japan

In this May 17, 2021, demonstrators protest against the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The IOC and Tokyo Olympic organizers run into some of the strongest medical-community opposition so far with the games set to open in just over eight weeks. 

As demand grows to cancel Tokyo Olympics, who has the power to call it off?

According to the latest polls, 83% of people in Japan think the Games should be postponed or scrapped entirely. But there’s been a lack of clarity about who gets to make that decision.

As demand grows to cancel Tokyo Olympics, who has the power to call it off?
In this Nov. 12, 2011 file photo, workers in protective suits and masks wait to enter the emergency operation center at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Okuma, Japan.

Author Yoichi Funabashi on Fukushima crisis 10 years later: Nuclear energy was and still is 'unforgiving'

Author Yoichi Funabashi on Fukushima crisis 10 years later: Nuclear energy was and still is 'unforgiving'
Takuya Yokota in Tokyo in November 2017. He continues to speak out about North Korea's abduction of his sister in 1977.

Japan could ease tensions with North Korea — if North Korea comes clean on its abduction of Japanese citizens

Japan could ease tensions with North Korea — if North Korea comes clean on its abduction of Japanese citizens
Americans spend six billion hours and $10 billion every year preparing and filing their taxes.

Many countries have a simple, fair tax system. Could the US be next?

Many countries have a simple, fair tax system. Could the US be next?
Jamal is a Syrian refugee living in Tokyo. He's made friends there and learned Japanese. But he misses Syrian food.

Meet one of the handful of Syrians granted asylum in Japan

Meet one of the handful of Syrians granted asylum in Japan
For nine years, Shou Hatori ran a nighttime moving company that helped people disappear in Japan.

Japan's 'evaporated people' have become an obsession for this French couple

In Japan, it's thought that thousands of people disappear themselves, driven underground by the stigma of debt, job loss, even failing an exam.

Japan's 'evaporated people' have become an obsession for this French couple

Nerd's Paradise

Kurt geeks out in Tokyo with a Japanese-pop-culture expert.

Nerd's Paradise
Stockholm's highly-efficient subway system. Trains are known for running frequently and on time. They have large ridership but are not overly crowded because of the frequency of the trains.

US transportation is so far behind Sweden's it's not even funny

America is literally falling apart.

US transportation is so far behind Sweden's it's not even funny
A Tsukiji shopkeeper prepares a basket of live eels for sale.

Sadness prefaces the closing of the world's biggest fish market, Tokyo's Tsukiji

Tokyo's famous fish market has been slated to close for decades. But now it really has to go to make way for the 2020 Olympics.

Sadness prefaces the closing of the world's biggest fish market, Tokyo's Tsukiji
Japan leader

Japan's Democratic Party chooses a new leader

Japan's main opposition party chose a half-Taiwanese former model and TV anchorwoman as its new leader Thursday, as it looks to reboot its fortunes after four years in the political wilderness.

Japan's Democratic Party chooses a new leader
Abe calligraphy 2

Abe's Chinese calligraphy wins plaudits in China

The Japanese leader was lauded after he purportedly left a hand-written note in Chinese thanking a cleaner at the hotel he stayed in for the G20 summit in Hangzhou last week.

Abe's Chinese calligraphy wins plaudits in China
An eye-catching poster from the student group SEALDs, featuring founding member, Wakako Fukuda (right).  SEALDs (Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy) has changed the image of protesters in Japan, and made it okay to speak out.

The student group in Japan that's made it cool to protest

There's a negative image of protesters in Japan, but one student group is changing that.

The student group in Japan that's made it cool to protest

Using Drones to Make Naked Dancers Safe for Television

For a Japanese commercial, drones flying between ballet dancers and the camera are choreographed to (just barely) cover the naughty bits. 

Using Drones to Make Naked Dancers Safe for Television
Flowers are placed on a memorial wall commemorating the late former South and North Korean "comfort women" at the War and Women's Human Rights Museum" in Seoul, South Korea, July 22, 2015. “Comfort women� is the Japanese euphemism for women who were f

Finally, Japan delivers definitive apology to South Korea for 'Comfort Women'

They've been called comfort women by some — and sex slaves by others. Now the Japanese government has officially apologized to the South Korean women forced into brothels during World War II.

Finally, Japan delivers definitive apology to South Korea for 'Comfort Women'
Courtesy of Dave Hilton

A baseball player hits a double, and it launches the career of Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami, the perennial favorite to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, says his desire to write is all due to a double hit by an American baseball player named Dave Hilton. Really? We tracked down that player, and an expert on creativity to see if the story is truth, or fiction.

A baseball player hits a double, and it launches the career of Haruki Murakami