A hotel in Japan is defying the digital books trend and appealing to guests who prefer to curl up with a traditional paper book.

Obliged to hold lost items for three months, police departments in Japan are struggling to handle the rising number of unclaimed umbrellas.

Ballistic missile launch Pyongyang's latest provocation and first test under Trump.

In at least some of these calls, according to some accounts, the American leader lived up to his reputation for straight-talking and bombastic rhetoric.

A Japanese airline has launched a special flight service that allows passengers to fly with their dogs in the main cabin.

The old Japanese-style squat toilets that many foreigners find difficult to use are still commonly found around Japan.

Young Australian complained of a sore leg. Doctors said it was a hip issue. Days later she was dead.

Heartbreaking footage shows a mother dolphin trying desperately to save her calf from Japanese hunters who planned to sell the animals to aquariums.

US President Trump and Russian President Vladi­mir Putin discuss coordinating on ISIS and Syria, Kremlin says.

New Zealand will join Japan, Australia and Singapore in exploring the survival of the TPP without the United States.

A Japanese fortune teller brainwashed a client into prostitution and lived off her earnings.

The once-popular Hokutosei sleeper train was "revived" as a hostel in the Nihonbashi Bakurocho area of central Tokyo.

New Zealand 'disappointed' at Japan's latest whaling foray into the Southern Ocean.

New Zealand Police have helped a grieving Japanese family to visit the Te Urewera site where their relative died in a fire nine years

Conservation group Sea Shepherd have photographed a Japanese whaling ship with a dead whale in protected waters.

The baying of young males on the wind, and the distant, delighted squeals of young girls on the pull, told me the New Year was imminent

China's growth is slowing, but its cities still battle over tall towers and speed records.

A Japanese man engaged in an epic sulk and refused to talk to his wife for 20 years after she upset him despite still living together.

Shinzo Abe's historic visit to Pearl Harbour with Obama punctuates the Obama's multi-year effort to prod Japan and its neighbours to decrease tensions.

Real-time voice translation between Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean will be tested in Tokyo taxis.

Air New Zealand will operate services to a second airport in Tokyo from next year.

More young Kiwis are considering travelling to Asia for that big OE.

An attractive companion will send you text messages throughout the day to ask how you are, and welcome you home with a kind word in the evenings.

Worlds with the mass of Neptune are the most likely planet to form in the icy outer realms of planetary systems, scientists have found in a pioneering new study co-authored by Kiwi researchers.

If you've been to Tokyo, you know the garbage collection system is no joke. Now there's an app to help foreigners understand it.

Sony has quietly dispatched a rival game to Pokemon Go with a popular mobile game called Fate/Grand Order.

Competition in Japan's online shopping market is intensifying.

Linda Lombardi savours oodles of noodles at museums devoted to Japanese obsession.

New Zealand students are performing below the international average when it comes to maths, a new study shows.

WATCH: If you've ever dreamed of combining a heart-racing roller coaster ride with a relaxing soak in a hot spring, Japan's latest theme park idea could be right up your alley.