January 28, 2021
Bunkogawa leatherware is instantly recognizable: colorful patterns painted on white embossed cowhide, with its distinct texture as if weathered from years of use. When holding a top-notch wallet or small handmade items fashioned by bunkogawa artisans, it’s as if your mind has been enriched. Such b...
A series of recently released business reports further highlighted the slump in consumption during the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Japan Foodservice Association announced Monday that restaurant sales for 2020 fell 15.1% from the previous year, the largest drop since 1994, when comparable d...
A new species of deep-sea fish over 1 meter in length has been discovered in Suruga Bay near Shizuoka Prefecture, a team of researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and other organizations announced Monday. The fish, a part of sekitori iwashi (slickheads...
The Saitama Stadium Line is a relatively new train line that follows part of a very old route. During the Edo period (1603-1867), the Tokugawa shoguns ruled Japan from what was then Edo Castle (no...
Japan’s first genome-edited food using technology that efficiently modifies genes will be a tomato to be sold as early as within this year. The government must not neglect efforts to gain the public...
AKB48 brings you Team 8, a group of idols where each member represents one of the 47 prefectures in Japan. As the group members travel across the nation for meet and greet fan activities, they learn a...
This is the second installment of a series that looks at points to remember in the event of a tsunami, based on lessons learned from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Quick evacuation is a basic...
Using artificial intelligence and big data to predict the level of crowding at evacuation centers up to six hours in advance, a team including researchers from the National Research Institute for Eart...
The government has asked authorities in Taiwan, the world’s largest production base for semiconductor products, to increase output because semiconductors chips for automobiles are in short supply a...
Keep track of the coronavirus epidemic as it unfolds in Japan. Relevant stories and graphics appear below covering events up to and including the current state of emergency and the future outlook. ...
The following charts give a visual representation of the spread of the novel coronavirus in Japan and around the world. The first shows the extensiveness of cases in relation to a nation’s populatio...
Relying only on expectations of high economic growth can undermine fiscal sustainability. The government must squarely face the current fiscal conditions, which have become even more severe due to the...
Ginza Six, one of the largest commercial complexes in Tokyo’s Ginza district, has announced that the facility will change many of its tenant shops for the first time since it opened in April 2017. ...
A couple of decades in the future, a high school student named Wade lives with his aunt in a trailer in Oklahoma after his mother’s death from a heroin overdose. Climate change is catastrophic, and ...
WASHINGTON / TOKYO — A year has passed since the first novel coronavirus infection was confirmed in China. With the total number of reported cases having topped 100 million worldwide, the virus is n...
Nippon Express Co., a global logistics company based in Tokyo’s Shiodome district, became the latest major company to consider selling its headquarters building in central Tokyo, The Yomiuri Shimb...
Cats rub their bodies on silver vine leaves, known as matatabi in Japan, to protect themselves from mosquitoes, which are known to carry viruses. A team of researchers from Iwate University and oth...
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry plans to provide subsidies to couples seeking fertility treatment on the condition that the treatments are provided by medical institutions that disclose such in...
The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake deeply implanted in people’s minds the importance of tsunami preparedness and countermeasures. As a possible Nankai Trough earthquake in the future may cause mor...
Hina dolls of newly elected U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are displayed in the shop of famous doll maker Kyugetsu Co. in Taito Ward, Tokyo, on Wednesday, ahead of the Hina...
Ahead of the 10-year anniversary of the March 2011 accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, a panel of the Nuclear Regulation Authority on Tuesda...
Japan’s high-quality agricultural and fishery products should be sold more across the world. The government needs to take a close look at the needs of each country and region, and boost exports in a...
Keep track of the coronavirus epidemic as it unfolds in Japan. Relevant stories and graphics appear below covering events up to and including the current state of emergency and the future outlook. ...
AKB48 brings you Team 8, a group of idols where each member represents one of the 47 prefectures in Japan. As the group members travel across the nation for meet and greet fan activities, they learn a...
The following charts give a visual representation of the spread of the novel coronavirus in Japan and around the world. The first shows the extensiveness of cases in relation to a nation’s populatio...
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has begun full-scale discussions on an elective four-day work week system, in response to the changes in the employment environment caused by the novel coronavirus...
The government will lift a ban on nuclear transfer, in which a fertilized egg nucleus that contains genetic information is transferred into the fertilized egg of a third person, solely for the purpose...
The government expects to complete the vaccination of about 36 million elderly people within approximately three months from the start of inoculations, according to an announcement by the health minis...
A snowy landscape has blanketed the Kuju Mountains, which extend from the city of Taketa, Oita Prefecture, to the town of Kokonoe. The surface of Lake Miike, located near the summit of the highest mou...
The global supply chain is being gummed up by a shortage of shipping containers, especially in Asia, and transportation costs are soaring. The shortage is also causing delays in Japanese imports and ...
Government discussions are growing stronger in favor of extending the state of emergency, declared to deal with the novel coronavirus, past its Feb. 7 deadline. Reasons include a decrease in the numb...
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Monday at the House of Representatives Budget Committee that he plans to promptly release materials on the side effects from COVID-19 vaccines and the approval proce...
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. 
An exhibition space re-creating part of the residence of novelist Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) has opened at a gallery in front of JR Mitaka Station in Mitaka, Tokyo. The space at the Mitaka City Gallery...
It seems as if everyone wants to get their hands on some wildflowers. The kind of wildflowers that are popular in Japan are generally species native to the southern hemisphere, such as from Australia ...
In 2016, not long before Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, influential sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild published “Strangers in Their Own Land,” in which she expresse...
