The hiker's GPS watch, which uses satellite signals to log routes and monitors heart rate, was retrieved after the fatal attack, the Asahi Shimbun reported.

Two Russian strategic bombers Tu-95 that flew down from the airspace east of the Korean Peninsula joined a pair of Chinese H-6 bombers over the East China Sea for a joint flight down to the Pacific off the southern coast of Japan's Shikoku island.

This follows joint drills by Chinese and Russian strategic bombers and fighters on Tuesday that prompted Japan and South Korea to scramble planes to monitor them.

While diplomatic tensions between the two countries are not new, both have little to gain from the current dispute subsiding.

Mr. Osako’s company employs two dozen potters and sells its distinctive pieces across Japan. While embracing his heritage, Mr. Osako tells his 33-year-old son, who will one day succeed him, to create a style that is uniquely his. “It’s not the materials that you’re given,” he said. “It’s what you make with them.”

A three-day cycling journey through Akita’s countryside reveals local craftsmanship, soothing hot springs, traditional foods and songs, and the people keeping Japan’s rural culture alive.

These design-led waterfront villas are Japan distilled, with flourishes of understated luxury. Surrounded by a peaceful moat, these wooden modernist villas look out toward cloud-crested islands and sit next to the colorful containers of the Simose Art Museum —winner of the 2024 Prix Versailles and dubbed the "world's most beautiful museum."

NANJING, China, Dec 13 (Reuters) - China held a low-key memorial ceremony on Saturday for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with President Xi Jinping not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan.