News On Japan

Prices of land facing major streets in Japan as of Jan. 1 grew 0.4 pct from a year before on average, up for the second consecutive year, the National Tax Agency said Monday. (Jiji)

E-commerce giant Rakuten is linking up with a major US vacation rental platform. The move will support its new business in private rentals for tourists to Japan. (NHK)

Several female employees at Cool Japan Fund Inc, a public-private investment fund aimed at promoting Japanese culture and products overseas, claim they were sexually harassed by executives of the entity including a career bureaucrat on loan from the central government, sources familiar with the matter said Monday. (Japan Today)

A 67-year-old former policeman with the world's biggest Hello Kitty collection has become the envy of little girls everywhere with 30 million yen worth of moon-faced memorabilia. (Japan Today)

A 38-year-old woman working at a private elementary and junior high school in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, was slashed by a man on Monday. (Japan Today)

North Korea launched a ballistic missile that appears to have landed in Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone in the Sea of Japan. (NHK)

North Korea's state-run media say the country has carried out its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. (NHK)

Severe tropical storm Nanmadol is bringing heavy rain to central Japan. (NHK)

Japan and the European Union reached a broad accord in their four-year-old trade negotiations on Wednesday, set to create a free trade zone that covers 40 pct of trade around the globe. (Jiji)

Preparations for shipping MOX, or mixed oxide, fuel to be used in a recently restarted nuclear reactor in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan, is underway in northwestern France. (NHK)

Police arrested a man on arson charges after the bodies of a woman and two toddlers believed to be his wife and children were found at the scene of a fire at a home in Miyagi Prefecture early Tuesday. (Japan Times)

Japan has one official holiday in July. Marine Day, or Umi no Hi as it’s called in Japanese, is held on the third Monday of the month, and is a nice midsummer excuse to blow off work and head down to the beach. (rocketnews24.com)

The shogi boom in Japan sparked by a 14-year-old sensation is helping to revitalize the Yamagata Prefecture city of Tendo, known as the nation's largest supplier of shogi pieces. (Jiji)

Japan is seen boosting subsidies and other assistance to dairy farmers after the country reached a broad accord on its envisioned economic partnership agreement with the European Union, informed sources have said. (Jiji)

Some 20 pct of bus drivers in Japan are tied to work for 13 hours or more daily, a recent transport ministry survey has shown. (Jiji)

The Japanese government said Wednesday it aims to train 10,000 doctors and 12 million people nationwide to support dementia patients by fiscal 2020. (Jiji)

Employees at a garbage facility in Iga City are believed to have shredded 10,000-yen notes buried in a trash pile into hundreds of pieces on Monday, police have revealed, reports NHK (tokyoreporter.com)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police have busted a specialty parlor in Taito Ward that is suspected of employing school girls for prostitution, reports Nikkan Sports. (tokyoreporter.com)

Japan's labor shortage has pushed the number of people changing jobs and employers during their career to its highest level since the global financial crisis, as companies scramble for workers with experience amid a rapidly-aging economy. (Japan Times)

Japan's oldest "love doll" manufacturer wants to strip the sex toys of their seedy image and encourage people to see them as works of art instead. (Japan Times)

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