News On Japan

A senior official in San Francisco sent a personal message to Osaka in late May urging that Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, co-leader of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), cancel his trip to the city due to local anger over his remarks that Japan's wartime "comfort women" system was necessary at the time. (Japan Times)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has decided to send supplies to Syria's opposition forces. It would be the first time for Japan to do so. He will announce the decision at the upcoming G8 summit in Northern Ireland. (NHK)

A weaker yen lifted business sentiment among major Japanese companies in the April-to-June period. This marked the second straight quarter of improvement. (NHK)

Crown Prince Naruhito, on an official visit to Spain, attended a welcoming ceremony at the Royal Palace of El Pardo in Madrid on Monday afternoon. (Yomiuri)

A giant panda at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo is showing signs that she may give birth soon, the zoo said Tuesday. (Jiji Press)

Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling on Tuesday that found two former crew members of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Aegis destroyer Atago not guilty of causing a collision between the ship and a fishing boat in February 2008 that left two fishermen dead. (Jiji Press)

Anyone analyzing a probability tree for how Abenomics will turn out could be forgiven for giving up, shutting their eyes, flipping a coin and praying. (Wall Street Journal)

Police said Tuesday they have arrested a 71-year-old man for attempting to murder his wife by pouring gasoline over her at their home in Nagano. (Japan Today)

Japan ended Iraq's chances of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup by scoring late to win 1-0 in a match played in the neutral territory of Qatar. (The West)

Tropical Storm Yagi has weakened and slowed in its northward movement south of Japan, and it may no longer pose any direct threat to the Pacific nation. (accuweather.com)

The number of rubella cases in Japan this year is about to top 10,000. An expert calls the situation critical. (NHK)

Financial regulators on Wednesday raided the office of game software maker Index Corp. and related places, suspecting it window dressed its earnings by padding its sales. (Kyodo)

Nikkei ended slightly lower Wednesday as selling triggered by the Bank of Japan's inaction was offset by buybacks on a halt in the yen's strength. (Xinhua)

A Japanese carrier's Dreamliner had engine trouble before takeoff Wednesday, a day after a rival airline had a problem on another 787 plane. (foxnews.com)

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) will in September begin test runs paving the way for the launch of a magnetically levitated train line between Tokyo and Nagoya in 2027, marking a milestone in its half-century of efforts to develop an ultrahigh-speed superconducting train system. (Japan Times)

Japanese baseball league officials are being criticized for introducing a new ball this season without notifying players. (usnews.com)

Japan's parliament passed a bill that would ramp up penalties against insider trading, bringing its law closer to international standards following a string of financial scandals last year. (Wall Street Journal)

After months of denial and an inexplicably huge surge in home runs, Japan's baseball chiefs have admitted they secretly switched the design of the ball to make the game more exciting. (france24.com)

The world's oldest person and the oldest man ever to have lived has died of natural causes aged 116 years, media reported Wednesday. (AFP)

Japan enacted Wednesday a law needed to ratify an international treaty to help settle cross-border child custody disputes, paving the way for implementation of the pact in Japan possibly early next year. (Kyodo)

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