Starting next month, the visa requirements for foreign entertainers visiting Japan will be significantly relaxed.

The biggest hattenba (gay cruising space) in west Japan is closed! Hokuoukan had been the iconic gay venue in Osaka for more than 4 decades! Its sudden closure has shocked the gay community in Japan. (Tokyo BTM)

A court in Tokyo on Monday sentenced a man to 23 years in jail after finding him guilty of attempted murder and starting a fire on a train in the Japanese capital while dressed as comic book villain– the Joker. (firstpost.com)

Many Japanese eateries in China are worried about the future after authorities announced tightened regulations on imports of food from Japan. (South China Morning Post)

Third-year junior high students in Japan were on average only able to answer 12.4% of questions correctly in an English-speaking test for national assessments conducted in April, the education ministry said Monday, marking an 18.4 percentage points fall from when they were previously assessed in 2019. (Japan Times)

Despite the continuous rise in ticket prices between Hong Kong and Japan, the demand for air travel has not slowed down one bit as flight searches in July and August from Hong Kong have revealed that over 45% were to destinations in Japan. (simpleflying.com)

Diners in Japan have been flocking to grilled eel restaurants nationwide. The delicacy is traditionally eaten to beat the heat on the Midsummer Day of the Ox, which fell on Sunday. (NHK)

The skies over Tokyo's Sumida Ward were lit up on Saturday night as one of the capital's most popular summer fireworks festivals was held for the first time since 2019. (NHK)

The Japanese yen is on a bumpy path towards strengthening after Friday's central bank policy change, threatening to upend the carry trade, one of this year's most popular strategies, as the currency inevitably becomes more expensive. (nasdaq.com)

The average life expectancies of Japanese men and women dropped in 2022 for the second year in a row. The health ministry suggests deaths from the coronavirus were a major factor. (NHK)

Japan returned to the victory trail when they clinched a hard-fought 21-16 triumph over Tonga in their Pacific Nations Cup encounter in Higashiosaka on Saturday. (planetrugby.com)

A Japanese government panel recommended on Friday that the national average minimum wage be raised by 41 yen ($0.29) an hour to 1,002 yen, the biggest hike ever in value terms, as Prime Minister Fumio Kishida makes wages a key focus of his policies. (Reuters)

Popular Japanese Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke was indicted Friday for allegedly assisting in his parents' taking of their own lives, prosecutors said, in what is believed to have been a family suicide pact. (Kyodo)

The Bank of Japan is set to keep ultra-low interest rates on Friday but may make minor tweaks to extend the lifespan of its yield control policy, which is facing scrutiny amid prospects of sustained inflation. (Reuters)

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) kept its short-term interest rate target unchanged at -0.1% on Friday but also took steps to make its yield curve control policy more flexible. (livemint.com)

The Taiwanese ex-husband of retired Japanese table tennis star Ai Fukuhara called on her Thursday to promptly comply with a Tokyo court order to hand over their son, after she took him to Japan from Taiwan around a year ago. (Kyodo)

Today, we are traveling on "Spacia X" which just debuted in July 15th, 2023 as a new express train between Asakusa(Tokyo) and Nikko(Tochigi). (travelgeek)

There has been talk on Tokyo’s raise of accommodation tax (leisure tax) on visitors which is ¥100 under ¥10,000 a night and ¥200 over that. (ONLY in JAPAN * GO)

The Japanese subsidiary of German automaker BMW has said it will recall nearly 170,000 vehicles due to an engine defect that could cause a fire. (NHK)

An ambitious plan to build a 1740-meter zipline [flying fox] over the Kanmon Straits between Honshu and Kyushu islands took a step closer to reality this week with the mayors of two cities establishing a project team.

Japan's nuclear regulators have finalized a document which certifies that an experimental reactor for developing fast breeder reactors has passed screening for a restart. (NHK)

A Japanese government panel has been discussing raising the country's average minimum wage this fiscal year amid a rising cost of living. The focus is on whether it will reach 1,000 yen, or about 7 dollars and 9 cents per hour, for the first time. (NHK)

Japanese singer Shinjiro Atae is opening up about his sexuality. (yahoo.com)

Many areas across Japan had another day of life-threatening temperatures on Thursday with cities in western to eastern Japan reporting daytime highs above 38 degrees Celsius. (NHK)

Executives and politicians across the world worry about the havoc that next-generation artificial intelligence will wreak on industries from finance to health-care. For the $200 billion (Y28.2 trillion) games sector, the revolution has already begun. (Japan Times)