Hayden Donnell discovers the dangers - and exhilaration - of Sapporo Beer Garden.

Can a Kiwi cyclist out-sprint a hungry brown bear? In Japan Victoria Clark fixates on this point while pedalling through Hokkaido's forests. She need not have worried.

Rugby players from a top school have been caught shoplifting at a world championship in Japan.

An extremely rare female deep-water megamouth shark has been caught off the coast of Shizuoka in Japan, in what is believed to be only the 58th known sighting of the animal on record.

This resort in Hokkaido prefecture, 1000km north of Tokyo, gets enough snow to allow skiing for seven months of the year.

For further information see 360niseko.com.

New Zealand has a rival for the world's most breathtaking landscapes, writes Hayden Donnell, after taking in the view from Mt Annupuri during a skiing trip to the resort of Niseko on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Australia is on track to notch what experts are calling an "Asia Inc" trade trifecta.

Japan, the world's third-biggest economy, has a long and notorious history of protectionism.

China carries out more executions than any other country, a new report has estimated.

A Japanese court has decided to release a man who was sentenced to death in 1980 in a high-profile murder case based on new DNA evidence.

Scientists are to check whether NZ muttonbirds that spend the winter off the coast of Japan have been exposed to radiation from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Ian D. Robinson dresses in traditional clothes to watch equally traditional Japanese theatre.

Toyota has agreed to increase base wages in Japan for the first time since 2008 as the nation's largest carmaker heads for record profits.

The control room for the crippled No 1 and No 2 reactors is coated in pink plastic sheeting. The lights on the monitoring panels are all out.

In the year in which Misao Okawa was born in Osaka, Queen Victoria was still on the British throne.

Exhausted, bloodied and burned by the Indonesian sun, five Japanese divers are recovering after being pulled from the waters off Bali.

Tokyo has elected a new governor despite a "sex strike" held by a group of women in protest against men who voted for him.

Due to their illegal status, casinos in Japan have traditionally been small, seedy, backroom-style places found in the same neighbourhoods as hostess bars or massage parlours.

A majority of voters want NZ to keep out of any conflict that could flare up in the East China Sea.

Washington and Tokyo have been drawn into an unexpected diplomatic spat over the annual slaughter of dolphins in Taiji.

On March 12, 2011, the day after a huge tsunami hit Japan's northeast coast, the USS Ronald Reagan entered the Sea of Japan on a humanitarian mission.

A fisherman has become a phenomenon in his native Japan after catching a four-metre giant squid off the coast of Sadogashima Island.

Australia will be monitoring Japan's whale hunt from the air instead of the sea in a decision both the Greens and whaling protesters have called a broken election promise.

Leaders from Japan and 10 Southeast Asian countries on Saturday pledged to co-operate in ensuring freedom of navigation.

Fine sediment clay within the Japan Trench plate boundary megathrust fault, was a key factor in triggering the devastating Fukushima tsunami in March 2011, according to a new study involving Otago University researchers.