News On Japan

Last month, Tokyo police announced the bust of so-called "delivery health" out-call service Love Fairy on suspicion of prostitution. (tokyoreporter.com)

NHK has learned the Japanese government is set to end its only contribution to a UN peacekeeping mission. (NHK)

A former reporter, 28, for public broadcaster NHK accused of rape in Yamagata Prefecture is also suspected in another case in Yamanashi Prefecture, investigative sources with the Yamanashi Prefectural Police revealed on Friday, reports the Asahi Shimbun (tokyoreporter.com)

Japan's largest opposition Democratic Party has unveiled its new mascot, "Minshin," hoping that it will help improve its image. (Jiji)

A 10-month-old girl has died after a family dog turned on her at her grandparents' house in Tokyo's Hachioji on Thursday. (Japan Today)

Toshiba is considering having subsidiary Westinghouse Electric file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to limit liability for future cost overruns on long-delayed U.S. nuclear projects. Yet loan guarantees and potential compensation claims could still prove costly if progress remains slow. (Nikkei)

Japan's weather bureau said on Friday it sees a 40 percent chance that the El Nino weather pattern would emerge between spring and summer, but there is a higher chance that the current normal pattern without either an El Nino or La Nina will continue. (Reuters)

Philip Morris International is seeking to revolutionize the tobacco industry with its iQOS alternative to conventional cigarettes, and so far, performance in test markets has been extremely strong. (fool.com)

Japan on Friday rejected U.S. demands for more access to Japan's auto market, saying the government has already taken steps to eliminate tariffs and non-tariff barriers. (Japan Today)

On March 8, Judge Kazuo Oizumi of the Hiroshima High Court reversed the weapon concealment conviction of a 48-year-old chiropractor. The previous conviction was handed down after a police officer discovered three pairs of nunchaku in the man's car while questioning him in the parking lot of a convenience store. (Japan Today)

Japan is moving to pass its strictest-ever smoking laws, but the country's powerful tobacco lobby wants to stub out measures that were adopted years ago by other developed nations. (AFP)

Yomeimon Gate at the Nikko Toshogu shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage site in eastern Japan, was on Friday reopened to the public after the completion of nearly four years of restoration work. (Jiji)

The Japanese government adopted at a cabinet meeting Friday a bill to set rules on the emerging "minpaku" business, which makes vacant rooms in private homes available as accommodation for tourists, particularly from abroad. (Jiji)

The wall calendar in Yuji Onuma's house remains stuck on March 2011, the month of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Onuma lived in the town of Futaba, Japan, about five miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. When the flooded plant began leaking radiation six years ago from Saturday, 150,000 people in the vicinity were evacuated. Onuma and his family were among them. (nationalgeographic.com)

Miyagi and Chiba prefectures said Friday they have confirmed that chickens at local farms were infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza. (Jiji)

A 55-year-old woman has been arrested for beating her husband to death at their residence in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, police said Friday. (Japan Today)

The Tokyo District Court on Friday found a former employee of business newspaper publisher Nikkei Inc. guilty of intercepting the email of female celebrities. (Japan Times)

New textbooks authorized for use in Japan's senior high schools from April next year contain more descriptions on foreign and defense policies undertaken by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government, such as the ability to engage in collective self-defense, according to the results of the education ministry's latest textbook screening disclosed Friday. (Japan Today)

Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada ordered the Ground Self-Defense Force on Friday to withdraw its engineering troops taking part in a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan by the end of May. (Jiji)

Japan's Liberal Democratic Party on Friday submitted a record of email exchanges in which Akie Abe, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife, denies her alleged payment of one million yen to an embattled school operator. (Jiji)

Latest Images