News On Japan

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida began talks Saturday with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, focusing on Japan's recent engagement with North Korea, the crisis in Ukraine and U.S. airstrikes on Islamic militants in Iraq on Friday. (Kyodo)

Japan's weather agency on Saturday issued its highest alert as typhoon Halong barreled toward southwestern Japan, warning of heavy rains and strong winds from a storm that has grounded more than 470 flights. (Japan Today)

The western Japanese city of Nagasaki has commemorated the 69th anniversary of the atomic bomb attack. (NHK)

Five Japanese passengers were among 11 people injured when a train was derailed by a landslide in southeastern Switzerland on Wednesday, according to local police and the Japanese Embassy. (Japan Times)

About 500 fish found dead in a park pond in Futtsu, Chiba Prefecture, probably died because of the recent extreme heat, officials said Thursday. (Japan Today)

The Sounkyo Mount View Hotel in Kamikawa, Hokkaido, has recently been offering a 500 yen (US$4.87) discount to customers who have either no hair at all or sport buzz cuts, the first discount of its kind by the Hotel Tetora Group, which owns 12 hotels across Japan. (rocketnews24.com)

Trying to shed their notorious image of a staid, men-only club, Japanese companies are taking new approaches to retain and promote women, offering career development training and child care support to meet specific targets. (Nikkei)

Narita Airport Quarantine is strengthening measures to prevent the Ebola virus from entering Japan, in light of the deadly outbreak in parts of West Africa. (The Japan News)

Ichiro has many devout fans on both sides of the pond, some of whom have become famous themselves as super fans. (rocketnews24.com)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Thursday announced the arrest of two suspects for allegedly robbing a post office to open a business in the adult-entertainment industry, reports TBS News (Aug. 14). (Tokyo Reporter)

Faced with the danger of elimination, hundreds of local Japanese districts are plying gifts that include craft beer and balloon rides to entice their mini-diasporas to send tax payments back home. (Bloomberg)

The 24-year-old Japanese man suspected of fathering at least 15 children in Thailand using surrogate mothers reportedly said last year that he wanted 100 to 1,000 children. (Japan Times)

Japan's power companies are mostly struggling because of the prolonged outage of nuclear-power plants, but there's one power generator that is posting steady profits. (Wall Street Journal)

Asian shares pulled higher on Friday, on track for a winning week, while the euro remained close to nine-month lows after downbeat data raised expectations of more European Central Bank easing steps. (Reuters)

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the Yasukuni war shrine Friday, the 69th anniversary of Japan's World War II defeat, but opted not to visit the controversial site in person. (washingtonpost.com)

People in Japan are commemorating the end of World War Two. About 6,000 people attended a government-sponsored memorial ceremony in Tokyo on Friday to mourn the souls of the more than 3 million war dead. (NHK)

A group of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers on history education on Friday decided to look at facts linked to the Asahi Shimbun's recent withdrawal of articles on "comfort women" that it published decades ago. (Jiji Press)

China has ordered the country's television broadcasters to air "patriotic" or anti-fascist series for two months from September, reports said, stepping up its propaganda efforts amid disputes with Japan and ahead of national holidays. (Japan Today)

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry plans to put, first in the world, the fifth-generation communication system for mobile phones into practical use before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. (The Japan News)

Known in its heyday as the capital of coal, Yubari has lost 90% of its population in 50 years. With deer roaming freely, are there lessons for rustbelt cities around the world? (The Guardian)

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