Many people in western Japan are without water after a powerful cold wave caused pipe bursts and leaks. Water service was out for 196,500 households in 15 prefectures as of Wednesday afternoon. The figure on Tuesday night was about 259,000. The prefecture with the worst damage is Fukuoka, with 106,300 households from 15 municipalities affected. […]
Central Japan Railway has begun work to build an underground terminal at Shinagawa Station in Tokyo for cutting-edge high-speed maglev trains. The company, also known as JR Tokai, plans to put the magnetically levitated trains into service in 2027. The service would link Tokyo and the central Japanese city of Nagoya, about 290 kilometers away, […]
FamilyMart will broaden the types of foreign credit cards that can be used to pay for purchases at its stores in Japan starting next month, adding popular issuers in China and South Korea. The convenience store chain will begin accepting payments made with three types of cards — China’s UnionPay card, which is carried by many foreigners visiting Japan; Shinhan Card, […]
A ticket machine for foreign tourists has appeared at a Tokyo subway station. The trial machine was installed at a station near the Tokyo Metropolitan Government office on Monday. A 32 inch screen, which is more than double the size of regular machines, displays information in Japanese, English and Chinese. The user can see fares […]
Convenience store chain FamilyMart plans to install automatic foreign currency exchange machines in some of its stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area, starting Feb 1. The company said it hopes the venture, a collaboration with Travelex Japan and Nippon Express, will help foreign tourists, Sankei Shimbun reported. The company said it plans to have the […]
Kansai Electric Power Company plans to restart on Friday one reactor at the Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture along the Sea of Japan coast. The plant will be the 2nd one to resume operation since all nuclear stations in Japan went offline following the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in 2011. The utility informed Japan’s […]
The Japanese government has approved a new plan to strengthen its cybersecurity. Members of the government’s Cybersecurity Strategic Headquarters met at the prime minister’s office on Monday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who chairs the headquarters, stressed the need to strengthen Japan’s measures against cyber-attacks ahead of the Ise-Shima G-7 summit in May and the […]
A cold snap has brought snow and record-low temperatures to several locations across western Japan. The meteorological agency says about 1.8 meters of snow has accumulated in Uonuma City, Niigata Prefecture, and nearly 1.5 meters in Kitahiroshima Town, Hiroshima Prefecture. The southwestern regions of Kyushu and Shikoku also experienced rare accumulations of snow. Nagasaki City […]
Japan’s Emperor Akihito travels to the Philippines this week to visit World War II memorials, his latest pacifist pilgrimage which appears increasingly at odds with the government’s rightward drift. Akihito, 82, has made honoring Japanese and non-Japanese who died in the conflict a touchstone of his near three-decade reign—known as Heisei, or “achieving peace”—and now […]
A recent survey by National Institute of Infectious Diseases shows that a total of 66 people suffered from an unidentified paralysis between Aug. 1 and Dec. 3 last year, Asahi Shimbun daily said on Wednesday. The survey, released on Tuesday, was conducted after a series of reports last summer that children showed symptoms of paralyses […]
