News On Japan

Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, along with other members of the imperial family, welcomed 2018 with a New Year's ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. (Kyodo)

The number of Japanese people aged 20, the legal marker for adulthood in the country, will stand at 1.23 million on New Year's Day 2018, unchanged from a year earlier and equating to less than 1 percent of the population for the eighth straight year, a government estimate showed Sunday. (Japan Today)

Fifteen people were rushed to hospitals in the capital after choking on sticky mochi rice cakes on New Year's Day, with two of the victims later being confirmed dead, reports the Asahi Shimbun (tokyoreporter.com)

An aging and depopulated island town in western Japan is promoting a project to encourage the grandchildren of elderly residents to relocate from outside the island to study at local high schools. (Jiji)

Major department stores were inundated with bargain-hunting shoppers on their first business day of the year Tuesday. (Japan Today)

American blogger Logan Paul apologized Tuesday after getting slammed for a video he shared on YouTube that appeared to show a body hanging in a Japanese forest known as a suicide spot. (Japan Today)

A Japanese couple who have been arrested after the death of their 33-year-old daughter were served with fresh arrest warrants on Tuesday for allegedly confining her for at least 15 years illegally before she froze to death. (Jiji)

Japan's Financial Services Agency is planning to allow regional banks to close their branches on weekdays as part of its measures to support struggling banks. (NHK)

Kumamoto Prefectural Police have arrested a 47-year-old man over the stabbing death of his father at their residence in Kumamoto City, reports TBS News (tokyoreporter.com)

A Japanese man was stabbed to death and two other men were injured in separate attacks on the streets of Ireland Wednesday. Police investigating the incidents said terrorism is one line of inquiry. (Japan Today)

Many economists predict the Japanese economy will continue to expand in 2018. (NHK)

The Kumamoto Prefectural Government said Thursday it will allow foreign businesses to make and sell products featuring Kumamon, the official black bear mascot of the southwestern Japan prefecture. (Japan Times)

A Japanese TV programme has sparked accusations of racism and cultural insensitivity after a comedian painted his face to impersonate Eddie Murphy. (BBC)

The Japanese government will launch a project to convert all traditional squat toilets in popular tourist destinations into sit-on types that are more commonly used in other developed countries. (NHK)

The price of food and drink in Japan is set to rise this year. The growing cost of raw materials and distribution, on the back of the country's labor crunch, are to blame. (NHK)

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed on Thursday his eagerness to further promote discussions among the public on amending the country's Constitution. (Jiji)

YouTube star Logan Paul has stepped away from posting videos following an outcry when he uploaded images of what appeared to be the body of someone who killed themselves in a Japanese forest. (Japan Today)

"Scientist and scholar" clinched the top spot in an annual survey on most popular jobs among Japanese boys for the first time in 15 years, following recent Nobel Prize awards to Japanese scientists, a life insurer said Thursday. (Japan Today)

A rescue team on Thursday found the body of a man on a mountain after he is believed to have engaged in a suicide pact with a teenage girl who backed out, reports the Sankei Shimbun (tokyoreporter.com)

A mayor in western Japan, who has taken a hard-line stance toward news organizations he considers "biased," refused to answer questions from a reporter on Thursday, telling him "I'll kill you" before walking away. (Kyodo)

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