Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force will participate in the U.S.-led Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, multinational naval exercises to be held off Hawaii between Aug. 17 and 31, Defense Minister Taro Kono said Tuesday. MSDF troops will only join offshore drills, without participating in exchange ...
Japan's emperor and empress mark end of enthronement ceremonies at Ise shrine
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako visited the Grand Shrines of Ise in Mie Prefecture on Friday to mark the completion of two major rites signifying the emperor's enthronement. The couple offered prayers at the Geku outer shrine dedicated to the goddess of clothing, food and ...
Emperor departs for Grand Shrines of Ise to mark end of enthronement rites
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako left Tokyo on Thursday for the Grand Shrines of Ise for a ceremony marking the completion of two major rites signifying the emperor's enthronement. After ascending to the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1 following his father's abdication, the 59-year-old emperor ...
Natural disasters: Preparing for the unexpected
Disasters can strike anywhere at anytime. Japan must be prepared.
Annual festival sees cows under the hammer for a cool ¥25 million
In Mie Prefecture, the city of Matsusaka celebrates its animal husbandry with a cattle auction each November.
Is Abe attempting to fuse the church and state?
It was morning in the land of the gods. "The mountains and the waters serve our sovereign," wrote a seventh-century poet. "And she (Empress Jito), a goddess, is out on her pleasure-barge upon the foaming rapids." Lovely times those must have been. If only they ...
Ise Jingu Shrine, fresh off its Sengyo-no-gi in October, the main event in the "shikinen sengu" ritual of transferring the deity to a new shrine building every two decades, is drawing record crowds. The number of worshippers flocking to the shrine in Ise, Mie Prefecture, ...
