At first sight, it resembles any other inner-city gym. Members clad in bright sportswear are working up a sweat at a string of exercise machines beneath neon lights as a blaring soundtrack plays the rousing anthem, "We will rock you".
But there is one crucial difference: instructors at the Japanese gym are the only people below retirement age - and most of those working out are well into their eighties.
Yoshiko Kitazato, a sprightly 87-year-old who visits twice a week to keep in shape, sat down for a break. "I love coming here," she said. "It's a wonderful way of meeting people, it's very sociable, and I enjoy being able to stretch my legs." (telegraph.co.uk)
Japan's silver age spenders mean gold for business
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AKB48 thanks China for 3/11 aid with Beijing concert
Six members of pop idol group AKB48 staged a special show in Beijing to thank the Chinese public for its support after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The members of the all-girl group performed three songs in front of around 500 fans Friday, at an event held to demonstrate Japan's gratitude for China's postdisaster assistance and also to support devastated areas in Tohoku by displaying local specialties.
AKB48 is popular in China and around 14,000 fans applied for the 500 seats at the concert, according to the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. (Japan Times)
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Baseball: Murata shines in Giants debut
New Yomiuri Giants third baseman Shuichi Murata impressed in the first preseason game of 2012, going 3-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs in an 8-3 Saturday loss to the Hiroshima Carp.
The two-time Central League home run leader delivered a run-scoring single up the middle in the first inning and homered to left in the fourth at Sun Marine Stadium.
Murata also singled to right in the sixth before being pulled for a pinch runner. (Japan Times)
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Mongol shipwreck to be first historical seabed site
The sea floor off Nagasaki Prefecture should be designated as a national historical site because of the wreck of a ship thought to have been used by 13th-century Mongol invaders, the Cultural Affairs Council has recommended.
The 384,000-sq.-meter area, about 200 meters off the island of Takashima, is expected to soon become the first underwater site to be awarded the designation. There are nearly 1,700 national historical sites in Japan.
The ship is believed to have sunk in a storm in 1281, during an ill-fated Mongol attempt to invade Kyushu. (Japan Times)
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Man charged with attempted murder during convenience store robbery
A 28-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder after a convenience store robbery in Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, in which the store's manager was stabbed, police said Saturday.
According to police, the suspect, identified as Hayato Suzuki, came into a Sunkus store in the early hours of Feb 10, and allegedly stole 48,000 yen from the register before stabbing the man, TBS reported.
The store's 33-year-old manager has been in hospital in a critical condition since the incident and has not yet regained consciousness, doctors say. (Japan Today)
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Japanese nuclear experts sought by Korea
South Korean government officials have been targeting TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) officials, in an attempt to persuade them to move to South Korea.
Two executive engineers were approached late last year, but turned down the offer to work in a South Korean government-owned company, according to the Mainichi Shimbun. One of them claims that he was asked over dinner about the recent cuts in his salary, whether he was happy to continue working at TEPCO, and a request was made for him to join the nuclear power company in South Korea. The country currently obtains some 30% of its power from nuclear sources, with an expressed policy of expansion, and intends exporting its expertise to other countries, such as Turkey (a market where Japan is also a bidder). (majiroxnews.com)
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'Hayabusa 2′ readies for blast off
Hayabusa 2 is being ready to fly, and if everything goes right, it will blast off in 2014 to collect cosmic material from asteroid 1999 JU3.
The original Hayabusa garnered worldwide attention after the near-miraculous completion of its mission. Following a mishap-laden encounter with its intended goal, the asteroid Itokawa, and the failure not only of its main propulsion systems but also of all but one of its ion guidance propulsion systems, it was initially thought lost in space.
Despite this, in a brilliant display of grit, skill, and improvisation, Japanese mission control successfully guided Hayabusa back to an earth flyby, and dropped a capsule containing material from Itokawa in the Australian desert. (majiroxnews.com)
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Woman from Japan on Hawaii honeymoon dies in crash
Authorities say a woman from Japan who was on her honeymoon in Hawaii is dead and her husband hospitalized after the couple crashed the motorcycle they were riding.
