News On Japan

With the number of visitors to Japan expected to surpass 13 million for the first time in 2014, attracting visitors to tourist spots away from big cities is a major challenge to overcome for the achievement of the government target of 20 million visitors in 2020. (Jiji Press)

Tokyo Electric Power Co. finished on Saturday removing all nuclear fuel assemblies from the cooling pool at the No. 4 reactor building at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. (Jiji Press)

Sales of special Suica cards to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the opening of Tokyo Station were canceled soon after they began Saturday, as a large crowd of people flooded the area. (The Japan News)

The Japan Coast Guard says a Chinese captain has been arrested on suspicion of coral poaching in Japan's territorial waters. (NHK)

Fifty-four workers suffered food poisoning at a Nippon Ham meat-processing plant in Kawatana, Nagasaki Prefecture, company officials said Sunday. (Japan Today)

The government and the ruling parties will likely add the minivehicle tax to the list of taxes subject to reduction for eco-friendly cars, starting in fiscal 2015, government sources said. (The Japan News)

A man found a body Sunday evening in the Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, apartment of his younger, 58-year-old brother after the landlord alerted him that his sibling had failed to pay the rent. (Japan Times)

Japan supports a U.S. move to identify North Korea as the culprit behind the recent hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., the top government spokesman said Monday, criticizing the attack as a grave national security issue. (Kyodo)

U.S. accusations that North Korea was behind the cyberattack on Sony Pictures could force Japan to choose between backing its ally Washington and keeping talks on track with Pyongyang about Japanese citizens abducted decades ago. (Reuters)

Two Japanese actresses will tie the knot next year in the conservative country's first celebrity gay wedding. (gaystarnews.com)

When Manabu Matsumoto took his fiancée to dinner at the Kisuke cow-tongue restaurant in the Japanese city of Sendai recently, the Tokyo couple faced 28 menu choices. (columbian.com)

Supermarkets in Japan have been rationing butter since spring because of a shortfall in raw milk production. Now, there's concern there won't be enough for the crucial holiday baking season. (usatoday.com)

Christmas Eve surpasses Valentine's Day as the romantic dinner event for Japanese couples, but viewed as a socioeconomic read on Japan, the celebration highlights two major problems the country faces: low wages and low birth rates. (cnbc.com)

A man tried to kill himself in the kitchen of a restaurant in the JR Takasaki Station building in Gunma Prefecture on Monday. (Japan Today)

The Japanese government is considering setting the scale of general-account spending at 97 trillion to 98 trillion yen in its fiscal 2015 initial budget draft, to be adopted at a cabinet meeting as early as Jan. 14, informed sources said Monday. (Jiji Press)

The total number of passengers to pass through Japan's Narita Airport near Tokyo since its opening in 1978 has topped 900 million. (NHK)

The Japanese government has decided to extend the application of the social identification numbering system to individual bank accounts, it was learned Monday. (Jiji Press)

Women have been prohibited from doing certain things (entering places, using facilities, etc.) for as long as civilization has existed. Restrictions are still common, albeit usually in religious contexts only. While religions themselves evolve and change with the times and bans are lifted, it doesn't mean all of them get an update. (rocketnews24.com)

Advisors to Japan's education ministry have called for revising the university entrance exam system. (NHK)

The Asahi Shimbun betrayed the trust of its readers by failing to retract promptly articles it published decades ago on the issue of so-called "comfort women," a third-party panel said Monday. (Jiji Press)

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