Hideki Matsuyama made golf history on April 11, becoming the first Japanese to win a men's major and unleashing a frenzy by the country's golf industry eager to cash in on his success. (Nikkei)

The Japanese government will add three prefectures neighboring Tokyo to the list of areas in need of stricter measures to curb a rebound in coronavirus infections, officials said Thursday. (Japan Times)

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has recently collaborated with Japanese Sumo wrestler Yoshinori Tashiro to further widen the scope and reach of the #GoodnessofJapan campaign. (businesstraveller.com)

The Tokyo Olympic mascots make their debut with 100 days to go until the Games begin (Reuters)

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says it confirmed 729 new cases of the coronavirus in the capital on Thursday. (NHK)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested two men over the alleged rape and robbery of a female acquaintance in Yamato City, Kanagawa Prefecture last year, reports Fuji News Network (tokyoreporter.com)

Wednesday marks just 100 days to go until the Tokyo Olympics. (NHK)

Mobile phone data show that fewer people were out on Monday night compared to a week before in downtown areas of Tokyo and Kyoto, where intensive measures were implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus. (NHK)

Japanese table tennis player Kimie Bessho is competing to play in the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics. It will be the 73-year-old’s fifth Paralympics Games if she wins the qualifying tournament this June. (South China Morning Post)

A display of the Olympic symbol was unveiled Wednesday on the summit of Mount Takao in western Tokyo to mark 100 days before the start of the Tokyo Games. (NHK)

The Tokyo metropolitan government on Wednesday reported 591 new cases of the coronavirus, up 81 from Tuesday. Osaka reported the most cases in the nation, recording a record-high 1,130. (Japan Today)

The head of Japanese industrial giant Toshiba has stepped down. President and CEO Kurumatani Nobuaki's resignation comes days after the company got a buyout offer from a UK-based investment fund that he had ties to. (Kyodo)

Surveys by local governments in Japan show the coronavirus variant first detected in Britain is surging in the country. The variant, dubbed N501Y, is said to be more transmissible than the original coronavirus. (NHK)

An increasing number of companies in Japan are providing polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests for the novel coronavirus at low cost, an effort to help boost travel demand battered by the pandemic. (Japan Times)

Japan's western prefecture of Osaka has broken another daily record. It reported over 1,000 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, marking a four-digit count for the first time. (NHK)

TOKYO — There will be a few bleary eyes in corporate Japan on Monday morning. In this golf-crazy nation, it's hard to underestimate the impact of Hideki Matsuyama's historic Masters triumph and impossible to count the hours of lost sleep it entailed. (washingtonpost.com)

Inside an abandoned Japanese village tucked into the mountains. While its not uncommon to find an abandoned building here or there in Japan, an entire village is something else entirely. (Tokyo Lens)

Japan’s vaccination drive finally kicked into gear Monday around four months after the start of inoculations in the United States and the United Kingdom, a slow rollout that has generated further criticism of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s handling of the pandemic. (Japan Times)

Shimokitazawa was a former farming village that turned first into a dense residential area, and later into a thriving arts and music community. It has been described as bohemian, hippie, artsy, indie, and in recent times, hipster; Shimokitazawa is all of these things. (Virtual Explore)

TOKYO (TR) – Membership in Japanese criminal syndicates dropped for the 16th straight year in 2020, the National Police Agency said last week. (tokyoreporter.com)

The organizing committee for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics is planning to secure a hotel with about 300 rooms for athletes with minor or no symptoms of the coronavirus, officials with knowledge of the plan said. (Japan Today)

The Tokyo metropolitan government on Sunday reported 421 new cases of the coronavirus, down 149 from Saturday. (Japan Today)

TOKYO - The number of Japan's "izakaya" dining bars that went bankrupt hit a record high in the year that ended in March, a sign some service-sector firms are being left behind even as the economy emerges from the shock of the coronavirus pandemic. (Reuters)

This variety of sushi is a lost art and unknown outside Japan. The elaborate designs and use of the ingredients create beauty from food. This is SAIKU SUSHI and was quite popular in the Showa era but has sadly disappeared. (ONLY in JAPAN)

Large numbers of people on Saturday flooded transport hubs in major population centers across Japan despite the government designating Tokyo, Kyoto and Okinawa prefectures as requiring more stringent coronavirus countermeasures just a day earlier. (Kyodo)