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)

Japan's three main international airports will start using facial recognition to streamline security checks and the boarding process starting in 2020, cutting wait times ahead of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. (Nikkei)

Osaka Prefectural Police arrested a member of a criminal syndicate over the alleged attempted stabbing of a rival gangster in Osaka City on Monday, reports Fuji News Network (Dec. 17). (tokyoreporter.com)

A ceremony has been held to mark the completion of the main stadium for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. Construction of the new National Stadium was finished late last month. (NHK)

Venomous fire ants that hitched rides to Japan aboard container ships are surviving the winters and multiplying to such an extent that nursery school staff are being trained to spot the potentially deadly invaders. (Nikkei)

Police in Tokyo are searching for a wild boar that has been spotted in residential areas in the western part of the metropolis. (NHK)

Central Japan Railway will run 12 of its fastest bullet trains between Tokyo and Osaka each hour during high-demand periods starting next spring, up from the usual 10, as newer, faster trains allow for a more packed schedule. (Nikkei)

The powerful allure of K-pop is inspiring a growing number of young Japanese to learn Korean, while demand from South Korean students to study in Japan remains high despite the deep rift between the neighboring countries. (Nikkei)