the first time as one of nine martial arts schools can choose to teach students. Due to its historical background ...
The saga of scandal-plagued, Osaka-based Moritomo Gakuen, which advocated a nationalist education, has thrown the spotlight on private educational institutions in Japan and how they are operated. While Japan's public elementary, junior high and high schools are often praised internationally for their quality, especially in ...
On March 14, Toshiba Corp. announced it will delay, for the second time, the release of its financial earnings for the third-quarter period until April 11, saying it needs more time for an audit of its accounting problems at U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse, which ...
Spring has come — the season when cherry blossoms bloom nationwide. But ecologists warn that Japan's most popular sites for hanami (cherry blossom-viewing) might disappear in the next couple of decades. This is because red-necked longhorn beetles, a species foreign to the country, are eating the ...
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe abruptly announced that Japan will end its peacekeeping mission in South Sudan in May and withdraw the Ground Self-Defense Force's engineering troops there. The troops have been deployed to the northeast African country for the last five ...
More than a month has passed since nationalistic school operator Moritomo Gakuen first made headlines over a controversial land deal for its next school. With fresh revelations piling up daily against the Osaka-based company, the scandal has also engulfed the Diet, particularly the ruling Liberal ...
For the first time since the Penal Code took effect in 1907, the Justice Ministry is compiling a package of amendments to Japan's sex crime statutes that, if passed, will be the first major shake-up of those laws in more than a century. From redefining ...
Buying medicine at a drugstore can now save you taxes. On Jan. 1, the "self-medication tax deduction" system kicked off, allowing people who buy designated over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to apply for a tax refund. The move, intended to promote use of OTC drugs and discourage ...
Amid intense pressure to reform the country's work culture, the government and businesses are looking at mandating a "rest" period between the end of one workday and the start of the next. Some companies have begun testing a rest interval system, while the administration of ...
The government will soon launch the first state-backed scholarships in an effort to make universities more accessible as more students face financial difficulties to pursue higher education. The move is considered a big step forward in a country where the government has to date only ...
With U.S. President Donald Trump's formal decision to withdraw from the long controversial American-led Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, attention in the Asia-Pacific region is turning toward making renewed efforts to complete a separate multilateral trade agreement that excludes the U.S. — the Regional Comprehensive Economic ...
