A Japanese pop group, Arashi, will suspend its activities at the end of 2020. The news has shocked fans in Japan and elsewhere in Asia. (NHK)

A popular Thai music act has apologized amid a scandal set off when one of its members wore a shirt showing the swastika flag of Nazi Germany during a performance. (Japan Times)

Japan's once-buoyant real estate market has seen a sharp pullback in foreign buying, sending property deals falling by a third in the second half of 2018. (Nikkei)

Central Japan Railway Co. has said that its N700S bullet train model will go into service on the Tokaido Shinkansen in early July 2020, just before the start of the Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympics. (Japan Times)

Japan's Naomi Osaka has become the new women's world number one after winning the Australian Open final against Petra Kvitova in three gripping sets at Melbourne Park. (abc.net.au)

The number of influenza patients per medical institution in Japan in the week through last Sunday hit the second-highest level since the survey started in 1999, the health ministry has said. (Japan Times)

A railway operator in northern Japan has launched an annual steam locomotive service in the eastern part of Hokkaido Prefecture. (NHK)

Hashima Island in the southwestern Japan city of Nagasaki, better known as "battleship island" for its shape, will reopen to tourists on Feb. 1 after a typhoon-damaged pier and fences in a sightseeing area have been repaired, the local government said Friday. (Kyodo)

A Japanese district court has sentenced a 40-year-old man to 16 years in prison for killing a university student in a road rage incident last year. (NHK)

Japanese weather officials say a cold air mass is bringing heavy snow to much of the Sea of Japan side of the country over the weekend. (NHK)

Japanese electronics maker Hitachi says it plans to withdraw from wind turbine production in the face of intensifying competition from foreign manufacturers. (NHK)

Japanese manga creator Rumiko Takahashi has become only the second woman to win the top prize at France's biggest graphic novel festival. (Japan Today)

Police in Shimotsuma, Ibaraki Prefecture, have arrested a 55-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of murder after he fatally stabbed his 86-year-old father. (Japan Today)

Japan's Naomi Osaka never made it past the fourth round at any of the first 10 Grand Slam tournaments of her career. Now, still just 21, she's suddenly on the verge of a second consecutive major championship. (Japan Today)

A man has attacked and wounded a police officer at an outpost in Toyama City on the Sea of Japan coast, central Japan. Police have arrested the man on suspicion of attempted murder. (NHK)

Tokyo health officials and police are questioning whether physical complications from being infected with the influenza virus caused a woman to fall from a platform at Nakameguro Station and be fatally struck by a train earlier this week. (Japan Today)

Two men have been arrested over an alleged attempt to smuggle from Thailand five otters in a carry-on bag through customs at Tokyo's Haneda Airport last October, police said Wednesday. (Kyodo)

Graffiti on a seawall in Chiba Prefecture resembling the work of Banksy has sparked speculation on whether it is a piece by the elusive street artist and comes just about a month after another possible work by the artist was found in the nation’s capital. (Japan Times)

A 27-year-old American man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for killing a 27-year-old woman in Osaka last year, dismembering her body and dumping the parts in several locations. (Japan Today)

Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force says the patrol plane in question is a P3C from Kanoya Air Base in Kagoshima Prefecture. (NHK)

A data scandal at Japan's labor ministry has created further headaches for the Abe government in its protracted attempts to spur inflation. (Nikkei)

Carlos Ghosn has told Renault he intends to resign as chairman and CEO of the French automaker, Nikkei learned Wednesday, now that his detention in Japan has ruled out a quick return to France. (Nikkei)

The operation of Japan's oldest monorail line will be suspended at a Tokyo zoo in November following a 62-year run as the current vehicles are getting old, the metropolitan government said Wednesday. (Kyodo)

On January 15, a 16-year-old first-year student at Tokyo’s Metropolitan Machida Sogo High School got into a heated argument with a teacher in the school hallway. Prior to the argument, the student had been disciplined for wearing an earring to school, in violation of the dress code. (Japan Today)

Sony Corp. on Wednesday showed off the latest tricks of its signature robotic dog, Aibo, including a new security capability of patrolling inside a house. (Japan Times)