News On Japan

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko that he will lead discussions on peacefully resolving the situation in Ukraine at the Group of 7 nations' summit in May. (NHK)

Two bodies were found at a residence in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, in what police said looks like a murder-suicide. (Japan Today)

Kawachi Fujien, a Kitakyushu garden known for its "wisteria flower tunnels," will limit the number of visitors for the first time from April 23 to May 8, when the flowers are expected to blossom. (the-japan-news.com)

A gang that split from Japan's largest yakuza syndicate is expected to be designated as an organized crime group and come under legal regulations in the near future. (NHK)

Officials at the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration say a ruptured Takata airbag killed a 17-year-old girl in a crash in Texas last month. (NHK)

Japan's transport ministry says there have been 11 cases of trouble with unmanned aircraft in the 3 months since a law regulating drones went into effect in December. (NHK)

The Olympic future of a Japanese badminton star is in serious jeopardy following revelations that he and another player visited an illegal casino supported by organized crime, reports NHK (April 7). (Tokyo Reporter)

Recently leaked documents dubbed the "Panama Papers" show that a number of Japanese nationals own companies in offshore tax havens, raising suspicions that some are being used to transfer gains from criminal activities to disrupt police investigations. (Japan Times)

The Bank of Japan is running out of government bonds to buy. The central bank's would-be counterparties have become increasingly unwilling to sell the debt that monetary policymakers have pledged to buy, and the most recently issued 30-year Japanese bond didn't record a single trade during a session last week as existing owners opted to hoard their holdings. (afr.com)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other relevant government executives met with French economist Jean Tirole in Tokyo Thursday to discuss global economic issues with the winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in economics. (Jiji Press)

The recent high court ruling on a southwestern Japan nuclear plant has highlighted a flaw in the Nuclear Regulation Authority's assessment guide for volcanic effects on nuclear power plants, which is used in plant safety screenings. (Jiji Press)

Japan will begin its annual spring whale hunt in the North Pacific on Saturday, which will last till May, Japan's Fisheries Agency announced. (AAP)

Japan will not impose time and place restrictions on autonomous driving tests on public roads, according to draft guidelines released by the National Police Agency on Thursday. (Jiji Press)

A Japanese railway operator plans to assign alphanumeric codes to hundreds of stations in and around Tokyo later this year. It is an effort to make it easier for foreign visitors to use the trains. (NHK)

A convenience-store pioneer who built a Tokyo-based 7-Eleven empire said Thursday he would step down after losing a boardroom clash that pitted him against U.S. hedge-fund operator Daniel Loeb. (wsj.com)

Police arrested a man on Thursday suspected of stealing valuables of about 170 senior high school students while they were staying at a hotel in Nagano Prefecture earlier this year. (Japan Today)

Japanese badminton superstar Kento Momota and teammate Kenichi Tago apologized on Friday following their admission of gambling at illegal casinos. (Kyodo)

Thousands of people are enjoying the annual cherry blossom viewing at the Japan Mint in Osaka, western Japan. (NHK)

Japan's Defense Ministry has confirmed the death of all 6 crew members on board the crashed Air Self-Defense Force plane. (NHK)

Tokyo public prosecutors raided several locations on Friday as part of an investigation into a money scandal involving former Japanese Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Akira Amari. (Jiji Press)

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