JR Ueno Station has unveiled "Ueno Canvas," a new 75-square-meter LED display featuring videos that highlight the area's cultural attractions, tourism destinations, and artistic heritage as part of a station renovation aimed at connecting people and the city through culture.
Japan's Fair Trade Commission has conducted on-site inspections of six major food manufacturers over suspicions they formed a cartel to coordinate ice cream prices, with authorities investigating whether the companies exchanged information and unfairly adjusted planned retail price increases in response to rising costs.
More than 900 packs of the food linked to a food poisoning outbreak at a Costco store in Nagoya were sold over a two-day period, health authorities said.
Police in Osaka have arrested 41 men and women in a fraud case involving more than 600 million yen in suspected losses, uncovering what investigators believe was a scheme in which real influencer accounts were bought and used to impersonate their original owners and solicit followers into costly side-business programs.
The number of foreign residents living in Japan surpassed 4 million for the first time by the end of 2025, reaching a record high and underscoring the increasingly important role foreign workers play in supporting the country's labor-short industries.
A court in Shiga Prefecture has sentenced a 29-year-old former sex industry employee to life imprisonment for the murder of a company president, the theft of his cash card, and the disposal of his body in Lake Biwa.
Every spring, as visitors flock to Kyoto's Uji City to see landmarks such as Byodo-in Temple and sites associated with The Tale of Genji, another seasonal attraction appears in overwhelming numbers: swarms of tobikera, or caddisflies.
A parent bear and two cubs were spotted near an interchange in Kyoto Prefecture, just a few minutes' drive from a nursery school, in one of many bear sightings reported across Japan in recent days.
The YOSAKOI Soran Festival wrapped up its five-day run in Sapporo on June 14th, drawing 275 teams from across Japan and overseas as dancers in colorful costumes performed energetic routines with wooden naruko clappers throughout the city.
Each year from late April, rising water levels caused by melting mountain snow partially submerge lakeside trees at Lake Shusen in Semboku, Akita Prefecture, creating a seasonal landscape known as the flooded forest. The spectacle, highlighted by vibrant spring foliage emerging from the water, disappears by early June as the snowmelt season comes to an end.
The Japanese government has approved its first basic plan outlining concrete measures to promote public understanding of LGBT people and other sexual minorities, based on the LGBT Understanding Promotion Law that came into effect in 2023.
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has partially revised a bill that would create a new offense for desecrating the national flag, removing provisions that would have punished the posting of such acts on social media.
The harvest of fruit-like sweet corn has reached its peak in Hekinan, Aichi Prefecture, where farmers begin picking before dawn to preserve the crop's high sugar content and freshness.
The Tokyo Fire Department has called for greater public cooperation with emergency medical services following a rise in incidents involving interference with ambulance crews, including cases in which paramedics have been assaulted while carrying out rescue operations.
Taxi operator newmo has opened a data collection hub for autonomous driving in Osaka's Joto Ward, launching what the company says is Japan's first initiative to use ride-share services to gather road data for AI training.
The U.S. Open returns to Shinnecock Hills Golf Club from June 18 to June 21, 2026, bringing one of golf's most demanding tests back to a venue known for rewarding discipline and precision.
Sapporo began accepting household garbage in non-designated bags on June 15 as plastic product shortages linked to tensions in the Middle East continue to affect supplies, with home improvement stores reporting a sharp increase in demand for transparent and semi-transparent bags.
A shortage of naphtha-derived products is beginning to affect some of the best-known local products in Shizuoka Prefecture, threatening everything from peaches to tofu as producers struggle with rising costs and uncertain supplies.
Japan is expected to achieve a 100% alternative crude oil procurement rate by July, following government efforts to diversify import sources in response to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, government officials said.
The exchange of attacks between the United States and Iran following the reported downing of a U.S. Army helicopter by Iran is continuing to affect daily life in Japan, with higher energy prices raising concerns that inflationary pressures could spread further across the economy.
The Bank of Japan decided at its monetary policy meeting on June 16th to raise its policy interest rate for the first time in four meetings, lifting the benchmark rate from around 0.75% to around 1.0%, the highest level in 31 years.
Okinawa Coca-Cola Bottling has begun operating a large-scale solar power generation system at its Urasoe plant, aiming to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 330 tons annually while expanding the use of renewable energy in the prefecture.
Tokyo stocks posted one of the strongest gains in the history of Japan's equity market on June 15, with the Nikkei Stock Average closing above 69,000 for the first time after a U.S.-Iran agreement aimed at ending hostilities eased concerns over energy prices and global economic risks.
Japanese stocks rebounded sharply on June 12th, with the Nikkei Stock Average closing back above the 66,000 level for the first time in a week as easing concerns over tensions in the Middle East and a strong rally in U.S. technology shares fueled broad buying of AI-related stocks.