The couple's rented motorcycle crashed into a guardrail on Kamehameha Highway in Kaawa around 12:15 p.m. Friday.
A supervisor with the Department of Emergency Medical Services says the newlyweds were not wearing helmets. The woman died after being taken to a hospital, while the man was listed in critical condition.
(sacbee.com)
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Accused killer got $1.5m from elderly man
A woman on trial for allegedly murdering three men and faking their suicides has testified that she received nearly 100 million yen (S$1.5 million) from an elderly man she had known.
Kanae Kijima, 37, on Friday told the Saitama District Court about her past relationships with men and the amount of money involved. Her lawyers likely will try to present Kijima as a woman who has no objections to accepting money from men and was seriously looking for a marriage partner who would assist her financially.
The defense questioned Kijima mainly about her relationship with an elderly man in Chiba Prefecture, whom she met in June 2001.
"I lived a luxurious life when I was young, so I can't lower the quality of my life," Kijima said she told the man when he asked about her attitude toward money.
(AsiaOne)
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Baseball: Ichiro heads into final year of deal with Mariners
No one really knows when Ichiro Suzuki will retire. The 38-year-old outfielder is heading into the final year of his contract with Seattle and isn't discussing a new deal.
There he was on Saturday, though, beginning his 12th spring training with the Mariners as the team held its first full-squad workout of 2012.
Naturally, there was a bit more buzz around camp than usual. More fans showed up to watch and get autographs. More media from Japan arrived, following Suzuki's every move. And when asked about his future, Suzuki said it was difficult to say how long he plans to keep playing. (seattlepi.com)
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The aftershocks still hitting Japan
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A trip to southern Japan, where the ancient weaves through the modern
Our gondola car crested a mountaintop and - suddenly - Mount Fuji appeared before us. We let out an involuntary "aah" as the car swung over a deep valley. After staring at the snow-topped Fuji, Japan's tallest mountain, for a minute or two, we looked to the valley below, where lazy plumes of sulfuric steam escaped from fissures in a volcanic mountainside.
The gondola ride over the mountain was one of the peak experiences of my recent nine-day trip to Japan with my children, both students in their early 20s.
Last spring's earthquake and tsunami, which devastated northeastern Japan, cut foreign tourism by an estimated 30 percent in 2011, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. But traveling through the southern part of the country - from Tokyo in the east to Hiroshima in the west - we saw no effects of the disaster. Instead, we got a taste of the way Japan weaves modern innovations into a centuries-old culture, as we savored a variety of sights and experiences. (northjersey.com)
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Shore shapes made tsunami deadlier: study
The shape of the coastlines along Kamaishi Bay, Ishinomaki Bay and four other areas in Tohoku may have amplified the power of the tsunami that struck there last March, a study by tsunami researchers said Saturday.
A simulation by a group of researchers led by Fumihiko Imamura, professor of tsunami studies at Tohoku University, found that a "resonance phenomenon" may have increased tsunami heights at six places in Iwate, Miyagi, Aomori and Fukushima prefectures. Tsunami in those areas may have been as much as three times higher than those that ravaged other areas on the Pacific coast.
Tsunami can be amplified when their frequencies match certain features of the coast, such as shape and depth - especially where coastlines are deeply indented. (Japan Times)
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U.S. nuclear plants similar to Fukushima spark concerns
As the United States prepares to build its first new nuclear power reactors in three decades, concerns about an early generation of plants have resurfaced since last year's disaster in Japan.
The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant -- the subject of a battle between state authorities and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over its continued operation -- uses one of 23 U.S. reactors built with a General Electric-designed containment housing known as the Mark I.
