Top Stories - Japan

At Choin-in Temple in Kyoto, Japan, it takes 17 monks to ring in the new year. It's an amazing event to witness, which thousands do every New Year's Eve. This post includes a photo gallery and a video of the event.

Forbes recently conducted research to find the big cities with the best commutes. Despite being notorious for their lack of rules in traffic, more than half of the Top10 best commutes are located in Asia.

1. Hong Kong, China
2. Tokyo, Japan
3. Chennai, India
4. Dakar, Senegal
5. Osaka, Japan
6. London, UK
7. Beijing, China
8. Mumbai, India
9. Krakow, Poland

I lost my Japanese nationality almost 30 years ago pursuant to Article 11 of the Nationality Law (which I believe applied to Dr. Nambu as well). Will I want to get my Japanese nationalty back if they decide to allow dual citizenship? Well, I think I'm fine with just one passport issued by the country I feel home, although I might feel differetnly if I had kids.

Unless they have return tickets home...? Still there is hope, maybe, because "some people are beginning to imagine a more mixed Japan".

This is a repost from last year but I'm putting up again to show people what goes on at the New Year at Japanese Temples in case they are wondering what to do for that night.

Zojo-ji in Hammatsucho lets loose dozens of whitel balloons, rings a giant bell, makes a bonfire, and makes mochi the old fashion way.

New Year travel plans were thrown out for nearly 140,000 people Monday after a computer glitch disrupted more than 250 of Japan's bullet trains, the operator said.

The trouble came a day after heavy snow and strong winds separately forced the company to suspend 35 bullet train services, also in eastern and northern Japan, affecting more than 30,000 passengers.

The chairman of Central Japan Railway Co. said a costly project to build the next generation of maglev train would go ahead, brushing aside concerns about the impact of the global economic crisis.

Building the magnetically levitated train between Tokyo and Nagoya is expected to cost of 5.1 trillion yen (56 billion dollars) and will take until 2025.

My first Christmas in Japan was quite a surprise. When I got here, I didn't expect the Japanese people I would meet to be very religious, so after arriving in my city I was surprised to find myself surrounded by a kind community of Japanese Baptists who ran a friendly church complete with a kindergarten for the local kids. Then came the Buddhist Christmas...

Actually this is quite a dull story I rally more interested in the Editors Pick on the right about the naked girls with guns calender

During his first trip to Washington as Japan's PM in 1965, Eisaku Sato told then-U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara that American military forces could launch a nuclear attack on China by sea if needed.

"Blue Mondays are no problem for Japanese workers. They are more likely to be afflicted with angst and psychosomatic symptoms from conditions with names like 'Sunday Disease' and 'The Holiday Syndrome. One doctor, for example, has described the case of a stricken accountant: 'Every Friday, without fail, he feels a sharp pain spreading across the back of his neck.

Around one in three candidates have refused to serve as lay judges under Japan's new judicial system. A call center set up for candidates also is reporting that about half the calls it gets are to find out if service as a lay judge can be refused.

A dozen F-22 stealth fighter jets will be deployed to the southern Japan island of Okinawa for three months from January, the Air Force said in a statement Wednesday. It will be their second deployment to the island in two years.

I was flittering around on Twitter today and noticed a question posted by someone who had just been in Japan (Dr. Beth Meyer), asking why buffets over here are called bai-kin (viking).

I replied it was because of: buffet > smorgasbord > From Sweden > Land of the Vikings

For many people, the word conjures up images of sun-dappled rooms filled with natural colors and small, well-chosen objets d’art. In Japanese and Chinese, zakka (雜貨) literally means “many goods.” But what exactly is zakka?