INDEPENDENT
 
Record snowfall has blanketed Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, causing widespread travel disruptions and prompting calls for assistance from stranded motorists.
The heavy snow, deemed record-breaking by the Hokkaido prefectural government, has particularly impacted the island's ...

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JAPAN TIMES
 
An artificial intelligence-based chatbot will start answering questions from a Buddhist viewpoint in English in Bhutan, its developers including a Kyoto University professor said Monday.
The team of the university and a startup initially developed a chatbot called Buddhabot in 2021 ...

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NIPPON
 
UFO fans are increasingly active in Japan, where lawmakers have called for official investigations and UFO events have attracted many visitors.
The trend, which followed U.S. developments including the establishment of a special organization to analyze eyewitness information and other da...

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JAPAN TODAY
 
U.S. tech giant OpenAI on Monday unveiled a ChatGPT tool called "deep research" ahead of high-level meetings in Tokyo, as China's DeepSeek chatbot heats up competition in the AI field.
Artificial intelligence newcomer DeepSeek has sent Silicon Valley into a frenzy, with its high per...

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CNA
 
Five households in the immediate vicinity of a massive, ever-widening sinkhole near Tokyo were urged to evacuate on Sunday (Feb 2), with efforts to rescue a man stuck inside reportedly halted.
A 74-year-old truck driver was swallowed on Tuesday by the cavity which has since expanded to 40m ...

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VOI.ID
 
Seattle-based global coffee shop network, United States, Starbucks, last month launched a plant-based straw that is biodegradable for its outlets in Japan starting this month.
Starbucks Coffee Japan Ltd., will replace the paper straws it uses with biomass alternatives originating from pl...

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KYODO NEWS
 
Miho Takagi set a Japan record with her 35th speed skating World Cup individual gold medal Friday, eclipsing Hiroyasu Shimizu and Nao Kodaira for the most from the country in distances contested at the Winter Olympics.
The 30-year-old reached the landmark after clocking 1 minute, 13....

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JAPAN TIMES
 
 
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian bombers flew over international waters around the country, Tokyo's top government spokesman said Friday.
"We confirmed that Russian military bombers and fighter jets flew over the high seas of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan yeste...

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XINHUA
 
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday expressed concern over the United States' decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO), Jiji Press reported.
"The U.S. has played a crucial role in global health. From Japan's perspective, we do not welcome any move that w...

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BBC
 
Rescue workers in Japan are trying to pull out a truck driver from a sinkhole that appeared on Tuesday and has since widened.
The sinkhole appeared in Yashio city in Saitama prefecture, near the capital Tokyo, swallowing a truck.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by road collapses, and offi...

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