From ingestible oils and gummies to skin lotions and makeup, products made from cannabidiol, an extract of the cannabis plant devoid of its psychoactive properties, are rapidly gaining popularity in Japan. (Kyodo)

Climbing season at Mount Fuji has started for trails in Yamanashi Prefecture, central Japan. (NHK)

Randy Bachman has performed many times on Canada Day, but the event he played this year is like no other. (CBC)

Did you know Japan made some American inventions EVEN BETTER? You might not believe it, because USA #1, but constant improvement is part of Japanese DNA! (Mrs Eats)

All Nippon Airways Co. said Thursday that it will resume direct flights from Beijing to Narita Airport near Tokyo on July 11, after being suspended for more than two years against a backdrop of the coronavirus spread. (Japan Times)

Japanese porn actress Rina Arano was reported missing on June 8 this year. (asiaone.com)

Apple on Thursday raised the price of iPhone models in Japan, making the product more expensive for Japanese consumers. In some cases, prices are now almost 20% higher, which may be a reflection of the local currency getting weaker against the dollar. (9to5mac.com)

Japanese researchers say they have successfully filmed a giant rare deep-sea fish in the Pacific called the "yokozuna iwashi." (NHK)

Today's numerous data releases, from inflation to labour to business surveys, suggest a positive outlook for Japan in the near term. The overall picture is still mixed and the figures aren't good enough to change the central bank's current stance (think.ing)

Japan’s energy “interests must not be undermined”, Tokyo said Friday, after Moscow issued a decree transferring operations of a key oil and gas project to a new Russian company. (The Sun daily )

Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) reported on Friday an investment loss of $16 billion in January-March, the first quarterly negative return in two years, as higher U.S. interest rates and the war in Ukraine rattled financial markets. (channelnewsasia.com)

Two weeks ago, investigators arrested Mitsunobu Hino, a 72-year-old resident of Matsudo, on charges of property damage after Hino was seen on security camera footage carrying a wara ningyo at a shrine shortly before one of the dolls was found nailed to the ground’s sacred tree. (soranews24.com)

The average land price in Japan as of Jan. 1 was up 0.5 percent from a year earlier, the National Tax Agency said Friday, rebounding from a fall in 2021 as the country recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. (Kyodo)

Japanese drinks giant Kirin said Monday it will withdraw from Myanmar, after a failed bid to disentangle its operations from a joint venture with a junta-owned company after last year's coup. (france24.com)

Police in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, on Thursday arrested a former member of KAT-TUN, an all-male idol group, on suspicion of violating the Stimulants Control Law, just nine days after he was convicted and given a suspended sentence for a similar crime earlier this year. (Japan Today)

In Japan, gay marriage is not legal. The national government has maintained that only a man and a woman can be wedded, a position backed as recently as last month by a court in Osaka. (VICE)

Business sentiment among Japan's large manufacturers cooled for the second straight quarter amid economic headwinds, including the war in Ukraine, the extended lockdown in China, and global supply shortages and inflation, the Bank of Japan's latest Tankan survey showed Friday. (Nikkei)

We are going to Hokkaido by ferry today and stay in the ferry suite. The ferry departs from Maizura. (Shiba Travel)

Shohei Ohtani continued his red-hot form on the mound Wednesday, striking out 11 and stretching his scoreless streak to a career-high 21-2/3 innings in the Los Angeles Angels' 4-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox. (Kyodo)

Japan is a country which has gone through many phases of power and decline. Here are the last (and future) 5 of those phases. Why does Japan go through these, and what will happen in its future? (h0ser)