News On Japan

Fire Festival Lights Up Cape Shionomisaki

Wakayama, Jan 19, 2026 (News On Japan) - A fire festival was held on January 17th at Cape Shionomisaki in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, the southernmost point of Honshu, where organizers set ablaze the roughly 100,000-square-meter “Boro no Shiba” grassland overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

As dusk approached, members of the kyudo club at Wakayama Prefectural Kushimoto Koza High School fired flaming arrows to ignite the field, and the spreading flames illuminated the coastline in a surreal, dreamlike scene.

The local tourism association has turned the traditional maintenance practice of burning old grass into a public event, using the controlled fire to eliminate pests and encourage the growth of fresh new shoots.

Source: Kyodo

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Typhoon No. 15 (Chan-hom) is expected to make landfall near Ibaraki Prefecture between around 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. on August 11, bringing rapidly strengthening winds, high waves and heavy rain to parts of Kanto and southern Tohoku, with unsettled weather potentially continuing even after the storm moves inland.

Japan's H3 Rocket No. 9 successfully placed the Michibiki No. 7 navigation satellite into its planned orbit after lifting off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture at 4:23 a.m. on August 11, marking the country's second consecutive successful H3 launch.

The Tokaido Shinkansen operated its first overnight service ahead of the Obon holiday period, offering travelers a 15,000 yen trip from the Tokyo area to Kyoto and Shin-Osaka while allowing them to save on hotel costs and arrive earlier than the first regular morning trains.

Typhoon No. 15 is expected to approach and likely make landfall somewhere in the Kanto region on August 11, bringing strong winds and heavy rain that could disrupt conventional rail services, expressways and flights while also affecting a wider area extending into Tohoku.

Raccoons are increasingly invading homes across Japan, damaging roofs and wiring, contaminating buildings with large amounts of urine and feces, and raising concerns over agriculture, native wildlife and the spread of disease as their population continues to expand.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Travel NEWS

A fireworks festival that had been promoted as a simultaneous display of more than 10,000 fireworks across three cities on Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture was abruptly canceled on August 9, with organizers having failed to submit applications for permits required to hold the event.

Nara Park's famous deer are increasingly spilling into residential areas and farmland as their population reaches a record high, creating new problems for residents even as the animals remain a major attraction for visitors to the ancient capital.

Japan's dating scene has its own vocabulary, its own etiquette, and — for the arrangement style commonly known abroad as sugar dating — its own dedicated clubs.

Maids from Akihabara maid cafes joined shrine maidens from Kanda Myojin and members of the public on August 8 to sprinkle water across the shrine grounds in Tokyo, calling out "Cool down!" as they took part in a summer tradition aimed at easing the midsummer heat.

Disney On Ice opened its Osaka run on August 8, bringing Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters to the rink for a special production celebrating the show's 40th anniversary in Japan.

All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines are expected to lower fuel surcharges on international tickets issued in September and October after a decline in the fuel prices used to calculate the additional fees.

Japan is one of those countries that people visit once and then return to again and again and again, because it is unlike any other place on the planet.

The rainy season appears to have ended in the Hokuriku region and both southern and northern Tohoku, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on August 5, marking the apparent end of the season across the entire country.