TRAVEL

The Nagasaki District Court on Friday sentenced a 28-year-old man to death for killing two relatives of a woman he had been stalking in 2011. (Kyodo)

Hashima Island is one of the strangest places you'll ever be able to explore -- and few can. This eerie, desolate place of deserted tower blocks some 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) off the coast of Nagasaki in western Japan was opened to tourists four years ago but access is strictly limited. (CNN)

A 28-year-old man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of killing the mother and grandmother of his former girlfriend in Nagasaki Prefecture, southwestern Japan, after stalking her. (Jiji Press)

Confrontation between Japan and South Korea is likely to intensify over a Buddhist statue that was stolen from Kannonji temple in Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, and later confiscated by South Korea. (Yomiuri)

A typhoon-like storm wreaked havoc in wide areas of Japan on the weekend, leaving three people dead and disrupting air and railway traffic. (Jiji Press)

The government will demand that South Korea swiftly return two Buddhist statues that were stolen last year from a temple on the Nagasaki Prefecture island of Tsushima, which is situated about halfway between the two countries, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday. (Japan Times)

A man in his 60s in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Nagasaki died in autumn 2005 after developing severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or SFTS, due to the infection with a tick-borne virus, the health ministry said Tuesday. (Jiji Press)

The president of electronics company TDK Corp said Friday that a TDK humidifier which was subject to recall was likely the cause of a fatal fire at a Nagasaki nursing care home for people with senile dementia. (Japan Today)

A Russian tall ship recognized as the world's biggest sail ship arrived in Nagasaki on Monday during its first round-the-world voyage since its construction in 1921. (Voice of Russia)

Four elderly women died after a fire destroyed part of a nursing home for patients suffering from dementia in Nagasaki on Friday night. Several other elderly residents were injured in the fire, police said. (Japan Today)

A group of South Korean men has been caught trying to smuggle treasured historical items that disappeared from the Japanese island of Tsushima. (Japan Probe)

The choking pollution that has shrouded large parts of the mainland is moving east to Japan, threatening to push levels of health-threatening PM2.5 particles there beyond World Health Organisation health standards. (South China Morning Post)

The prefectures of Nagasaki and Kumamoto submitted a draft proposal to the government Tuesday, recommending a group of 13 sites related to Nagasaki's Christian past be collectively listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (Yomiuri)

Many Japanese women look forward to having a Western-style, Christian wedding ceremony -- because they like the pageantry of it all. But as they become more popular, there aren't enough caucasian ministers, deemed essential to the true "white wedding," to conduct them all. (pri.org)

A group of bar and restaurant owners in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, has submitted a petition to the mayor seeking the relaxation of a ban on nighttime drinking by U.S. Navy personnel stationed in the city, arguing the rule is seriously hurting business. (Japan Times)

If you've seen Skyfall, you've probably been struck by the lair that the movie's villain has. It turns out, those deserted buildings and run down landscape are real, and really deserted, with a complicated history dating back to 19th century Japan. (pri.org)

Hashima Island, also known as Gunkanjima (meaning "Battleship Island" for its silhouette that resembles a warship) is a 60,000-square-meter cluster of concrete ruins in the sea off Nagasaki, Japan. (CNN)

Japan's first air terminal dedicated to low-cost carriers (LCCs) and aiming to become Asia's most environment-friendly terminal, opened last month at Kansai International Airport (KIX) in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan. (nzweek.com)

A new terminal dedicated to low cost carriers has opened at Kansai Airport in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan. The 2nd terminal of the airport started operations at 4:30 AM on Sunday. (NHKReloaded)

Police said Saturday that a 56-year-old man in a wheelchair died after he was hit by a train at a crossing in Tokyo. (Japan Today)

Smoking reduces life expectancy by ten years in Japan, but much of the risk can be avoided by giving up smoking, a paper published on bmj.com today shows. (sciencecodex.com)

The Mormon story in Japan begins only some 30 years after Smith's original revelation, when, after failing to find converts in China due to bad publicity, a lack of funds and a civil war, the Mormons took advantage of a serendipitous opportunity to gain inroads in another part of Asia. (Japan Times)

Powerful Typhoon No. 16 was moving away from Japan on Monday after causing several injuries and disrupting transport networks in western areas, but authorities warned that heavy rain was likely in the Tokai and Kinki regions through Tuesday. (Yomiuri)

At Saturday's ceremony to mark the start of construction on a 21-kilometer section of the Kyushu Shinkansen network, Nagasaki Gov. Hodo Nakamura found plenty of positives to talk about. (Yomiuri)

The mayor of Nagasaki on Thursday called for a Japan free of nuclear fears as the city marked the 67th anniversary of its World War II atomic bombing by the United States. (Japan Today)