News On Japan

Japan Restoration Party co-leader Shintaro Ishihara says his new political party will be called "Jisedai-no-to," or party for the next generation. (NHK)

An elderly woman suffocated to death in May while using an electric foot massager manufactured by a company in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, the company has announced. (The Japan News)

Japanese teachers work the longest hours but have the lowest level of confidence in their teaching abilities compared with their counterparts at junior high schools around the world. (Asahi)

Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on Friday offered flowers at a monument in Okinawa Prefecture dedicated to the victims of a U.S. submarine attack in 1944 that sunk the Tsushima Maru ship and killed over 1,400 people aboard, including nearly 800 children. (NHK)

Furious shareholders in the company that runs Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power station joined campaigners Thursday to demand the permanent closure of the utility's atomic plants, as it held its annual meeting. (channelnewsasia.com)

One woman was killed and seven people were injured in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, on Tuesday in an incident that was strongly suspected to have been caused by a driver under the influence of quasi-legal drugs. (The Japan News)

NHK has obtained photos of the deadly sarin gas used in the Tokyo subway attack 19 years ago. (NHK)

The Osaka High Court in February found the number-two boss of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Kiyoshi Takayama, 66, to be complicit in the extortion of a construction industry employee in 2005 and 2006. (Tokyo Reporter)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police earlier this week busted a massage parlor in Edogawa Ward's Nishikoiwa area for licensing violations, reports TV Asahi (June 26). (Tokyo Reporter)

Howard Baker, a former ranking U.S. senator who served as ambassador to Japan and worked on forging close bilateral cooperation following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, died Thursday, a law firm related to him said. He was 88. (Kyodo)

Japan's core consumer price index in May rose 3.4 pct from a year earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Friday. (Jiji Press)

Japan's Nikkei share average fell to its lowest in 1-1/2 weeks on Friday as investors took profits, while overall sentiment suffered from brewing concerns over a weak U.S. economy and the yen's strength. (Reuters)

Foreign investors are buying more Japanese stocks and pushing prices higher. (NHK)

Aichi Prefectural Police on Friday announced the bust of an Internet mail order business in Kita Ward that sold illegal pornographic DVDs by mail order, reports Nippon Television Network (June 27). (Tokyo Reporter)

A police inspector killed himself in April partly because of the harassment of a superior who routinely abused his power, Fukushima prefectural police said. (Asahi)

Japan's land minister Akihiro Ota has met Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong in Beijing. (NHK)

Officials at Japanese electronics company Sony say nearly 40 percent of employees in its PC business will take early retirement. (NHK)

Eccentric inventor Yoshiro Nakamatsu, popularly known as Dr. NakaMats, has revealed that he has terminal cancer and is expected to live a year and a half. (Japan Times)

A wild boar has been filmed terrorising a Japanese neighbourhood and attacking a television cameraman. (Sydney Morning Herald)

The U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Thursday it has invited 271 artists and executives, including animator Hayao Miyazaki, to join the organization. (The Japan News)

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