insert_link Japan Ring in the new year on your phone: Apps offer alternate to Japan temple tradition [ad_1] As midnight approaches on New Year's Eve, many across Japan line up for their turn to strike large, heavy bells at temples — altogether, they're struck 108 times to represent the number of one's desires and temptations — to ring out the year.In recent years, however, temples have scheduled bell-ringing events for different times of the day or stopped the tradition altogether amid noise complaints from nearby residents.Amid such […] todayJanuary 1, 2024 2
insert_link Japan Kishida mulls dropping Latin America trip amid fund scandal [ad_1] Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is considering forgoing a plan to visit Brazil and other Latin American nations in January amid a political fundraising scandal involving his party's biggest faction, a government source said Sunday. The move comes as Kishida, who doubles as the head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, needs to pull together his political foothold following allegations that the faction created hundreds of millions of yen in […] todayJanuary 1, 2024 1