A 72-year-old retired soldier blew himself up in a park in the Japanese city of Utsunomiya, killing himself and injuring three other people in an apparent suicide, state broadcaster NHK reported. A second explosion, separate from the blast that killed the former Self Defence Force member, caused a fire in a nearby parking lot, while the man’s home eight kilometres from […]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine for war dead on Monday to mark the annual autumn festival at the shrine, which is seen in China and the two Koreas as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism. Past visits by Japanese leaders to Yasukuni have outraged China and South Korea

Matsuri Takahashi was just 24 years old and a graduate of prestigious Tokyo University when she leaped to her death from her company dormitory on Christmas Day last year. Tokyo Labor Bureau investigators ruled her suicide karoshi — death by overwork. The Labor Bureau announced on Oct. 7 that Takahashi had been required to work 100 hours or more of overtime per month

Mount Aso, a volcano on Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu, erupted early on Saturday, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said, spewing volcanic ash 11,000 meters (7 miles) into the sky. Police and municipal governments said there were no reports of injuries from the eruption, which began at 1:46 a.m. local time (1646 GMT Friday) on one