By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun A vocational school in Tokyo has refused to issue recommendation letters for graduating foreign students who may need the documents in their quests for jobs and t…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun TANEGASHIMA ISLAND, Kagoshima Prefecture--An H-2A rocket blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center here on Oct. 29 and sent into orbit Japan’s most accurate s…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun KYOTO--Dozens of renowned Kabuki actors paraded here Oct. 27 to mark the reopening of one of the city’s representative theaters following a three-year renovation.

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun Running the gamut from seductively elegant to wild and frenzied, the sounds of samisen, Japan’s traditional three-stringed musical instrument, tug at the listener…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun Recently freed hostage Jumpei Yasuda said that while he does not know the identity of his captors, he believes that his citing of words from the Koran may have he…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun Jumpei Yasuda, the freelance journalist released after being held by terrorists in Syria for more than three years, told how his tormentors kept him in a tiny cel…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun A complete set of 13th-century scrolls illustrating the life of prominent Buddhist monk Ippen (1239-1289) will go on public display in Kyoto next spring for the f…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun Cleaners, nursing care, restaurant and hotel staff are among foreign workers to be invited to Japan under plans to expand immigration to address the acute labor s…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun Known for her tantrums as a ping-pong prodigy, Ai Fukuhara won't be leaving the sport she made her mark on kicking and screaming.

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun Osamu Shimomura, co-recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, died in Nagasaki on Oct. 19. He was 90.

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun KYOTO--Residents here say tourists’ behavior has worsened, and now normally beautiful views and daily lives are marred by half-naked hikers, trespassing travelers…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun NARA--The Central Golden Hall at Kofukuji temple here has proved time and again that it will always rebound from destruction, although its latest comeback require…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun A fence blocked the front gate of the Tsukiji fish market at 8 p.m. on Oct. 17, closing for good the popular site that had supplied seafood to the Tokyo area for …

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun NAGOYA--People with a taste for the terrifying can feast to their black hearts’ content at an “ominous buffet” offered at Hotel Mielparque Nagoya here ahead of Ha…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun As flight announcements go, this one could be for the record books. “World Othello Champion is on board with us,” the captain of the All Nippon Airway’s flight to…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun Under Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, time should pass more quickly high up on the 634-meter Tokyo Skytree than at ground level.

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun One miniature room model is cluttered with garbage strewn across furniture. Another tiny room box contains layers of trash and bottles of urine. The miniatures sy…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun KYOTO--Murals of five deities hidden from public view for nearly four centuries at Ninnaji temple’s national treasure Kondo main hall went on public display here …

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun Traffic chaos reigned at Tokyo’s new Toyosu fish market on its official opening day of Oct. 11 as wholesalers and their customers encountered a raft of problems w…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun Lively bidding calls resounded at the newest incarnation of "Japan's kitchen" early Oct. 11 as the first auctions at the Toyosu fish market got under way.

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun A solution for the age-old problem of drinkers’ boozy breath has been found, according to leading sake maker Gekkeikan Sake Co.--and it has been right under their…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun MIYAKOJIMA, Okinawa Prefecture--Emitting a foul odor, three masked “kami,” or divine beings, plastered in mud chased participants to drive out evil spirits at a f…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun NARA--After more than three centuries since it burned down, the Central Golden Hall at Kofukuji temple finally has its luster fully restored.

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun SAITAMA--The Railway Museum here is helping Taiwan create a museum from a “hospital of train cars” that was established in 1935 during Japanese colonial rule.

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun MIYAZAKI--A 5-meter-long whale that beached on the coast of this popular tourist destination was returned to the sea in a dramatic rescue operation Oct. 5.

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun Although U.S. Open tennis champion Naomi Osaka is the toast of Japan, some people in her birthplace are embarrassed at how frequently “Japan” and “Japanese” are b…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun When American tourist Markhuri Davis arrived at a shelter in Sapporo in the wake of a powerful earthquake that rocked Hokkaido on Sept. 6, he was told bluntly, “No…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun KUMAMOTO--A citizens group rushed to the defense of an assemblywoman who was disciplined for sucking on a cough drop, saying the reaction was overblown and unfair…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun SUO-OSHIMA, Yamaguchi Prefecture--Junya Hida looked every inch the tourist cycling around Japan without a care in the world during his seven weeks on the run from…

By clicking above image, you can go to original article in The Asahi Shimbun NAHA--Denny Tamaki’s victory in the Okinawa gubernatorial election on Sept. 30 dealt a setback both locally and nationally to the Abe administration, which had go…