News On Japan

The Imperial Household Agency said Monday it will officially announce the engagement of Princess Mako, the first granddaughter of Emperor Akihito, to a university classmate of hers on July 8. (Japan Today)

Trace amounts of plutonium have been detected in the urine of all five workers exposed to radioactive materials at a nuclear research facility in eastern Japan earlier this month, a radiological research center treating them said Monday. (Jiji)

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike announced Tuesday that the metropolitan government will relocate the famous Tsukiji fish market as planned but redevelop the original site in the future. (Japan Times)

The nation's hotel operators and real estate firms are ramping up their hiring of foreign workers to capitalize on booming in-bound tourism and increasing property investment from wealthy overseas buyers. (Japan Times)

Osaka Prefectural Police are searching for a woman who is believed to have set a man on fire at an electrical appliance store in Sakai City on Monday, reports Sports Nippon (tokyoreporter.com)

Hydrangea flowers are in full bloom in Tokyo and the surrounding area. They are a welcome sight for people who don't like the rainy season. (NHK)

Japan Airlines (JAL) is now providing free inflight connectivity throughout the entire flight to customers flying on domestic routes. (getconnected.aero)

Two Japanese dancers have won first prize in different categories in the Moscow International Ballet Competition. (NHK)

The government plans to limit the number of times Japanese visitors and others can enter casinos by requiring them to show their My Number identification cards at entrances to the gambling halls, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. (the-japan-news.com)

The frenzied drummer who is the force behind rockers X Japan declared headbanging to be "no good" on Tuesday as he sported a neck brace at his first press conference since emergency surgery. (9news)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a member of a fraud ring suspected in the swindling of nearly 100 million yen by posing as relatives of victims, reports TBS News (tokyoreporter.com)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police have accused a man of causing injuries to a male commuter by pushing him off a station platform in Taito Ward, reports TBS News. (tokyoreporter.com)

As the Nikkei 225 Stock Average rises toward its highest level in more than two decades, one group of investors has surprisingly missed out. (Bloomberg)

Major Japanese tour agency JTB aims to introduce Alibaba Group Holding's Alipay mobile payment service at around 2,000 partner businesses across Japan within three years to help grease the wheels of spending by foreign tourists. (Nikkei)

A strong earthquake hit southwestern Japan late Monday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. (Japan Times)

Struggling Japanese electronics maker Toshiba says that it picked a government-led multinational consortium as the preferred bidder for the sale of its memory chip unit. (NHK)

Japan's Air Self-Defense Force invited the public to view a drill for deploying ground-based PAC3 interceptor missiles. (NHK)

Two men working at a waste disposal plant in Tamura City, Fukushima Prefecture, face theft charges for keeping approximately 10 million yen which they and a third worker found mixed in with collected garbage. (Japan Today)

Takuya Kimura, a former member of iconic Japanese pop group SMAP, caused a pileup in a Tokyo suburb but no one was injured, local police have said. (Jiji)

The nation's youngest professional shogi player, 14-year-old Sota Fujii, won his 28th straight match on Wednesday to equal the all-time winning streak in official matches of the traditional chess-like game. (Japan Times)

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