The developer of Pokemon Go says it has modified the settings so that people cannot use the app while driving. Fatal accidents have been caused in Japan by drivers who were absorbed in the popular smartphone game. Niantic said that on Monday it disabled the function for collecting items at “Pokestops” if players are travelling […]
A massive sinkhole has disrupted various public services and forced people to evacuate from a leading commercial district in Fukuoka City, western Japan. A section of a road caved in near JR Hakata station early Tuesday morning. Water from ruptured pipes is flowing into the sinkhole, which is 27 meters wide and 30 meters long. […]
A Catholic church in this western Japan city has become the first in Japan to be designated a “minor basilica,” a title granted by the pope only to specifically important places of worship. The Oura Church in 1865 was the site where a group of “hidden Christians” revealed their faith to Father Bernard Petitjean of […]
A Chinese woman in her 20s was found bleeding from her neck in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward early Thursday and was later confirmed dead at a hospital, police said. The police found the woman with several stab wounds in the neck and cuts on her hand, indicating she tried to protect herself, at around 12:15 a.m. […]
Pop icon Lady Gaga, who owns six cars and just this year obtained a driving licence, said on Wednesday that she wants to “drive all over Tokyo”. The singer made the comment a week after she displayed her bad driving skills on the popular “Carpool Karaoke” segment of the U.S. “Late Late Show”, terrifying host […]
Visitors to a memorial facility for the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan, can have a simulated experience of the communities right after the disaster. The virtual reality exhibit was opened to the public on Thursday. Visitors put on goggles to view 3-dimensional images of the devastation. One […]
When certain hurdles to obtaining Japanese nationality were reduced for children born to mixed couples in 2008, a growing number of women decided to take kids they had had with Japanese men to begin a new life in the country. Typically these were Filipino families with now-absent Japanese fathers. However, this has given rise to an increasing number of […]
Five of 21 people who fell ill after eating frozen cutlets sold by a company in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, have been found to suffer from food poisoning from the O-157 strain of E. coli bacteria, prefectural health officials said Tuesday. The patients’ symptoms included stomachaches and diarrhea. The O-157 strain was detected from the cutlets […]
A government panel is examining ways to assess possible signs of a mega-quake along the vast Nankai Trough off Japan’s Pacific coast. The panel, which was set up in September, is tasked with reviewing current disaster preparedness programs that focus on the possibility of a giant quake striking a limited area in Tokai, in central […]
Police in the northern Japanese city of Akita say what appears to have been a tornado has swept away some cars. The turbulence took place shortly after noon on Monday at a vacant area near the city center where people were parking their cars. Three vehicles were damaged — one toppled on its side, another […]
