News On Japan

City officials in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, warned Thursday that a series of landslides that brought down part of a cliff-top tea field on Tuesday, may not be over. The landslides have so far sent about 50,000 cubic meters of earth and sand into the Sugigawa river flowing beneath it (Japan Today)

For Japanese jazz musicians these days, going to the United States to further mastery of the genre is a much-pursued rite of passage. This route has enabled a number of acts to gain international recognition and success. (Japan Times)

A mysterious pestilence has befallen Yakushima's primaeval forests, leaving behind the bleached, skeletal remains of dead trees that now dot the dark green mountainsides. (Sydney Morning Herald)

A 37-year-old man has been arrested for exposing his genitals to schoolchildren at a school in Tokyo, police said Thursday. (Japan Today)

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday there is no problem for his Cabinet members to visit the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, even if there is criticism from China or South Korea. (Kyodo)

A Japanese research team said Wednesday it has reproduced the pathological condition of muscular dystrophy by using induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells. (Jiji Press)

Roppongi Hills, a large-scale commercial and residential complex in central Tokyo, celebrated its 10th anniversary on Thursday, with its reputation as one of the busiest trendy facilities in Japan showing no sign of fading. (Jiji Press)

The mother of an epileptic crane driver who caused the deaths of six children in an accident in Tochigi Prefecture in April 2011 has been ordered by the Utsunomiya District Court to pay compensation to the victims' families. (Japan Today)

Boeing reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit even as it scrambled to fix its grounded 787. (Yomiuri)

Aiming to establish itself as a major exchange in Asia, the Tokyo Stock Exchange plans to create a new stock price index that focuses on return on equity (ROE). (Yomiuri)

Koyasan Shingon Buddhism, the Japanese owner of a cluster of World Heritage Site temples founded in the 9th century, reported losses equal to about a quarter of its assets after bets in the Australian dollar and structured bonds soured. (financialpost.com)

Japanese investors are repatriating funds from around the world at an accelerating pace, dashing hopes that stimulus from the Bank of Japan will flood global asset markets with newly-printed money. (telegraph.co.uk)

Japanese entrepreneur Takahito Iguchi wants people to see the world through other people's eyes. But as a less ambitious jumping off point, he'll kick it off with a world that looks like a Japanese manga cartoon. (gigaom.com)

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Thursday discussed how they can speed up consultations with China on the South China Sea territorial dispute. (Kyodo)

A memorial service was held on Thursday to mark the eighth anniversary of the 2005 Fukuchiyama Line train crash in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, which killed more than 100 people. (Jiji Press)

Photos published in a tabloid magazine this week show AKB48′s Tomomi Kasai staying overnight with the president of AKS, the management agency of the popular all-girl group. (Tokyo Reporter)

Former prosecutor Masaru Wakasa, 56, a frequent commentator on news programs and talk shows who once worked in the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office, said Thursday he will run in this summer's Upper House election as a Liberal Democratic Party candidate. (Japan Times)

Koji Kitahara is one of the few remaining residents who has not surrendered his property or his fight in a more than 40 year conflict between the residents of Narita, Chiba Prefecture and the government of Japan which has tried to forced them off their land. (japansubculture.com)

South Korea called in Japan's ambassador Thursday to lodge a strong protest in an escalating diplomatic row over visits by Japanese cabinet ministers and lawmakers to a controversial war shrine. (AFP)

Western lowland gorilla Momoko gave birth Wednesday at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, officials at the facility said Thursday. (Japan Times)

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