News On Japan

Service partly resumed Wednesday on a northeastern Japan coastal train line devastated by the March 2011 tsunami. (Jiji Press)

As was expected before the recent Haru Basho in Osaka, both yokozuna, on the back of too little practice, and too many public engagements started the tournament less than convincingly. (Japan Times)

North Korea has moved an object that appears to be a mid-range missile to its east coast, Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday, citing multiple South Korean government sources. (Kyodo)

The collective wealth of Japan's 50 Richest tops $112 billion. Tadashi Yanai occupies the top spot once again at $15.5 billion, a 46% gain from last year. (Forbes)

The U.S. Defense Department said Wednesday it will deploy a land-based missile defense system to Guam for the first time in coming weeks "as a precautionary move" to counter the threat of North Korean ballistic missiles amid increasingly hostile posturing by Pyongyang. (Kyodo)

The Bank of Japan decided Thursday to further ease its monetary policy under a new monetary framework, displaying new Governor Haruhiko Kuroda's resolve to pursue further monetary easing to achieve a 2 percent inflation target in about 2 years to fight deflation. (Kyodo)

A man in the Chinese province of Zhejiang has died of the H7N9 strain of bird flu, state media said Wednesday, bringing the total deaths attributed to the virus to three since the first human cases. (The West)

A male employee of Hokuriku Electric Power has been arrested for carrying out an indecent sex act with a second year female high school student. (ANNnewsCH)

A woman has been arrested after stabbing her boyfriend to death with a kitchen knife in a love hotel in Osaka Prefecture. (ANNnewsCH)

Nearly half of grandparents say they would like to take advantage of the new tax exemption for cash gifts of up to 15 million yen per grandchild for education expenses, according to an Internet survey by Dentsu Inc. (Yomiuri)

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday urged Japan to increase the number of women in the workforce through deregulation and other measures, given its aging population, to sustain economic growth. (Kyodo)

Japan's agriculture ministry refrained from buying food wheat via a regular weekly tender as it felt next week would be a better time, a ministry official said on Thursday. (Reuters)

Mr Cameron made his first official visit to Japan last year to promote trade and investment. But after dark his time was taken up with knocking back cups of sake with his Japanese counterpart, former prime minister Yoshihiko Noda. (telegraph.co.uk)

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An international research group says it has picked up what may be the first physical trace left by the universe's mysterious "dark matter". (NHK)

Japan is becoming Ferrari's next growth market. Registrations of Fiat SpA (F)'s ultra-luxury brand surged 40 percent to 144 vehicles in Japan last quarter, according to the Japan Automobile Importers Association yesterday. (Bloomberg)

When Takafumi Horie was released from prison on March 27th, he hit Facebook, expanding his network from some 1,700 contacts to 3,300 a week later. The former boss of Livedoor, an internet firm, was convicted of fraud and jailed in 2011. (The Economist)

The Kyoto Imperial Palace has begun its annual spring viewing. The former official residence of Japan's emperors opened to the public on Thursday. The palace welcomes visitors for 5 days every spring and autumn. (NHK)

Looking at East Asia through Japan's eyes, there are a number of challenges that, if not managed carefully, risk spoiling the future stability and prosperity of Japan and the entire region. (East Asia Forum)

Police in Saitama and Gunma have cooperated to break up a cannabis cultivation operation discovered in Gunma Prefecture. (Japan Today)

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