Search - travel

 
 
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 2, 2018

Handy Japan ties up with SoftBank to provide free smartphones in hotel rooms

Handy Japan Co., a startup providing free-to-use smartphones docked in hotel rooms, announced on Monday a capital tie-up with SoftBank Corp. to boost its service for tourists with "internet of things" technologies.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 29, 2018

NASA unveils program aimed at preventing an asteroid apocalypse

Among Earth's natural disasters, the one humans probably ponder least is asteroids, huge objects zipping through our solar system at ludicrous speeds.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 25, 2018

U.S. to give North Korea post-summit schedule with 'specific asks' soon: official

The United States will soon present a time-line to North Korea with "specific asks" of Pyongyang after a historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, a senior U.S. defense official said.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Jun 21, 2018

Crisis-plagued private Pyongyang university seeks revival after Trump-Kim summit

When the only private university in North Korea held a commencement in March, the school's American president wasn't there, blocked by Washington's ban on travel to the country.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / Deep Dive
Jun 17, 2018

As tourism numbers spike, Japan's hospitals face payment and language challenges

For a Filipino man visiting Tokyo in May last year, the tour of the capital was supposed to be a fun sightseeing trip.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 16, 2018

Japan's never-ending struggle to keep poverty at bay

The first coverage of poverty in Japan's weekly business magazines may be traced back the spring of 2009, when Weekly Diamond, in its March 21 cover story, purported to expose "The poverty you don't know." The timing of the issue came six months after the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers brokerage the...
Japan Times
Rugby
Jun 16, 2018

Fan excitement gaining momentum for 2019 Rugby World Cup

Rugby fans in Kobe believe excitement is growing ahead of next year's Rugby World Cup, with the national team's first-ever test match in the city on Saturday helping to turn up the volume.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 14, 2018

Airbnb offers new services day before minpaku law kicks in

A day before a new law on minpaku (private lodging services) takes effect, Airbnb Inc. on Thursday welcomed the change and reinforced its commitment to the Japanese market with fresh initiatives.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jun 9, 2018

For curator Yayoi Motohashi, no exhibit detail is too small

Museum curator Yayoi Motohashi on how she approaches exhibit design, her favorite works of art and a few guilty pleasures.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Jun 8, 2018

Okinawa car rental agencies wary of Chinese tourists with improperly obtained licenses

Believing it would be convenient to get around by car in Okinawa, a 30-something Chinese woman decided to access a major online shopping site before her 2016 trip to obtain a driving permit that would be valid in Japan, since Chinese licenses aren't permitted in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / The Big Questions
May 13, 2018

CEO's eye for opportunity forged from global career

For IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan CEO Hans Heijligers, Japan's efforts in the men's 4u00d7100-meter relay during the 2016 Olympics speak volumes about Japanese character.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2018

Orix starts new free information services in various languages for inbound tourists

Orix Corp. officially announced the launch Wednesday of its new free information service for foreign tourists that enables the accessing of local information websites translated into other languages through the scanning of specially designated placards using smartphones.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 17, 2018

Earthquake advisories can save lives

Saying nothing about a possible imminent earthquake is not a viable option, and having no plan is poor public policy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 14, 2018

Japan's pet detectives

Myriad spiritual and high-tech options are available to help owners find their missing animals, but human trackers are still the best bet.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2018

Japan's ¥1,000 departure tax: Diet approves law on use of revenue from levy set to start in 2019

The government aims to use the funds to boost tourism infrastructure and promote travel destinations in rural Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Apr 2, 2018

Fox host Laura Ingraham takes vacation as more advertisers flee amid outcry

Fox News show host Laura Ingraham announced on her show late Friday that she is taking the week off, after many advertisers dropped her show after the conservative pundit mocked a teenage survivor of the Florida school massacre on Twitter.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 30, 2018

Thawing out on the stove train through Tsugaru

In his 1944 semi-autobiographical "Return to Tsugaru," Japanese author Osamu Dazai (1909-48) revisits his native Tsugaru, a peninsula in northernmost Aomori Prefecture and, apart from praising its people, has mostly unflattering things to say about the place. Forty years later, British writer Alan Booth...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Mar 24, 2018

Eiichi Sato: Fate written in the star rubies

Eiichi Sato peers through a gemologist's loupe and shines a lamp down onto the small pink-red stone that glistens against the black felt cloth below. "Take a look," he urges. "It's pretty cool."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 24, 2018

Ben Tarquin wants everyone dancing in the streets

Making street dance and multimedia the voices of today's youth
Japan Times
Rugby
Mar 24, 2018

Chiefs crush winless Sunwolves

The Sunwolves failed to pick up their first win of the Super Rugby season on Saturday in a 61-10 thrashing by New Zealand's Chiefs.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 21, 2018

Taiwan shadows China carrier through narrow strait after warning by Xi: report

Taiwan has sent ships and aircraft to shadow a Chinese aircraft carrier group through the narrow Taiwan Strait, its Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 20, 2018

Syrian asylum-seekers' bid for refugee status rejected by Tokyo court

The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit filed by two Syrian asylum-seekers — echoing the Immigration Bureau's decision not to grant them refugee status — in the first such court challenge in Japan since civil war broke out in the Middle Eastern nation in 2011.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 17, 2018

Nihonbashi: The culinary crossroads of Tokyo

For the rest of the world all roads might lead to Rome, but in Japan all roads lead to Nihonbashi. Just as the Milliarium Aureum (Golden Milestone) delineated the point from which all distances were measured in the Roman Empire, there is a monument to one side of Nihonbashi Bridge that marks the "zero...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 13, 2018

Turner: The landscaper of art genres

J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) remains among the most adored of British landscapists. His natural draftsman talent, in union with the hard work ethic of his time led to recognition and formal training at the Royal Academy of Arts, where he was elected to become one of the institution's esteemed Academicians...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 11, 2018

It's not just the exhibits that are expensive at art fairs

The month of March inaugurates the spring art fair season, a combination of commerce, parties and culture that attendees love to pretend to hate. Even though the fairs are explicitly designed for galleries to sell art, dealers complain about them whenever they get a chance. For everyone else, the phenomenon...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami