News On Japan

Japan and the United States suspended their working-level session on the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade drive on Thursday, failing to break the stalemate over tariffs on farm products. (Jiji Press)

Major supermarkets operators in Japan are stepping up sales campaigns to meet last-minute bulk-purchase demand for daily necessities ahead of a consumption tax hike in April. (Jiji Press)

The first geographical name-based top-level domain in Japan, ".nagoya" for the city of Nagoya, central Japan, has become available, GMO Registry Inc. said Thursday. (Jiji Press)

Fishermen in northeastern Japan have voiced strong concerns about a new leak of highly radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. (NHK)

An increase in the number of giant squid being caught along the Sea of Japan coast is leading fisherman to fear it may be some kind of omen. (independent.co.uk)

Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe has ticked off the easy items on his to-do list for economic revival. (AP)

The nation's real estate investment trusts are offering the most bonds since 2012 as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's stimulus steps spark a property-market boom and cut costs for REITs to refinance. (Japan Times)

China pressed a propaganda campaign against Japan this week with a guided visit to the site of the 1937 Nanjing massacre, holding up proof to refute doubts by some in Japan about the extent of the atrocity or even that it happened at all. (Reuters)

An 18-year-old Romanian has denied that he intended to kill a 22-year-old woman when he and a Japanese friend stabbed her during a robbery in February 2013. (The Japan News)

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says there is just one working thermometer monitoring the temperature of melted nuclear fuel in the plant's No.2 reactor. (NHK)

An advisor to Japan's prime minister has denied telling a US newspaper that a goal of Japan's economic policy is to build a strong military to stand up to China. (NHK)

Police in Niigata City have arrested a 31-year-old man on suspicion of murdering his wife and his grandmother last November. (Japan Today)

Roughly 100 tons of highly radioactive water leaked from one of the tanks at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday. (Kyodo)

Universal Studios Japan, a hugely popular Hollywood movie theme park here, is now so crimped for space its operator is looking to develop new sites domestically or abroad. (Asahi)

If you're the chair of the Olympic Organizing Committee for your country's 2020 summer hosting duties, you ought to refrain from blasting your nation's 2010 women's figure skating silver medalist and two-time World Champion. (cbssports.com)

Japanese police have arrested a sumo wrestler-turned-restaurateur for allegedly staging a sham marriage to a South Korean bar hostess 20 years his junior, officials and reports said Thursday. (New Straits Times)

Indonesian police have arrested the captain of a boat that took a group of Japanese divers on an ill-fated expedition off Bali in which at least one woman died, an official said on Thursday. (South China Morning Post)

A 26-year-old woman who was found shot dead in a car in Gunma Prefecture on Wednesday consulted police last year after her former boyfriend allegedly assaulted her. (Japan Today)

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says 100 tons of water containing record high levels of radioactive substances overflowed from a storage tank. (NHK)

Japan's Nikkei average jumped 2.9 percent on Friday as the weak yen lifted overall sentiment and after a reading on U.S. manufacturing hit its highest in nearly four years. (Reuters)

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