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JAPAN
Feb 5, 2024

Heavy snow falls in Tokyo and wider region, impacting transport networks

While the snowfall may peak overnight, those commuting on Tuesday morning are likely to encounter icy roads and impacts on trains or roadways.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 5, 2024

Parties clash over release of LDP's internal funds scandal probe

The opposition had demanded that the LDP publish a list of all party members responsible for the underreporting of political funds in the last five years.
Naoko Motooka began hunting 10 years ago. Her hobby is one way Hokkaido hopes to curb a current boom in the deer population.
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 15, 2024

Hunting in Hokkaido; Taylor Swift comes to Tokyo

You probably don’t think of guns when you think of Japan, but Hokkaido’s hunters do.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2024

Whale found dead in Osaka Bay to be buried on prefectural land

After being buried for up to two years, the skeletal remains will be offered as a specimen to the Osaka Museum of Natural History.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 20, 2024

Tokyo to draft ordinance to curb harassment by customers

The harassment of front-line workers by customers has become a growing trend in the capital, Gov. Yuriko Koike said.
Regulating online gambling in Japan can be tricky, particularly when site operators are based overseas in countries where it is legal.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 21, 2024

Kyoto police arrest seven on suspicion of running illegal gambling site

The suspects are accused of working for the foreign company operating Dora Mahjong, a membership-based gambling site catering to a Japanese audience.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 21, 2024

Film director Hideo Sakaki held on suspicion of sexual assault

While allegations of sexual abuse were made against Sakaki as far back as March 2022, this is the first time that the director has been taken into custody.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 21, 2024

Senior LDP members likely to appear before ethics committee next week

While the opposition said the willingness of additional LDP figures to answer questions was an improvement, they called for more to step up.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 28, 2024

Japan issues urgent notice to schools after boy chokes to death

The first grader in the city of Miyama, Fukuoka Prefecture, is believed to have choked on a boiled quail egg contained in a stew served for school lunch.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 5, 2024

Japan ministers deny report government thinking of calling end to deflation

Policymakers are focused on ensuring the economy doesn't revert to a protracted period of falling prices, they said.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 7, 2024

Osaka weighs 'entry fee' for foreign tourists in bid to combat overtourism

The proposed fee is separate from the lodging tax already in place for all tourists.
Akira Toriyama
CULTURE
Mar 8, 2024

'Dragon Ball' creator Akira Toriyama dies at 68

A post announcing his death said Toriyama was “working on many projects” and that “there was so much more that he wanted to accomplish.”
Japan revised economic data higher, reversing a quarterly contraction in October-December 2023 into positive growth and avoiding a technical recession.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 11, 2024

Japan’s economy avoids recession one week before BOJ meeting

The government made an upward revision to capital investment figures to reflect 2% growth, which in turn sent the country's GDP into positive territory.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 12, 2024

Three members of Abe faction to attend Upper House ethics hearing

But other lawmakers embroiled in the LDP slush fund scandal have largely indicated that they don't intend to testify.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 14, 2024

U.S. military resumes Osprey flights in Japan

The resumption came after Washington last week lifted a worldwide flight ban on the aircraft following a deadly crash last year.
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani talks with interpreter Ippei Mizuhara during a spring training game in Phoenix on March 12.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 21, 2024

For Shohei Ohtani, Ippei Mizuhara was far more than just an interpreter

The 39-year-old has been a ubiquitous presence in Ohtani’s life since his move to the major leagues ahead of the 2018 season.
Japan's Ao Tanaka in action with North Korea's Yu-Song Kim during Samurai Blue's win over North Korea in World Cup qualifying on Thursday in Tokyo.
SOCCER
Mar 22, 2024

Japan earns scrappy win over North Korea in World Cup qualifier

The Samurai Blue now have three wins from three in their group and are firmly on course to reach the next stage of qualifying.
North Korean fans watch the World Cup qualifying match between Japan and North Korea on Thursday in Tokyo.
SOCCER
Mar 22, 2024

North Korea-Japan World Cup qualifier called off over 'unforeseen circumstances'

North Korea appears to have decided not to stage the match in its capital over worries about infectious diseases in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 24, 2024

Osaka drugmaker recalls dietary supplements linked to kidney disorders

The Osaka-based drugmaker announced Friday that, of the six hospitalized, two suffered symptoms serious enough to require temporary dialysis.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 27, 2024

Yen slides to 34-year low, heightening talk of intervention

Although the Bank of Japan hiked rates for the first time in 17 years last week, the yen’s weakness has persisted.
Blue pipelines to transport seawater, part of the facility for releasing treated radioactive water to sea from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, are seen during a treated water dilution and discharge facility tour for media, in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, last August.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 31, 2024

Experts from Japan and China discuss Fukushima water release

The two Asian powerhouses have spared over the issue since Japan began releasing the water into the Pacific Ocean last August.
Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers a pitch during the first inning against the Cardinals on Saturday at Dodger Stadium.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 31, 2024

Yamamoto bounces back as Cardinals outlast Dodgers

Yamamoto, who signed a 12-year, $325 million contract in the offseason, struck out five and gave up just two hits.
The Dodgers, with Japanese star Shohei Ohtani, could be in line to play in next year's MLB season-opening series in Japan, reports have suggested.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 4, 2024

Japan to host MLB season opener next year, baseball commissioner says

The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs could be the teams to play the series, reports suggested.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa (left), South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin (center) and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi prior to the trilateral foreign ministers' meeting in Busan, South Korea, in November
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 5, 2024

China, Japan and South Korea looking to hold summit in May, reports say

The three-way talks could follow a summit set for next week in Washington where Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is due to meet U.S. President Joe Biden.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington on April 11.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 21, 2024

Kishida must wish he’d stayed in Washington

At home, Kishida’s polling numbers near record lows, he faces never-ending political scandals and a public that is weary of him.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi says the government is  closely monitoring reports about a missing Chinese professor from a Japanese university.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2024

Japan monitoring reports of professor 'missing' in China

Media reports have said the professor may have been questioned by Chinese authorities before he disappeared.
The yen’s slide has pushed up import bills in Japan, keeping domestic consumer spending tepid, with analysts saying any gains in real wages may evaporate if the yen depreciates further.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 24, 2024

Investors loved weak yen boosting shares until it went too far

Concern is growing that the currency is becoming a liability for Japan’s economy and stocks.
With less than two months left before the conclusion of the current session of parliament, any possibility that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida can deliver constitutional reform before the end of his term as Liberal Democratic Party president in late September, as he has promised, appears remote.
JAPAN / Politics
May 4, 2024

Debate on constitutional revision at a standstill despite Kishida's pledges

Lawmakers are instead focusing their attention on reviewing the political funds control law in the wake of the LDP's slush funds scandal.
Representatives of the ruling bloc and opposition parties meet in Tokyo on Friday to start discussions on possible relaxations of the imperial family's strict succession rules.
JAPAN
May 17, 2024

Lawmakers begin talks on Japan's dwindling imperial line

Japan currently has only one heir: Emperor Naruhito's 17-year-old nephew Prince Hisahito.
Japan's new whaling mother ship, the Kangei Maru, arrives at Ariake pier in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN
May 23, 2024

WiFi, drones and sharp blades on Japan's whaling mother ship

The country has a quota this year of around 350 Bryde's, minke and sei whales.

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