News On Japan

Hornets have stung a group of more than 20 kindergarten children in Tokyo. The victims have been rushed to hospital. (NHK)

Smugglers are suspected of using a new method to get gold bars into Japan. They are hiding them behind the toilet walls on low-cost carrier aircraft that fly both international and domestic routes. (NHK)

Images captured by an underwater robot on Saturday showed massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. (washingtonpost.com)

Police in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, said Saturday they have arrested a 16-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl on suspicion of abandoning the body of a newborn baby in a vacant lot in February. (Japan Today)

Reports of poisonous fire ants being discovered at ports across Japan are boosting sales of pesticides. (NHK)

In professional sumo, Yokozuna Grand Champion Hakuho has clinched his 39th tournament victory. (NHK)

The giant panda cub at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo is growing steadily and starting to open her eyes. (NHK)

Four bodies were found Sunday in a park in Onojo, Fukuoka Prefecture, with the police saying the people, likely a family reported missing, died in an apparent murder-suicide. (Japan Today)

Over the past few weeks, actress Kazuyo Matsui has been a fixture on Japan's tabloid TV shows for the very public battle she is waging against her actor husband, whom she has accused of adultery. (Japan Times)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his ratings sinking over a suspected cronyism scandal, on Monday said he had never instructed officials to give preferential treatment to a long-time friend, adding that the latter had never sought favors. (Reuters)

In the past several weeks alone, elderly Japanese drivers have been wreaking havoc across the country: breaking through median barriers into oncoming traffic, ploughing over pedestrians crossing the road, and smashing into other cars. In all these cases, somebody was killed. (afr.com)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police last week conducted the first queries into so-called “JK” parlors in Chiyoda Ward following the enactment of new legislation earlier this month aimed at restricting the harmful employment of youths, reports TBS News (tokyoreporter.com)

Authorities ordered 26,000 residents of Akita Prefecture to evacuate their homes as record levels of torrential rain lashed northern Japan, triggering widespread flooding over the weekend. (Asahi)

Japan Airlines will partner with Vietjet Aviation to rebuild its presence in Vietnam, joining a trend of Southeast Asian collaborations between conventional and low-cost carriers. (Nikkei)

Toyota Motor aims to introduce autonomous vehicle technology that can handle complex city driving in the first half of the next decade to keep up with competition while ensuring safety. (Nikkei)

The government held a teleworking campaign day on Monday, with about 60,000 people from about 1,000 companies mainly based in the Tokyo metropolitan area working outside their regular workplaces. (the-japan-news.com)

Japan's Environment Ministry will set up public wireless LAN services at national parks by the end of fiscal 2017, hoping to draw more overseas tourists. (Jiji)

Torrential rain over the weekend has left at least 485 houses flooded in Akita Prefecture and more than 20,000 residents under evacuation orders, the prefectural government said Monday. (Japan Times)

A woman in western Japan died due to a tick-borne disease last year after being bitten by a stray cat, in the world's first case of the illness contracted from a mammal, the health ministry said Monday. (Japan Today)

Japan's prime minister faced a second day of questioning in an ad hoc Diet session over allegations he misused his influence to help a long-time friend open a vet school in western Japan. Lawmakers grilled Shinzo Abe over when exactly he learned his friend was submitting his application. (NHK)

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