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)

The UK and Japan will allow military forces to be deployed to one another’s territory, as Tokyo expands bilateral cooperation with other US allies amid concerns about China’s rise. (business-standard.com)

HelloFresh staff in Japan were among the last in the company to be made aware operations there were ending, according to a senior source. (The Grocer)

Japan has put on hold the release to the sea of treated but still radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant after factoring in the progress of a single-purpose tunnel and the need to gain public support. (The Daily News)

Investigative sources say Tokyo police have searched several locations linked to a Diet member over allegations that he defamed and intimidated prominent figures on his YouTube channel. (NHK)

Many countries are imposing tighter border controls on arrivals from China, where the coronavirus is running rampant. But authorities in Beijing are now going tit-for-tat. They have suspended the issuance of visas for citizens of South Korea and Japan. (NHK)

The Japanese government has requested that drugstores and other retailers take steps to prevent hoarding of fever medications and painkillers used to treat the symptoms of COVID-19. (Nikkei)

Japan's weather bureau said on Wednesday that there was a 70% chance the La Nina phenomenon will end and normal weather patterns will return by the end of the northern hemisphere winter. (Reuters)

Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing Co Ltd on Wednesday said it would raise wages by as much as 40%, in a high-profile sign that Japan’s rock-bottom salaries may be starting to budge after decades of deflation and cost-cutting. (financialpost.com)

Young women in colorful kimonos and and smartly-dressed men celebrated Coming-of-Age Day at ceremonies across Japan on Monday. (Japan Today)

Japan's health authorities are reporting record-high deaths from the coronavirus, with over 400 people succumbing each day. (NHK)