The Defense Ministry deployed Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, missile interceptors in the city of Hakodate, Hokkaido, on Tuesday after North Korea recently fired two missiles over the southern part of the northernmost prefecture. (the-japan-news.com)

Japan has no shortage of festivals for every season, from the weird and wacky, to the absolutely magical. One such festival that would fall into the latter category is the Tengu no Hi-watari (天狗の火渡り), which takes place annually in Japan’s northern-most prefecture of Hokkaido. (rocketnews24.com)

Jurassic Park may be the first thing that comes to mind when you see Aogashima Island from the air - but yes, THIS IS TOKYO! (ONLY in JAPAN)

Toshiba Corp has decided to sell its chip unit to a Japan-U.S.-South Korean consortium for around 2.4 trillion yen ($21 billion) following months of talks involving other bidders, sources close to the matter said Wednesday. (Japan Today)

A spokesperson for Toys"R"Us Japan says the company is operating as usual. (NHK)

Salmon have a lousy problem, and the race to solve it is spanning the globe. (Japan Today)

Japan's Air Self-Defense Force says 4 of its F2 fighters conducted a joint drill with US military aircraft over Japan on Monday. (NHK)

The U.S. government is sounding out Japan about a visit by President Donald Trump on Nov 5-7, including a plan to play golf with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on arrival day ahead of formal talks the next day, a diplomatic source said Monday. (Japan Today)

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is on his way to New York to attend the UN General Assembly. (NHK)

At age 117 years, Nabi Tajima of Japan has taken over as the world's oldest verified living person. (loopjamaica.com)

The missiles may not be physically crashing into Japan, but their effect is hitting television stations square in the wallet. (rocketnews24.com)

Severe tropical storm Talim has made landfall on Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido, after passing by the western coast of the country. It is packing strong winds and torrential rains. (NHK)

Police in Kaizu, Gifu Prefecture, said Saturday they have arrested a 35-year-old man on suspicion of assaulting his six-year-old stepson by hitting him with a baseball bat. (Japan Today)

Prosecutors in Ogori, Fukuoka Prefecture, plan to charge a policeman -- already indicted for murdering his wife in June -- with the murder of their two children. (Japan Today)

Rumblings are building within Japan's government and ruling camp that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will call a snap election in the near future, The Nikkei has learned. (Nikkei)

Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera has suggested that North Korea's latest missile launch was likely linked to its earlier threat to aim at waters off Guam. (NHK)

Japan's space agency has unveiled a new observation satellite designed to allow more accurate predictions of global climate change. (NHK)

Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force is supplying fuel to U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) ships in the Sea of Japan, in a sign of deepening co-operation between the allies amid the growing threat from North Korea, a source said. (Japan Today)

Mazda Motor Corp. said Thursday it will launch a high-end large sport-utility vehicle in Japan on Dec. 14. (the-japan-news.com)

Japan's Defense Ministry says a ballistic missile fired from North Korea landed in the Pacific Ocean about 2,200 kilometers east of Hokkaido, northern Japan, on Friday morning. (NHK)

A 48-year-old man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of fatally stabbing a woman and seriously injuring her 4-year-old daughter in Osaka Prefecture, investigators said. (Japan Times)

Japan is working itself to death. The frequently recurring term karoshi (death from overwork) suggests as much. It's an indirect rather than a direct cause of death, which makes statistical precision difficult, but, as a rough standard, 80 hours a month of overtime work in the months leading up to a victim's death from a heart attack or stroke or suicide will back a claim for karoshi compensation. (Japan Today)

The Japanese government has revised its wording of alert messages sent out when a foreign missile is launched in Japan's direction. (NHK)

The city of Kyoto will propose collecting a minimum 200 yen per night tax on guests staying at hotels or other lodgings in the popular tourist area, municipal officials said Wednesday. (Japan Today)

Japan's Board of Audit has found that no Japanese-made parts were used in state-of-the-art F-35 fighter jets, violating a contract with the United States. (NHK)