A hit-and-run accident involving a Taiwanese tourist may be the final nail in the coffin of go-kart tours that have become one of the most popular ways to see Tokyo and a number of other Japanese cit…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 8 years, 6 months ago | 0 comments

Nissan is preparing to launch its own self-driving taxi service, a sign that the Japanese auto giant is interested in challenging Uber in the race to deploy a fleet of money-making autonomous vehicle…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 8 years, 6 months ago | 0 comments

The mascots for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics have been announced.

School children from about 16,000 elementary schools across Japan and overseas voted from among 3 sets of mascots shortlis…

posted by  Yubi | 8 years, 6 months ago | 1 comment

Pictograms on how to use Japanese electric toilets have been registered as a global standard in a step aimed at making such signs more familiar to the growing number of foreign tourists visiting the …

posted by  Yubi | 8 years, 6 months ago | 0 comments

Authorities have detained 341 foreign nationals working illegally in the first crackdown targeting asylum seekers in areas under the jurisdiction of the Tokyo and Nagoya immigration bureaus, an effor…

posted by  Yubi | 8 years, 6 months ago | 0 comments

The Japanese government will require long-stay visitors from 6 Asian countries to be tested for tuberculosis before they travel to Japan.

The new visa requirement will be applied to people from the P…

posted by  Yubi | 8 years, 6 months ago | 0 comments

Police in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan, have acknowledged that they failed to respond to repeated calls by a mother to rescue her son, whose car was stuck in deep snow.

The 19-year-old was found d…

posted by  Yubi | 8 years, 6 months ago | 0 comments

Japan's government has unveiled designs for 5 commemorative coins for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

The coins are the first of about 30 to be issued in 4 installments in the run-up to the …

posted by  Yubi | 8 years, 6 months ago | 0 comments

The Japanese government says Emperor Akihito's abdication ceremony will be held next year on April 30th, the day he steps down, as a state event.

The panel headed by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide…

posted by  Yubi | 8 years, 6 months ago | 0 comments

Sony says it’s partnering with Daiwa Motor Transportation and five other local taxi companies in Japan to build a new taxi-hailing system to match drivers with riders via a mobile app, similar to how…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 8 years, 6 months ago | 0 comments