News On Japan

Japanese residents in Beijing are gravely concerned about the impact of serious air pollution by microparticle PM2.5, which measured more than nine times the upper limit of Japanese guidelines on Thursday. (Jiji Press)

More than 900 pupils at elementary schools in a central Japanese city have fallen ill in a suspected outbreak of mass food poisoning, officials said on Thursday. (channelnewsasia.com)

Police said Thursday that an 8-year-old girl has died and her mother remains in hospital with stab wounds in Kibichuo, Okayama Prefecture. (Japan Today)

Japan on Thursday brushed off a bristling attack in which a Chinese diplomat branded Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a "troublemaker", saying Beijing's sentiment is inaccurate and ignores the facts. (AFP)

The agriculture ministry said Thursday it has notified prefectural governments across Japan to take thorough measures aimed at preventing bird flu. (The Japan News)

Japan's communications ministry has launched an expert panel to study how to provide multilingual TV captions for foreign visitors. (NHK)

Chinese tourists are expected to troop to Tokyo this weekend in celebration of the Lunar New Year. Also known as the Spring Festival in other Asian countries, this coming Friday is the first day of the New Year celebrations and with a weeklong public holiday following that, throngs of Chinese travelers are expected to take advantage of the celebration. (eturbonews.com)

The number of people who moved into the Tokyo metropolitan region exceeded the number moving out by 96,524 in 2013, up more than 29,000 from the previous year, a government report showed Thursday. (Kyodo)

A 30-year-old Japanese woman has led an international team to a breakthrough in stem cell research. (The Japan News)

Long under siege from Facebook, Twitter, and more recently, the semi-social Line, and confronted by a shift toward more open and international social networking preferences, Japan’s native mixi has signaled what looks a lot like retreat: it’s been announced that they will effectively merge with istyle, an online marketing company best known for its cosmetics sales site, @cosme. (akihabaranews.com)

Aviation fans in Japan have rushed to get a seat on the Boeing 747's final domestic flight scheduled for March 31st. (NHK)

Police in Sapporo are appealing for help in finding a 9-year-old girl who has been missing since Jan 27. (Japan Today)

Health officials in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, said Friday that 86 students at Hatsune-gaoka Public Elementary School in Yokohama were absent Thursday due to a suspected mass outbreak of norovirus. (Japan Today)

Police in Sodegaura, Chiba Prefecture, have arrested a 23-year-old man for fatally beating his one-month-old daughter at their home on Jan 9. (Japan Today)

A court in Tokyo has ordered a cyclist to pay nearly half a million US dollars in damages to the family of an elderly woman he knocked down and killed. (BBC)

The Nikkei share average fell to a fresh 2 1/2-month low on Friday, erasing earlier gains after a rise in the yen soured sentiment. (Reuters)

A special exhibition on sexual slavery of Korean women by the Japanese military during World War II began Thursday as part of an international comic book festival in Angouleme, southwestern France. (Japan Times)

A police sergeant in Japan has resigned after he was reprimanded for forcing his subordinates to binge on 15 hamburgers at a time to "toughen them up". (Bangkok Post)

The number of influenza patients in Japan doubled in the week through Sunday from the previous week, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Friday. (Jiji Press)

Better-than-expected inflation data out of Japan has put the central bank's 2 percent inflation target well within sight, some analysts told CNBC. (cnbc.com)

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