If you’ve ever traveled in Asia, you may have been caught off guard by a symbol considered by most Western travelers as a sign of fascism. The swastika is an ancient Sanskrit symbol meaning “good ...

Japan’s Emperor Akihito, the first to serve from the outset in a purely ceremonial role, signaled his wish to step down in a matter of years, national broadcaster NHK reported. The emperor, 82, has ...

A Japanese proposal to stop using swastikas to identify temples on tourist maps has sparked a backlash. Japan's official map-making body said foreigners might mistake it for a Nazi symbol, and that ...

In response to recent criticism, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) has released a new set of standard symbols for foreign-language maps. According to Tomoko Otake of the Japan Times, ...

On the left, the temple symbol currently used on Japanese-language maps, and on the right is the proposed new symbol for foreign-language maps A Japanese proposal to stop using swastikas to identify ...