Tag - nagano

 
 

NAGANO

A man accused of killing four people, including two police officers, in Nagano in 2023 intends to remain silent at the first court hearing of his lay judge trial on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 4, 2025
Suspect in 2023 Nagano quadruple murder plans to stay silent during trial
The defendant's attorney said his client is in a diminished state due to integration disorder syndrome and doubts he has the capacity to take criminal responsibility.
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Aug 24, 2025
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Those in the travel industry are working to advertise cooler destinations, amid the prospect that the heat may prompt people to give up on traveling in the summer altogether.
Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko strolled through a cabbage field in Ohinata settlement in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, on Saturday.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2025
Emperor emeritus and empress emerita visit postwar settlement
The former Emperor and former Empress have frequently visited the settlement, developed by people who returned to Japan from Manchuria in northeastern China after World War II.
Inside the Mount Zozan underground bunker, which was once planned as a relocation site for government agencies, on May 22 in the city of Nagano
JAPAN / Society
Aug 19, 2025
Nagano residents recall wartime efforts to build replacement military HQ
The replacement headquarters was not completed, but construction continued until the day of Japan's surrender in the war.
Author Minae Mizumura strolls through the garden of her cottage in Oiwake, Karuizawa, in a photograph taken by her friend and collaborator Toyota Horiguchi.
CULTURE / Books / Perspectives
Jul 8, 2025
Between reality and fiction: A summer’s day in Karuizawa with Minae Mizumura
The author speaks on the Nagano Prefecture town's unique positioning between Japan and the West, literary tradition and artificial intelligence.
Located in Nagano Prefecture, Samurai Gakuen tries to help young and old individuals who have withdrawn from society rediscover their places out in the world.
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 31, 2025
How ‘hikikomori’ shut-ins ‘start to have dreams for the future’
As many as 1.5 million “hikikomori” shut-ins withdraw from social life in Japan, but one school in Nagano is finding success is coaxing them back into the world.
Yoshitaka Toda, the suspect in Wednesday's knife attack at Todaimae Station on the Tokyo Metro Nanboku Line, leaves a police station in the Japanese capital the same day for a pre-detention medical examination.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 12, 2025
More details emerge about stabbing near Tokyo University metro station
Yoshitaka Toda, 43, claimed he stabbed a student to show how academic pressure could push a child off course.
Ayano Kikuchi began practicing yoga in 2014 to alleviate her chronic back pain, and now shares her knowledge with the Karuizawa community as the manager of W Tree House.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 10, 2025
Ayano Kikuchi: ‘People need to take care of themselves holistically’
How a corporate office worker in Tokyo became a yoga studio manager in Karuizawa
A map showing the location of an earthquake that hit Nagano Prefecture on Friday evening, with the numbers indicating the seismic intensity on the shindo scale to 7.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2025
Magnitude 5.0 earthquake jolts Nagano
The quake, with an estimated magnitude of 5.0, occurred at around 8:19 p.m. at a depth of about 10 kilometers.
The whereabouts of a bear that attacked three people in Nagano Prefecture on Wednesday were still unknown the following day.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2025
Authorities on alert after three injured in Nagano bear attack
Two men are believed to have sustained serious injuries, but all three victims remain conscious. The whereabouts of the bear remain unknown.
Scenes like this snow-covered bridge leading to the village of Shirakawa-go are what make the Three-Star Road worth traveling — its name notwithstanding.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 29, 2025
Traveling the Three-Star Road, the tourist route made from thin air
Linking mountainous Matsumoto and coastal Kanazawa, this clunkily named route includes nonetheless fantastic sites.
Three Japanese banks are teaming up to combat the enduring challenge of a dwindling population.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2025
Three Japanese banks form alliance to fight population slump
Shizuoka Bank, Hachijuni Bank and Yamanashi Chuo Bank will work together to draw outside talent and funding into central Japan.
Kazuki Morohashi showcases rice "kōji" at a Japanese sake fair held in Chongqing, China, in November.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2025
Data science helps sake break into wine-dominated market
To preserve the environment for sake production, some breweries are endeavoring to expand their sales channels overseas.
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.
Yusuke Yaguchi leaves the Nagano Chuo Police Station in the city of Nagano for his transfer to prosecutors Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 28, 2025
Nagano stabbing suspect altered appearance and hid before arrest
Authorities pieced together the suspect's movements using security footage and citizen tip-offs, ultimately tracking him down at his apartment 3 kilometers away from the scene.
People pray for the victims of a deadly stabbing attack outside Nagano Station, on Sunday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 27, 2025
Nagano stabbing suspect sent to prosecutors after deadly attack
The apparently random stabbing follows two other similar attacks, including the high-profile killing of a teenage girl at a Kitakyushu McDonald's last month.
A Nagano Prefectural Police official speaks during a news conference in the city of Nagano on Sunday following the arrest of a suspect in a deadly stabbing days earlier.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 26, 2025
Police arrest suspect in deadly Nagano stabbings
The suspect, a man in his 40s, is believed to have fatally stabbed one person and injured two others in front of Nagano Station days earlier.
The crime scene where three people were attacked near JR Nagano Station on Wednesday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 23, 2025
Search for suspect underway after fatal stabbing at Nagano Station
One person died in the attack, which happened around 8 p.m. Wednesday, while two others sustained injuries.
The Nagano District Court found Daisuke Maruyama guilty of killing his 47-year old wife, Nozomi, who was a company executive, in September 2021 at their home in the city of Shiojiri, Nagano.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 23, 2024
Ex-Nagano assembly member sentenced to 19 years in prison for killing wife
Prosecutors argued that Daisuke Maruyama, 50, was motivated to kill his wife because she would not agree to a divorce.
Despite a range of backgrounds and culinary traditions, food served as the ultimate lingua franca for chefs touring Nagano Prefecture.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 1, 2024
Putting mountainous Nagano on a plate
Nagano’s natural bounty became the star attraction as chefs from Europe, Southeast Asia and Oceania showed off their chops with local ingredients.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight