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Updated: 27 min 40 sec ago
Olympic inflation: Cost of 2020 Games ceremonies up 40% from 2013 pitch
The price of the opening and closing ceremony for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has risen about 40 percent.Toshiro Muto, the chief executive of the games, ...
Hiroshima students receive origami crane, a symbol of peace, from Barack Obama
Students at the Prefectural University of Hiroshima on Friday said that they have received a paper crane from former U.S. President Barack Obama to complete ...
Abe’s attacks on local governments yields backlash against his push to revise pacifics Constitution
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been attempting to find more allies in his bid to revise the pacifist Article 9 of the Constitution, but instead ...
Japan to recognize indigenous Ainu people for first time
The government approved a bill Friday to recognize the country’s ethnic Ainu minority as an “indigenous” people for the first time, after decades of discrimination ...
Bullet train ticket machines fail across Japan
Ticket machines were out of service at some stations Friday on bullet train lines across Japan due to a technical glitch.The machines went offline in ...
Cabinet approves limiting health insurance coverage to residents of Japan
The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved a bill Friday that will make Japan’s health insurance program for employees applicable only to workers and ...
Interpreter for Oita marathon closes blog after calling African athletes ‘chimpanzees’ in post
A woman in her 50s who served as a volunteer interpreter at a marathon in Oita Prefecture has apologized for an online blog post in ...
Japanese abductee, missing since 1978, living in Pyongyang: source
North Korea told Tokyo that Minoru Tanaka, a native of Hyogo Prefecture who went missing in 1978, now lives in Pyongyang with his wife and ...
South Korean lawyers to start sale of Nippon Steel’s assets over wartime labor
Lawyers representing South Koreans seeking reparations from Japanese steel-maker Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp. over wartime labor issues declared Friday they will soon start ...
Activists file suit to stop dolphin hunting in Taiji
Environmental campaigners have filed an unprecedented lawsuit in a bid to halt the so-called drive hunting of dolphins in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, arguing that the ...
Taro Kono looks to visit China in late March to enhance economic ties
Foreign Minister Taro Kono is planning to visit China, possibly in late March, to discuss bilateral cooperation on economic and other issues, diplomatic sources said ...
Man arrested over stabbing of two, said to be former colleagues, near Korakuen Station
A 26-year-old man was arrested for allegedly stabbing two people with a knife on a street near Tokyo Metro Co.’s Korakuen Station in the capital’s ...
Fifth-generation bonsai cultivator asks thieves to take good care of tiny trees they stole from him
A Japanese cultivator of bonsai trees has appealed for the thieves who made off with his expensive potted plants to take good care of them.Seiji ...
From manga to news articles: Japanese civic groups create ‘barrier-free’ publications for people with mental disabilities
While there has been tangible progress toward achieving full barrier-free access for people with physical disabilities through the installation of ramps, elevators and other pieces ...
¥100 million in old bank notes donated to western Japan prefecture
An anonymous donation of around ¥100 million ($900,000) in old bank notes has been delivered to the Ehime Prefectural Government, the prefecture said Thursday.The prefectural ...
South Korea plaintiffs eye liquidating assets seized over wartime labor case
A lawyer for South Korean plaintiffs who won a wartime forced labor case against Japanese steel-maker Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. last year indicated ...
Sadako Ogata: Waging peace on war
A 1993 photograph of a diminutive, sexagenarian woman surveying the front lines of conflict has left an indelible mark on the international community as a ...
Tokushima woman on zero-waste quest gets an audience with Davos
With leaders from around the world as her audience, a young Japanese woman from Kamikatsu, Tokushima Prefecture, spoke about her small town’s “zero waste” initiatives, ...
In first, LGBT couples sue Japan over constitutionality of not recognizing same-sex marriage
Claiming that it is unconstitutional for Japan to not recognize same-sex marriage, 13 lesbian and gay couples on Thursday filed lawsuits against the government.In the ...
Campaign kicks off for Okinawa referendum on U.S. base relocation plan
Okinawa Prefecture’s campaign for the Feb. 24 referendum on the central government’s relocation plan for a U.S. air base kicked off Thursday, with the results ...