July 17, 2019
Three rugby players from Japan’s national team look out from rice paddies in Gyoda, Saitama Prefecture — in a piece of agricultural art created to promote the Rugby World Cup, which starts in September. The annual rice paddy art event has been put on by the city along with other entities for t...
The government plans to provide assistance for the collection and disposing of plastic waste in the ocean (see below) picked up by fishing vessels, according to sources. It intends to subsidize most of the cost borne by municipalities in disposing of plastic garbage that is dragged up along with f...
OSAKA — A fuel cell that can power an LED for several hours with just a small amount of urine has been developed by a university professor in Osaka, it has been learned. Created by Keiichi Kaneto, a visiting professor at the Osaka Institute of Technology, the fuel cell is small enough to be port...
SEOUL (AP) — Colonial-era Korean laborers are seeking a court’s approval for the sales of local assets of their former Japanese employer after it refused to comply with a court order to compensat...
LONDON (Reuters) — The leading candidate to become Britain’s next Prime Minister, lawmaker Boris Johnson, said on Monday he would not currently back the United States if it took military action a...
BEIJING (Reuters) — China’s government and Chinese companies will cut business ties with U.S. firms selling arms to Taiwan, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday, declining to give details of...
BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The remaining parties to the Iran nuclear deal do not see Tehran’s breaches as significant and do not intend for now to trigger the pact’s dispute mechanism, preferring mor...
Obese people who engaged in resistance training were more likely to see reductions in a type of heart fat that has been linked to cardiovascular disease, a new study finds. In the small study, researc...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The most effective way to fight global warming is to plant lots of trees, a study says. A trillion of them, maybe more. And there’s enough room, Swiss scientists say. Even with ...
JERUSALEM (AP) — Goliath the Greek? Human remains from an ancient cemetery in southern Israel have yielded precious bits of DNA that a new study says help prove the European origin of the Philistine...
PARIS (AFP-Jiji) —A three-fold jump since 1975 in the percentage of adults worldwide who are obese has been driven mainly by a shift in diet and lack of exercise, but genes do play a role as well, a...
SINGAPORE — It has been widely characterized as trade tensions or a trade war, but the fight between the United States and China is not really about trade, said a former World Bank economist. The t...
TAIPEI (AP) — Taiwan’s main opposition party picked a pro-China populist mayor Monday as its candidate for the 2020 presidential race against an incumbent who often bashes Beijing. The Nationali...
GUWAHATI, India/KATHMANDU (Reuters) — Floods have forced more than 4 million people from their homes across India, Nepal and Bangladesh and killed more than 100 people as torrential rains in the in...
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo/GENEVA (Reuters) — Ebola’s arrival in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s main city of Goma severely raises the risk of the virus spreading if it takes roo...
LONDON (Reuters) — The two candidates vying to be Britain’s next prime minister set a high bar on Monday for success in Brexit negotiations, saying that even a significant concession from the Eur...
MADRID (Reuters) — Spain’s caretaker prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, called an end on Monday to power-sharing talks with the only major political party offering to govern with him, magnifying the ...
ISTANBUL (Reuters) — European Union decisions to curb contacts and funding for Turkey over its drilling for gas and oil off Cyprus will not affect its determination to continue energy activities in...
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union foreign ministers on Monday turned up the pressure on Turkey after approving an initial batch of sanctions against the country over its drilling for gas in waters whe...
BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The European Union’s nominee to head its executive Commission proffered economic, environmental and social reforms in a bid for support from a lukewarm EU Parliament in a conf...
NEW YORK (AP) — Government restrictions on religion have increased markedly in many places around the world, not only in authoritarian countries, but also in many of Europe’s democracies, accordi...
OTTAWA (Reuters) — Canada is likely to postpone a decision on whether to allow China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to supply 5G network equipment until after the October federal election, given ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Representatives from the United States and Russia are set to meet in Geneva on Wednesday to explore the concept of a new accord limiting nuclear arms that could eventually in...
North Korea’s open-sea transfers of petroleum products to its ships in the East China Sea and elsewhere are getting more scrutiny from Japan and six other nations. Yet even as Japan, the United St...
BEIJING (AP) — China’s economic growth slowed to its lowest level in a decade in the quarter ending in June, adding to pressure on Chinese leaders as they fight a tariff war with Washington. Th...
Drinks containing “tapioca,” made from the cassava root found in tropical regions, have become the latest rage, especially among young women. Many chains in Taiwan, where the drink originated, ha...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — All Nippon Airways said Thursday that it will renew airline seats on North America and Europe routes for the first time in about a decade, introducing its first-ever door-equip...
Japanese companies have accelerated a structural shift in traditional employment practices, as more and more major firms are raising the wage levels of young staff while trying to reduce the number of...
A Fukushima Prefecture town, completely evacuated after the nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holding’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, on Sunday saw the opening of its first su...
LIMA (Jiji Press) — Princess Mako, now on an official tour of Peru, visited on Friday a medical clinic and an elderly care home run mainly by Peruvians of Japanese descent and cheered residents. Th...
NEW YORK (AP) — A power outage crippled the tourist-filled heart of Manhattan just as Saturday night Broadway shows were set to go on, sending theater-goers spilling into the streets, knocking out ...
ROME (AFP-Jiji) — Landfills in flames and rats feasting on waste in the streets have sparked health fears in Rome, as doctors warn families to steer clear of disease-ridden curbside garbage and loc...
The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito is expected to win at least 63 seats in the House of Councillors election next Sunday, more than half of the 124 seats up for grabs, a...
The Japan News has partnered with media startup inkl, a news service that curates articles from the world’s leading publishers for users to read on mobile devices. A selection of articles from The Japan News and The Yomiuri Shimbun is now available to read on inkl, which hosts titles from about 20 countries. 
As one of the measures to strengthen the national soccer team ahead of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, German coach Dettmar Cramer was invited to Japan. He must have studied the traditional culture of Japan,...
Southampton may be known for Japanese football player Maya Yoshida, who plays for Southampton FC, or for its famous port where the RMS Titanic departed before sinking. The reason why I am studying he...
We were six large bodies crammed inside a five-seat sedan, laughing even as our hearts fluttered at the sudden braking and inconsistent lane-crossing the driver, our classmate, undertook to get throu...
The world premiere of the new musical “Disturbance,” which depicts a case of domestic violence that leads to murder, was held in Tokyo on July 2-4. Based on a true story and adapted from a book ...
A festival of events introducing Japanese culture to the culturally diverse United States is being held in Washington and other cities this year. Shinto, animals and “The Tale of Genji” are all ke...
Noh is an artform of that has a twinlike relationship with kyogen. Although there are many exceptions, noh can be considered tragic drama and kyogen comedy. They are basically performed alternately on...
