News On Japan

Land prices in Japan's three biggest cities and their surrounding urban areas have increased for a fifth straight year. Prices are also starting to rise in the rest of the country, for the first time in 26 years. (NHK)

The number of foreign nationals who lived in Japan as of the end of 2017 grew 7.5 pct from a year earlier to hit a new record high of 2,561,848, reflecting a jump in Vietnamese residents, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday. (Jiji)

All ethics textbooks put forward for approval for use at junior high schools in Japan have cleared screenings by a panel of experts, the education ministry said Tuesday. (Jiji)

Residents of Okinawa Prefecture in southern Japan have brought lanterns to a nighttime gathering to welcome Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. (NHK)

A key figure in the Finance Ministry's document-falsifying scandal related to a shady land deal has testified that neither Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nor his wife Akie was involved in the matter. (NHK)

A few years back, the normally sleepy town of Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture was filled with activists furious with its traditional dolphin hunt, which was featured in “The Cove,” a 2009 Academy Award-winning documentary. (Japan Times)

Apple Inc. is going head-to-head with Google in education, a market the iPhone-maker helped pioneer but has let languish. (Japan Times)

Police in Nagoya said Wednesday they have arrested an unemployed 48-year-old man on suspicion of assault after he came up behind on a woman standing on a train platform and snipped off some of her hair with a pair of scissors. (Japan Today)

Aichi Prefectural Police on Wednesday arrested a 37-year-old man for dumping a body likely belonging to his father in a rice field in Kiyosu City, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Mar. 28). (tokyoreporter.com)

Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited Yonaguni Island on Wednesday. (NHK)

Four years after popular Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange MtGox was hacked and went bankrupt, the case still casts a shadow over the regulatory regime put in place to protect Japan's thriving cryptocurrency market. (Japan Today)

Organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics have published a draft of application guidelines for people who want to volunteer to work at the Games. (NHK)

The Diet, Japan's parliament, enacted the government's 97,712.8-billion-yen budget for fiscal 2018 on Wednesday, at a time when the opposition camp continues to grill the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over a high-profile cronyism scandal. (Jiji)

Kyoto University tied the University of Tokyo --- moving up two spots from last year --- for first place in the ranking of Japanese universities by Times Higher Education magazine. (Japan Times)

Shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. put an ice-breaking tanker into service in the Arctic Ocean on Thursday to transport liquefied natural gas from a Russian plant to Europe, becoming the first Japanese firm to own and operate such a vessel. (Japan Times)

Back when I was in college, an acquaintance of mine who was answering a survey listed his favorite smell as "young women." I sort of figured he was either trying to be funny or suffering the psychological effects of a major dating dry spell, but it turns out he may have been on to something. (soranews24.com)

Kyoto University, one of Japan’s oldest and most prestigious centers of higher education, has announced a basic policy of not conducting military-related research. (Japan Times)

Parties concerned made a decision on Thursday on the location of platforms for Shinkansen bullet trains at Sapporo Station, a development that is seen giving further impetus to work on the planned extension of a new Shinkansen line launched in 2016 to Sapporo, the capital of the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido. (Jiji)

The Tokyo Midtown Hibiya shopping and entertainment complex opened for business Thursday in the capital’s arts district, connecting Japan’s key business, fashion and political areas. (Japan Times)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police earlier this month arrested the former husband of Ai Kago, an ex-member of pop group Morning Musume, on suspicion of fraud, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (tokyoreporter.com)

Latest Images