News On Japan

The annual National Cherry Blossom Festival has begun in Washington. The festival is held around the time cherry trees come into bloom. The trees were presented by the mayor of Tokyo in 1912 as a token of friendship. (NHK)

The government designation as an exclusion zone was lifted for Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture, on Monday and the town was realigned into three nuclear evacuation zones according to estimated annual radiation doses. (Jiji Press)

It was shortly after dawn on February 21 when Kaoru Kobayashi was informed that it was to be his last day alive. Officers at the Osaka Detention Centre told the former newspaper delivery man that the justice minister had signed the paperwork to allow his execution to go ahead. (South China Morning Post)

Over 40 percent of major corporations in Japan intend to hire new graduates next spring at levels similar to those in fiscal 2013 starting April, according to a Kyodo News survey released Sunday, showing the economic policies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government have had little impact so far on hiring plans. (Kyodo)

Financial assets held by Japanese households at the end of December increased 3.1 percent from a year earlier to 1,546.71 trillion yen, the Bank of Japan said Monday. (Kyodo)

J-pop singer Utada Hikaru has been on a music hiatus since 2010, but fans will get to hear her voice on the radio again starting next month. The international icon announced on Thursday that she will host a monthly radio show in Japan. (examiner.com)

Japanese stocks rushed higher in early Monday trade after reports said Cyrpus had reached a tentative deal to unlock aid from European lenders and the International Monetary Fund, with financial shares among the leading advancers. (MarketWatch)

The Hiroshima High Court ruled Monday that the results of last December's general election in Hiroshima's No. 1 and 2 districts were invalid due to significant disparities in the weight of votes. (Kyodo)

A total of 30 applicants from the Philippines and Indonesia have passed an examination held in February qualifying them to work as nurses in Japan, the health ministry said Monday. (Kyodo)

Tokyo District Court ruled Monday that the dismissal of sumo wrestler Sokokurai by the Japan Sumo Association for his suspected involvement in a match-fixing scandal was invalid. (Jiji Press)

Japanese Prince Akishino, Princess Kiko and two of their three children visited Ise Shrine in this western Japan city on Monday. (Jiji Press)

The new Kabukiza theater in Tokyo was shown to the media on Sunday. Reporters saw the stage equipment, dressing rooms and the rehearsal space. (NHK)

Police on Monday sent to prosecutors the case of a woman who killed herself in December, alleging she confined and murdered two people in Amagasaki, western Japan, in 2008. (Kyodo)

Japanese currency chief Takehiko Nakao is the sole nominee for the presidency of the Asian Development Bank, Philippine Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said in a mobile-phone text message today, ensuring that Japan will maintain its hold on the top post at the lender. (Bloomberg)

A fishing boat which was carried several hundred meters inland by the March 11, 2011 tsunami in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, will finally be taken apart and removed. (Japan Today)

Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. on Tuesday provided the Maritime Self-Defense Force with the first P-1 next-generation patrol aircraft of Japan. (Jiji Press)

Japan were left to count the cost of a second-half penalty miss by Yasuhito Endo as the Asian champions crashed to a controversial 2-1 away defeat to Jordan that ruined their chance of becoming the first team to qualify for the 2014 Brazil World Cup on Tuesday. (Kyodo)

Japan's one-time maverick internet tycoon Takafumi Horie used Twitter to announce his release from prison after serving nearly two years for accounting fraud. (The Standard)

Tokyo plans to provide extra aid to African states to foster stability on the continent, but also to give Japanese companies a better foothold so they do not slip further behind China in the economic diplomacy stakes. (Deutsche Welle)

Japan's Mitsubishi Motors says a short circuit in the batteries of its plug-in hybrid car may have been caused by foreign objects introduced during production. (NHK)

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