A visitor takes a selfie in front of blooming wisteria at Kameido-tenjin shrine during the annual wisteria festival in Tokyo, Japan.

Japan is notorious for its long working hours, which have been blamed for a national health crisis known as "karoshi" -- death from overwork. Panasonic hopes to curb this, instructing its 100,000-ish employees to work no later than 8 p.m. each day, reports Asahi Shimbun. This hour reduction still enables a 55-hour working week, but the directive from Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga also limited overtime to 80 hours a month.

Organisers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics say the medals will be forged from recycled metal from old mobile phones and appliances donated by the public.

Photograph by Sandro Bisaro.

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) has posted a loss of $52 billion for April to June, following the tumbling Tokyo stock market and the yen’s surge.

The next Games provides baseball a rare opportunity to sell itself on the world stage – and it needs its best players to showcase the sport.

Known for making free-thinking comments and actions that are politically awkward for her husband, Akie Abe has done it again. The wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a surprise visit Sunday to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, a venue that no Japanese prime minister has visited, least of all Abe. Critics see the conservative leader as maintaining a revisionist view on Japan’s actions in World War II, but his wife’s gesture has left many wondering if Shinzo Abe will pay his respects at the site later this year.

Eight women were slashed Sunday afternoon in a suspected knife attack at an amusement park pool in western suburb of Akiruno, the Tokyo Fire Department said. The victims, all around 20 years old, sustained only light injuries but were taken to a hospital for treatment. All were wounded in the buttocks, firefighters said. The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the attack, which occurred at a large wave pool at Tokyo Summerland, an amusement park with indoor and outdoor pools. The wave pool was packed at the time, according to the park operator.

Across Japan, millions of 18-year-old students have been getting instruction in a brand new topic: how to vote. Some 2.4 million 18- and 19-year-olds are eligible for the first time to cast ballots in this Sunday's House of Councillors election. Their entree into the voting booth marks the biggest enfranchisement in Japan since 1946, when women were granted suffrage and the voting age was reduced from 25 to 20. In a country where more than a quarter of citizens are 65 or older, empowering the rising generation to engage in politics is seen as a possible avenue for injecting...

An extremely rare glimpse at the Japanese capital city of Tokyo when it was still mostly dirt roads, filmed by a man employed by the Lumiere brothers, in the year 1899.

Japan's first "naked restaurant" opens in Tokyo next month with draconian rules of entry -- podgy prospective diners will be weighed and ejected if found to be too fat. Following the lead of establishments in London and Melbourne, "The Amrita" -- Sanskrit for 'immortality' -- also has strict age restrictions, with only patrons between 18 and 60 allowed in, after they check in their clothes and put on paper underwear provided by the restaurant.

A major Japanese travel agency has cancelled a promotion offering passengers the chance to fly with female university students chosen from a “pictorial book of beautiful girls” after an online backlash. Local media reported that H.I.S. Co offered five groups of winners the in-flight companionship of female students enrolled at the University of Tokyo, who would share their knowledge en route about the overseas destination and its tourist attractions.

The impending arrival of autonomous vehicles has a lot of engineers wondering: What will the interior of a smart car look like without the steering wheel, pedals, and gauges? And what will we do with ourselves if we’re not driving? Mercedes-Benz has a feeling we’ll hang out like we’re on a futuristic party bus. The company’s Vision Tokyo concept car, unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show, is aimed at drivers who love their digital toys. A circular leather couch that seats up to five...

Japan will debut autonomous taxis, instant language translation, man-made meteor showers, and more.

Does anyone really want to eat food that is not themed after a '90s-era anime? No, of course not. Which is why we're all going to be booking tickets to Tokyo starting April 16. A Sialor Moon-themed restaurant will be opening in the Tokyo neighborhood of Roppongi, and their menu will include a Sailor...

It's muggy and I'm confused. I don't understand where I am, though it was only a short walk from my Airbnb studio to this little curry place. I don’t understand the lunch menu, or even if it is a lunch menu. Could be a religious tract or a laminated ransom note. I’m new in Tokyo, and sweaty, and jet-lagged. But I am entirely at ease. I owe this to my friend Miyabi. She’s one of those reassuring presences, warm and eternally nodding...

If all goes according to plan, visitors to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will be awestruck before the sporting contests even begin. Attendees will be shuttled around the city by self-driving taxis. They’ll enter a newly built national stadium with the swipe of a pass, get verified by facial recognition software and be guided to their seats in one of 10 languages on a smartphone app. They may gaze up at the night sky from anywhere in Tokyo...

Kyu-Shiba-Rikyu Garden,Tokyo,Japan

September 2014: Yoshiyuki Morioka, a bookseller who had been running a store in Tokyo, Japan for 10 years, had a curious thought. Lots of customers, it seemed, dropped in during book launches and other events to buy the same title; others often appeared overwhelmed by all the extra variety. So why not start a bookstore that only sold one book at a time?

Plans for a mile high skyscraper in Tokyo could be twice as tall as the current tallest building in the world, Dubai's Burj Khalifa. This super-tall building is set to reach a height of 5,577ft and host up to 55,000 people in Tokyo bay, an inlet southeast of the Japanese capital.