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Toyota's new research and development center in India will begin operations with a team of about 200 people in Bengaluru.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 21, 2025

Toyota’s new R&D unit signals its sharper India focus

The research facility comes after Toyota last year reorganized India to be the hub of its operations across the Middle East, East Asia and Oceania region.
Orix Buffaloes pitcher Taisuke Yamaoka speaks to reporters in the city of Osaka on Friday for the first time since he was reported to have participated in a poker tournament run by a foreign casino website.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 21, 2025

Cabinet approves strategy to battle illegal online casinos

A National Policy Agency survey released earlier this month showed that nearly 3.37 million Japanese are estimated to have used overseas online casinos to illegally gamble.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the Liberal Democratic Party's annual convention in Tokyo on March 9.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 22, 2025

Ishiba appears ready to speak before Diet ethics panel over gift vouchers

Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the CDP, and Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the DPP, have called on Ishiba to give explanations before a parliamentary ethics panel.
Keio University in Tokyo
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 22, 2025

Keio University team says stem cell treatment helped improve spine injuries

Keio University said that the motor function score for two patients improved after an operation to implant more than 2 million iPS-derived cells into a spinal cord.
A eulogy is read during a memorial service for the victims of the Nasu avalanche in Otawara City, Tochigi Prefecture, on Saturday.
JAPAN
Mar 22, 2025

Victims mourned eight years after 2017 deadly Tochigi avalanche

The ceremony, held at Tochigi Prefectural Otawara High School, was attended by about 50 people.
A Yoshino cherry tree in bloom in Kumamoto City's Nishi Ward on Sunday.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2025

Cherry blossoms bloom in Kumamoto and Kochi

Compared with last year, the blooming date was the same in Kochi and three days earlier in Kumamoto.
Saury catches have remained sluggish in recent years due to overfishing and changes in the maritime environment.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2025

Saury quota reduction eyed at Northern Pacific fisheries talks in Osaka

Recent poor saury catches reflect past overfishing and changes in the maritime environment.
Shoko Kanazawa, a renowned Japanese calligrapher with Down syndrome, serving a customer at Atelier Shoko Cafe in Tokyo's Ota Ward on Feb. 28. The artist aims to “bring energy and happiness to the community” in her new role as a waitress at the cafe.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 24, 2025

From brush to barista: Artist with Down syndrome shares warmth through cafe

Renowned calligrapher Shoko Kanazawa hopes to "bring energy and happiness to the community" through her new cafe in Tokyo.
Associate professor Soko Aoki (right) and her sociology students at Tohoku University have helped compile documents in the recently published “50th Year of Menstrual Products” book.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Mar 31, 2025

Menstruation and gender equality: Student movement revisited 50 years on

As "period poverty" has become a social issue, former members of the group have self-published a reference book about their activities.
Fukuoka Gov. Seitaro Hattori
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 24, 2025

Fukuoka Gov. Seitaro Hattori wins second term

Hattori garnered broad support for his pledge to install air conditioners in prefectural high school gymnasiums and other facilities.
The latest results are likely to increase doubts within the party about Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s leadership going into the Upper House election in the summer.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 24, 2025

Ishiba’s approval ratings continue to fall amid gift voucher backlash

The latest results are likely to increase doubts within the party about Ishiba’s leadership going into the Upper House election.
A poster calling for the earlier extension of the Hokkaido Shinkansen line to Sapporo is seen in the city's Chuo Ward in May.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Mar 31, 2025

Hokkaido's rail network faces tough challenges

Falling ridership is putting pressure on JR Hokkaido to close underutilized local lines even as it struggles to complete the Hokkaido Shinkansen.
Blooms are seen on the Meteorological Agency's sample cherry tree at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2025

Cherry blossom season kicks off in Tokyo after warm weekend

At approximately 2 p.m. Monday, the Meteorological Agency announced that its reference Somei-Yoshino cherry tree at Yasukuni Shrine was officially in bloom.
Fukui Gov. Tatsuji Sugimoto has approved Kansai Electric Power's revised road map for shipping spent nuclear fuel from aging reactors in the prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2025

Fukui's governor allows three aging reactors to continue operations

All three reactors have been in operation for more than 40 years.
Former Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa says women should collaborate with one another more to boost growth and creativity.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2025

