News On Japan

To say that Canada isn't a major world player in sumo wrestling is an understatement. On a Wikipedia page titled "Canadian sumo wrestlers," there are two entries-and they're just different names for the same guy. (macleans.ca)

Gone are the days when a few strategically-placed tissues was all you needed to give cleavage a boost - now Japanese women are using ribbons. (dailymail.co.uk)

Japanese stocks edged up on Thursday, as buying in oil and mining shares reversed early losses, offsetting profit-taking in recent gainers such as food stocks, while Sharp Corp surged on restructuring hopes. (Reuters)

The former trade ministry bureaucrat who took on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration on one of the country's most popular TV news programs called out Japan's pliant media executives on Thursday for increasingly giving in to government pressure. (Japan Times)

Snow plows finished carving a route through the famed "Yuki no Otani" (great gorge of snow) here for the April 16 start of the sightseeing season. (Asahi)

A record high number of children were abused after contact via social media last year, with the vast majority becoming victims of underage sex or child pornography. (Japan Times)

Japanese police say vandalism at temples and shrines with oil-like liquid has spread further. They say they are stepping up their investigation. (NHK)

Ice breaking with a sightseeing boat has started on Lake Akan in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost prefecture. It's an early-spring ritual that's held before popular cruise tours start later this month. (NHK)

Police have arrested a 33-year-old Yokohama man on suspicion of threatening to kill his former girlfriend in a series of messages on the LINE app. (Japan Today)

Asiana Airlines Vice President Akiyoshi Yamamura apologized Thursday to passengers and their families over Tuesdays's botched landing at Hiroshima Airport. (Japan Times)

The top executive of McDonald's Holdings Japan says the company will close a total of 131 restaurants and ask 100 full-time employees to retire early. (NHK)

The US Treasury Department says Japan overtook China in February as the top foreign holder of US government bonds. (NHK)

The Tokyo metropolitan government's Labor Relations Commission on Thursday ordered FamilyMart Co. to accept collective labor negotiations with a union of convenience store owners who are FamilyMart franchisees. (Jiji Press)

Hiroshima Airport in western Japan will provisionally reopen on Friday morning after an Asiana Airlines passenger jet overran the runway on Tuesday to prompt its closure, the transport ministry said Thursday. (Jiji Press)

A movie by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda has been shortlisted in competition for best picture at the Cannes International Film Festival in France. Cannes is one of the world's 3 major film festivals. (NHK)

The average hike in monthly salary agreed on between labor and management at 62 major Japanese companies in this year's "shunto" spring wage talks hit a 21-year high of 8,502 yen, up 2.59 pct, the Japan Business Federation said in an interim survey report Thursday. (Jiji Press)

Police in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, have arrested an unemployed 32-year-old man on charges of abandoning a corpse. (Japan Today)

Dyson, the British company known for its futuristic vacuums and fans, will make Tokyo the home of its only directly run store in the world, opening the outlet Friday as part of a campaign to bolster its already-strong presence in the Japanese market. (Nikkei)

A dead cat was found on a street in Tokyo's Nerima Ward on Wednesday. It follows the discovery of another dead cat in the grounds of a nearby school on April 9, police said Thursday. (Japan Today)

Central Japan Railway Co., or JR Tokai, said Thursday its magnetic levitation Shinkansen train achieved the world's fastest train speed of 590 kilometers per hour on a test line in central Japan. (Jiji Press)

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