News On Japan

Nine babies aged from one month to six months have been found in a Bangkok condominium, fuelling further concern about Thailand's booming surrogacy industry. (Sydney Morning Herald)

A high school student died after being struck by lightning Wednesday during a baseball game at a school in Fusocho, Aichi Prefecture, police said. (Japan Times)

Japanese otaku retail giant Mandarake is not happy about a recent shoplifting incident, and they don't intend to let the perpetrator get away with it. The culprit in question allegedly pilfered a replica Tetsujin-28-go wind-up robot toy worth 250,000 yen (about US$2,448). (rocketnews24.com)

Tokyo stocks have closed 0.48 per cent higher as late bargain-hunting dragged the Japanese market out of negative territory and snapped a five-day losing streak. (tradingroom.com.au)

Japan's National Personnel Authority recommended Thursday that the government raise basic salaries for public servants by an average of 0.27 percent and their bonuses by 0.15 month, both for the first hike in seven years. (Kyodo)

The Great Buddha statue in the ancient capital of Nara, western Japan, has been cleaned in an annual mid-summer ritual. (NHK)

Japan's top government spokesman says Russia should take steps to peacefully resolve the crisis in Ukraine rather than retaliate against sanctions by Western countries. (NHK)

Japanese Air Self-Defense Force aircraft made attempts to close in on Chinese planes over the East China Sea on Wednesday, China's air force said Thursday. (Jiji Press)

Japan's government says schoolteachers and education authorities have not known the whereabouts of nearly 400 children for more than a year. (NHK)

The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. are considering pumping up contaminated groundwater from 42 wells around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's Nos. 1 to 4 reactors and releasing it into the Pacific Ocean after removing almost all radioactive substances, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. (The Japan News)

All Nippon Airways launched the world's first regular flight service using a Boeing 787-9 passenger jet Thursday. (The Japan News)

Tokyo prosecutors indicted a former systems engineer on Thursday for allegedly stealing customer information from major correspondence education service provider Benesse Corp. in violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Law. (The Japan News)

Japan will ease restrictions on the use of electronic devices such as smartphones on aircraft next month, the transport ministry said Thursday. (Jiji Press)

The Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy steady Friday while saying the country's economy continues to recover, but the central bank also warned of recent weakness in Japanese exports and production. (Kyodo)

The World Trade Organization released a report on Thursday confirming its support for Japan, the United States and the European Union in their rare earth dispute with China. (Jiji Press)

If Abenomics means anything, it is the promise of the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to restore healthy economic growth to Japan and end years of deflation. (The Economist)

Japan ran a current account deficit of 399.1 billion yen in June, compared with 377.7 billion yen in surplus a year before, the Ministry of Finance said Friday. (Jiji Press)

Tokyo stocks dropped 2.98 per cent to a two-month low as investors reacted to US President Barack Obama's announcement that he had authorised air strikes on Iraq, while Nikon shares plunged on poor first-quarter earnings. (tradingroom.com.au)

The Maebashi District Court on Friday sentenced a former contract worker at a now-defunct firm of the Maruha Nichiro Corp. group to three years and six months in prison for injecting a pesticide into frozen food products made at the firm's plant in Gunma Prefecture. (The Japan News)

Thai police said Friday that four more babies who might have been fathered by a Japanese businessman who just fled back to Japan have been located, bringing the total linked to the odd cache of infants found in Bangkok this week to 13. (Japan Times)

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