Coronavirus variants with the L452R mutation that were first detected in India are spreading at a fast pace in Tokyo. (NHK)

The Mito District Court on Wednesday sentenced a 36-year-old man to death for murdering his wife and five children at the family’s apartment in the city of Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, in 2017. (Japan Times)

Japan's Mt. Fuji reopened Thursday to climbers for the summer season after being closed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Kyodo)

Major League Baseball star Ohtani Shohei who plays for the Los Angeles Angels hit two home runs in consecutive at bats during a game Tuesday. (NHK)

SHIZUOKA (TR) – Shizuoka Prefectural Police are holding custody of a python that was discovered at a residence in Hamamatsu City on Sunday, reports TV Shizuoka (tokyoreporter.com)

A firm created to take over the personal care division of Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido has unveiled its business strategy. (NHK)

Toru Muranishi is back: The adult-video auteur with the outsized underpants and monstrous ego on a mission to liberate the world from prudishness. (Japan Times)

Helping Carlos Ghosn escape trial in Japan was a mistake, one that they deeply regret, said the Americans who helped the former Nissan Motor Co. chairman flee the nation to safety in Lebanon. (Japan Times)

Japan's strategic council for space development has laid out a goal to bring back samples from one of Mars' moons in fiscal 2029. (NHK)

Japan will replace red mailboxes with golden ones in locations linked to champions at the upcoming Tokyo Games, in honor of their achievements, the government and Japan Post Co. have said. (Japan Times)

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence given to a 74-year-old woman dubbed the “black widow” for murdering her husband and two common-law partners with poison in western Japan between 2012 and 2013 to inherit money and escape debt. (Japan Times)

After 15 years of a very focused formula, Zenryokuzaka is making a change. (soranews24.com)

A private jet that landed in Tokyo's Haneda Airport Tuesday afternoon looked perfectly normal on the outside. What made it special was on the inside: fuel made from used cooking oil and a kind of algae. (NHK)

A man has admitted consuming alcohol before the truck he was driving was involved in an accident that left two elementary school children dead and three others injured near Tokyo, investigative sources said Tuesday. (Japan Today)

Two elementary school boys were killed and three other pupils were seriously injured Monday when a truck driven by a drunk man crashed into them on a street in Chiba Prefecture, police said. (Japan Today)

I recently went to Fukushima, Japan, specifically a place called Ouchi Juku (大内宿）, a preserved bed town from the Edo period. (Ulysses Aoki)

Hedge funds and asset managers are increasingly turning to Japanese startups, attracted by some eye-popping past returns in the long-overlooked sector. (Japan Times)

Japan's top government spokesperson says Japan would respond appropriately if it obtains information that objects referred to as UFOs could affect the country's defense. (NHK)

Japan is backing off a forecast of how many gold medals it will win at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics that are set to open next month. (newindianexpress.com)

The Japanese government said Monday that travelers from Indonesia and Uganda will be required to spend the first six days of their 14-day quarantine in state-designated facilities to curb the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus. (Kyodok)

Despite the warnings signs, Satoshi Uematsu would become one of Japan's most notorious criminals as the sole perpetrator to the Sagamihara Massacre in July 2016. (Coffeehouse Crime)

New Japanese aircraft carrier JS Izumo after modifications (HBB Defense Military)

Japanese retail sales beat expectations in May as households loosened their purse strings, but underlying trends in consumption remain hostage to COVID-19 linked pressures. (WION)

Narita Airport will have dedicated lanes in the terminals for people arriving for the Tokyo Olympic Games as an anti-infection measure against the coronavirus. The lanes will open on Thursday, July 1, when athletes and staff begin arriving in large numbers. (NHK)

SoftBank Group Corp. has suspended production of its Pepper robot, shelving for now a project Masayoshi Son once personally championed as a symbol of his conglomerate’s ambitions in AI and technology. (Japan Times)