It's the same design that was used at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where three reactors melted down after the station was struck by the tsunami that followed Japan's historic earthquake in March 2011. The disaster resulted in the widespread release of radioactive contamination that forced more than 100,000 people from their homes. (CNN)
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Toyo Keizai chief accused of groping
The editor-in-chief of the major economic magazine Weekly Toyo Keizai has been arrested for allegedly groping two women on a train, according to the police.
The police said on Saturday that Naoyuki Mikami, 46, was suspected of having touched the buttocks of two women on a JR Keihin Tohoku Line train at around 11 p.m. Friday.
A man forced Mikami off the train at Omori Station after the alleged incidents, they said.
"I was drunk and don't remember anything," police quoted Mikami as saying. (Japan Times)
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Japan and China agree to work together on IMF funding requests
Japan and China agreed to coordinate their response to any request from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for additional funding help to combat Europe's debt crisis, underscoring the close financial ties between Asia's two biggest economies despite persistent tensions over a territorial dispute that have dogged their political relations.
"We agreed that Japan and China will cooperate so as to be able to take common action in response to an IMF request," Japan's Finance Minister Jun Azumi said after talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Xuren, and China's Vice Premier Wang Qishan.
The IMF last month said it may need an increase of as much as $600 billion in lending capacity. The US has said it will offer no more financial support to the fund, but Japan and China have expressed a willingness to do so if Europe itself first takes more steps to deal with its problems. (The Australian)
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Japan logs record trade deficit in Jan
Japan posted its biggest ever trade deficit in January, topping the previous record seen during the financial crisis in 2009, Ministy of Finance data showed On Monday, underlining concerns that a persistent trade gap may undermine the country's ability to finance its debt.
The trade deficit stood at 1.475 trillion yen ($18.59 billion), against median market forecast for 1.468 trillion yen, marking a fourth straight month of deficit, as weak global demand and a strong yen hurt exports and robust fuel demand boosts imports. (Reuters)
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Japan prosecutors may charge Olympus over scandal
Japanese prosecutors are considering indicting Olympus Corp as a company for falsifying its financial reports to conceal huge investment losses in a $1.7 billion scandal, Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday, quoting investigative sources.
Tokyo District Public Prosecutors and the watchdog Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) have apparently determined they can make a case against the camera and medical equipment following the Tokyo Stock Exchange's decision last month to keep the company listed, Kyodo said.
Olympus is likely to be indicted as a corporation when prosecutors charge chairman and president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, 70, and six other people arrested last week, Kyodo said.
The company would face up to 700 million yen ($8.82 million) in penalties if found guilty, Kyodo said. (Reuters)
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Some like it hotter
One of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly, Kyushu was, until recently, somewhat overlooked as a tourist destination, a Cinderella to the more obvious attractions of the main island of Honshu.
But travellers are beginning to go further afield: enthusiasts come here in search of the Imari and Arita pottery the area is famous for, while the more energetic go hiking, cycling and climbing.
True hedonists visit the villages where rotenburo - open-air, natural hot-spring pools - bubble from the volcanic earth, drawing visitors from all over Japan and, increasingly, from abroad.
Aso Station is the closest the train gets to the area; from here, I join locals on a bus that trundles for about an hour around zigzag bends into the mountains through a thick, white mist to Kurokawa Onsen, a spa village in a steep valley. Sanga Ryokan is set on the hillside, several buildings scattered among the trees. Streams tumble over boulders and find a dozen paths down the hill. Mayu, the charming, kimono-clad daughter of the house, is the sole English speaker. (Sydney Morning Herald)
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Japanese scientists found protein helps body burn fat
A team of researchers of Japan's Kyoto University has found a protein that helps the body burn fat following an intake of fatty meals, according to China's Xinhua news agency citing Japanese public broadcaster NHK on Monday.
The researchers at the Kyoto University's Institute of Chemical Research compared mice with protein called GPR120 with those that do not have the protein, and provided them with high-fat feeds, the report said.
They confirmed that the mice without the protein were heavier than those who had it by an average of 15 percent, and accumulated twice as much fat in their bodies, it said. (Bernama)
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