News On Japan

The Sendai District Court on Tuesday ordered a kindergarten in Miyagi Prefecture, hit hard by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, to pay 177 million yen in damages over the deaths of four children in a bus that was swamped by high waves. (Kyodo)

People in Japan are cleaning up after severe tropical storm Man-yi dumped heavy rain and caused destruction from flooding and landslides. Three people have been killed and six are missing. (NHK)

A group of Japanese writers is opposing a government plan for a law to protect classified information related to national security. (NHK)

Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi has hinted at a possible corporate tax cut if the government's considered incentives for capital investment are not enough to boost the economy. (NHK)

Severe tropical storm Man-yi has wreaked havoc in parts of Japan, leaving 3 people dead and 5 missing. (NHK)

Eiji Toyoda, a member of Toyota's founding family who helped create the super-efficient "Toyota Way" production method, has died. He was 100. (Japan Today)

Public prosecutors searched the Tokyo headquarters of Tokushukai, a major hospital group, on Tuesday looking for evidence of illegal electioneering during the House of Representatives election last December. (Jiji Press)

Japan's most popular online bulletin-board service, 2channel (pronounced ni-chaneru), recently experienced what is probably the biggest problem in its 14-year history when its promise to keep users' anonymity was severely broken by an information breach. (Japan Times)

South Korea has told Japan it opposes the latter's move to have old industrial facilities where Koreans were pressed into slave labor during World War II entered on UNESCO's list of World Heritage cultural sites, a source well-versed in bilateral relations said Tuesday. (Kyodo)

A group of researchers led by Kenji Kabashima, associate professor at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, has discovered an artificial synthetic compound that can increase skin barrier functions that fight atopic dermatitis. (Jiji Press)

Internet firm Yahoo Japan has developed technology to produce solid plastic objects with 3D printers based on computer searches. (NHK)

A Chinese man rescued a 9-year-old boy from a raging river in western Japan on Monday afternoon. (NHK)

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called Tuesday for the groundwork to be laid for a review of the government's current interpretation of the Constitution to enable Japan to exercise the right of collective self-defense. (Kyodo)

All countries participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral trade negotiations, with the exception of Japan, agreed to pursue sectoral talks in Washington from Friday to Monday with an eye toward setting a tariff liberalization rate of more than 95 percent, according to informed sources. (Yomiuri)

Hideaki Ueda, who shouted "shut up" during a U.N. committee meeting, resigned Friday as Japan's human rights ambassador, the Foreign Ministry said the same day. (Jiji Press)

Police have arrested a store manager from Kyoto on suspicion of stabbing to death his former girlfriend, whose body was found earlier this week on a path in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture, police officials said. (Japan Times)

A court on Friday jailed a man for slipping corrosive poison into the shoes of a colleague he was stalking, causing her to have the tips of her toes amputated, officials and media reports said. (Japan Today)

A police inspector in Aichi Prefecture has been arrested on suspicion of leaking sensitive information to an acquaintance who had ties to an organized crime syndicate. (Japan Today)

The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it will purify all the radioactive water at the site by March 2015. But observers say that won't be easy. (NHK)

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday it has found five loosened bolts on the bottom of the tainted water storage tank at the center of the radiation spread crisis at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. (Jiji Press)

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