Chinese fighter jets approached Taiwan on Thursday for a second day in a row, the island's defense ministry said, urging China to stop "destroying regional peace" in a further ratcheting up of tension across the sensitive Taiwan Strait. China, which claims Taiwan as its … | Continue reading
They say necessity is the mother of invention, and what people need these days is face masks. And although Japan has long embraced the practice of putting cloth over their mouths, the current pandemic has really kicked up demand for fashionable and practical alternatives. Now, To … | Continue reading
Coronavirus patients with light symptoms arriving to stay at several Tokyo hotels are likely to get a lift from a pleasant surprise - a robot greeter in the lobby. Japan is now using hotels to house patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus but whose symptoms are too … | Continue reading
Worried about a "coronavirus divorce"? An enterprising Japanese short-term rental firm is marketing its empty apartments as a way for stressed couples to get some time apart during the virus lockdown. "Please consult with us before thinking about 'coronavirus divor … | Continue reading
The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics from 2020 to 2021 was an emotional blow to the sporting community, with athletes and competitors having waited four years for the spectacle of the highest level of international competition. However, there’s something anime fans have been wa … | Continue reading
Shares in Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp surged 15% on Wednesday after a Chinese official said an active ingredient of the company's Avigan anti-flu drug appeared to help coronavirus patients recover. Avigan, also known as Favipiravir, is manufactured by a subsidiary of Fujifilm, … | Continue reading
The earth in Fukushima still trembled when Yoshihiro Miyamori drove in the dark toward his sake brewery. When he got back after midnight, he found smashed sake bottles and a crack in the wall of the building. It was March 11, 2011. Miyamori was on his way to visit other… | Continue reading
Sharp Corp said on Wednesday it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against U.S. TV brand Vizio Inc and two others, seeking an injunction to ban one of Vizio's TV products in the United States. Sharp, a unit of Taiwan's Foxconn, said Vizio's 70-inch TV product uses liquid cry … | Continue reading
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Saturday the government will launch a scheme to extend zero interest loans with no collateral to small and midsized companies reeling from the new-coronavirus turmoil. The state-owned Japan Finance Corp is among entities that will join the program a … | Continue reading
Some medical experts have started to warn that using alcohol-based hand sanitizers too much as a protective measure against a new coronavirus raging in China could inversely raise the risk of infection through skin disorders. Washing hands with soap too many times in a bid not to … | Continue reading
On southwestern Japan's Miyajima island, a short walk from one of the country's most famous ancient temple sites, there's a brand new attraction for tourists - a state-of-the art public toilet block nearly as big as a tennis court. The 183-square-meter facility – created jointly … | Continue reading
Japan News and Discussion | Continue reading
Twitter Inc said it is testing a new community moderation approach that would enable users to identify misleading information posted by politicians and public figures and add brightly colored labels under those tweets. NBC News reported that Twitter company documents showing a mo … | Continue reading
Japan News and Discussion | Continue reading
Skymark Airlines might not be as well-known as Japan’s two largest carriers, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airlines, but it’s still Japan’s biggest air travel provider outside the JAL and ANA corporate umbrellas. As a machinery-reliant company in an advanced economy, you’d probab … | Continue reading
Apple Inc's move to offer a free TV+ subscription for a year with every new device may briefly crown the iPhone maker as the biggest streaming service by user numbers, leapfrogging Netflix Inc. But it doesn't mean Apple will keep the lead. Under the company's plans announced on T … | Continue reading
For many people the game of golf is a great source of relaxation and entertainment. Here is a little gadget developed by Japanese automaker Nissan: The ProPilot Golf Ball. As the four-year-old in the video demonstrates, no matter where and how someone putts the ball on the gree … | Continue reading
When older people eat a poor-quality diet, they may be increasing their odds of becoming frail, a recent study suggests. Researchers followed 2,154 older U.S. adults for four years. At the start, participants were between the ages of 70 and 81. They were either “robust,” because … | Continue reading
Japan's exports declined in June as shipments of goods were hit by trade disputes between China and the U.S., the Finance Ministry reported Thursday. The data released by the Finance Ministry on Thursday show exports fell 6.8% in June from a year earlier, the seventh straight mon … | Continue reading
Popularised by Disney's "Finding Nemo," the common clownfish may not see its eggs hatch if they are exposed to artificial light at night, researchers report. "Clownfish, and likely other coral reef fish species living in areas exposed to light pollution, might not … | Continue reading
A simmering diplomatic row with Japan is threatening South Korea's output of components that drive smartphones and computer displays, which analysts say could batter the global tech market and hike prices for consumers. Tokyo last week said it would restrict exports of three chem … | Continue reading
Central Japan Railway Co. conducted a test run Wednesday for the press of its new shinkansen bullet train powered by batteries, a first among the world's high-speed trains. JR Central said it hopes the technology will be useful in emergencies which might otherwise leave trains st … | Continue reading
TDK Corp has developed a thin speaker with a thickness of 0.49 mm. TDK stacked 12 layers of piezoelectric material so that displacement at the time of applying a voltage becomes large. As a result, the volume of sound was increased. Also, by making improvements to the structural … | Continue reading
Nintendo Co plans to start making its Switch video game console in Vietnam this year, transferring some of its production from China, a company spokesman said Tuesday. The official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said the change has been in the works for some time … | Continue reading
Inflation-adjusted real wages in Japan fell in May from a year earlier, a fifth straight month of decline that raises worries about the strength of consumer spending. Real wages fell 1.0% in May, labor ministry data showed on Tuesday, after a downwardly revised 1.4% annual declin … | Continue reading
Kyocera Corp will start volume production of a new lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery that does not cause any accident in principle and is expected to drastically increase capacity density in 2020. The new Li-ion battery can reduce material cost by about 40% and shorten manufacturing p … | Continue reading
A team of Japanese and Taiwanese paddlers from two museums on Tuesday successfully replicated a hypothetical human migration between Taiwan and Okinawa about 30,000 years ago, by arriving at a southern Japanese island in a dugout canoe. During the two-day, 200-kilometer voyage fr … | Continue reading
Gaming is undergoing some big changes right now, in the era of digital downloads, virtual reality and even streaming consoles. While there’s something of a heated race going on between gaming titans Sony and Microsoft to stake a claim on the biggest slice of the online multiplaye … | Continue reading
E-scooters touted as zero-carbon urban transport are flooding city streets worldwide, but just how green they are remains an open question. The companies -- from multinationals to local start-ups -- distributing them insist the omnipresent two-wheel vehicles are a boon for the en … | Continue reading
Japan has curbed exports of high-tech materials used in smartphone displays and chips to South Korea amid a widening dispute over South Koreans who were forced to work for Japanese firms during World War Two. The following are some facts about the materials targeted in the curbs, … | Continue reading
The ratio of women among candidates for Japan's upcoming upper house election hit a record high, but the question of whether the country can achieve its target of raising the percentage of female lawmakers in parliament to 30 percent remains. A total of 104 women are running for … | Continue reading
A three-fold jump since 1975 in the percentage of adults worldwide who are obese has been driven mainly by a shift in diet and lack of exercise, but genes do play a role as well, according a large-scale study. For people genetically predisposed to a wider girth, these unhealthy l … | Continue reading
Working at a desk all day may not be as bad for heart health and longevity as sitting in front of a television after hours, according to a U.S. study that suggests not all types of sitting are equally harmful. "We've been hearing more and more about how sitting is… | Continue reading
Personalized music playlists that rekindle memories of childhood and happy moments may bring joy to dementia patients, because music can activate parts of the brain not affected by the disease, experts say. "One of the biggest challenges we have in our society is that so man … | Continue reading