A fire broke out at a love hotel in the Kabukicho red-light district on Saturday, two days after a blaze at another inn in the area left one woman dead, reports NHK (Jan. 9). At 2:10 p.m., an eyewitness notified the Tokyo Fire Department about smoke emanating from the Hotel Golden Gate. The blaze was extinguished by personnel from […]
Many companies are planning to open duty-free shops in Japanese cities to attract big-spending tourists from other countries. A firm in which the operator of Haneda Airport has the biggest stake plans to open a duty-free outlet in a department store in Tokyo’s Ginza district by Lunar New Year next month. South Korea’s Lotte Group […]
In a centuries-old ritual to gain good luck, about 50 almost completely naked men and boys splashed cold water on themselves on a freezing winter night at a temple near Tokyo. The ritual dates back more than 300 years and is held every year on the eve of Coming-of-Age Day in the city of Sosa […]
A 19-year-old living in Nagoya was arrested Jan. 5 over death threats targeting a prominent student activist and his family, Kanagawa prefectural police said. Police said the suspect has admitted to the crime, quoting him as saying, “I did it because I wanted to let off steam.” The unemployed minor was arrested on suspicion of […]
Police in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, said a skeletonized body has been found at an apartment in Sakae Ward. According to police, the body, which was found on Tuesday, has been dead for a few years and its gender and age were not identifiable, Fuji TV reported. This case came into light when a woman who […]
Japan’s public baths, known as sento, represent an institution with hundreds of years of history. They provided an important public service in the days before homes had their own hot-water bathtubs. Sento can range in style from simple hot springs piped into a large tub to modern facilities resembling theme parks and offering a range […]
Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani plans to meet with his Philippine counterpart Voltaire Gazmin in the Southeast Asian country as early as April to beef up security ties amid China’s increasing maritime assertiveness, a government source said Tuesday. In the talks, Nakatani could discuss the provision of Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force TC-90 training aircraft to […]
Major Japanese newspapers handed out extras on the streets of Tokyo following North Korea’s announcement that it had tested a hydrogen bomb. Many readers in the Shibuya district expressed concern over the detonation. A 22-year-old university student said the Middle East is already unstable, and he now feels the danger is much closer to Japan. […]
The owner of a chain of sushi restaurants paid ¥14 million ($117,000) for a 200-kilogram bluefin tuna at the first auction of the year at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market Tuesday. Kiyoshi Kimura, president of Kiyomura Co., has won the year’s first bid for the fifth consecutive year. He told reporters the tuna “is in great form […]
Temperatures in many parts of Japan have hit record highs for the month of January. Record daytime highs were registered at 26 observation points on Sunday. They included the town of Hanawa in the northeastern prefecture of Fukushima, where the mercury rose to 16.9 degrees Celsius. Warmer-than-usual temperatures were reported in many other places. The […]
