News On Japan

Despite a lack of experience in foreign policy, or any other kind of politics, Caroline Kennedy looks set to receive a warm reception in Japan if her appointment as the next US ambassador to the country is confirmed. (csmonitor.com)

North Korea says it will refurbish and restart its disabled nuclear reactor at Nyongbyon, apparently to suggest that it plans to extract toxic plutonium from its spent nuclear fuel. (NHK)

Tokyo Tower was lit up in blue for the U.N. World Autism Awareness Day on Tuesday, along with over 40 other towers and buildings in Japan. (Jiji Press)

Japan's Supreme Court decided Tuesday to dismiss an appeal against a high court ruling that the government was not responsible for deaths of two patients caused by side effects from the Iressa lung cancer drug. (Jiji Press)

The United Nations has adopted its first ever treaty aimed at controlling the trade in conventional weapons, voting it through by a large majority despite earlier being blocked by three countries. (guardian.co.uk)

Japan's Nikkei average jumped 3% on Wednesday, its biggest one-day rise in almost two months, on growing expectations that the central bank will announce further easing steps on Thursday. (Business Standard)

Japanese premier Shinzo Abe has played down a pledge by the new central bank governor to do "whatever it takes" to meet his 2pc inflation target within two years, conceding that changes in the global economy could limit the Bank of Japan's powers to kick start the languid economy. (telegraph.co.uk)

A governmental food safety panel approved on Wednesday a plan to raise the age limit for exempting domestic cattle from testing for mad cow disease until they reach 48 months, up from the current 30 months. (Kyodo)

Expanding on deployments that started in February, every station that Tokyo Metro directly manages now lets travelers hop on WiFi, 15 minutes at a time. (engadget.com)

Japanese car makers' sales in China in the first three months of the year have yet to recover fully from last year's slump, and foreign rivals are capitalising in a market expecting 7 percent growth in 2013. (Reuters)

Desmostylians, a group of extinct mammals with unique teeth that looked like bundles of pipes, lived "essentially" in water, a study by Japanese and German researchers has suggested. (Jiji Press)

Women are increasingly finding opportunities to learn or enjoy traditional Japanese arts and games primarily pursued by men. (Kyodo)

This is it - the moment the Abenomics-watchers have been waiting for. Overnight, the Bank of Japan will conclude its first monetary policy meeting with new BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda at the helm. (businessinsider.com)

Acclaimed Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa said Wednesday he wants to use the time he "has been given by God" after surviving cancer to teach the next generation of musicians. (france24.com)

McDonald's Japan has announced that a new uniform will be introduced in June, which will be the first new uniform to be introduced to franchises in Asia. (crunchyroll.com)

A joint-venture deal between Sony and medical equipment maker Olympus has won regulatory approval, the firms said Wednesday, after it was held up by China's competition watchdog. (Channel NewsAsia)

A station guard at Tokyo's Kinshicho Station has been arrested for allegedly slashing a man with a knife on the station platform in February. (Japan Today)

An alarm went off at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on Wednesday to warn that a dust monitor near the main gate of the plant had detected radiation materials above a certain level in the air, ,Tokyo Electric Power Co. , the plant's operator, said the same day. (Jiji Press)

The Yakuza in Japan has links that extend as far back as 400 years to Edo era. But their days of protecting the weak against the strong are long gone. (AlJazeeraEnglish)

A Japanese team, including a researcher from Yamaguchi University, said Wednesday it has discovered a new mineral containing rare earths at a mountain in Ise in Mie Prefecture, central Japan. (Jiji Press)

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