As Japan enters a six-day New Year break, a sense of anxiety over the possibility of another flash crash is gripping currency traders. (straitstimes.com)

Driving in Japan is a wonder experience for those who want to escape the touristy areas over-visited by JR Rail Pass holders. (ONLY in JAPAN)

Sources say the Tokyo District Court has decided to revoke the bail of former Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn. (NHK)

The last quarter of 2019 has been painful for yen bulls, but if history is any guide, good times may be just around the corner. (Japan Times)

With another Japanese Christmas in the books, we’ve often talked about the unique holiday custom here of eating fried chicken, particularly that of Kentucky Fried Chicken. However, there is another KFC-related ritual in Japan that even those who live here are surprised exists. (soranews24.com)

Even after the 1929 U.S. stock market crash, which triggered the Great Depression, share prices regained their pre-collapse highs in 25 years. (Nikkei)

Japan's Princess Kako, the second daughter of Crown Prince and Crown Princess Akishino, turned 25 on Sunday. (NHK)

An overnight ban on outdoor alcohol drinking will take effect near Tokyo's Shibuya Station on New Year's Eve to prevent merrymakers from causing trouble during celebrations. (NHK)

Highways, airports and train stations around Japan are busy on Saturday as year-end travelers head for their hometowns and holiday destinations. (NHK)

Japan Airlines Co. said Thursday overseas members of its mileage program will be able to apply for free return tickets for domestic flights next summer, part of an effort to provide foreign travelers with a greater experience of Japan alongside the Olympic and Paralympic Games. (Kyodo)

The best thing you can say about the Japanese economy's 2019 is that, mercifully, the year will soon be over. (Nikkei)

The South Korean government says President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Abe had differences on the wartime labor issue, but they agreed to keep communicating to resolve it. (NHK)

A court sentenced a Chinese man on Monday to 14 months in prison, suspended for three years, for intruding into war-linked Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo and damaging a drape by throwing ink on it earlier this year. (Kyodo)

In Nichinan, Japan, a city of about 50,000 people on the southwestern island of Kyushu, a house that had sat abandoned for more than a decade gained new life this summer. (Nikkei)

Footage showing a Kurdish man from Turkey being restrained at an immigration center in Ibaraki Prefecture in January has been submitted to a Tokyo court by the facility after the man sought damages for allegedly being manhandled. (Japan Times)

Former Emperor Akihito turned 86 on Monday, marking his first birthday since stepping down from the Chrysanthemum Throne in late April to become the first Japanese monarch to abdicate in around 200 years. (Kyodo)

Ibaraki Prefectural Police have arrested a 41-year-old man for allegedly abducting a high school girl and confining her at a hotel last month, reports TV Asahi (Dec. 20). (tokyoreporter.com)

"You want to work for us?" the man said, coercing a college student to down several drinks at a karaoke bar. "You cannot work at a trading company unless you can drink." (Nikkei)

Japan Airlines is stretching its wings in the low cost carrier market. A new subsidiary, Zipair Tokyo, starts operations next year. And the company is promising long distance services at budget prices. (NHK)

The organizing committee for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has finalized a marathon course, saying athletes will basically run three laps around central Sapporo. (NHK)

Asahi Breweries Ltd. says it will stop releasing sales volume data for its beer and quasi-beer products this month, switching in January to the disclosure of the value of sales. (Japan Times)

The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered prominent reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi to pay 3.3 million yen in damages to journalist Shiori Ito in a civil lawsuit over her allegations he had raped her. (Japan Today)

A court Wednesday sentenced a man to life in prison over a random knife attack aboard a shinkansen last year that killed one passenger and injured two others. (Japan Times)

East Japan Railway Co. conducted trial operations on Wednesday on a section of the Joban Line in Fukushima Prefecture that has been closed since the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. (Japan Times)

An IT startup that was Japan's second-largest IPO of the year rose on its first day of trading in Tokyo. (NHK)