News On Japan

An oil tanker is sinking after colliding with a gravel carrier in Tokyo Bay. Oil is spilling from the tanker. (NHK)

The National Center for University Entrance Examinations on Saturday began two days of tests across the nation. The center said that 563,768 students-4,636 more than last year-are sitting for the exams at 693 test centers nationwide. (Japan Today)

More than 8,600 people have signed an online petition to protest the annual Boob Aid fundraising event, which allows donors to the charity to touch the breasts of porn actresses. (Japan Times)

The Nagano prefectural police raided on Saturday the office of Keyth Tour, a travel agency in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, and other locations linked with Friday's ski tour bus crash in central Japan that killed 14 people and injured 26 others. (Jiji Press)

Breaking fashion news: Japanese high school girls' sock-lines are sinking! (rocketnews24.com)

What's more innocent than a family trip to the zoo? It's fun, it's educational, it challenges kids to ask questions and parents to answer them. It reminds hyper-urbanized people that there is such a thing as nature out there, calling for our love, our understanding, and maybe above all our protection. (Japan Today)

China's sagging economy sent the yuan falling more than 1.4% against the dollar in the first two weeks of 2016. This has pummeled stock prices and commodity currencies around the globe. Tokyo stocks have been jolted, too. Yet for Japan, the weak yuan means more than just angst in the capital's financial district. (Nikkei)

Despite the fact Japan colonised Taiwan from 1895 to 1945, public sentiment towards each other is generally positive. (channelnewsasia.com)

Japan's energy policy is facing major obstacles this year, as problems surrounding an experimental reactor threaten to foil long-laid plans to recycle nuclear fuel. (Japan Times)

A total of 15 cases of graffiti have been found on properties at six UNESCO World Heritage sites in Japan, the internal affairs ministry revealed Friday. (the-japan-news.com)

People in Japan are remembering the victims of an earthquake that devastated Kobe and surrounding areas 21 years ago. (NHK)

With few positive signs of recovery for Japan's slumping economy, foreign tourism remains a sole ray of hope, and tourism authorities, local governments, industry players as well as retailers are eagerly awaiting another possibly record-breaking surge in Chinese tourists during next month's Chinese New Year holiday. (Japan Times)

Those turning 20 this year in Japan have known only an economy of falling prices. What damage have two decades of deflation, anaemic wage growth and lower job security done to their ambitions? (straitstimes.com)

Democratic Party of Japan heavyweight Azuma Koshiishi, 79, vice president of the House of Councillors, expressed intention Sunday of retiring from politics. (Jiji Press)

Japan's Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry has awarded the manager and chef of a now-closed Japanese restaurant in Silicon Valley that had been frequented by the late Apple Inc. cofounder Steve Jobs, for promoting Japanese food culture abroad. (Jiji Press)

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday congratulated Tsai Ing-wen, an independence-leaning opposition leader, on her election as Taiwan's president over the weekend. (Kyodo)

The Meteorological Agency has started testing surveillance cameras on Mount Zao in northern Japan in hopes of monitoring volcanic activity in snowy conditions. (NHK)

Young kimono-clad women fired arrows in a New Year's archery event at a Buddhist temple in Japan's old capital of Kyoto on Sunday. (NHK)

Tokyo police have conducted an anti-terrorism drill, including the seizure of a suspicious drone by using an interceptor drone, ahead of the Tokyo Marathon next month. (Japan Times)

As much as we love the hustle and bustle of big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, it's the secret, secluded sites in Japan that truly blow us away. One of the most stunning locations you'll find off the beaten track is Motonosumi Inari Shrine in Nagato City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, where 123 red torii shrine gates wind down along a mountain towards a cliff overlooking the Sea of Japan. (rocketnews24.com)

Latest Images