Japan

In Tokyo, you can enjoy your coffee while piglets roam around you, lick your shoes or sleep on your lap.

Olympic surfing’s debut is proving that these wave riders are unsung masters of science — in climatology, meteorology and oceanography

The two-time Olympian, who is currently in Tokyo as an NBC correspondent with fellow figure skater Tara Lipinski, called the country “one of the most instructional and beautiful places.”

For people in Boston with strong ties to Japan, excitement is building for the Tokyo Olympics, as well as concern for the nation during the coronavirus pandemic.

Tennis player Naomi Osaka didn’t just shake up the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics when she made a surprise appearance to light the cauldron — experts say she also honored her Japanese heritage by climbing a symbolic Mount Fuji in the process.

Here’s how Japan’s culture— video game music and Naomi Osaka —shaped the 2020 Opening Ceremony and the entire Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.

Hanabi, or fireworks, are a staple of summer nights in Japan. Ayako Kiyono and Masa Hattori from InsideJapan share the cultural significance of the displays.

Dispensing everything from fish to suits, Japan’s 5 million vending machines have made the country the convenience capital of the world. But in recent years, vending machine culture has clashed with the need to reduce plastic waste. NBCLX storyteller Fernando Hurtado reports from Tokyo on the country’s efforts to battle climate change.

Tokyo is one of the busiest and biggest cities in the world. It’s also one of the cleanest. NBCLX storyteller Fernando Hurtado reports from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics about how cleanliness became etched into Japan’s national identity — and how hosting the Olympics in 1964 was a turning point in that evolution.

Performers interconnected with a red string during the Tokyo Olympics Opening Ceremony had many meanings, one tied to a children’s game and another about interconnectivity. Ayako Kiyono and Masa Hattori from InsideJapan explain the red string in Japanese culture.

The International Olympic Committee says organizers have done all they can to ensure a safe games as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.

Blue Impulse, the aerobatic squadron of the Japan Air Self Defense Force, rehearse over Tokyo Bay ahead of the Olympics Opening Ceremony.

From bugs to tiny chairs, you can find virtually anything in a vending machine in Japan. Here are some of the items you can purchase from the country’s five million vending machines, according to InsideJapan Tours.

Most of us only know about Japanese samurais from popular films and TV. The history of these warriors is surrounded in mystery with an ancient code of conduct. But their heritage is about more than the art of war and there’s one family keeping an 800-year tradition alive.

WHO’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also criticized the vaccine discrepancies between wealthy and low-income countries.

On the eve of the Tokyo Olympics’ opening ceremony, the government’s attempts to curb a coronavirus surge by targeting drinkers is drowning in liquor, frustration and indifference.

1,700 hours of Olympics programming on the air will come out of a 50,000 square foot nerve center of NBC’s Olympics coverage. And nearly 3,000 people between the U.S. and Japan will bring the games to your TV.

From complex COVID testing routines and GPS tracking to silence in the stands, U.S. athletes are bound for an unprecedented environment at the Tokyo Olympics. “It’s definitely going to be sad not having my family and friends in the stands like I had in Rio,” Olympic sabre fencer Eli Dershwitz said. “I was definitely using that as motivation, you...

England has taken a step into the unknown, lifting nearly all remaining restrictions on public life at a time when coronavirus infections are high.