We're staying at a traditional style Kyoto townhouse called a Machiya converted into a hotel. (Paolo fromTOKYO)

A 92-year-old former top bureaucrat sentenced to five years in prison over a fatal Tokyo car accident in 2019 was ordered Friday to pay around 140 million yen ($932,000) to bereaved family members of the accident that sparked a debate on elderly drivers in rapidly graying Japan. (Kyodo)

A 75-year-old man has been arrested after his car hit 3 second-grade elementary school students, leaving one boy unconscious and the other 2 hospitalized with fractures.

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has told lawmakers of the ruling parties to work out the details of a tax cut and subsidies plan as part of a new economic package. (NHK)

Fans of baseball's Hanshin Tigers are at fever pitch ahead of Saturday's start to the Japan Series, with the country's most passionately supported team desperate to win only their second national title. (AFP)

The number of shops and staff at Japan's Narita Airport has taken a big hit since the start of the pandemic. The slump comes at a difficult time for the transport hub, which is facing a resurgence in tourists and other travelers. (NHK)

A district court in central Japan has begun the retrial of an 87-year-old man convicted of killing a family of four in 1966. (NHK)

A Russian travel agency has commenced operations of a passenger ship that directly connects the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok and Nanao City in Ishikawa Prefecture.

The consumer price index for Tokyo's 23 wards increased by 2.7 percent compared to the same month of the previous year, excluding perishable foods, while the first expansion in growth was recorded in four months, as announced by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

Officials of Tokyo's Shibuya Ward plan to cover an iconic dog statue with a temporary enclosure in the coming days so Halloween revelers will not gather around it. (NHK)

The president of a train operator in southwestern Japan says he is consulting police about a YouTuber who posted a video that appears to show him taking a free ride on a Shinkansen bullet train. (NHK)

A Ukrainian man and two Russians have been arrested for smuggling approximately 113 kilograms of stimulants with a street value of around 7 billion yen, the largest ever single seizure by Toyama Prefectural Police.

The late summer heat was no concern for University of Tokyo professor Nina Yasuda and her student research team, who descended on Tateyama, an aging resort town on the southeastern tip of Tokyo Bay, armed with snorkels, flippers, GPS devices and tools for DNA analysis one early September day. (mongabay.com)

Journalists are getting a preview in Tokyo of one of the world's largest auto shows. Electric vehicles take center stage as Japanese automakers unveil their next-generation concept cars. (NHK)

A sudden downpour of large hailstones accompanied by loud thunder sent a wave of panic in Roppongi on Wednesday night.

The Supreme Court of Japan ruled Wednesday that a law requiring transgender people to be sterilized in order to legally change their gender was unconstitutional. (jurist.org)

A Japanese maker of chip-manufacturing equipment had a strong debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, rising on its first day of trading. The listing of Kokusai Electric on the TSE's Prime market was the biggest initial public offering this year in Japan. (NHK)

A man on trial for barricaded himself in a doctor's house with a shotgun for 11 hours in Fujimino City, Saitama Prefecture, fatally shooting the male resident, said he had no intention of killing the victim.

Salarymen scrolling through their phones on the subway are a common sight in Tokyo, but they aren’t all playing Pokémon Go — many are on trading apps, aggressively buying and selling the yen to profit from short-term swings. (The Edge)

A man who was drunk and fell asleep just 7 minutes into a live stream in Yokohama, had his phone stolen, with the activities of the thief continuing to be broadcast for another 90 minutes.

A hamburger chain with the most outlets in South Korea has arrived in Japan for the first time.

Against a backdrop of soaring raw material and labor costs, there's been a rapid increase in bankruptcies among shops offering the "flour-based" foods including takoyaki, okonomiyaki, and yaki soba.

At this Toyota Booth we are communicating a mobility future full of diversity. There are as many diverse needs and values as there are people in the world... (The Wheel Network)

A YouTuber has apologised and removed his controversial video where he dodged train fares following calls for his arrest. (Independent)

Eleven high school boys wearing red bandanas have been arrested on suspicion of assaulting and injuring a 19-year-old boy with a bat on the streets of Tachikawa, Tokyo.