The Tokyo Olympics offer a chance to crown a new set of heroes to inspire budding female athletes. But once the spotlight dims, Japan’s rigid gender norms will still limit opportunities.

Exposed to body art on social media, more young Japanese are getting tattoos, even if that means hiding them at work.

Conservators vastly increased the numbers of red-crowned cranes, a symbol of loyalty and longevity in Japanese culture. That’s just a start.

“I don’t want people to struggle like me,” said Shinjiro Atae, making an announcement that is extremely unusual in conservative Japan.

The contests reflect a culture that often judges women by their appearance and slots them into rigid, gender-defined roles.

Multiracial athletes like Naomi Osaka and Rui Hachimura are helping to redefine what it means to be Japanese. But they are often still seen as outsiders.

Meet the young Japanese who have decided to live in a shoe box.

Niyo Katsura has won acclaim in rakugo, a classical form of Japanese storytelling, by doing anything onstage that a man can do.

Some Japanese who have gone abroad and been exposed to the benefits of cannabis derivatives, particularly CBD, are hoping Japan will change course. But the government shows little inclination.

Tokyo improved its infrastructure before the Games, but activists wonder how long the focus will continue in a country with a long history of excluding people with disabilities.

They get paid in formula and diapers, and their work hours are flexible, in a program that connects people across generations and brightens lives.

Icy relations between the two have long been a headache for Washington. South Korea made a significant step in improving ties this week, perhaps indicating progress to come.

Millions of the messages still crisscross Japan each year, offering congratulations or condolences in a way that more modern communications cannot.

The country has changed vastly from that hopeful moment nearly six decades ago, and the Olympics this time around have come to represent something different and not entirely positive.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was about to give a campaign speech in the western Japanese city of Wakayama when a loud explosion was heard.

【ミスミスター青山コンテスト2020】▼出演▼公式HP：https://miss-mr-aoyama-contest.studio.site/Twitter : https://twitter.com/@aoyama_misscon/Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/@a...

See how a translator carries a book from one language to another, line by line.

While many in the country abhor the kind of harassment Hana Kimura endured before her apparent suicide, some warn that cracking down on it could also chill rising internet activism.

A case involving a graduate student and her art history professor illustrates the tangled state of sexual power dynamics in Japan.

For the time being, political parties across the spectrum are pulling back on their messaging, but the election is still going ahead.

Hitoshi Igarashi, who translated “The Satanic Verses,” was fatally stabbed at a university near Tokyo where he taught Islamic culture. The crime remains unsolved.

Stringent rules on gun ownership had all but eradicated gun violence in the country.

Even Japanese people who said they didn’t follow politics much expressed disbelief.