Osaka Expo to highlight women's empowerment

The Women's Pavilion, which French luxury brand Cartier and the Cabinet Office will operate, will showcase female social advancement in Japan.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, an adviser to Tomin First no Kai, will suffer if the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and Tomin First fail to maintain their combined majority in the Tokyo assembly election in June.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 25, 2025

LDP faces headwinds in Tokyo assembly election

Political funds scandals affecting the party at both the national level and in the assembly could cost it votes.
The Government Pension Investment Fund will have Kazuto Uchida, a former Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group economist, as its new head on April 1.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 25, 2025

Japan names former MUFG economist to lead huge pension fund

Bond market veteran Kazuto Uchida will take over from current President Masataka Miyazono on April 1 for a five-year term to manage one of the world’s largest pension funds.
Nobuya Fukumoto (far left), a lawyer for the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, known as the Unification Church, is surrounded by the media at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday after it ordered the group to be stripped of its religious corporation status.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 25, 2025

Tokyo court strips Unification Church of religious corporation status

The order against the group, heavily criticized for its coercive tactics in soliciting donations, removes its tax-exempt status.
Beniko, a former sex worker-turned professional photographer, browses though her new photo book in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, on Feb. 10. The 52-year-old has set out to visually document Japan's pleasure districts.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 30, 2025

Former sex worker records Tokyo's red-light history

"I can't make up for lost time, but I want to document the sex industry as part of history," says Beniko.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waits for a session of the House of Councillors Budget Committee to begin at the Diet in Tokyo on March 14.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 25, 2025

Parties still at odds over corporate donations as deadline for agreement looms

The prospect of reaching a decision on whether to ban, restrict or continue to accept donations by the end of the month appears slim.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi during a news conference on Tuesday
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 25, 2025

Ishiba plans price measures through existing budgets

While no new spending appears to be planned, Ishiba’s comments on the price measures likely had the upcoming summer general election in mind.
A V-22 Osprey in a simulated military assisted departure and evacuation of a U.S. embassy in Pendleton, California, Dec. 6, 2024
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2025

U.S. Osprey makes emergency landing at airport in Nagano Prefecture

No injury has been reported regarding the developments, according to prefectural government officials and others.
Tatsuo Hashida (second from right), head of a group representing victims who suffered from having given large donations to the Unification Church in Kochi Prefecture, speaks during a news conference in Kochi on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 26, 2025

Unification Church victims voice joy over stripping of group's legal status

The Tokyo District Court stripped the controversial group of its religious corporation status on Tuesday.
Textbooks carrying QR codes that link to websites with video and audio learning aid materials
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2025

Most Japanese high school textbooks to include QR codes

In response to the rapid progress of digitalization, many of the textbooks include descriptions on information ethics and generative AI.
Ispace's Resilience lunar lander at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Tsukuba Space Center in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, in September
JAPAN / FOCUS
Mar 26, 2025

Japanese startups driving space development

Not only large companies but also emerging businesses are hurrying to conduct lunar exploration and commercialize transportation services using rockets.
A bill calling for decency in election campaign posters is passed at the Upper House plenary session on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 26, 2025

Upper House passes bill calling for decency in election posters

The bill came in the wake of last summer's Tokyo gubernatorial election, in which posters featuring indecent content were put up.
Government's stockpiled rice at a warehouse in Saitama Prefecture in February
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2025

Japan begins taking bids in second auction of stockpiled rice

The focus is on whether the release of reserve rice will help curb soaring rice prices.
Residents of Zamami, Okinawa Prefecture, attend a memorial ceremony on Wednesday, the 80th anniversary of the U.S. military's landing on the Kerama Islands during World War II.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2025

Victims of Okinawa battle remembered on 80th anniversary of U.S. landing

Over 200,000 people, including civilians, were killed in ground battles on islands in Okinawa.
A mars rock is packed before transport from the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo to Osaka, where it will be displayed at the 2025 World Exposition, on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2025

Mars rock transported from Tokyo for Osaka Expo

The rock will be shown at the government's Japan Pavilion at the expo.
At No. 4, three-Michelin-starred Sezanne took home the title of best restaurant in Japan in this year's Asia's 50 Best Restaurants rankings.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 26, 2025

11 in Japan win Asia’s 50 Best Restaurant honors, but Gaggan is tops

The modern French cuisine of Sezanne was good enough for best in Japan and No. 4 in all of Asia.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo