A man in his 50s, believed to be the owner of a ramen noodle shop in Kobe, western Japan, was apparently fatally shot there on Saturday, said police, who are investigating it as a murder case. (Kyodo)

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 panel of experts set up by Japan's Finance Ministry has agreed to compile a report by around the end of this year on the feasibility of a digital yen backed by the central bank. (NHK)

Japan has adopted its first-ever national strategy on nuclear fusion reflecting the need to create a domestic fusion industry. (neimagazine.com)

Japan is one step closer to approving abortion pills for the first time after an expert panel at the health ministry gave the go-ahead on Friday. (NHK)

Deep-sea explorers said Saturday they had located the wreck of a World War II Japanese transport ship, the Montevideo Maru, which was torpedoed off the Philippines killing nearly 1,000 Australians aboard. (Japan Today)

Celebrities have a hard time maintaining privacy. This, miraculously, was never a problem for Doji Morita. A musical artist who spent the entirety of their musical career shrouded in mystery. (Sakura Stardust)

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)

Japan's latest inflation figures show that in the past year, consumers have been hit with the biggest price jumps in over 4 decades, with especially severe increases for food and electricity. (NHK)

Japanese parliamentary officials said they have received email messages from a member of a religious organization threatening to blow up their offices, local media said on Thursday. (myrepublica)

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)

Calling it an "awakening of youth and passion," Chinese fans of Slam Dunk, a Japanese sports manga series, swarmed into cinemas on Thursday at midnight. (Global Times)

Japanese experts say a ninth wave of the coronavirus in the country could cause many deaths, mainly of elderly people. (NHK)

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)

Japan takes names very seriously. Parents not only have to consider the sound of their child's name, but the meanings of the characters in it as well. (Japanalysis)

When he passed away in 2019, Johnny Kitagawa was the foremost figure in the world of J-Pop. (KOOKIELIT)

G7 countries reaffirmed their support for Ukraine and issued warnings to Russia, China and Sudan on the final day of meetings between the group's top diplomats in Japan. (euronews)

The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) office in Dubai has confirmed that, effective immediately, all foreign nationals resident in the UAE who would otherwise require a visa to visit Japan, can now apply online for a short-term tourism visa. (businesstraveller.com)

Eagle-eyed travellers have snapped up US$10,000 (S$13,300) business-class tickets on Japan’s ANA airline for just a few hundred dollars after a currency conversion blunder. (straitstimes.com)

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)