Japan’s phone environment is set for sweeping changes in 2026, with mobile numbers nearing exhaustion and long-standing services such as feature phones, the Town Page directory and the 104 information line all coming to an end. (News On Japan)

A ceremonial “whirlpool opening” was held in the Naruto Strait on February 15th, between Naruto City in Tokushima Prefecture and Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture, marking the start of the spring tourism season, with massive whirlpools forming beneath the Onaruto Bridge that spans the strait. (News On Japan)

A deep-sea exploration vessel that successfully recovered mud containing rare earth elements from a depth of 5,600 meters for the first time in the world has returned to Shimizu Port in Shizuoka City. (News On Japan)

Medical consultation fees at healthcare institutions in Japan are set to rise starting in June as authorities move to address soaring costs and wage increases, with around 70 percent of hospitals nationwide currently operating at a loss. (News On Japan)

The global matcha boom is driving up costs in Japan’s historic tea capital, with Uji City in Kyoto Prefecture set to raise usage fees at its municipal tea rooms by roughly 50% as soaring demand pushes up the price of tencha, the raw material used to produce matcha. (News On Japan)

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson urged crew members to abide by laws and regulations while calling on Japan to ensure fair law enforcement after a Chinese fishing vessel was seized in Japan’s exclusive economic zone off Goto, Nagasaki Prefecture, on February 13th. (News On Japan)

A man has been arrested on suspicion of posing as a model audition for an underwear brand and photographing women in their underwear. (News On Japan)

A unique certificate is being issued to visitors to Fuji City in Shizuoka Prefecture who arrive hoping to see Mount Fuji but find the famous peak hidden from view, part of a local effort to share the mountain’s ever-changing charm even on cloudy days. (News On Japan)

Hibakusha (被爆者) is the Japanese word for the survivors of the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This powerfull documentary shows how the survivors of the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki travel to New York for a UN conference on disarming nuclear weapons. (TRNGL)

Losses from special fraud and SNS-based investment and romance scams in Osaka Prefecture over the past year exceeded 33.9 billion yen, marking a record high. (News On Japan)

A ceremony was held in Kyiv on February 11th where the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) presented generators to Ukraine as the country grapples with worsening electricity shortages following Russian attacks on energy facilities, with citizens struggling to endure severe winter conditions and international assistance for power infrastructure continuing to grow. (News On Japan)

Six junior high school students were taken to hospital after falling ill from eating pizza made during a home economics class in Kitakyushu last month, with officials suspecting the cause to be an excessive amount of salt added to the dough. (News On Japan)

PayPay, Japan’s leading QR-code payment service, has announced a partnership with Visa, the world’s largest credit card network, as it looks to expand into the United States, where QR payments remain far less common and tap-to-pay dominates everyday transactions. (News On Japan)

A towering column of water reaching about 15 meters erupted in a residential area of Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, on February 12th after a valve loosened during water pipe repair work, flooding nearby streets and startling residents. (News On Japan)

Mazda said on February 10th that it fell into a net loss of 14.7 billion yen for the nine months from April to December 2025, marking its first deficit in five years, as U.S. tariff policies under the Trump administration weighed heavily on earnings. (News On Japan)

A startup is working to curb global warming by feeding seaweed to cattle in an effort to reduce methane emissions from their burps, with plans to commercialize the technology in the coming years. (News On Japan)

Sapporo City is set to begin procedures as early as February 12th to issue a demolition order requiring the removal of all buildings at North Safari Sapporo, which closed in September 2025 over illegal construction issues, after more than 30 unauthorized structures were found to remain on the site in Minami Ward, Hokkaido. (News On Japan)

Sony is considering spinning off its television business, long symbolized by its BRAVIA brand, in a move that could mark a decisive step away from consumer electronics and toward a new identity centered on entertainment and intellectual property. (News On Japan)

A popular household adhesive known as “Bond” is disappearing from store shelves across Japan, with the shortage linked to a continuing boom in a trendy type of sticker that has become especially popular among younger consumers. (News On Japan)

A renewed water outage struck Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture after supplies briefly resumed on February 11th morning, with authorities reinstating water restrictions from 9 p.m. as frozen pipes and low reservoir levels linked to an intense cold wave continued to disrupt supply across the region. (News On Japan)