Japan's farm minister Taku Eto stresses safety of wagyu beef in effort to access Chinese market
Agriculture minister Taku Eto stressed the safety of wagyu beef during a visit with Beijing's top diplomat in Japan to a cutting-edge meat-processing plant with stringent hygiene controls on Wednesday, as Tokyo hopes to resume exports of the Japanese specialty to China at an ...
Alert level raised for southern Kyushu's Mount Shinmoe volcano after cluster of 22 earthquakes
The alert level for a volcano in southwestern Japan was raised Monday amid increasing seismic activity in the area, according to the Meteorological Agency. With the level now at 2 on a 5-point scale, people have been warned not to approach the crater of Mount ...
Top 10: A local's guide to the most unique hot springs in Kyushu
Panoramas, bubble baths and tingling testicles — The Japan Times' list of 10 of the most unique and rare onsen Kyushu has to offer.
Japan's surfing towns prepare to cash in on Olympic wave
Surfing spots across Japan are looking to ride a wave to economic revitalization before the 2020 Tokyo Games, when surfing will make its Olympic debut. Hoping to attract more tourists and stop population decline, these municipalities are hosting surfing events and setting up special websites ...
Despite order for 1.1 million to evacuate, only 6,301 used Kyushu shelters during heavy rains
Only 6,301 people actually took shelter after evacuation orders were issued for 1.1 million residents in Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures on Wednesday and Thursday due to heavy rains, authorities said. According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, a total of 820 shelters had been ...
Road damage after torrential rain on Yakushima Island leaves about 200 people stranded
A total of at least 10 buses being used to transport mountain hikers and several cars became stranded on Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture on Saturday following torrential rain, leaving about 200 people trapped there, local officials said. The heavy downpour caused a road near ...
An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 6.3 hit off Kyushu on Friday, injuring a man and disrupting some local transportation networks, authorities said. The 8:48 a.m. quake occurred at a depth of about 20 kilometers under the seabed off Miyazaki Prefecture. It measured a ...
First premium mangoes of Japan growing season fetch record ¥500,000
A pair of premium mangoes from Miyazaki Prefecture fetched a record ¥500,000 in the season's first auction at a local wholesale market Monday, topping the previous best of ¥400,000. The premium mangoes are called Taiyo no Tamago (Egg of the Sun). To qualify for this description, ...
A giant rock resembling Pac-Man is drawing climbers to a mountain in Miyazaki Prefecture, with visitors eager to snap photos to share on the internet. A 90-minute hike from the Shishigawa campground in Nobeoka, takes mountain climbers and tourists to "Pakkun Iwa" ("Pac-Man Rock"). The ...
Police believe that a family dispute likely led to the murder of six people whose bodies were found Monday at a home in Miyazaki Prefecture.
Miyazaki finds solution to IT labor crunch thousands of kilometers away
Like many of Japan's smaller cities, Miyazaki has been hit by a growing labor crunch, a trend highlighted by the mere 56.8 percent of high school graduates that chose to remain in the prefecture to work — third-worst among the 47 prefectures. In the hard-hit ...
Japanese national team selects training camp sites for World Cup
Hokkaido's Abashiri and Miyazaki have been selected as training camp sites for the Japan national team for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, the Japan Rugby Football Union announced on Wednesday. Both are familiar cities to the Japanese rugby community and fans as they have long ...
