Mar 10 (Tokyo Kenchan) - Welcome to Japan. If you've just landed at Narita Airport (NRT) and are wondering how to get to Tokyo city center on the plane, this guide will walk you through your first 60 minutes in Japan. From immigration, baggage claim, train & transport options, to getting your SIM card & cash.
Long lines have been forming daily outside the Japanese Embassy in Russia as people seek tourist visas to visit Japan, with an unprecedented boom in travel interest despite Moscow designating Japan an “unfriendly nation” over sanctions related to the Ukraine invasion.
A severe shortage of truck drivers—forecast to reach 210,000 by fiscal 2030—has prompted a driving school operator in Fukuoka Prefecture to begin recruiting foreign drivers in an effort to support Japan’s strained logistics sector.
China’s week-long Lunar New Year holiday began on February 15th, marking the start of the longest Spring Festival break on record at nine days.
Six junior high school students were taken to hospital after falling ill from eating pizza made during a home economics class in Kitakyushu last month, with officials suspecting the cause to be an excessive amount of salt added to the dough.
Losses from special fraud and SNS-based investment and romance scams in Osaka Prefecture over the past year exceeded 33.9 billion yen, marking a record high.
A ceremonial “whirlpool opening” was held in the Naruto Strait on February 15th, between Naruto City in Tokushima Prefecture and Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture, marking the start of the spring tourism season, with massive whirlpools forming beneath the Onaruto Bridge that spans the strait.
The global matcha boom is driving up costs in Japan’s historic tea capital, with Uji City in Kyoto Prefecture set to raise usage fees at its municipal tea rooms by roughly 50% as soaring demand pushes up the price of tencha, the raw material used to produce matcha.
A unique certificate is being issued to visitors to Fuji City in Shizuoka Prefecture who arrive hoping to see Mount Fuji but find the famous peak hidden from view, part of a local effort to share the mountain’s ever-changing charm even on cloudy days.
Plum blossoms are now at their best viewing season at the plum groves of Minabe Town in Wakayama Prefecture, widely known as Japan’s leading plum-producing region.
JR Tokai has decided to begin construction on the Yamanashi Prefecture station for the Linear Chuo Shinkansen on March 11, marking the start of work on the only station along the Tokyo–Nagoya section where construction had yet to begin.
A large discount retailer Don Quijote has opened its first inbound-focused specialty store in the Kansai region in Kyoto City, aiming to better serve the growing number of overseas visitors.
Workers dressed as ninjas are carrying out weed removal on a castle stone wall in Koka, Shiga Prefecture, a city known as the home of ninja.
JR East and Japan Airlines have signed a partnership agreement aimed at regional revitalization and revealed they will consider integrating tickets in the future.
