Japanese temples are offering their facilities as tourist accommodation, an initiative aimed at wooing foreigners to rural Japan. (Nikkei)

Japanese footballer Keisuke Honda is swapping football for finance, after launching a venture capital fund with Hollywood star Will Smith to invest in startups addressing social problems, the striker's agent said Wednesday. (Japan Today)

The Legoland Japan theme park in the central Japanese city of Nagoya will lower its admission fee for children, its operator said Wednesday, following complaints about high ticket prices. (Kyodo)

The main stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, now under construction, has been shown to media 2 years ahead of the games' opening. (NHK)

The number of foreign tourists who visited Japan in the first half of this year hit a record high for the period. (NHK)

A 36-year-old Filipino man arrested last year admitted Tuesday to raping and murdering a female university student in eastern Japan in January 2004. (Japan Today)

In Japan's ancient capital Kyoto, spectators braved sweltering heat to watch a series of colorfully decorated floats at the annual Gion festival on Tuesday. (NHK)

Japan and the European Union have signed a free trade deal in Tokyo after years of negotiations. The economic partnership agreement covers about 40 percent of the world's trade and 30 percent of its gross domestic product. The EPA calls for Japan and the EU to remove tariffs on most of each other's goods in phases. (NHK)

Japan's Mitsubishi Aircraft has debuted its long-delayed passenger jet at an airshow in Britain. (NHK)

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government invited the media to observe the construction sites for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics venues on Tuesday, 2 years ahead of the games' opening. (NHK)

Many retailers and consumers in Japan are welcoming the free trade pact with the European Union. They are expecting it to lower prices for a range of gourmet products and provide a boost to the economy. (NHK)

More than a week after torrential rains in western Japan triggered landslides and flooding, over 200 people are dead and 16 are still missing. (NHK)

A Japanese Air Self-Defense Force aircraft blocked a runway at Naha Airport in the southwestern prefecture of Okinawa on Tuesday, causing it to be closed temporarily. (NHK)

Tourist farms in Japan have been attracting hordes of foreign visitors who are placing fruit picking high on their travel itineraries as the global reputation of Japanese fruit grows. (Japan Today)

People in western Japan are battling soaring temperatures as they still reel from devastating floods and landslides triggered by record rainfalls. (NHK)

Each year, a pair of the Aomori Prefecture town's fields are used to create amazing rice paddy art (or "tambo art," as it's called in Japanese). (soranews24.com)

Japan was the top destination for otters recovered from smugglers in Southeast Asia between 2015 and 2017, with experts pointing to the species' growing popularity as pets in the country, according to a recent survey by a wildlife monitoring group. (Kyodo)

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the government will provide financial support to areas in western Japan that were hit hard recently by record-high rainfall. (NHK)

The government has launched a nationwide probe into allegations that foreign residents are abusing the public health insurance system, according to sources familiar with the matter. (Japan Times)

Japanese authorities say 210 people have been confirmed dead and 22 remain missing after the recent record rainfall in the western part of the country. (NHK)

People in many parts of Japan are sweltering as temperatures have soared to nearly 40 degrees Celsius. The heatwave is likely to continue this week with the risk of heatstroke remaining high in areas including those hit by recent heavy rain. (NHK)

Five people died and more than 1,500 others were taken to hospitals for heat exhaustion, as a heat wave covered Japan on Saturday, a Kyodo News tally showed. (Japan Today)

People in western Japan are contending with scorching heat as they pick through the debris left by record rain, flooding and landslides. (NHK)

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko have cancelled their planned summer retreat north of Tokyo following last weekend's deadly torrential rain in western Japan, the Imperial Household Agency said Friday. (Japan Today)

A government panel gave the green light Friday for public broadcaster NHK to start simultaneous online streaming of its television programs amid surging popularity of streaming video services. (Japan Today)