Japan's public safety chief has come under fire for his remark that he enjoyed eel rice so much that he kept eating after his agency informed him of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's narrow escape from a pipe bomb attack two weeks ago. (South China Morning Post)

In Ashiya, Japan, voters have made national history by electing a 26-year-old and making him the youngest-ever mayor in the nation. (WION)

Japanese technology group Fujitsu has launched a platform that lets companies use its artificial intelligence technologies for free, aiming to explore new services by encouraging trial use in a variety of fields. (Nikkei)

A private Japanese moon mission failed on Tuesday after thecommunication with the spacecraft was lost andthe moon lander appeared to have crash landed on the surface following a landing attempt. (livemint.com)

Ron DeSantis met Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo — where he showed off his glamorous wife, Casey — and touted his country’s efforts to strengthen its military, declaring Monday that a “strong Japan is good for America.” (nypost.com)

Cheering, flag-waving crowds gathered in Tokyo on Sunday for the first full Pride parade in four years, celebrating advances in LGBTQ rights but demanding Japan join other advanced nations in legally recognizing same-sex marriage. (Japan Today)

A Harry Potter theme park was unveiled in Tokyo at a media preview ahead of its scheduled opening on June 16, park operator Warner Bros. Studios Japan LLC. said Monday. (Kyodo)

Dozens of bawling Japanese babies faced off Saturday (Apr 22) in a traditional "crying sumo" ritual believed to bring the infants good health, which returned for the first time in four years after the COVID-19 pandemic. (CNA)

A man bought airline tickets worth $250,000 for just $17,000 after the Japanese airline All Nippon Airways made a mistake with currency conversions, Bloomberg reported. (Business Insider)

A man attacked two elderly women with an ax in Hino, western Tokyo, on Friday night and fled the scene, police said. (Kyodo)

The former chairman of a Tokyo 2020 Olympics sponsor was handed a suspended prison sentence on Friday (Apr 21) along with two others, in the first convictions in a spiralling bribery scandal surrounding the event. (CNA)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday sent a ritual offering to the war-linked Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, a source of diplomatic friction with China and South Korea, which regard it as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. (Japan Today)

Rakuten Bank surged 33 percent in its debut in Tokyo on Friday following Japan's largest initial public offering (IPO) since 2018. (straitstimes.comstr)

The Bank of Japan maintained its upbeat economic assessment for most regions on Thursday, saying wage hikes were broadening, underscoring its conviction that the country was on a path to sustainably meet its inflation target of 2%. (Reuters)

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will set a goal for 60% of the people in Japan to get sufficient sleep, defined as between six to eight or nine hours depending on age, by fiscal 2032. (The Japan News)

Corporate governance in Japan has suddenly become a cause celebre, rousing the world’s third-largest stock market out of decades of lethargy and drawing in hordes of foreign investors. (financialpost.com)

Japan's trade deficit roughly quadrupled to a record 21.73 trillion yen in fiscal 2022 ended March, as increased energy costs and a weaker yen led imports to grow far more than exports, the Finance Ministry said Thursday. (Japan Today)

The average unit price of a new condominium in Tokyo and its surrounding areas rose 8.6 percent in fiscal 2022 from the previous year to 69.07 million yen, hitting a record for the second consecutive year, a research institute said Tuesday. (Japan Today)

Mutsuhiko Nomura’s football career has spanned 18 World Cups, or 70 years, to be exact. (straitstimes.com)

Japan's immigration authorities have granted a lesbian Ugandan woman refugee status after a court ruled in favor of her. (NHK)

In mid-April, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs released its Diplomatic Bluebook 2023, its most important guidebook on international affairs. (Asia Times)

A Japanese Justice Ministry panel has agreed to consider introducing a joint custody system for shared parental rights after a divorce, revising the current sole custody system. (NHK)

Police in Japan have arrested three Indonesian nationals on suspicion of abandoning the body of a man in Fukushima Prefecture, northern Japan, last month. (NHK)

The Japanese stock market has underperformed and languished against the US since the infamous burst of Japan’s property bubble in early 1990 that led to two decades of sticky deflation. (actionforex.com)

Foreign investors are buying up Japanese hotels at a scale unseen in almost a decade, as the nation's tourism recovery, weak currency and low interest rates drive appetite from abroad. (AFR)