A major internet company in Japan has awarded Olympic figure skater Hanyu Yuzuru its grand prize for topping the number of hits on its search engine this year.
Yahoo Japan awards people or works that see the biggest yearly rises in searches. It released the results in multiple categories on Monday.
Japanese ophthalmologist Hattori Tadashi has received this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award, known as "Asia's Nobel Prize." He was honored for treating more than 20,000 people in Vietnam for free.
The ceremony was held in the Philippines capital Manila on Wednesday.
People enjoyed viewing autumn foliage inside the Imperial Palace in Tokyo for the first time in three years as a section has been reopened to the public.
Starting in 2014, people were granted access to Inui Street during the spring cherry blossom season and in the autumn when the leaves change color. But viewings were suspended when the coronavirus pandemic began.
The Japanese orchestra conductor Ozawa Seiji has lately been out of the spotlight. But now, he has delighted music fans by leading an orchestra for the first time in three years.
The Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival kicks off in central Japan this Friday with concerts to mark its 30th anniversary.
Sunday marks 50 years since unrest which occurred after a car driven by US military personnel hit a local resident near a US base in Okinawa.
The unrest took place on December 20, 1970, two years before reversion of the southern prefecture from the United States to Japan.
Believe it or not, it has been 10 years since the Lexus LFA was launched and while there are some low-mileage examples out for sale out there, only wealthy individuals can afford the Japanese automaker's most famous performance model.
Six railway operators in the Tokyo metropolitan area say they will not run services late into the night on New Year's Eve and early on New Year's Day due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The companies include East Japan Railway and Tokyo Metro.
The Japanese government is speeding up measures to strengthen infrastructure against floods and other natural disasters.
Cabinet ministers approved the five-year program on Friday with a price tag of 15-trillion-yen, or about 144-billion-dollars. It's expected to begin in the next fiscal year.
A giant tablet featuring next year's zodiac sign, the ox, has been installed at a shrine in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan.
A ceremony was held on Sunday to dedicate the tablet to Niukanshofu shrine in the town of Kudoyama.
Japanese lawmakers have celebrated the 130th anniversary of the opening of the country's parliament.
The beginning of Japan's parliamentary system dates back to 1890, when members of the Imperial Diet gathered for the first time.
Vans are generally boring things. Oh, you can spray paint sexy, psychedelic valkryies on the side or buy some right-hand-steer Japanese import with a name like Sambar Try Dias, but by and large, they're boring. That goes triple for the minivan variety, but since their invention in the early 1980s, one minivan has been the obvious exception. There was and continues to be absolutely nothing boring about the Toyota Previa. In fact, it's one of the most interesting vehicles Toyota has sold in this country in the past 30 years.
Early minivans were less cookie cutter in shape and layout than they are today, but even by that standard, the Previa was different. For starters, just look at the thing as it balloons above its tiny wheels and lower cladding. I imagine its design language was nouveaux blimp. There's so much glass! Just look at those windshield wipers. And remember, the Dodge Caravan looked like this when the Previa came out ... and Chrysler had just redesigned them. Yet, the styling is just the tip of the wacky pants iceberg.
The reveal of the Nissan Z Proto is easily the most significant event for Nissan this year, but another of its long-running nameplates is reaching a big milestone, too. The Nissan Maxima full-size flagship sedan is turning 40 years old. To celebrate, there's a 2021 Nissan Maxima 40th Anniversary Edition, complete with all the bells and whistles and some unique trimmings.
On the outside, the special edition Maxima gets an exclusive two-tone gray and black paint job. The 19-inch wheels as well as all the trim and badges are finished in black, too. Even the exhaust tips are painted back.
Japanese researchers say intense meteorite collisions during the formation of the solar system may have occurred about 4.4 billion years ago, much earlier than previously thought.
Previous studies of Moon craters suggested a large number of meteorites collided with the Earth, the Moon, and other planets shortly after the beginning of life on Earth about 3.9 billion years ago.
A family-friendly amusement park in Tokyo is closing its doors after 94 years in operation.
Toshimaen in Nerima Ward was crowded soon after it opened for its last day on Monday.