Although #Japan is the only G7 country where same-sex marriages are illegal, there have recently been some positive changes for the #LGBT community. (FRANCE 24 English)

Japan's suicide rate increased from the previous year in 2022 owing to the increased rate among males for the first time in 13 years, the government said in a report on Friday. (Xinhua)

In Japan's night industry there is a job called a scout. (Japanese Comedian Meshida)

Japan Coast Guard officials say they have confirmed a large marine creature believed to be a whale in Tokyo Bay. (NHK)

The publisher of Shukan Asahi says it will suspend publication of the magazine in May this year. Started over a century ago, the magazine is said to be Japan's oldest weekly. (NHK)

Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings (TEPCO) looks to raise power prices for households by around 30% as early as this summer for the first time in 11 years amid rising fuel costs, Nikkei has learned. (Nikkei)

Two of Japan's top-tier national universities have announced a new name they chose to have after their planned merger. (NHK)

A Japanese court on Wednesday found three former utility company executives not guilty of negligence over the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster and the subsequent deaths of more than 40 elderly residents during their forced evacuation. (staradvertiser.com)

The Japanese government is set to decide Friday on whether to drop COVID-19 to its least serious category of infectious diseases this spring, Nikkei has learned. (Nikkei)

Japan's pet industry has its work cut out for it this year in anticipation of a further decline in pet ownership and higher pet food prices. (petfoodindustry.com)

In keeping its key rate and yield curve control policy unchanged at Wednesday's meeting, the Bank of Japan probably wanted to convey a message to the market; don't fight the BoJ. (ing.com)

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc COIN.O on Wednesday said it will halt operations in Japan due to volatile market conditions. (nasdaq.com)

A Japanese company has defended its ownership of Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” obtained at auction in 1987, after the family of its former owner filed a US lawsuit demanding its return. (timesofisrael.com)

The world is full of cultures and traditions that fascinate us. While some of them make sense to us, others don’t and as much as they seem bizarre, people following them continue to do so with complete faith. (news18.com)

Netflix is ​​further boosting its Japanese live-action content slate with a multi-picture deal with Tokyo-based studio Babel Label. The partnership gives Netflix exclusive access to multiple titles produced and created by Babel Label for the next five years. (news84media.com)

Police in Tokyo have arrested a 31-year-old unemployed woman on suspicion of theft after she allegedly took a 34-year-old female acquaintance’s apartment key from her handbag during dinner and gave it to an accomplice to rob her apartment. (Japan Today)

Chinese embassies in Japan and South Korea said in statements on Sunday that travelers to China must take nucleic acid tests within 48 hours before their departure, and those who show negative results will be allowed to come to China. (Global Times)

The number of people who died after contracting the coronavirus in Japan is rising at a faster pace in the country's eighth wave of the pandemic. (NHK)

Net cafe refugees (also known as 'cyber-homeless') are the people in Japan who don't own or rent residence and stay in internet cafes or manga cafes. (The Japan Reporter)

This time, we are trying the oddly cheap overnight bus from Osaka to Tokyo. The bus leaves from Universal Studios Japan, stops at Namba in Osaka City, and connects to Tokyo Station in about 8 hours. (travelgeek)

Japan's unified university entrance exams started Saturday across the country as organizers implemented stricter rules to prevent cheating after a photographed image of a question was leaked during the test last year. (Japan Today)

Undefeated Japanese boxer Naoya Inoue announced his decision Friday to relinquish all four bantamweight belts and move up to the super bantamweight division. (Kyodo)

Japan, the United States and Europe must act in unison on China, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in Washington, DC, during a visit aimed at enhancing Tokyo’s alliance with the US in the face of growing challenges from Beijing. (Al Jazeera)

More than 510,000 university hopefuls are sitting for standardized entrance exams across Japan this weekend. (NHK)

Spending Japan New Year's Holiday at my Japanese wife's parent's house in Aichi Prefecture. This is what it is like living in Japan outside of Tokyo and how Japanese families spend New Year's Eve together and what happens the following days. (Paolo fromTOKYO)