Virtual online spaces are providing social recluses, known as "hikikomori" in Japan, a way of staying connected to the world while also allowing them to edge closer to making a full return to society. (Kyodo)

The Japanese government will formulate guidelines regarding the use of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots in schools possibly by next March, officials said Thursday, as concerns grow over their impact on students' writing and thinking skills. (Kyodo)

A missing Japanese army helicopter carrying 10 crew members is likely to have crashed into the water off a southern island after debris resembling aircraft pieces were seen in the area, reported Los Angeles Times. (WION)

Yamanashi Gakuin beat Hotoku Gakuen 7-3 in the final of the 95th high school invitational baseball tournament Saturday at Koshien Stadium behind a complete game from ace Kengo Hayashi, claiming a first-ever national championship for Yamanashi Prefecture. (Kyodo)

Japan will scrap Monday a service allowing passport holders to add pages when they run out of space for visas and immigration stamps, becoming the last member of the Group of 20 to stop such a system. (Kyodo)

New sekiwake Kiribayama came from behind to win the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday, beating overnight leader Daieisho in the final regulation bout and again in a sudden-death tiebreaker. (Kyodo)

Japan's Foreign Ministry on Thursday ordered a popular online personality and former lawmaker, currently residing overseas and known as GaaSyy, to return his passport after police obtained an arrest warrant for him over celebrity defamation threat allegations. (Kyodo)

Japan land prices gained the most in 15 years as a loose monetary policy and the lifting of COVID restrictions fueled demand for offices, condominiums and hotels. (Nikkei)

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has begun urging cyclists to wear helmets before a helmet-wearing mandate goes into effect nationwide on April 1. (Japan Today)

Cherry blossoms were in full bloom on Wednesday in central Tokyo, matching 2013, 2020 and 2021 to become the second-earliest day in the year for the seasonal phenomena to occur since records began, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. (Kyodo)

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida began a surprise visit to Ukraine early Tuesday, hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in neighboring Russia for a three-day visit. (euronews)

Fashion model Jessica Michibata and a male friend have been arrested at a hotel in Tokyo on suspicion of possessing the synthetic drug MDMA, police said. (Japan Today)

A 32-year-old man was arrested Saturday for arson after a fire gutted the house where he lived in the central Japan prefecture of Nagano, apparently killing three of his family members, police said. (Kyodo)

Twenty-year-old Sota Fujii became only the second player in the history of the shogi board game to hold six major titles Sunday when he took the Kio crown from Akira Watanabe. (Kyodo)

A teenage girl was arrested on Saturday for allegedly killing a man at a hotel in Toyama Prefecture in central Japan, police said. (Kyodo)

The government in the western Japan prefecture of Kagawa has called on local hotel operators to stop asking foreign residents for identification when they check in, local officials said Thursday. (Kyodo)

The number of women committing suicide in Japan increased for the third straight year in 2022, rising 67 from the previous year to 7,135, government data showed Tuesday, with the upward trend apparently fueled by the coronavirus pandemic. (Kyodo)

Japan's Cabinet approved a bill Tuesday to recognize a sexual violation even in the absence of physical violence or coercion and raise the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16, as part of reforms to the country's Penal Code. (Kyodo)

A Tokyo court ordered Monday that the case against a former professional boxer, who was sentenced to death over a 1966 quadruple murder case in Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan, be retried. (Kyodo)

The former head of the operator of a southwestern Japan inn, who came under fire for only changing hot spring bathwater twice a year, allowing legionella bacteria to proliferate beyond the allowable limit, has died in a suspected suicide, police said Sunday. (Kyodo)

Around 70 percent of flight attendants in Japan have reported that photos had been or likely had been taken of them surreptitiously, an aviation trade union said Thursday, calling for tougher penalties against the act. (Kyodo)

The Diamond Princess liner returned to Yokohama near Tokyo on Friday for the first time since a mass COVID outbreak three years ago led Japan to quarantine those onboard and suspend the arrival of foreign cruise ships until this month. (Kyodo)

A high court upheld on Thursday a sentence of 15 years in prison given to a woman for manipulating a fellow mother to starve her 5-year-old son to death in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Fukuoka in 2020. (Kyodo)

Japan ranked second from last among developed nations with regard to the role and influence of women in the workforce for the seventh straight year, according to an index compiled by British magazine The Economist. (Kyodo)

Police in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, have arrested a 27-year-old man on suspicion of stealing women’s underwear from a coin-operated laundromat and injuring the laundromat owner, as he fled the scene by car. (Japan Today)